The eight prose pieces that make up Unarmoured Excursions are imaginative riffs bordering on formal essays, each willfully puncturing the barrier between what we experience and what we can conceive. While descriptive details seem to root his prose in real places and situations, Therrien’s mischievous turn of mind veers off the path of documentary into pure exploration. Whether he’s writing the magical realism of a dream, the overheard dialogue of teens in a food court, or the reflections of a man left caring for a vulnerable, nonverbal stranger, Therrien heads for the uncertainty of open ground, where the transcendent and the imminent–the dreaming and the waking worlds–might be seen to mingle.

Poet and editor Richard Therrien has worked at a number of occupations, including landscape labourer, photography instructor, filmmaker, and speech writer. Born and raised on—and a repeated escapee from—the Canadian prairie, he has published across North America and currently works and lives in North Vancouver.

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