Stones . . . hewn by nature and the hand of man. They shelter us, record our grief, provide hope, joy and provide a window into the past. Dennis Cooley's latest collection of poetry brings his trademark playfulness and wit to the very foundations of the earth. He stretches his prairie eyes far across the ocean to the cathedrals and monuments of Europe and connects our curling rinks and skipping stones to places rich in history.

Dennis Cooley grew up in Estevan, Saskatchewan, and attended the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Rochester. He is an active member of the writing community in Winnipeg and teaches at St. John’s College, University of Manitoba. His latest book of poetry is the bentleys (2006).

Nicole Markotić is a poet and critic who teaches at the University of Windsor and edits the chapbook publication Wrinkle Press. She has published two poetry books, Connect the Dots and Minotaurs & Other Alphabets, as well as a fictional biography of Alexander Graham Bell, Yellow Pages. She is currently completing a novel.

Dennis Cooley's profile page

Dennis Cooley's poetic meditation on "stones" is an expansive collage of locating the self in the diaspora of mythology, history, geography, and literature. Because this is a long poem of contemplation, Cooley's locus mundi performs the outstanding range of skill and practice he is able to bring from a life of writing and attention. He is a master of poetry as technique and here shows us how such art can really "make the stone stony."
-Fred Wah, author of is a door

Look what a long poem can do, when it pursues the grubby and the grand with equal belief, nods to its mixed bag of forebears, and takes no syllable or line for granite, as the pun goes. Best of all, Cooley's the stones plays hard.
-Gerald Hill, author of 14 Tractors