Tuckerman

The October issue of The New Criterion has a lively review by Jason Guriel (author of Pure Product) on the Selected Poems of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, an early American poet who, Guriel argues, was "too weird to be much appreciated in his own milieu, the United States of the nineteenth century, and not weird enough to distinguish the poet for many of his later readers who, failing to squint, saw little more than an accomplished sonneteer."

[UPDATE] Recommendations

Ah, I knew I left one out! The Reinvention of the Human Hand (M&S), Paul Vermeersch.

Recommendations

In anticipation of the GG shortlist announcement on Wednesday, I thought I'd take a moment to mention the Canadian poetry I enjoyed most this year.

Excluded is The Crow's Vow, a Signal book and therefore, according to industry etiquette, not eligible for objective recommendation. I would, however, like to make a plug (plea?) for Michael Harris's Circus which, except for a couple of notices, has been roundly ignored. And I think that's just criminal.

I suppose I should also disclose that I provided blurbs for two books on this list (Patternicity and Complete Physical). But I don't see why that should make any difference. I blurbed them precisely because I admired them.

For and Against (Goose Lane), Sharon McCartney.
Patternicity (Nightwood), Jim Johnstone.
Bloom (Anansi), Michael Lista
Welling (Your Scrivener Press), Margaret Christakos
Tiny, Frantic, Stronger (Insomniac), Jeff Latosik
Hump (Palimpsest), Ariel Gordon
Complete Physical (Porcupine's Quill), Shane Neilson

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(Hat tip: Harriet)

D.G. Jones

Hot off the press and nearly two years late. The Stream Exposed with All its Stones, the D.G. Jones Collected, turned out to be an insane amount of work to assemble, edit and proof.

But it’s finally here, and it’s glorious. For $18.95 you get all nine of Jones’ major collections—from his debut Frost on the Sun (1957) to the most recent, Grounding Sight (1999). You also get a 4000-word essay by W.J. Keith that explains Jones’ development from the early “perfection of the well-wrought urn” to the later aesthetic that “embraced the daunting but exciting diversity of chaos.” You also get more good poems that you can shake a stick at.

If you’re a blogger, reviewer or small magazine editor and want a review copy, please get in touch.

Giller Thriller

Congratulations to Dan Wells and the team at Biblioasis for nabbing a well-deserved spot on this year's Giller shortlist with Alexander MacLeod's sterling short-story collection, Light Lifting.

It's a great list all around (even if it's sure to make one lucky publisher depressed), and exactly the kind of list we need now and again -- one that operates like a market correction, bringing overpriced stocks down a notch and keeps our assessments honest.

The winner will be announced on November 9th.

Crowing

The Crow's Vow gets another good notice, this time across the pond.

The book's fans now include Bert Almon, who called it "brilliant" in the MRB, and Brian Campbell who, writing for Rover, praised the book's "keen observation, exquisite detail and masterful rendering of the passage of time."

The book is also picking up plaudits for its look. It was included in a recent round up of "40 stunning minimalist book covers."

Listen to an interview with poet Susan Briscoe on CKUT radio. You can also read another interview here.

You can buy the book here.