The Porcupine's Quill

In Artful Flight, Susan Glickman dives into poetry and prose, music and visual art, in an effort to find the joy in creative work not as a path to the truth but as an end in itself.

The essays in Margin of Interest showcase the rich history of poetry in the Canadian Maritimes, recognizing the drawbacks of regional frameworks while finding power and beauty in the literary traditions of writers who exist on the margins of Canadian poetry and culture.

The essays in Ordinary Paradise muse on what it means to be engaged with literature, music, film and the visual arts, and celebrate the extraordinary power that creative accomplishment can have on our daily lives.

Michael Lista bravely takes on the inherently contradictory nature of artistic expression and tackles the moral and artistic implications of boob tube blockbusters, all while attempting to answer the age-old question: Why does poetry suck?

‘Heer has a plenty of charm in his way of talking his way around those [authors in the collection]. He has the quality that every good host has; he speaks with intelligence, yet never weighs his subjects down with bloviating.... I suspect you’ll find that his enthusiasm, like that of any good party host, is completely infectious.’

—Michelle Dean, National Post

‘Jason Guriel's The Pigheaded Soul immediately vaults him into the first rank of poetry critics. He manages, in nearly every sentence, to seem amiable, incorruptible and incisive. His survey of Canadian poetry is without rival; his views on American poetry are utterly fresh. I will be consulting this book for a very, very long time into the future.’

—Dan Chiasson

‘Thoroughly researched and annotated, the book provides even the uninitiated with all the information and context required to arrive at an admiration of the full reach of Reaney's creative endeavors.’

—Barbara Bamberger Scott, Foreword Reviews

‘You Are Here: Essays on the Art of Poetry in Canada is an elegant salvo in the ongoing guerilla war against Canada's complacent (and sometimes incompetent) poetry culture. Erudite but always accessible, Pollock is a critic who belongs to the best kind of old school: the sort whose members write clearly, can teach you a thing or two and have the nerve to have an opinion.’

—Jason Guriel, author of Pure Product

‘A poet by trade, Ormsby's writing is sure to draw readers in, and his stories and discussions will resonate with any, critic and non-critic alike. Fine Incisions is a strong addition to any literary criticism collection, enthusiastically recommended.’

—Mary Cowper, Midwest Book Review

‘This is a diverse set of essays, most of them previously published, which may be read individually as commentaries ... or together as a manifesto on modern Canadian criticism and literature. Either way, the reading is a salutary experience.... ’

—R. G. Moyles, Canadian Book Review Annual

‘Canadian Literature in English ... is both canon and myth. Canon because it is a principled selection and discussion of key works Keith sees as establishing a national tradition, and myth because it provides a survey of the history and development of Canadian literature that has a particular shape.’

—Alex Good, Toronto Star

‘Carmine Starnino is one of the most important writers and readers of poetry in the contemporary English-speaking world. America has no one like him. It may be, for reasons of culture, history, and perhaps even geography, that only Canada could have produced him at this juncture. In any case, his talent, idealism, and ambition make his work exciting, and I would say necessary, reading. Unless, that is, we want to be hopelessly provincial.’

—Bill Coyle, Contemporary Poetry Review

‘Few critics match the moral urgency of David Solway, whose poetry reviews constitute an anti-canon set against the literati's assessment of its own merits.... Solway's praise, by contrast is refreshingly nuanced: he wants to restore to readers poems “that are so verbally rich and juicy, they are like peaches you have to take your shirt off to eat.” Director's Cut might be read as the tree where these forbidden fruits await the plucking—with all the sudden self-knowledge that implies.’

—Quill & Quire

‘Writers Talking is very much a book that is alive, one that will certainly make readers want to read more (especially by these eight writers), and read more carefully; it will also make writers want to write more—and, again, more carefully. Each of these stories dazzles with a quiet, meticulous brilliance, a brilliance that comes from a sustained, holy belief in getting the words right.’

—Melanie Little, The Globe and Mail

‘It's the liveliest, most cogently argued, most provocative and most infuriatingly self-satisfied work of literary criticism to be published in this country in at least the last decade. Consequently, it's a must-read for anyone with even the slightest interest in either the literature or the culture of Canada—professional and general reader alike.’

—Robert Reid, Kitchener-Waterloo Record

‘It's admirable criticism and scholarship, ... but with the added dimensions of a poet's working knowledge, of fluent multilingual abilities, and a determined search for the almost sacramental autonomy of word and form. It's a heady brew.’

—Chris Wiseman, Books in Canada

‘Over the last decade, The Porcupine's Quill has developed a minor specialty in publishing cantankerous books that challenge the complacency of Canadian literary commentary.... Now comes T.F. Rigelhof's This Is Our Writing, which asks the bracing and necessary question: What is truly good in Canadian fiction and what is merely trendy and popular?’

—Jeet Heer, The National Post

‘In Philip Marchand's hands, Ripostes is a book of necessary answers to the Professor Panglosses of Canadian letters. You know, the ones who ejaculate “Atwood” and “Ondaatje” as answers to any suggestion that things aren't just fine and dandy in CanLitLand—the best of all possible post-colonial, post-patriarchal, post-modern book worlds. Ripostes is going to aggravate, annoy, gall, irk, miff, peeve, rankle, vex and just generally bug quite a few people. It thoroughly delights me.’

—Toronto Star

‘The study of English literature (and, by forced alliance, Canadian literature) is beset by “isms”. Critical obfuscation is rampant. And the secondary text, not the primary, is now idolized. But here and there a reactionary voice is heard, and none more powerful and insistent than that of Keith, whose stance, though independent, is thankfully not unique.’

—R.G. Moyles, Canadian Book Review Annual