Patterned on a series of dream states, David Barrick’s Nightlight delves into the surreal nature of the human imagination, even at its most unconscious. Whether Barrick’s poems explore the sensory world of a classic horror film, an Alex Colville painting, or an after hours jazz gig, his inquisitiveness leads to invention, and invention to discovery. Where else could an amateur fossil hunt become a primeval experience, or a lawnmower, a cow, and newlyweds float together midair? Nightlight taps into the emotional undercurrents of these moments, unfolding like a “long elastic maze of song.”

David Barrick is the author of the chapbooks Incubation Chamber (Anstruther Press, 2019) and Two Dreams: Stratford and The Copyist (The Alfred Gustav Press, 2022). His poetry has been published in The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, EVENT, The Dalhousie Review, The Antigonish Review, and other literary journals. David was first runner up in Pulp Literature’s 2021 Magpie Award for Poetry. He lives in London Township (Treaty 6) territory, where he teaches writing at Western University and is Managing Director of the Poetry London reading series.

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