The interplay between photography, nature and poetic form is on full display in Wendy McGrath's and Danny Miles’ collaborative new work The Beauty of Vultures. This innovative collection takes readers into the surprisingly chatty world of birds, whose avian artistry and poignant plumage mimics the formally and structurally inventive tones found in each poem. The language wings its way between funny and serious, poignant and morbid, while always drawing parallels between the poet’s thoughts and the camera’s eye. From peahens telling off their elaborately festooned romantic partners, robins' empty eggs recalling air raid tests after WWII, to seagulls serving as harbingers of humanity’s ongoing crimes against nature, each unit of photography melds seamlessly with its poetic doppelgänger.

Wendy McGrath's most recent novel Broke City is the final book in her Santa Rosa Trilogy. Previous novels in the series are Santa Rosa and North East. Her most recent book of poetry, A Revision of Forward, was released in Fall 2015. McGrath works in multiple genres. BOX (CD) 2017 is an adaptation of her long poem into spoken word/experimental jazz/noise by QUARTO & SOUND. MOVEMENT 1 from that CD was nominated for a 2018 Edmonton Music Award (Jazz Recording of the Year). She recently completed a collaborative manuscript of poems inspired by the photography of Danny Miles, drummer for July Talk and Tongue Helmet. Her poetry, fiction, and non-fiction has been widely published. Wendy lives in Edmonton, Alberta, on Treaty Six Territory.

Wendy McGrath's profile page

Danny Miles' profile page

“The Beauty of Vultures thrums with sonorous delight as we witness Danny Miles’ bird photographs and Wendy McGrath’s poems perform an intricate and masterful paso doble, where words and image respond to and illuminate one another. This collaborative, deeply imaginative, formally inventive, at times playful and polyphonic evocation of birds—especially many of our common species—made me gasp at the world with wonder.”—Julia Zarankin, award-winning author of Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder

“Birds have always provided a special opportunity for entry into awareness –of our environments, and ourselves– available to everyone who dares to look. The Beauty of Vultures is a special call to awareness, connecting the visual to the soul, giving us permission to look, and look again, and to experience our environment in our own way – to say without risk of censure, ‘It is beautiful’.” —Justin Peter, Past President, Toronto Ornithological Club