In Purity of Absence, Dave Margoshes explores love in its waxing and waning, the extravagance of its fullness, the agony of its departure. Like an explorer charting new territory, he casts his eye on the rhythms and syntax of love, observing its aspects both quotidian and rare. The poems in this new collection, Margoshes’s first in a decade, chart the ekg patterns of love, not just the mature love between a man and a woman but love for a parent, friends, knowledge, place and, ultimately, life itself.

Dave Margoshes has published more than a dozen books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. His collection of stories, Bix's Trumpet and Other Stories, was Saskatchewan Book of the Year, won the Regina Book Award and was a finalist in the ReLit Awards in 2007. His three novels are Drowning Man, I Am Frankie Stern, and We Who Seek: A Love Story. He has published four other story collections, five volumes of poetry and several non-fiction works, including a biography of Tommy Douglas.
He has had stories and poems published in dozens of magazines and anthologies in Canada and the United States (including six times in Best Canadian Stories), had work broadcast on CBC, and given readings across the country. His awards include the Stephen Leacock Prize for Poetry. He was also a finalist for the Journey Prize.
Some of his stories and poems spring from his days as an itinerant journalist. Margoshes worked for daily newspapers in eight cities, including San Francisco, New York, Calgary and Vancouver, covering everything from politics to murder to cat shows. He's also taught journalism. He currently lives near Saskatoon.

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