John O?Neill's fourth book of poetry, Criminal Mountains, describes a journey of discovery in time, in place, and in the mind. Starting with a sojourn in the Rocky Mountains, where the poet tries to entice a women into a love affair, O?Neill limns his world with harsh honesty. With sharp comparisons and painterly descriptions, he makes clear the futility of the softer emotions from the outset. O?Neill shapes his poems from the very landscape's animosity and rejection, even outright attack: the rough terrain, the ice and extreme cold, the bear attacks and the nightmares that follow the attacks. Then the poet is scalled away from the mountains to attend the deathbed of his mother. In the process of attending and burying his parent, the author does not stop at describing his grief and pain, but examines himself and his family members? state of mind and the role they play in one another's living and dying. Here O?Neill's muscular style is softened by pain, l

John O'Neill is the author of the novel Fatal Light Awareness and four poetry collections, Animal Walk, Love in Alaska, The Photographer of Wolves, and Criminal Mountains. He was raised in Scarborough, Ontario, where his parents worked for many years as building superintendents, an aspect of his history explored in The Photographer of Wolves. He was a winner in the Prairie Fire Long Poem Contest and Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize, and the recipient of a 'Maggie' - a Manitoba Magazine Award - for Best Story for his "The Book About The Bear." John was a finalist, with his manuscript Goth Girls of Banff (Newest Press 2020), for the HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction. He taught high-school English and Dramatic Arts for 29 years, and now lives and writes in the Leslieville neighbourhood of Toronto. He and his artist wife Ann make frequent trips to Canada's Rocky Mountains, and this landscape continues to be a major influence on his writing.

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