Before Guy Gavriel Kay became known for his groundbreaking works of speculative fiction, establishing himself as one of the world's most respected writers in that genre, he was an accomplished poet, his work appearing in major literary journals such as The Antigonish Review and Prism. Through the years, while writing his dramatic international bestsellers, Kay has continued to quietly explore the paths and boundaries of poetry as well.

Now for the first time, Guy Gavriel Kay's poetry has been gathered and selected for publication. For those familiar with his fiction, the poems in Beyond This Dark House will resonate for their linguistic and emotional nuances and their mythological allusions, echoing and illuminating themes of his fiction.

But readers of contemporary poetry will also be captivated by the exquisite craft and power of these poems. Some are ironic and austere, slyly tracing the interplay of writer and world, present and past; others are sensual, even erotic, charting the mercurial but abiding nature of passion-in love, in language, in history.

GUY GAVRIEL KAY is an international bestselling author. He has been awarded the International Goliardos Prize for his work in the literature of the fantastic, is a two-time winner of the Aurora Award, and won the 2008 World Fantasy Award for Ysabel, a #1 bestseller in Canada. His works have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Visit his Canadian website at www.guygavrielkay.ca and his authorized international website at www.brightweavings.com.

Guy Gavriel Kay's profile page

“Ranging from the elegiac to the humorous, from the mythic to the wistful, Kay’s poems are polished gems, the product of an artisan.” —Quill & Quire

“Kay, a best-selling Canadian novelist, shifts delightfully between high-veracity memory poems and the classical in Beyond This Dark House, happily swinging between detailed childhood memories of Winnipeg and more literary flashbacks like the Medea backstory.” —The Edmonton Journal

“Cast in accessible diction, governed by a decidedly romantic sensibility, and given to strong narrative line, these poems celebrate imaginative connection: to people, to place, and to both private and cultural history.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“In prose and now in poetry, Kay has a gift for making something real; reading his poetry is like lifting a seashell to one’s ear and hearing the distant echo of the ocean where it was born.” —Alma A. Hromic, SF Site