The lease is meaningless: a square paced
first by seismic workers, and then your father,
and then by every other man you know.

Distilled from his time in the Saskatchewan and Albertan oilfields, Mathew Henderson’s The Lease plumbs the prairie depths to find human technology and physical labour realigning our landscape. With acute discipline, Henderson illuminates the stubborn and often unflattering realities of industrial culture and its cast of hard-living men.

Shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry (2013)

Shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award

MATHEW HENDERSON grew up in Tracadie, Prince Edward Island. After he graduated high school, Henderson worked summers in the oil fields of Saskatchewan and Alberta. His experiences there provided inspiration for his first book of poetry, The Lease, which was a finalist for both the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Henderson earned an M.F.A. from the University of Guelph and has had poems published in The Walrus, Brick, Maisonneuve, and Best Canadian Poetry.

Mathew Henderson's profile page