Description
The spirit of the interrobang, a punctuation mark merging the questioning and the exclamatory, informs Mary Dalton's compelling investigations of home and identity in this, her sixth poetry collection-in extraordinary poems of aging; of despised plants once revered; of rites and sites of community abandoned. The "flared mouth" of Dalton's acclaimed musicality gives voice to lost souls and a lost sense of the earth. The collection's unique mix of bleakness and beauty is also reflected in various riddle and riddle-like series with their ambiguity, open-endedness, playfulness, and unexpected linguistic shifts. Interrobang movingly fuses notions of exploration -of glancing at things slant-with an emotional range that feels new and visionary. This is a steely, brilliant book from a major Canadian poet.
About the author
Edited by Mary Dalton, Sean O'Brien, Chase Twichell, Niyi Osundare et al.
Mary Daltpon is the author of five books of poetry including Merrybegot winner of the 2005 E.J. Pratt Poetry Award. Her new collection Hooking was published Spring 2013. She is a Professor of English at Memorial University, St. John’s Newfoundland.
Sean O’Brien is a UK poet, critic, broadcaster, anthologist and editor. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University. His poetry collection November was shortlisted for the 2011 T. S. Eliot Prize and the 2012 International Griffin Poetry Prize.
Chase Twichell is the winner of the prestigious Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Award (2011) and the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award (1997). She has received numerous fellowships for her seven books of poetry.
Niyi Osundare Osundare is a Nigerian poet, playwright, essayist and scholar. He has authored 18 books of poetry. His many prizes include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English at the University of New Orleans.
