ANNE SIMPSON WINS PAT LOWTHER AWARD

Congratulations to Anne Simpson, winner ofthe Pat Lowther Memorial Award for QUICK. This is what the jury had to say:

In this new collection, Anne Simpson’s voice is instantly recognizable. The poetics of distancing "how does love make itself so small?/ small as an eye-tooth, tissue-thin" hold in check deeply felt emotion, and this tension brings the poems to a new level of intensity. The pitch is raised, even to the last line "An impossible note held, held, held. Piercing, clear." These are poems of extraordinary range, intelligence and empathy. Read Ceremonies of Water, Ceremonies of Fire. And the poems about the hanged boy. This is the compassion of absolute witness.

To read a sample poem from QUICK, an intro to the poem by Anne Simpson, a "how the poem works" piece by Anne Compton, and more: http://www.mcclelland.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780771080913

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Shel Silverstein (1932 - 1999)

DON McKAY (Strike/Slip) ON HOW POETRY HAS CHANGED HIM

Before I discovered poetry I was a ninety-five pound weakling who spent most of his time wandering lonely as a cloud o’er vales and hills because no girls would go out with me. Now I am still a ninety-five pound weakling and still spend most of my time wandering, etc., but women find me as irresistible as Leonard Cohen. Chickadees address me in their own tongue. Whenever I rent a car, I get boosted from compact to mid-size at no extra charge. Mothers bearing infants pour out of day-cares asking for me to lay my hands on the heads of their little ones in the hopes that it is contagious. Even my sneezes are eloquent. Really, you should take it up. It’s a free home trial, so if it doesn’t work you don’t have to pester the muse (or the demon lover or whoever) for your money back. What a deal!

To read full Q&A: http://www.owensound.library.on.ca/page.php?PageID=64

TIM LILBURN ON WHY HE WRITES POETRY

I am interested in poetry because I believe that only in it can a person think and feel as deeply and as flexibly and as surprisingly as is humanly possible. This extreme, unexpected thinking and feeling is not only great fun, but is important now, in ways a little hard to fully explain, for us as a species. The strange metaphorical and contemplative thinking that goes on in poetry might just serve as a basis of a new politics that knits the human world with the natural world. It would likely take a whole book to work out this new politics.

To read full Q&A: http://www.gvpl.ca/readers_cafe/capital_verse/lilburn.php

ANNE SIMPSON A FINALIST FOR THE ATLANTIC POETRY PRIZE

Anne Simpson's QUICK, already a finalist for the Pat Lowther Award, is now also a finalist for the Atlantic Poetry Prize. The winner will be announced on May 12, 2008.

To read a poem from QUICK, an introduction by Anne Simpson, commentary by Anne Compton, and more, click here: http://www.mcclelland.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780771080913