Description
In Acting My Age, the opening section, the poet Steve Luxton navigates retirement. With unflagging wit, he suspects he is viewed, if at all, as a curiosity or even sidewalk obstacle by hurry- by younger generations . . . . Growing older involves losses but also gains: a flourishing bond with wife and friends, and the acquisition of wisdom. In the second, The Dying Meteorologist, from which the collection's title derives, Luxton writes of the winter-long bout with cancer of a close friend. In this 22-poem cycle, he movingly records conversations, walks, drives and last days. These pieces celebrate life and friendship, under imponderable and fateful skies.
About the author
Born in England, Steve Luxton immigrated as a child to Toronto, Canada. He gained a BA in Political Science and Economics from the University of Toronto, and an MA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University where he studied under the poets W.D. Snodgrass and Phillip Booth. He has taught literature and creative writing at Champlain, Vanier, and John Abbott Colleges, as well as at Bishop's and Concordia Universities. In addition to the chapbook, Torrent's Gate: Thomas Wolfe Visits Quebec, he has published five volumes of poetry: Late Romantics (with Robert Allen and Mark Teicher), The Hills that Pass By, Iridium, Luna Moth and Other Poems, and In The Vision of Birds. In recognition for his energetic support and promotion of English-language literature in Quebec, he was awarded the Quebec Writers' Federation's Judy Mappin Community Prize. He lives with his wife the poet Angela Leuck in the Eastern Townships' village of Hatley.
Editorial Reviews
"The honest, confessional speaker and the bittersweet address are refreshing, as much as the elegiac can be." -THE MONTREAL REVIEW OF BOOKS, SPRING 2020
"The Dying Meteorologist is filled with depth, sensitivity, evocative imagery and a conversational tone that only a genuine poet-teller can muster. Luxtons finest book to date...."-ENDRE FARKAS, AUTHOR OF QUOTIDIAN FEVER: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS (1974-2007)