These essays span the period of Kroetsch's writing. Included are previously published and new essays that cover (some of) his novels, (some of) his poetry, and even (some of) his critical writing. The contributors include writers who knew Kroetsch well and those who only met him on the page; critics at the beginning of their careers and those well established in the Canadian literary field; men and women, writers and poets and critics and damn fine thinkers. The contributors featured are: Robert Archambeau, Catherine Bates, George Bowering, Jenna Butler, Pauline Butling, Dennis Cooley, Tom Dilworth, Nathan Dueck, Jasmine Elliott, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Jon R. Flieger, Jay Gamble, Gary Geddes, Susan Holbrook, Christine Jackman, Brian Jensen, Wiktor Kulinski, Michael Laverty, John Lent, Ann Mandel, Nicole Markotić, John Matias, Roy Miki, John Moss, Brianne O'Grady, Jeff Pardy, and Aritha van Herk.

Nicole Markotic is a poet, novelist, and critic. Her poetry books include Bent At the Spine (BookThug), Minotaurs & Other Alphabets, and Connect the Dots (Wolsak & Wynn); her novels are Yellow Pages (Fitzhenry & Whiteside) and Scrapbook of My Years as a Zealot (Arsenal Pulp Press). She has edited a collection of poetry by Dennis Cooley, By Word of Mouth, co-edited (with Sally Chivers) an anthology of essays concerning representations of disability, The Problem Body: Projecting Disability on Film, is working on a critical book on disability and literature (McFarland & Co), and has an edited collection of essays on Robert Kroetsch (forthcoming with Guernica). She has published in literary journals in Canada, the USA, Australia, and Europe (including The Capilano Review, CV2, filling Station, New American Writing, Open Letter, Prairie Fire, Rampike, and West Coast Line). She won the bpNichol Poetry Chapbook Award in 1998, and was nominated for the Stephan G. Stephansson Poetry Book of the Year Award and for the Henry Kreisel First Book of the Year Award. She edits the chapbook series, Wrinkle Press (publishing such poets as Robert Kroetsch, Nikki Reimer, and Fred Wah), and has worked as an editor for Red Deer Press and NeWest Press. Currently, Nicole Markotic is Professor of Creative Writing, Children’s Literature, and Disability Studies at the University of Windsor.

Nicole Markotić's profile page

Markotić’s inclusion of biography, interviews, and poetic responses in addition to a series of compelling scholarly essays ultimately provides Essays with its unmistakably documentary feel. It surprises a reader with lyrical scholarly prose (“Tradition is not automatically bad and getting lost is not automatically good.”); with risky linguistic gestures protected by their status as academic sass (“Robert Kroetsch is a liar. Or so he’d like us to believe.”); and with scholarly citations legitimating scandalous explorations of deeply personal responses and musings (“As a serialist fondler, of words and objects, his was a citrus mind”).

Canadian Literature A Quarterly Criticism and Review