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I am embarking upon my vacation for the holidays—but before departing, I am going to propose five of the best books of avant-garde poetry published in Canada during this last year. I recommend them all to any interested readership outside my country:
1. Yesno by Dennis Lee
2. The Alphabet Game by bpNichol
3. Thumbscrews by Natalie Zina Walschots
4. Fake Math by Ryan Fitzpatrick
5. Human Resources by Rachel Zolf
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Yesno
by Dennis Lee
House of Anansi
2007
Yesno is the sequel to Un—and like its predecessor, this book continues to speak in the style of Paul Celan about the forthcoming catastrophe of the environment.
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The Alphabet Game
by bpNichol
Coach House Books
2007
The Alphabet Game is a compendium of material by bpNichol, the poet who has done more than any other writer to promote the values of linguistic radicalism in Canada.
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Thumbscrews
by Natalie Zina Walschots
Snare Books
2007
Thumbscrews engages with the aesthetics of sadomasochism in order to generate elegant, sensual poetry that writhes inside the shackles of its own linguistic constraint.
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Fake Math
by Ryan Fitzpatrick
Snare Books
2007
Fake Math recombines the results from Internet searches in order to generate poetry that provides an incisive, sardonic critique of contemporary, sociological discourse.
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Human Resources
by Rachel Zolf
Coach House Books
2007
Human Resources uses machines to generate poetry that, likewise, provides a political critique of quotidian language, now debased by the wasteful excesses of capitalism.
Care to post a poem, or sample lines, from any of those? I’m especially interested in the Lee (I have read some of his work before, I believe) and the Walschots (never heard of her).
Hello, Steve:
I will happily do some longer reviews of these books in the New Year.
Where’s Donato Mancini? His “Aethel” was clearly the most innovative book published in Canada last year…or does the “avant-garde” (Dennis Lee?) stop at the Rockies?
Looks like more of the same Calgary-Toronto backslapping. When will it end?