The body may be feared. It may be a site of philosophic and theological weakness, a place of fear and contamination. The body may be weak. It is ephemeral and impure compared to what is supposed in an abstracted world of pure intellect. The body may be an obsession, a material concern taken up to the detriment of all else. The body may be a challenge to overcome, an enemy to silence.In this book, dennis cooley sympathizes with the body. These poems celebrate the yearning, laughing, hurting, tender body. Here, the body is neither a site of conflict nor a place of spiritual weakness, but instead a vessel of experience that works in harmony with the intellect. Bodies burble, rejoice, yearn, and suffer. Bodies grow old, they are injured, they hold strength and grow weak in unexpected ways. Rejecting the simplicity of transcendence for a nuanced examination of mortality, time, illness, of the things the body promises and the promises the body keeps, cooley is unafraid to challenge the eternal and the certain. These poems are humorous, intelligent, and poignant. body works is essential reading for anyone who lives inside a body that lives within the world.

In the bentleys, Dennis Cooley, with his trademark energy and verve, has recreated the tensions and themes of Sinclair Ross's classic prairie novel As for Me and My House. Celebrating 'love in a dry land, ' Cooley, with his deft, playful command of language, and his typographic exuberance, demonstrates his mastery of the long prairie poem. Containing some of the finest writing of his career, the bentleys will take its place with Bloody Jack as a 'beJesus delight.'

Robert Kroetsch: Essayist, Novelist, Poet brings together an international cast of critics, scholars, and writers to examine, re-examine, and honour the celebrated author's immense significance in the twenty-first century, and what it means to be Canadian and part of the country's literary landscape. Original essays by Dennis Cooley, Phil Hall, Nicole Markotic, Aritha van Herk, and Rudy Wiebe, among others. The author of nine novels, thirteen books of poetry, and seven non-fiction volumes, Robert Kroetsch (1927-2011) was a major figure in the development and history of literature in Canada. He won the Governor General's Award for Fiction for The Studhorse Man (1969) and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Poetry for The Hornbooks of Rita K. (2001). He received honorary degrees from the University of Winnipeg (1983) and the University of Alberta (1997), and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (2004). Robert Kroetsch stands as a seminal figure in the Canadian literary landscape. In his early fiction he introduced postmodern techniques into the mainstream of Canadian fiction. He then moved on to writing poetry while still writing fiction, and created a new vision for poets across the country, defining the nature of the poetic experience by searching out the roots of his place in the Canadian landscape. Robert Kroetsch: Essayist, Novelist, Poet is a timely reminder of the immense significance that Kroetsch holds in the twenty-first-century understanding of what it means to be Canadian and part of the country's literary landscape. This book is published in English. - Robert Kroetsch (1927-2011) est une figure majeure de l'histoire et du developpement de la litterature au Canada. Son roman intitule The Studhorse Man (1969) lui a permis de remporter le Prix litteraire du Gouverneur general dans la categorie roman et nouvelles ; par ailleurs, son recueil de poesie, intitule The Hornbooks of Rita K. (2001), a figure sur la liste des finalistes du Prix litteraire du Gouverneur general dans la categorie poesie. De plus, il s'est vu decerner un doctorat honoris causa par deux universites canadiennes, l'Universite de Winnipeg (1983) et l'Universite de l'Alberta (1997), et il a ete fait officier de l'Ordre du Canada (2004). Robert Kroetsch est une figure marquante du paysage litteraire canadien. Dans ses premiers ouvrages de fiction, il a introduit des techniques de narration postmodernes dans le courant dominant et jusqu'alors plutot conventionnel de la fiction canadienne. Il a ensuite entrepris d'ecrire de la poesie tout en poursuivant son oeuvre romanesque. Ce faisant, il a su creer une nouvelle vision pour les poetes canadiens ; il a, entre autres, defini la nature de l'experience poetique en se questionnant sur le sens de l'identite canadienne et sur la place qu'il occupait dans le paysage litteraire canadien. L'ouvrage intitule Robert Kroetsch : romancier, poete et essayiste constitue un rappel opportun de l'importance considerable de cet auteur majeur, qui nous a permis de mieux comprendre ce que cela signifiait d'etre Canadien au XXIe siecle et d'appartenir au paysage litteraire canadien. Ce livre est publie en anglais.

How does reading poetry influence the way we see the Prairies? Cultural geographer Carl J. Tracie explores this question in Shaping a World Already Made, his labour of love to Canadian poetry and to his home.

The body may be feared. It may be a site of philosophic and theological weakness, a place of fear and contamination. The body may be weak. It is ephemeral and impure compared to what is supposed in an abstracted world of pure intellect. The body may be an obsession, a material concern taken up to the detriment of all else. The body may be a challenge to overcome, an enemy to silence.In this book, dennis cooley sympathizes with the body. These poems celebrate the yearning, laughing, hurting, tender body. Here, the body is neither a site of conflict nor a place of spiritual weakness, but instead a vessel of experience that works in harmony with the intellect. Bodies burble, rejoice, yearn, and suffer. Bodies grow old, they are injured, they hold strength and grow weak in unexpected ways. Rejecting the simplicity of transcendence for a nuanced examination of mortality, time, illness, of the things the body promises and the promises the body keeps, cooley is unafraid to challenge the eternal and the certain. These poems are humorous, intelligent, and poignant. body works is essential reading for anyone who lives inside a body that lives within the world.

would you believe me when i make consorts of alphabet runaways & stayathomes i have rounded up where they wandered all over the page Dennis Cooley masterfully extends the genre of the abecedary to explore his curiosity of the limitlessness of human communication. With linguistic wit and complexity, his poetry carries the reader through the historical developments of the alphabet. He pries open letters and words to play with both their immediate meaning and the possibilities within the words themselves, creating surprises as he explores spelling, sound, syntax, and pronunciation. After reading Cooley's abecedarium you'll never look at language the same way. Lovers of experimental poetry as well as those interested in linguistic play or the history of language will relish the rapid-fire shifts and musicality of Cooley's newest collection of poetry.

"He wants to sit and visit at the kitchen table, and he can hardly wait to get on the road again." -From Chapter 1 Robert Kroetsch, one of Canada's most important writers, was a fierce regionalist with a porous yet resilient sense of "home." Although his criticism and fiction have received extensive attention, his poetry remains underexplored. This exuberantly polyvocal text, insightfully written by dennis cooley-who knew Kroetsch and worked with him for decades-seeks to correct that imbalance. The Home Place offers a dazzling, playful, and intellectually complex conversation drawing together personal recollections, Kroetsch's archival materials, and the international body of Kroetsch scholarship. For literary scholars and anyone who appreciates Canadian literature, The Home Place will represent the standard critical evaluation of Kroetsch's poetry for years to come.

Take a trip through Alberta with some of Canada's finest established and emerging poets as your guides. Writing the Terrain: Travelling Through Alberta with the Poets is the first anthology dedicated solely to the poetry of the Alberta landscape and cityscape, by authors who have travelled the main roads, back roads, and gravel roads of this vast province. This collection offers a series of poetic journeys through Calgary and Edmonton, through the foothills, the badlands, the Rockies, the central parklands, and the northern boreal forests. Following in the Canadian literary tradition of "preoccupation with place" these are poems that demonstrate a response to the landscape and ponder its effect on the body, mind, and spirit. With Contributions By: Ian Adam Tammy Armstrong Margaret Avison Douglas Barbour John O. Barton Doug Beardsley BonnieBishop E.D. Blodgett Robert Boates George Bowering Tim Bowling Jan Boydol Gordon Burles Murdoch Burnett Anne Campbell Weyman Chan Leonard Cohen Dennis Cooley Joan Crate Michael Cullen Cyril Dabydeen Lorne Daniel Alexa DeWiel Jason Dewinetz Ryan Fitzpatrick Cecelia Frey Gary Geddes Gail Ghai Deborah Godin Jim Green Leslie Greentree Vivian Hansen Tom Henihan Michael Henry Walter Hildebrandt Gerald Hill Robert Hilles Nancy Holmes Richard Hornsey Tom Howe Bruce Hunter Aislinn Hunter Laurence Hutchman Sally Ito Pauline Johnson Aleksei Kazuk Robert Kroetsch Fiona Lam William Latta Tim Lilburn Alice Major Kim Maltman Miriam Mandel Sid Marty David McFadden Barry McKinnon Erin Michie Deborah Miller Anna Mioduchowska James M. Moir Colin Morton Erin Moure Charles Noble P.K. Page Rajinderpal Pal Ruth Roach Pierson Joseph Pivato Roberta Rees D.C. Reid Monty Reid r. rickey Ken Rivard Stephen Scobie Allan Serafino Joan Shillington Greg Simison Carol Ann Sokoloff Karen Solie Robert Stamp Stephan Stephansson Peter Stevens Ivan Sundal Anne Swannell Vanna Tessier Colleen Thibadeau John O. Thompson James M. Thurgood Eva Tihanyi Yvonne Trainer Aritha van Herk Rosalee van Stelten Miriam Waddington Wilfred Watson James Wreford Watson Tom Wayman Phyllis Webb Jon Whyte Christine Wiesenthal Sheri-D Wilson Christopher Wiseman Stacie Wolfer Rita Wong Richard Woollatt Jan Zwicky

You are about to read a book like no other. Bloody Jack is a collection about the making and unmaking of story, of poetry and of history. Based loosely on the life of John Krafchenko, a notorious Manitoban outlaw, the poems of Bloody Jack turn fact and fiction upside down and inside out. Dennis Cooley has added more than a dozen new poems to this revised edition and Douglas Barbour has written an introduction. By turns earthy and earnest, soulful and sly, Bloody Jack is a rollicking, fun-filled riot of a volume by one of Canada's favourite poets. "Bloody Jack is back again, bigger, bolder, sweeter and even more outrageous." -David Arnason