Reviewed here:
- Cosmographia: A Post-Lucretian Faux Micro-Epic, by Michael Boughn (BookThug, 175 pages, $20)
- Fieldnotes: A Forensic, by Kate Eichhorn (BookThug, 75 pages, $18)
- Killdeer, by Phil Hall (BookThug, 120 pages, $18)
- Discovery Passages, by Gary Thomas Morse (Talonbooks, 128 pages, $17.95)
- Origami Dove, by Susan Musgrave (McClelland & Stewart, 118 pages, $18.99)
In Canada, the announcement of a poetry award short list is always a cause for celebration. And, invariably, it is also a cause for complaint. We poets, you see, are notoriously hard to please. Some of us will be excited about the nominees, either because we love their work or because they are our friends, while others will be disappointed that another great poet has been ignored or that one of our enemies has managed to sneak onto the short list again. Our jubilation is only matched by our chagrin; we are supposed to be passionate, after all, and our tempers flare so high because, as we frequently tell ourselves, the stakes are so low.
If a short list names too many celebrated poets, the tall-poppy brigade will be dispatched to declare their work pedestrian and the short list boring, bureaucratic and safe. If too many obscure poets are named, someone will decry the strangeness of the list and suggest that some ulterior motive must be behind it. No matter who wins, it’s usually a lose-lose situation.
This year’s short list for the Governor-General’s Award for poetry is noteworthy for many reasons, mainly because three of the five titles were published by BookThug, a small Toronto-based publisher that specializes in the avant-garde. When the announcement was made, amid the congratulations offered to BookThug, some of us held our breath waiting for the inevitable controversy to erupt. But it didn’t. Not really.
Oh sure, maybe one of the usual cranks made allegations of inequality in the judging process, but the allegations had no teeth, and the Canada Council stood firmly by its jury. Some even complained that high-profile books had been overlooked, but having a high profile does not entitle a book to be on a short list. I’ll even admit that I was somewhat skeptical at first, but after careful consideration, I think this could be one of the most balanced poetry short lists the Governor-General’s Award has seen in years. The list contains two previous nominees (one of whom is quite famous), a more obscure veteran poet with a history of being overlooked by the mainstream, and two mid-career poets with fast-growing reputations. There’s even a healthy mix of males and females, and of East and West. It’s almost as though the unofficial Canadian inclusivity handbook was followed to the letter, except for one thing: this short list is neither boring, bureaucratic or safe.
Susan Musgrave will be the most familiar name on the list to many readers. Origami Dove is her 14th book of poetry and the second to be nominated for the Governor-General’s Award (the first was A Man to Marry, A Man to Bury, in 1979). While the title might suggest something precious and quaint, this book still contains the kind of dark, evocative lyrics Musgrave is famous for. But it also reveals Musgrave at her funniest. From the elegiac sequence Obituaries of Light to the biting narratives of Random Acts of Poetry, Origami Dove proves that Musgrave hasn’t lost her edge; in fact, she’s been sharpening it.
