There is something in the contours of the sonnet, that siren of poetic forms, which can shape the imagination. Sky Atlas, based on the 88 constellations, is itself a sequence of 88 sonnets: some are traditional and others, like the prose sonnet and the hypersonnet, are more subversive, yet still maintain a strong attachment to a poetic terrain.

The heavens are seasonal, and so is the atlas, with 22 constellations in each of the spring, summer, fall, and winter sections. A walk under the stars, whatever the season, can leave you breathless and wondering. Reading Sky Atlas will do the same.

Alan R. Wilson has an undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of New Brunswick, and a graduate degree in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. He has had several jobs, the most memorable as a fire hydrant painter, an experience immortalized in the CBC television drama 106 Fire Hydrants. For reasons best known to himself, he once wrote a set of 100 poems about the numbers from 1 to 100 that became his second book, Counting to 100. His most recent book, Sky Atlas (2008), is a collection of 88 sonnets - one for each constellation.

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"Sometimes Wilson's phrasing is conversational, at other times it's somewhat mannered. For the most part, though, he's witty."

-- The Toronto Star