Actually, although she's a Canadian poet, she has been published mainly by
maistream US (& UK?) presses.
She's a scholar/poet, & her first major book, _Eros, the Bitttersweet_, a
meditation on Sappho, remains a small masterpiece.
I'd definitely recommend any of her books, but it might be good to begin
with either _Glass, I ronay and God_ (New Directions) or _Plainwater_
(Knopf/Vintage)._Autobiography of Red_ a 'novel' in poetry is pretty
awesome too. I haven't read _Men in the Off Hours_ yet, but expect it to be
special. Her work is chocl full of greek mythology & allusions, yet with a
contemporaneous force that is truly exciting. She forces you to think among
other things.
If I were a betting man, I'd put some money down on _Men in the Off Hours_
for the first Griffin poetry prize...
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
People, people -
ten dead ducks' feathers
on beer can litter . . .
Winter
will change all that
Lorine Niedecker
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