Undiscovered Country is filled with soulful accomplished writing in a variety of lyrical modes, including the long poem. When someone we love dies, what we miss are their presences and particulars. In this new book Rempel journeys through the grieving process, exploring death and loss, and the “dark night of the soul”; through the filters of the geographies and seasons of northern BC. What he finds is an “undiscovered country.” Even the bright clouds in spring or the colours of fall, or an afternoon with his daughter, offer an opportunity for the poet to contemplate his existence and rework his worldview. In this new country, he finds a measure of hope, even in the darkest night; like a moon, illuminating a road by the river.

Al Rempel’s books of poetry are Undiscovered Country, This Isn't the Apocalypse We Hoped For, and Understories, along with four chapbooks: Behind the Bladed Green, Deerness, Four Neat Holes, and The Picket Fence Diaries. His poems have also appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies, most recently, the Cascadia Field Guide and Sweetwater: Poems for the Watersheds. Rempel has collaborated in the creation of a number of video poems with other artists; We Have Become Children and I’ve In the Rain were screened at film festivals in North America, and Sky Canoe was screened in North America as well as internationally at festivals in Dublin and Bristol. Some of Rempel's poems have been translated into Italian and Spanish. Rempel was awarded the Prince George Regional Arts and Culture Award for poetry in 2012 and shortlisted for the Fred Cogswell award for excellence in Poetry in 2013. His poems have been included twice in the Poetry in Transit project in Vancouver and shortlisted in 2015 for Arc’s Poem of the Year. In conjunction with the Federation of British Columbia Writers, he has led a series of online poetry workshops under the banner of Interior Dialogues. More information can be found at his website: www.alrempel.com.

Al Rempel's profile page