Ian LeTourneau

A neat idea over at ARC. A year long project introducing Scottish poets to Canadian readers and vice versa. Profiled at CBC.

I’m reviewing Robert Robinson’s new book right now for PoetryReviews.ca. I really like his work and I’m looking forward to reading ARC‘s feature. Let’s hope they introduce us to a new country when Scotland’s turn is over.

My review of Lynn Davies’ Where Sound Pools is up now on PoetryReviews.ca.

In other poetry news, I received Ted Hughes’ Collected Poems in the mail yesterday. I started reading Moortown Diaries, a collection I hadn’t previously digested, on the recommendation of Michael Harris a couple of years ago, and it is stunning. Look at these opening lines of the first poem, “Rain”:

Rain. Floods. Frost. And after frost, rain.
Dull roof-drumming. Wraith-rain pulsing across purple-bare woods
Like light across heaved water. Sleet in it.
And the poor fields, miserable tents of thier hedges

And it just keeps getting better from there.

Announced.

Good lord, man. George Bowering has to go ruin an interesting little article on what sounds like an interesting book by saying this:

The pacing of the game — nice and slow and easy, punctuated with flashes of magic and excitement — is like poetry, he says.

I hate how people intentionally mystify poetry.

Born April 23, 1564. Happy 442nd!

Well, now that we’re back in sunny Alberta and the snow is all gone and the temperature is around 20 everyday, I read this. Looks like I’ll have to buy some sun screen. When are people going to realize and acknowledge how we’ve fucked up the planet?

Oh and in other news, A Complicated Kindness wins Canada Reads. How a bestseller that most of the reading population has already read can be the book that Canada must read is beyond me. It is a good book. Like last year, at least I don’t have to go buy this one either.

Nominees announced.

(from CBC)

Winners announced here. The poetry winner is Jack Gilbert for Refusing Heaven. It’s a book I bought back in January and highly recommend to the poet-types who read this blog. I’ve always been a fan of Doctorow, but I haven’t got around to reading his latest.

Anyone know how this award works? I’m intrigued by a “critic’s circle.”