The poems in The Serenity of Stone emerge from places as disparate as Fraser's childhood in Grenada, adolescence in Edmonton, and teenage years and adulthood in Toronto. They span the themes of diasporadic life, themes ranging from landscape and family history, romance and love, crime and racism to kindness and abuse, squalor and education. Stylistically the poems fall into many camps. The work is rooted in many traditions, from hip hop to the English canon. Fraser skillfully combines a hip street element with the attention to high standards of detail and style.

Michael Fraser was born in Grenada, spent his childhood in Edmonton, and has lived in Toronto since the age of 14. He is a high school teacher, poet, and writer. He has been published in various anthologies and journals including Literary Review of Canada, The Paris Atlantic, Caribbean Writer, Zygote, and Qwerty. He won the 2005 Toronto Star Poem About Toronto contest. The Serenity of Stone is his first book.

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Michael Fraser's expansive, generous poems, odes to being alive, recall Pablo Neruda's sensual language, alive with metaphor. Fraser takes us from the intimate all the way to the greater political world. As his poems move from the landscape of the body to the city-scapes of Edmonton, Toronto, Havana and Paris, The Serenity of Stone unfolds the progress of the making of a son and lover, a lover of the universe and universals as well as of the galaxies of words that describe them. - Molly Peacock, Poetry Editor, Literary Review of Canada The verses in Michael Fraser’s collection of poems, The Serenity of Stone, the contradiction of metaphor, not withstanding, are the particularities of signposts, the markings upon the land that is Toronto and Canada. The poems have a strong lyrical-narrative contention that this is a new voice, a new way of looking deep down into the psyche of our country that is Canada; but Canada seen through new eyes, the important glances of the immigrant, silent most of the time, unheard and disregarded; blaring in its voicelessness; hitherto unknown. - Austin Clarke, Giller Prize and Commonwealth Writers’ Prize winner