In turns both comic and tragic, Learning to Love a River explores unlikely existences in and of Thunder Bay, Ontario. While this small northern city may be all but unknown to many, it is also rife with stereotype and misconception. This collection offers a sympathetic but frank accounting for these misconceptions, giving readers an insider's look at odds with easily made assumptions about race and class. Deep down, the poems are asking important epistemological and ontological questions. But, they are also reminding us to laugh: at ourselves, at each other, and at absurdity in general. If Thunder Bay were a cowboy town, you could think of this collection as some sort of insincere cowboy poetry that doesn't rhyme.

Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Michael Minor is a settler scholar teaching and studying decolonization through Indigenous literature. He teaches academic writing at the University of Manitoba in the Inner City Social Work Program and graduated with a PhD in English Literature from the University of Manitoba in 2016. Before his time at the U of M, he completed an undergraduate degree at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario and a Master of Arts at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's. In addition to teaching and academic writing, he writes reviews for CV2 and the Winnipeg Review. Some of his poetry has been previously published in the Antigonish Review and CV2. Learning to Love a River is his first book of poetry. He was once a runner, and has good intentions of putting in enough long runs to claim that title once again. He is also a songwriter, living in Winnipeg with his partner and their child.

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