Don McKay

Over the past thirty years, Don McKay has created one of the most original bodies of work in contemporary English language poetry. From the early collections Air Occupies Space and Lightning Ball Bait to the recent books Apparatus and Another Gravity, McKay has combined a curious, patient eye with an acute, arresting ear. His poetry overflows with details of ornithology, botany, weather, industry, books, and music. Geographically it ranges from southwestern Ontario to the St. John River valley to the seascapes of Vancouver Island. It blends nuanced description and complex metaphor, philosophical phrasing and folksy idiom, madcap humour and elegy. The contributors are Stan Dragland, Robert Bringhurst, John Oughton, Louis MacKendrick, Christopher Levenson, Don Coles, Sue Sinclair, Barbara Colebrook Peace, Margo Wheaton, Kevin Bushell, Susan Elmslie, Ross Leckie, Ken Babstock, and Brian Bartlett.