The Irrationalist is the acclaimed follow-up to the award-winning poetry collection, Past Imperfect, from one of Canada's best poets. At once whimsical and heartbreaking, these eccentric lyrics investigate the shifting grounds of knowledge while refusing to take any authority -- be it Epictetus, Therese de Lisieux, Nicolaus Copernicus, Ma Yuan, or the fugitive spectre of self, to name only a few of the volume's dramatis personae -- too seriously. Here one inhabits a world on the eve of extinction, in which "astronomers predict a 'Big Rip' in the cosmos resulting in a cold, dark, never-ending end," and yet the darkness is continually illuminated by a pyrotechnics of curiosity, candor, and wit.

Suzanne Buffam' first collection of poetry, Past Imperfect, won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for Poetry, was named a Globe and Mail "Top 100" Book of the Year, and was longlisted for the ReLit Award. She won the 1998 CBC Literary Award for Poetry and has twice been shortlisted for a Pushcart Prize. Her poetry has appeared in various literary magazines and journals in the United States and Canada, including Books in Canada, Poetry, Jubilat, A Public Space, The Canary, The Denver Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, and The Colorado Review. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies Language Matters, Breathing Fire: Canada's New Poets and Breaking the Surface. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the Master's program in English at Concordia University, she currently teaches Creative Writing at the University of Chicago.

Suzanne Buffam's profile page

• Short-listed, Griffin Poetry Prize

... Buffam's faultless forms ... emerge from a single supple and lively intelligence.

Matrix Magazine

...consistently sharp and engaging...she succeeds admirably.

Quill & Quire

Buffam impresses with her wisdom, grace, and generosity: This is warm, engaging poetry and it deserves the broadest possible audience.

Huffington Post

Sarcastic and hopeful, cerebral and evocative...

Winnipeg Free Press