This volume of essays and translations analyzes the prodigious and wide-ranging output of Keijiro Suga. Based in Japan, Keijiro Suga's works are wide-ranging and multilingual. His volumes of poetry have been shortlisted for a range of poetry prizes, and he was awarded the 2011 Yomiuri Shinbun Prize for Travel writing. He has translated dozens of books and has authored or co-authored more than fifteen other books across various genres. He is, by his own introduction, a poet first, but is also a prolific book reviewer, an astute theorist, and an insightful critic. His presence and contributions have been profound in many countries around the globe.

This volume of essays and translations analyzes the prodigious and wide-ranging output of Suga Keijiro. Based in Japan, Suga Keijiro's (b. 1958-) works are wide-ranging and multilingual. His volumes of poetry have been shortlisted for a range of poetry prizes, and he was awarded the 2011 Yomiuri Shinbun Prize for Travel writing. He has translated dozens of books and has authored or co-authored more than fifteen other books across various genres. He is, by his own introduction, a poet first, but is also a prolific book reviewer, an astute theorist, and an insightful critic. His presence and contributions have been profound in many countries around the globe.

If one poet can be said to be the Canadian poet, that poet is Al Purdy (1918-2000). Numerous eminent scholars and writers have attested to this pre-eminent status. George Bowering described him as 'the world's most Canadian poet' (1970), while Sam Solecki titled his book-length study of Purdy, "The Last Canadian Poet (1999)". In "The Ivory Thought: Essays on Al Purdy", a group of seventeen scholars, critics, writers, and educators appraise and reappraise Purdy's contribution to English literature. They explore: Purdy's continuing significance to contemporary writers; the life he dedicated to literature and the persona he crafted; the influences acting on his development as a poet; the ongoing scholarly projects of editing and publishing his writing; particular poems and individual books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction; and, the larger themes in his work, such as "The Canadian North" and the predominant importance of place. In addition, two contemporary poets pay tribute with original poems.