Second Prize Winner, John V. Hicks Long Manuscript Competition

Finalist for three Saskatchewan Book Awards (University of Regina Book of the Year Award; Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award; City of Saskatoon & Public Library Saskatoon Book Award)

In this, her ninth collection of poetry, Mari-Lou Rowley explores how we, as a species, have moved beyond our search for a union with the cosmos - in the spiritual sense - to the desire to conquer its mysteries and exploit its resources.

Praise for Unus Mundus:

"This manuscript is scientifically, philosophically, and aesthetically informed, and uses formal conventions and strategies to unique and surprising effect. We are taken on imaginative journeys through space, time, and objects in the CosmoSonnets, and into fifth and sixth dimensions through such poems as ‘This morning the gangsta movie in my head exploded' and ‘Mutated Interview with European Space Agency Astronaut on Space Debris and other Interstellar Phenomena.' A confident and challenging voice; a cosmic vision." (Jury Comments, John V. Hicks Long Manuscript Award)

"Rowley repeatedly astonishes with her ability to incorporate science and the vocabulary of science into her poetry all while remaining attuned to the musicality of the language: lovemaking, for instance, is '[p]article energy measured in electron volts, / the untidy oblate geometry of love' and, in a later section, a fish is described as a 'voracious gleaming / skin slick / and sinking fast' ... "Rowley's ninth collection is ambitious and sophisticated, and a must-read for anyone interested in science poetry, ecocriticism, or who wants to a fresh vision of the unity underlying our ‘one world.'" (Alexis Motuz, Arc Poetry)

"Rowley has a ferociously active and fertile mind and she covers vast territories more easily than one can imagine. She does this with poetry that challenges and rewards in equal measure... This is an experienced poet at the top of her game and in full control." (Michael Dennis, blog)

From the Author:

As an eco-science poet who has tumbled, quite gleefully, into the field of biosemiotics the questions that compel me are: What is the nature of poetic and/or creative emergence? What is the zygote and epigenisis of a poem or work of art? How does the poet read and interact with her environment, or semiosphere, in order to translate emotions, memories, sounds, smells, disconnected images, into the phonemes, syllables, words, lines and stanzas of a poems that resonates with the reader/listener. By what mechanisms does a poem or artwork evoke emotional or physiological response? Of course molecules, organisms and animals (human and non-human) communicate in and with the environment. We hear them. We are constantly on the lookout for signs. The genesis of art, poetry and biological process involves multiple pathways and signals - which involves both an element of chance and of choice - a psychic/philosophic twinning and echoing. Synchronicity.

Mari-Lou Rowley has published six previous collections of poetry, most recently CosmoSonnets (JackPine 2007) and Viral Suite (Anvil Press 2004). Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada and the US—and on Canadian Association of Physicists website. Rowley has performed her poetry across the continent, from Harbourfront to Seattle, where she performed at Bumbershoot, Seattle’s annual arts extravaganza. She also participated in the Poetic Ecologies conference in Brussels in May 2008. Rowley has a Master’s of Liberal Studies degree from Simon Fraser University. A science writer and avid star gazer, her favourite constellation is Orion. Her favourite cosmological phenomena are binary pulsars. In 2006 she moved to Saskatoon from Vancouver to be closer to the sky.

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