National Network for Equitable Library Service

A masterwork from one of Canada’s most important poets

Referencing the post-war neorealist film by Vittorio De Sica, Mary di Michele’s Bicycle Thieves commemorates her Italian past and her life in Canada through elegy and acts of translation of text and of self.

Augustine in Carthage, and Other Poems is the daring new collection of poetry from Alessandro Porco.

We look away from his open mouth, / look instead at the corn, the crows / floating above the river in their private worries. / Tonight, when we turn in, / the candle will sputter and blow. Pinched out easily, all flame / gives way to this wide black wing.— excerpt from “Black Wing”

The poems in Ashland, originally published by ECW in 2003, lay the groundwork for Adamson’s award–winning and internationally bestselling novel, The Outlander.

you are entirely happy with your poem / you are not happy then there is no charge and your deposit is returned / you are totally satisfied with the outcome / you are a man / you are a little confused / you are entirely happy with your poem / you are not happy then there is no charge and your deposit is returned / you are totally satisfied with the outcome . . .

An accessible and illuminating debut collection that explores the arranged marriage of the bestial and humane

Logic is strained, existence contracts and multiplies, connections amputate then graft in incongruous ways in Jamie Sharpe’s poems, which, like a funhouse mirror, reflect our own absurd image.

Like an embedded journalist, Patrick Woodcock writes his poetry from the front lines of experience.

From cities reeling from the trauma of siege warfare to the stifling heat and politics of the Arabian Peninsula to the darkest corners of the South American rain forest, Woodcock’s poems bear witness to a world that is equally immediate and remote... and far more complex than we often imagine.

Lenea Grace’s debut collection maps a series of relationships within a greater exploration of Canadiana, barreling through shield and crag, river and slag. A Generous Latitude is not afraid of beer, bears, internal rhyme, David Hasselhoff, sediment, or sentiment. It does, however, eschew sliding down lampposts, CBC sitcoms, McGarrigles, and the sentimental. Taking humor in the human condition, A Generous Latitude toys with juxtapositions of the serious with the silly, the irreverent with more somber realities.

The Hornbooks of Rita K, Robert Kroetsch's first volume of new poetry in more than a decade, is a brilliant collection of mysterious fragments. Where has Rita gone and who is reconstructing her oeuvre? Written with wit and playfulness, Hornbooks is a welcome new work from one of Canada's best writers.

Alice Major observes the comedy and the tragedy of this human-dominated moment on Earth. Major’s most persistent question—“Where do we fit in the universe?”—is made more urgent by the ecological calamity of human-driven climate change. Her poetry leads us to question human hierarchies, loyalties, and consciousness, and challenges us to find some humility in our overblown sense of our cosmic significance. Now, welcome to the Anthropocene you battered, tilting globe. Still you gleam, a blue pearl on the necklace of the planets. This home.

In a series of poems inspired by Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, E.D. Blodgett searches for meaning amidst grief. In the contemplative gentleness of his words, he finds the special light children possess in their state of unknowing as they encounter the world. These sparse poems move through acceptance and resignation to the solace that exists in the word. Blodgett's poetry will speak to readers who have experienced loss, are exploring grief, or want to find a way to connect with stillness.