W.H. New's Poems, variations on the sonnet form, explore growing up in British Columbia, from the coast to the Kootenays, Through the Metaphysics of science. In this his first book of poems, New contemplates a world in which chaos and order, growth and tradition, imagination and empiricism, placement and displacement coexist. He writes about his native landscape in poems that are at once meticulous and a challenge to aesthetic boundaries. Science Lessons traces tensions in a young boy who struggles to reconcile his individual freedom with the demands of a community that insists upon obedience. Science Lessons confirms the wonder and awe we all feel for our place in the natural world; our awakening into the self and the universe.

WILLIAM NEW is the author and editor of more than fifty books. A native of Vancouver, where he currently lives, he was educated at the University of British Columbia (where he later taught for 37 years) and the University of Leeds. From his first days as a student at UBC, he has been committed to the importance of Canadian writing and to making it accessible to readers around the world. His academic works include A History of Canadian Literature, the massive Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada, and several extensive studies of irony and the short story. Writing more personally, his Borderlands: how we talk about Canada and Grandchild of Empire consider how local perspectives inform our political judgments. A prize-winning teacher and researcher, he was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Pierce Medal, and for his services to creative and critical writing he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006.

William New's creative publications include five books for children (including the internationally honoured The Year I Was Grounded) and eleven previous collections of poetry (including Underwood Log, shortlisted for the Governor General's Award; YVR, winner of the City of Vancouver Award; and New & Selected Poems). His latest collection, Neighbours, questions whether any of us ever lives alone.

These poems ask what it means to live near, whether in close proximity or in ragtag memory--and to consider what happens when closeness dissolves and a neighbourhood dies.

W.H. New's profile page