In The Long Walk, Jan Zwicky bears witness to environmental and cultural cataclysm. Both prophetic and acutely personal, these poems extend her previous meditations on colonial barbarism and ecocide, on spiritual catastrophe and transformation. The voice now penetrates the steepest darknesses; it possesses extraordinary reach and density. Zwicky is one of North America's finest poets and in this book she gives us her most profound work to date.

Jan Zwicky is an accomplished poet, philosopher and musician whose intense and vivid lyricism imbues her poetry with music and passion. Born in Calgary, Alberta, Zwicky studied at the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto before undertaking an academic career teaching philosophy at a number of North American institutions. She is also a professional musician, with an active interest in baroque performance technique. Zwicky is a prolific essayist, as well as the author of a dozen books. Her works have won her the Governor General's Award (Songs For Relinquishing the Earth, 1998) and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (Robinson's Crossing, 2004) as well as many other accolades and shortlist nominations. Zwicky lives on Quadra Island, British Columbia.

Jan Zwicky's profile page

• Short-listed, Saskatchewan Book Awards, Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport Publishing Award

"Poems of exquisite lyric grace and deep feeling." —Toronto Star

"Full of grief and love, The Long Walk pushes us to have that courage to look at what’s painful to see, to find stillness in movement, movement in stillness. If you need a motto for the new year, solvitur ambulando—it is solved by walking." —Amy Reiswig, Focus Magazine

"The Long Walk carries a lifetime's force of meaning. A deeply beautiful book." —Anne Michaels

"Zwicky accomplishes a concordance of rhythm, internal rhyme and subtly linked imagery (e.g. "continents," "shapes," "sea") that, in turn, enables the beloved to embody all the significance--all the strength and frailty, beauty and terror--of the world." —ARC Magazine

"A wide-ranging collection that addresses environmental devastation and the ongoing refugee crisis alongside responses to Brahms and Simplikios... The Long Walk is a rewarding read that secures Oskana as an exciting new Prairie-based [series]." —Cassidy McFadzean, SaskBooks