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Poetry Canadian

The Fly in Autumn

by (author) David Zieroth

Publisher
Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.
Initial publish date
May 2009
Category
Canadian
Recommended Age
16
Recommended Grade
11
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781550174687
    Publish Date
    May 2009
    List Price
    $18.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Selected for Poetry in Transit 2009

The Fly in Autumn is a nuanced work with an absurdist twist in which recognizable landscapes--of North Vancouver quays and piers and harbour fog--are sometimes irrevocably altered by "water-light" into places of the mind alive with "the hundred thousand thoughts everyone collects in a day." Risking unease, using language both tender and ironic, Zieroth's poems range from the cockiness of flight, from Dick and Jane readers to insurance clerks and blind nurses, and to the inevitability of decline. Still, the poet remains alert to the re-emergence of "his boyhood hope: to be brave, to ship out, to learn to sleep on waves."

About the author

David Zieroth’s The Fly in Autumn (Harbour, 2009) won the Governor General’s Literary Award and was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry in 2010. Zieroth also won The Dorothy Livesay Poetry Award for How I Joined Humanity at Last (Harbour, 1998). Other publications include the trick of staying and leaving (Harbour, 2023), watching for life (McGill-Queen’s, 2022), the bridge from day to night (Harbour, 2018), Zoo and Crowbar (Guernica Editions, 2015), Albrecht Dürer and me (Harbour, 2014), The November Optimist (Gaspereau, 2013), The Village of Sliding Time (Harbour, 2006), The Education of Mr. Whippoorwill: A Country Boyhood (Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 2002) and Crows Do Not Have Retirement (Harbour, 2001). His poems have been included in the Best Canadian Poetry series, shortlisted for National Magazine and Relit Awards and featured on Vancouver buses three times as part of Poetry in Transit. He watches urban life from his third-floor balcony in North Vancouver, BC, where he runs The Alfred Gustav Press and produces handmade poetry chapbooks twice per year.

David Zieroth's profile page

Awards

  • Short-listed, Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (BC Book Prize)
  • Short-listed, Acorn-Plantos Award for People's Poetry
  • Winner, Governor General's Award for Poetry

Librarian Reviews

The Fly in Autumn

In this, his tenth book of poetry, the writer, creates accessible entry points that invite readers in to contemplate the complex mysteries of not only aging and death, but also how a young man can open to the greater world beyond his own egocentricity. His astute observations of young men’s preening desires and impulsive wants will resonate with adolescents of both genders. Young writers will also find useful his identification of some of the forms one’s muse can take (in Muse) and the consequences of imprecise use of language (in The Lover Says Whatever).

Zieroth won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for How I Joined Humanity at Last.

Caution: Contains some coarse and explicit language.

Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2009-2010.