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Poetry Anthologies (multiple Authors)

The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry

contributions by Ken Babstock, Michael Crummey, Mary Dalton, Tom Dawe, Richard Greene, Carmelita McGrath, Al Pittman, Sue Sinclair, John Steffler, Agnes Walsh & Patrick Warner

edited by James Langer & Mark Callanan

Publisher
Breakwater Books Ltd.
Initial publish date
Apr 2013
Category
Anthologies (multiple authors), Canadian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781550814088
    Publish Date
    Apr 2013
    List Price
    $19.95

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Description

Gathering the strongest poetry published by Newfoundlanders since the death of E.J. Pratt in 1964, The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry features selections from twelve of the province’s most impressive poets, including Al Pittman, Tom Dawe, Mary Dalton, John Steffler, Patrick Warner, and Ken Babstock. This groundbreaking anthology, with over forty years of poetry on display, celebrates the rousing and the rebirth of contemporary Newfoundland verse.

About the authors

Ken Babstock won Canada’s inaugural Latner Writer’s Trust Poetry Prize in 2014 for a body of work in mid-career. His fourth collection, Methodist Hatchet (Anansi, 2011), won The Griffin Prize for Excellence in Poetry and was a finalist for The Trillium Book Award. His previous collections of poetry include, Mean (1999), winner of the Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Milton Acorn People's Poet Award, Days Into Flatspin (2001), winner of a K.M. Hunter Award and finalist for the Winterset Prize, and Airstream Land Yacht (2006), finalist for The Griffin Prize for Poetry, The Governor General’s Literary Award, and The Winterset Prize, and winner of the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. His poems have won Gold at the National Magazine Awards, been widely anthologized in Canada, the UK, the US, and Ireland, most recently in The Oxford Anthology of Canadian Literature in English, and translated into Dutch, German, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, and French. All five previous titles were named Globe and Mail Top 100 Books of the Year. Recent poems have appeared in Best Canadian Poetry 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, and in Best of The Best Of Canadian Poetry. A book length poem, On Malice, written while in Berlin as one of DAAD’s International Artist Residents in 2011/12, was published in fall 2014 by Coach House Books to wide critical acclaim. Ken Babstock was born in Newfoundland and now lives in Toronto with his son.

Ken Babstock's profile page

Michael Crummey is the author of four books of poetry, and a book of short stories, Flesh and Blood. His first novel, River Thieves, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, his second, The Wreckage, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. His most recent novel, the bestselling Galore, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book. Under the Keel is his first collection in a decade. He lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Michael Crummey's profile page

Edited by Mary Dalton, Sean O'Brien, Chase Twichell, Niyi Osundare et al.

Mary Daltpon is the author of five books of poetry including Merrybegot winner of the 2005 E.J. Pratt Poetry Award. Her new collection Hooking was published Spring 2013. She is a Professor of English at Memorial University, St. John’s Newfoundland.

Sean O’Brien is a UK poet, critic, broadcaster, anthologist and editor. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University. His poetry collection November was shortlisted for the 2011 T. S. Eliot Prize and the 2012 International Griffin Poetry Prize.

Chase Twichell is the winner of the prestigious Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Award (2011) and the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award (1997). She has received numerous fellowships for her seven books of poetry.

Niyi Osundare Osundare is a Nigerian poet, playwright, essayist and scholar. He has authored 18 books of poetry. His many prizes include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English at the University of New Orleans.

Mary Dalton's profile page

Tom Dawe has been a high-school teacher, English professor, visual artist, editor, writer, and poet. He has published seventeen volumes of work, which include poetry, folklore, and children’s literature. His latest works include Where Genesis Begins (Breakwater, 2009), winner of the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Award, and Moocher in the Lun (Flanker Press, 2010), winner of the 2010 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards–Bruneau Family Children’s/Young Adult Literature Award.In the 1970s, during the “Newfoundland Renaissance,” he was one of the founders of Breakwater Books, a founding editor of TickleAce, and prose editor of the Livyere, a folklore journal. In 2002, Martina Seifert’s comprehensive study, Rewriting Newfoundland Mythology: The Works of Tom Dawe, was published in Germany and in Cambridge, MA.Tom Dawe is the recipient of many awards and honours. In 2007, he was awarded a lifetime membership for the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador and was elected to the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council Hall of Honour. In 2010, he was named St. John’s Poet Laureate. In 2012, he was named a member to the Order of Canada and also to the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Tom Dawe's profile page

Richard Greeneteaches Creative Writing and British Literature at the University of Toronto. His most recent biography Edith Sitwell: Avant-garde Poet, English Genius (2011) was widely acclaimed, and he has published three collections of poetry, including Boxing the Compass (2010), which won the Governer General's Award for Poetry. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario.

Richard Greene's profile page

Wendy McGrath’s poetry has been published in CV2, Prism international, NeWest Review, Tessera, Room of One’s Own, Orbis, and Grain. Her verse has been broadcast on CBC Radio and her work has appeared in several anthologies. Previously she published Go Van Gogh, a chapbook of her poetry. In 1998 she received the James Patrick Folinsbee Prize from the University of Alberta’s Department of English. She lives in Edmonton, AB. Common Place Ecstasies (Beach Holme, 2000) is her first book of collected poetry.

Carmelita McGrath's profile page

Beth Powning grew up in a small New England town, where her family has lived since the 1790s. In 1972, she and her husband Peter Powning moved to Canada and bought an 1870s farm in New Brunswick, where they established a pottery business.

In 1995, Beth Powning published a book of photography, Roses for Canadian Gardens (written by childhood friend Bob Osborne). She later found her voice in Home: Chronicle of a North Country Life. Over the next fifteen yaers, five books followed: another book of photographs, Northern Trees and Shrubs; two works of non-fiction, Shadow Child and Edge Seasons; and two bestselling novels, The Hatbox Letters and The Sea Captain's Wife.

Al Pittman's profile page

Sue Sinclair grew up in St. John's, Newfoundland. Her extraordinary poetic powers were first recognized when she won two creative writing awards at University of New Brunswick: the Walker Prize and the Angela Ludvine Memorial Prize. Her first poetry collection, Secrets of Weather & Hope, was a finalist for the 2002 Gerald Lampert Award, and her second, Mortal Arguments, was a finalist for the Atlantic Poetry Prize. Her work appears frequently in magazines such as The Fiddlehead, Canadian Literature, Grain, The New Quarterly, and The Malahat Review, and in anthologies such as Coastlines and Breathing Fire II.

Sue Sinclair's profile page

John Steffler (1947) grew up near Thornhill, ON. In 1975, he began teaching at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook, NL. His novel The Afterlife of George Cartwright won the Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award and the Commonwealth Prize for best first book in 1992. His other awards include the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize, the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council Artist of the Year Award, and the Atlantic Poetry Prize for his most recent collection, That Night We Were Ravenous.

John Steffler's profile page

Poet and playwright Agnes Walsh was born in Placentia, Newfoundland. She has published three previous collections of poetry: In the Old Country of My Heart (Killick Press, 1996), Going Around with Bachelors (Brick Books, 2007), and Oderin (Pedlar Press, 2018). Her work as founder, artistic director, and writer for the Tramore Theatre Troupe (1999–2012) won her the Newfoundland and Labrador Hospitality Award. In 2011, her collection of plays Answer Me Home was published by Breakwater Books. She was the inaugural poet laureate for the City of St. John’s from 2006 to 2009 and was awarded the 2020 Hall of Honour Award from ArtsNL.

Agnes Walsh's profile page

In 2007, Patrick Warner won the E.J. Pratt Poetry Prize Award for his collection, There, there. His first collection of poetry, All Manner of Misunderstanding, was nominated for the 2002 Atlantic Poetry Prize and for the 2003 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards. His work has been published in TickleAce, The Fiddlehead, Matrix, Signal, the Sunday Telegram (St. John's), Poetry Ireland Review, and Metre (Ireland). He lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Patrick Warner's profile page

James Langer is the poetry editor for The Fiddlehead. His first collection, Gun Dogs, was published in 2009, and his work has appeared in numerous literary journals including TickleAce, lichen, Arc, Grain, Event, Fiddlehead, The Newfoundland Quarterly, Antigonish Review, and Riddle Fence. Originally from Trinity Bay, he now lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

James Langer's profile page

Mark Callanan is the author of Scarecrow [Killick Press, 2003], critically-acclaimed first book of poems, and Sea Legend [Frog Hollow Press, 2010], winner of the bpNichol Chapbook Award. His poetry has appeared in several anthologies, including Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets. He lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Mark Callanan's profile page

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