two fall titles

Poetry may only be relevant for one month per year, but it seems that no one told some of our best publishers that. A number of strong titles are coming out this fall, including Amanda Jernigan's first collection, Groundwork (Biblioasis). There are two titles which I'm particularly excited about, though, and wanted to take a minute to highlight:

Winter Cranes by Chris Banks (ECW Press)

Winter Cranes is Chris Banks' third book of poetry. Chris runs one of my favourite poetry blogs, Table Music. I've only read the first of his books, Bonfires, but I quite enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading both Winter Cranes and his second book, The Cold Panes of Surfaces.

Chris is launching Winter Cranes in Montreal this Sunday and in Toronto on October 5th. Sadly, he will be just about the only poet in Canada not coming to Vancouver in October.

To get more information on those launches, and to read the excellent title poem from the book, click here.

Gift Horse by Mark Callanan (Véhicule Press)

Mark Callanan is the author of one previous book, Scarecrow. He also published a chapbook with Frog Hollow Press entitled Sea Legend, which you can apparently read in its entirety here. I haven't read either yet, but I have read a number of poems of Callanan's that have appeared here and there in magazines and on the internet, and I've been consistently impressed.

Beyond his own writing, Callanan is the (co-?)founder of Newfoundland's Riddle Fence, which currently stands as my favourite non-subTerrain Canadian lit mag. He was also the judge for the 2010 Alfred Bailey Prize, which means his taste is impeccable!

He's launching his book on the other coast on October 11th (details here), and like Chris Banks doesn't seem to be making the long march out here, poetry conference or not. You can read a poem from Gift Horse here, and start picking up his book in stores at the beginning of October.