Since the mid 1980s, the Kootenay School of Writing, a writer–run centre in Vancouver, has been the site of some of the most innovative poetry coming out of North America. Leaving behind conventional ideas about syntax and lyricism, the KSW poets have produced a body of work that is jarring, troubling, provocative, funny, and beautiful.

In their introduction to this sampling from the work of fourteen writers, Andrew Klobucar and Michael Barnholden describe the historical and aesthetic environment which produced the Kootenay School of Writing, and in doing so demystify a poetry that many regard as "difficult." Writing Class is a fascinating introduction to the most vital poetry being written today.

Andrew Klobucar teaches in the English department at the University of British Columbia. Longtime Kootenay School of Writing collective member Michael Barnholden is the author of Gabriel Dumont Speaks and On the Ropes and managing editor of West Coast Line.

Andrew Klobucar's profile page

Michael Barnholden is a writer, historian, editor, translator, publisher, photographer, painter, and poet, living in Roberts Creek, British Columbia.His published titles include After the Horse Doctors: Baseball in Vancouver, Sweet Fuck All, Playing with Pain, Works That Way Because That’s the Way It Works: Collected Poems, Circumstances Alter Photographs: Captain James Peters and the War of 1885, Gabriel Dumont Speaks, Street Stories: 100 Years of Homelessness in Vancouver, Reading the Riot Act: A History of Riots in Vancouver, Writing Class: The Kootenay School of Writing Anthology, and On the Ropes.

Michael Barnholden's profile page