A gritty, original collection on a subject rarely addressed: the surprising affinities between crime and poetry. To gather material for a mystery novel, Landale accompanied RCMP officers on patrol. In Once a Murderer, the novel's protagonist has stepped out of prose fiction into poetry that is consuming and seductive. A running subversive commentary on love, crime and poetry appears in the margins, giving depth and flesh to the voices.

Born in Toronto, Zoe Landale went fishing at the age of 18 off the coast of BC, which she has been doing every year since. Now a veteran of 6 seasons, she admits to becoming cross when well-intentioned people ask if it is her first time out. Commercial fishing is not the easiest job, Zoe agrees, but says that she and her husband Conde work well together as a team. Zoe enjoys living on a boat and having the feeling that wherever you spend the night, you are spending it at home. And fishing? Sometimes I get tired of it and wish that we could be home in the summer, and I miss my cat and my garden, but then I look out at the clean grey sea, feel the cool breeze on my face and feel the boat heave under my feet.

Zoe Landale's profile page

"Overall, Landale's intertwining of personal lives with their linguistic construction is simultaneously harrowing and fascinating; reading Once makes it clear why she won the poetry prize for the CBC literary competition." - Journal of Canadian Poetry

"In the collection's best poems, Landale links crime and illicit sex — intimacy and guilt — also bond cop and perp; interrogation and seduction are both forms of manipulation." - The Toronto Star

"Zoë Landale teaches writing at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. This book of poetry, a response to the violence around us, draws on her experiences accompanying RCMP officers on patrol. Poem titles include 'Ways to Identify Bad Guys,' 'Ways to Catch a Murderer,' 'How to Kill a Cop' and 'How to Kill a Civilian'." - The Vancouver Sun