With a supple, meditative approach, Erin Knight explores the complexity of beauty in this first collection by an astonishing new talent. The Sweet Fuels also reflects on the notion of orientation — whether in terms of magnetic north or street signs, the entrails of an animal or the vowels in a name — as a task of translation.

Of the more than four dozen poems in the book, some are written in English, others are rendered from Spanish. Still others perform a high-wire act — written in English, converted to Spanish, and then back into English. The practise of translation allows for a direction that does not try to reorder or simplify the world, but rather emphasizes the promise of continuous engagement with our points of reference.

Erin Knight is the critically acclaimed author of The Sweet Fuels, which was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and longlisted for the ReLit Award in 2008. “Healthy Human Carrier,” a selection of poems from Chaser, was a finalist for the 2010 CBC Literary Awards. Her work has appeared in numerous major literary journals, including Arc, Event, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, Prism International, and Qwerty. She lives in St. Catharines, Ontario.

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"The Sweet Fuels is filled with the kind of visual imagery and surprising use of the language to address whatever has caught the poet's attention that one is instantly drawn into it, intrigued, and often delighted by it. The poet ... deserves all the notice she may receive."

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