New Generation of Canadian Poets
Created by 49thShelf on March 31, 2012
Girlwood
In Girlwood, Jennifer Still’s second collection, her poems come of age: they take the dare; they cross out of sapling and into maturity’s thicket. But the poems don’t leave the girl behind, they bring her along: as sylph, as raconteur, as witness, as pure, unstoppable bravado. These songs of liberation and confinement arise from the rich and …
Vs.
Vs. is a collection of poems chronicling the author's foray into the world of amateur boxing. A shy, bookish woman you'd never expect could hit someone in the face, Ryan was soon hooked on the physical and mental challenge of the sport, as well as the camaraderie of the club's members and volunteers. When the club announced an upcoming white collar …
Folk
The two sections in Jacob McArthur Mooney’s virtuoso collection – one rural in orientation, one urban – open an intricate conversation. Taking as its inciting incident the 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia, before moving to the neighbourhoods around Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Folk is an elaborately …
This is a book about airplanes and towns, about geography, and geometry. Taking as its inciting incident the 1998 crash of SwissAir Flight 111 off the coast of the author's native Nova Scotia, Jacob McArthur Mooney's second collection of poetry considers the structure of communities dominated by single ideas, single industries, and single events. Moving from the rural settings of the opening poems, through to the suburban clatter of the immigrant settlements around Toronto's Pearson International Airport, the book considers the human quest for "home" in all its forms — spiritual, cognitive, and physical — with the anarchic linguistic sense, subversive wit, stunning psychological acuity, and honest emotion that have garnered this young writer much well-deserved attention and praise.
Grunt of the Minotaur
Robin Richardson’s debut poetry collection is startling in its lyrical inventiveness and stylistic flair. Drawing heavily on her background as a visual artist, Grunt of the Minotaur offers poems rich in imagery and visual texture. Larger themes from history, art, music, and film are cast against moments of domestic intimacy in fanciful narratives …
Hummingbird
The Portuguese word for “hummingbird” is beija-flor—flower-kisser. In Aztec mythology, Huitzilopochtli is the hummingbird god, the bloodthirsty god of war, requiring nourishment in the form of constant human sacrifices to ensure that the sun will rise again. In this book, Barger documents his recent itinerant years in closely observed, honest …
Crabwise to the Hounds
Shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize! Winner of the Trillium Prize for Poetry! With cameos by jackalopes, Glenn Gould, homemade spaceships, and Carl Linnaeus, these poems are remarkable for their technical agility and their restless inventiveness. There's an elegance here that matches Dodds's impulse to challenge the reader with fresh metaphor …
Earworm
Earworm, the second book from acclaimed poet Nick Thran, expertly combines wicked cleverness, adept craftsmanship and a uniquely insightful perspective in an entertaining yet substantial tour de force. Building on the success of his debut, Thran has enhanced his compelling pop culture rhythms and distinctive voice with bolder formal experimentation …
Tiny, Frantic, Stronger
In Tiny, Frantic, Stronger, Jeff Latosik takes up the questionof durability and longevity in an age of ephemeralmores and instant gratification. In gritty urban poems,ancient and elemental forces collide with the sophisticatedinfrastructures of modern life, a system thatbrings with it not only incredible strength but alsoprofound vulnerability. The …
