The Best of Canadian Poetry in English, 2008

Good news - Tightrope Books has started a new series, to celebrate the best poems written by Canadians and published in a magazine - based on the hugely succesful long-running Best American Poetry series. The first incarnation will appear this October, as The Best of Canadian Poetry in English, 2008. The guest editor this time around is Stephanie Bolster, and series editor is Molly Peacock.

The editors have gone through all the leading Canadian magazines, and selected 50 poems. I'm very pleased to say that one of them is mine, "Gentlemen of Nerve", which first appeared in Vallum. I hope that readers of Eyewear, interested in new developments in Canadian poetry, will buy a copy, and support this significant new publishing initiative. Canadian poetry, on the North American continent, is often starved in the shadow of the USA, but has its own histories, communities, and trajectories, worth celebrating, and reading.