…to disappear into the sunset at St. Peter’s. Today I spent most of the afternoon gathering reading material for the three weeks I’ll be away. I started with something older, and something reminscent of the extreme winter we’re enduring with The Weather for Poetry by Donald Hall, then onto something a little more recent with Contemporary Poetry Meets Modern Theory, edited by Antony Easthope and John O. Thompson, then onto something more contemporary yet with Jorie Graham: Essays on the Poetry, edited by Thomas Gardner. I figure that’s enough critical reading and quickly moved to some smaller books, and rescued off the shelves of the library Carl Phillips The Tether, Sharon Olds’s One Secret Thing, and Grace Paley’s Fidelity.

Earlier in the week I purchased a few new Canadian author’s books that I didn’t have such as Tim Bowling’s The Book Collector, (you can find a review of it by Zach Wells), The Given by Daphne Marlatt, (here is a brief review by Gerry Hill), and More to Keep Us Warm by Jacob Scheier ( with a brief review here).

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If you’re in Saskatoon next week:
Don’t forget the Midwinter Salon, the social event of the frigid season,

Saturday, January 31, 7:30 pm.
At the home of Bernice Friesen and Colin Boyd,
636 University Drive
Saskatoon, Sask.
One block off five corners at the top of the Broadway bridge.

Hear hot poetry by these warm writers…..
Tracy Hamon and John Barton.

Dress code: poetic

The hat will be passed, and there will be a raffle of fabulous signed books by many scintillating local authors, as well as orginal prints by the brilliantly twinkling Elyse St. George and your humble host.

All for the benefit of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild Foundation.

Food and drink will be present, potluck appreciated.

I’m also reading along with Kelly-Anne Riess at the Flint reading series, Sunday Feb. 1. Hope you can make one of these!

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There won’t be much on the blog for awhile, except for a few interviews, I hope. The last 12 pages of a thesis are calling, along with its companion called the critical introduction, bells are tolling, suitcases are being prepared, meetings have been arranged, rooms are designated, rides have been negotiated, and the smallest of the smallest details are slowly being delicately arranged. Peace out. (Meh, how corny is that saying?)