Talking to Strangers is a book of bracing encounters. Throughout her four decades as poet, Rhea Tregebov has displayed an uncommon eye for the mysteries of ordinary life-moments where, as she writes, "[t]he simplest things / elude me." This gift is brought to brilliant effect in her eighth book of poetry and most charged to date. In gorgeous arias of recollection and evocation, of elegy and heartbreak, Tregebov mourns, praises, prays, regrets, summons, celebrates, and bears witness with formidable artistry and tenderness ("You wouldn't think the inanimate would get tired /but it does.") Direct, never forced, keenly observant, and marked by scrupulous craft, these new poems unfold in beguiling, often breathtaking ways. They confirm Tregebov's place among the most significant poets of her generation.

Rhea Tregebov is the author of seven critically acclaimed books of poetry, most recently All Souls' (Wolsak & Wynn, 2019). She has also published five popular children's picture books including The Big Storm and What-If Sara, which are set in Winnipeg. She has edited ten anthologies of essays, poetry and fiction, most recently Arguing with the Storm. Her work has received a number of literary prizes, including the Nancy Richler Award for fiction (for Rue des Rosiers) as well as the Segal , Prairie Schooner Readers' Choice Award, and the Malahat Review Long Poem Award for her poetry. Rue des Rosiers is her second novel. The Knife Sharpener’s Bell, her first, won the J.I. Segal Prize in English Fiction. Born in Saskatoon and raised in Winnipeg, Tregebov lived for many years in Toronto, working as a freelance writer, editor, and instructor. From 2005 to 2017 she taught Creative Writing at UBC. She is now an Associate Professor Emerita at UBC. 

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