Entombed within a thirty-kilometre-deep seam of rock, the fossils of Joggins, Nova Scotia are pried from a cliff-face by a version of the ocean out of which their creatures evolved?for the first time on Earth?more than three-hundred-million years ago. With probing metaphors and a keen eye on science, the poems in Origins create a multi-faceted portrait of evolution, extinction and climate change. Centered on the powerful Bay of Fundy, Origins compares the displaced, prehistoric marks of fossils with cultural marks like art and books. These varied poems observe eternal traces and lingering residues, from fossilized footprints to landscape sculpture to pollution and industrialization. With only one bone in a billion fossilized and a perpetually changing planetary surface, these celebratory yet cautionary poems also investigate chance, loss and ruin. The intersection of forces, which both create and destroy, are echoed by poems devoted to transitory art, the human addiction to energy, and an evolving media history (from nineteenth-century field drawings to twenty-first-century digital libraries). Origins is a nuanced ledger for a troubled world.

A Sharp Tooth in the Fur is the first book by an accomplished writer, whose awards include the prestigious David H. Walker Prize for Fiction. His stories have appeared in The Danforth Review, The New Quarterly, Prism International, Dandelion, The Fiddlehead, and The Windsor Review, and three were featured in Coming Attractions '98. A frequent reviewer, Darryl Whetter's by-line has appeared on reviews in The Globe and Mail, The Ottawa Citizen, The New Brunswick Reader, and The National Post, and online at amazon.com and amazon.ca. He has appeared as a guest panelist on CBC Radio's Talking Books and as a film critic on ASN's Cinephile. A native of Orillia, Darryl Whetter studied at Queen's University in Kingston and at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, where he founded QWERTY and its internet edition, querte. He now teaches Creative Writing at the University of Windsor, where he took over the position vacated by Alistair MacLeod upon his retirement. During the summer months, he can be found at his cottage near Economy, Nova Scotia.

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