Both a politically engaged achievement and a highly personal one, Bush Camp is a fitting addition to the unmistakeable idiom of Marvin Francis.A dynamic poetry collection of dry wit and powerful commentary, Bush Camp features a roster of strikingly original characters--Johnny Muskeg, Newfie, Stretch, as well as the camp's only women, Jenny--that plays with stereotypes as it challenges them. Francis describes the physical rigors of a railroad camp as well as the complex demands of the urban reserve.Poems splash out on the page in a wildly creative exploration of the clash of rural and urban, First Nation and majority cultures. Bush Camp is a new kind of howl.

Marvin Francis was born in Heart Lake First Nation in northern Alberta. His poetry appeared in numerous journals, magazines, and anthologies and he also wrote for stage and radio. A poet, playwright, artist, actor, and theatre director, he won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2002. He was pursuing his doctoral studies in English at the University of Manitoba and was a member of both the Aboriginal Writers Collective and the Manitoba Printmakers Association when he passed away in January, 2005.

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