In gatherings and festivals from Fort Qu’Appelle to Pincher Creek, from Maple Creek to Stony Plain (and beyond), cowboy poets are chanting the praises of the ranching culture. In Rhyming Wranglers, you will meet men who are “double damn tough” and women who are even tougher. You will find plenty to laugh about from “The day Leonard taught me to chew snuff” by Denis Nagel, to Neil Meili’s “The Old Dry Guy and the Bath”. The whole spectrum of range life is presented: the clamour and danger of a cattle stampede; the fragrant beauty of a prairie night; the unexpected loss of a loved one. And there’s a lot of cowboy philosophy here too, from the no-nonsense creed of Robert Service’s “The Quitter” to the subtler values of Sid Marty’s deeply moving “The Rider with Good Hands”. Rhyming Wranglers includes Sheri-D Wilson, Sid Marty, Doris Daley and Corb Lund.

Born in 1940, Ken Mitchell grew up on the outskirts of Moose Jaw, and worked in journalism briefly before studying sociology and literature at the University of Regina. He became a teacher of creative writing in 1970, and has taught creative writing and literature ever since, in Banff, Victoria, Scotland, and China, besides Regina where he teaches at present. Since 1972, Mitchell has released over twenty books of fiction, poetry, and drama, over ten of which have been plays. In 1999 he was inducted into the Order of Canada for his contribution to the arts. He co-founded the Saskatchewan Writers Guild in 1969, Grain Magazine in 1973, the Saskatchewan Writers/Artists Colony in 1978, and the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre in 1982.

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