The Porcupine's Quill
Celebrating forty years on the Main Street
of Erin Village, Wellington County
BOOKS IN PRINT
Crossing the Salt Flats by Christopher Wiseman
Crossing the Salt Flats is Christopher Wiseman’s eighth book of poetry. Earlier volumes such as Postcards Home and Remembering Mr. Fox won him awards and spreading recognition. The poems in Crossing the Salt Flats expand on his visual themes -- memories of childhood laced with vivid detail, journeys, the historical past recreated and imagined.
Christopher Wiseman’s poetry moves widely across time and place, searching out delight, horror, sadness, joy, love and loss. In these wonderfully crafted poems we meet a fine array of characters ranging from a disgruntled 18th-century Duchess, the inhabitants of a strange Scottish village, a victim of the Dunblane massacre, a sad saxophone player, even the author as a young child.
This new collection clearly demonstrates Christopher Wiseman’s range and command of form and tone, and reinforces his reputation for accessibility, deep feeling, honesty and compassion. He knows exactly what he is about, and Crossing the Salt Flats is mature and powerful work which puts him squarely among Canada’s finest poets.
Review quote
‘Christopher Wiseman invariably writes poems about basic human experiences, and in this collection, one of his finest, he is especially concerned with his family and ancestors. He emigrated from England as a young man, and his wife has relatives in the United States, so many of these poems involve travel -- but travel to one’s human origins. Because the emphasis is on emotions we all share, however, the poems are never obviously or embarrassingly private; on the contrary, they are readily accessible and make an immediate impact -- though their subtleties may not reveal themselves until they have been reread and fully absorbed.’
—W J Keith, Canadian Book Review Annual
Review quote
‘Christopher Wiseman is a conscientious craftsman and in Crossing the Salt Flats shows himself remarkably adept at handling a variety of traditional forms: rondel, villanelle, sonnet. These formally structured poems are Wiseman’s best.’
—Kenneth Sherman, The Globe and Mail
Unpublished endorsement
‘Christopher Wiseman in a splendidly unhurried poem which pays three years-separated visits to a famous north of England velodrome (the poem unfolds like a Van Eyck triptych, each scene as time-drenched and luminous as the others), writes of ‘‘heavy memory come alive.’’ Crossing the Salt Flats allows us into the rooms and years and richly-laden memories of this distinguished Canadian poet, and if it’s not yet the crown of a long and continuing career, it’s a jewel.’
—Don Coles
Born and educated in Britain, Christopher Wiseman came to Canada in 1969. He taught at the University of Calgary, where he founded the Creative Writing programme, until his retirement in 1997. His poetry, short fiction and critical writings have been published and broadcast extensively in Canada, Britain and the United States. His poetry has won two Province of Alberta Poetry Awards, the Poetry Prize from the Writers Guild of Alberta, the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize and an Alberta Achievement Award for Excellence in the literary Arts. He has served on the Board of the Alberta Foundation for the Literary Arts, as President of the Writers Guild of Alberta, and as editor and poetry editor of both ARIEL and Dandelion. Christopher Wiseman lives in Calgary.
The Porcupine's Quill would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. The financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) is also gratefully acknowledged.
