BCP 2019 + Green Waves Coverage

Best Canadian Poetry 2019 and The Green Waves: Poems from Roblin Lake have both been out in the world for a few months now, and feedback is starting to trickle in.

First off is this lovely review of The Green Waves by Andrew French over at PRISM international:

“The content itself speaking volumes, Taylor’s language employs a musical colloquialism that would have made Purdy proud for its ability to let the events of the poems shine brightest. Taylor’s language allows the things he experiences to speak for themselves, a task much easier described than accomplished, and much more effective than the alternative in this instance. With moments of flourishing descriptive skill, it is the subtlety of Taylor’s voice that is most astounding in this collection.

The Green Waves is a strong, careful consideration of the complex history tied up in the Al Purdy A-frame and the ways in which it intersects with the poet’s personal life within that space. Regardless of one’s knowledge of or interest in Purdy’s life and work, this is a short collection that is certainly worth picking up for its honest consideration of the difficult moments we encounter in our lives. Taylor poses important questions to which nobody has the same answer, though it seems as if all of us ask them. How do we remember the people we have lost? What about those who came before us? How can we move forward in light of the past? Taylor won’t give you his answer in The Green Waves, but the chapbook might help to illuminate your own."

Andrew also provided some coverage of Best Canadian Poetry 2019 via his podcast, Page Fright. He recorded a special episode before and after the anthology's Vancouver launch, featuring readings and (equal parts illuminating and funny) mini-interviews with BCP contributors Ellie Sawatzky, Lauara Matwichuk, Dallas Hunt, Shaun Robinson and Sonnet L'Abbé. You can listen to the whole thing here.

BCP 2019 has also received reviews in both Quill & Quire and The Toronto Star. It's wonderful to see the book consider alongside major anthologies in other genres.

Thank you to everyone above who provided coverage for these little books (especially Andrew French, working double-duty!). It means a great deal to me.

If you're interested in either book, you can learn more about them (including purchasing info) here and here.

The Green Waves: Poems from Roblin Lake

I'm very happy to announce that my new chapbook, The Green Waves: Poems from Roblin Lake, has just been published by London, Ontario based 845 Press!

The chapbook contains 15 poems, written before, during and after my family's stay at the Al Purdy A-frame. The poems feature my family (the boy was barely toddling at the time), the A-frame, Al and Eurithe Purdy, disgusting pancakes, bonfires (book and otherwise), carbon monoxide poisoning, black holes, drowned mice, a heron named Ike, lilacs, frozen turtles, Nick Thran, etc. Mostly they are about making space in your life for the things you love.

Here are three sample poems:

County Roads
Last Embers
Lyric

For only the second time in my life (the first being "Oh Not So Great": Poems from the Depression Project), something I wrote has blurbs! I like blurbs but hate nothing more than asking someone to blurb my books, so I was overjoyed when the wonderful team at 845 Press (Aaron Schneider and Amy Mitchell) went and organized blurbs on my behalf. It even inspired me to ask a couple more people, which led to a very imbalanced poem-to-blurb ratio (15 to 4 - one blurb for every 4 poems!).

The blurbs:

"Luminosity, the ability to make mundane objects glow while holding onto their “thing-ness,” is a difficult poetic skill to master. Rob Taylor has managed to do just that in The Green Waves – and with Al Purdy relentlessly peering over his shoulder, no less."

—Michael Mirolla, publisher at Guernica Editions and author of The Facility

"I love how these poems tackle the subjects of grief, joy and family in a subtle, sweet-bitter landscape. The collection is an immensely powerful and inventive way to tell a story everyone can relate to."

—Bola Opaleke, author of Skeleton of a Ruined Song

"Throw another log on the woodstove; spring has “hitched back to Toronto.” Driving the country roads of memory and legacy, Taylor address his young son sleeping in his car seat, his father’s ashes, his wife whose arm rests “on the lip of fat above my hip,” and even Purdy himself, thanking him “For ferrying nothing, not one blooming word, with you across its black eye.” Tender and human, these poems allow us to see
the unseen dust that settles on everything."

—Bren Simmers, author of Narratives of the Lost

"“I doubt you’d have liked me. I don’t drink. / I make nice. I stunt my opinions.” Without romanticizing or acquiescing, Rob Taylor’s collection pays tribute to larger-than-life Canadian poetry icon Al Purdy, and the A-Frame Al and Eurithe built on Roblin Lake. By turns moving and quietly humorous, these poems inhabit the A-Frame with a new dailiness of parenting, mice, loss, and attention to place—adding to the legacy of one of the most storied dwellings in Canadian literature."

—Anna Swanson, author of The Nights Also

Much thanks to my blurbers, 845 Press, cover artist Kailee Wakeman, and the Al Purdy A-frame for helping make this chapbook happen.

Copies are $10 and can be purchased here. (Or $4 for a digital download, here).