All Books

A pink bathrobe turns into a kingfisher; a kitchen floor displays the stigmata of an oncoming storm; a Stone Age axe-head surfaces in France for someone from Newfoundland to stumble over; the covers of a book vibrate through broken intimacy. Here, friendship has the power to transform; love, to disembody. In a series of radical translations of the Earl of Surrey’s sixteenth-century sonnets, a garden of plastic delights uproots the pastoral scene; a gallant compliment on social pedigree translates as salacious appreciation for a chef’s handling of a ripe tomato. The poems of Volta turn place and time over on themselves, examining how we make what we call home, and what it is to be in relation: to people, to place, to history. A shape-shifting speaker rejects the idea of a singular self, and invites the reader to join a quest for that hypothetical meeting-place where community beckons but is never reached.

Poems of great passion and tenderness, as close to rapture as a writer can get and still hold on.

E. Alex Pierce’s voice can be heard echoing down the long corridors of memory and myth. It’s not that these poems live in the past; instead, they manage to bring it back to life with uncanny sensual details and an urgency that makes you realize some fires never really go out. The book’s scope is wide: beautifully crafted family reminiscences; Bach and Beethoven; Raphael and Goltzius; Shakespeare; the Greek Myths and the fate of the Romanovs. Vox Humana is all lilt and discipline in its courtliness, its surrender to the theatre of the moment at its most alive.

‘Vs.’ is a collection of poems chronicling the author’s foray into the world of amateur boxing. A shy, bookish woman you’d never expect could hit someone in the face, Ryan was soon hooked on the physical and mental challenge of the sport, as well as the camaraderie of the club’s members and volunteers. When the club announced an upcoming white collar fight-an opportunity for novices to participate in an actual bout-she nervously decided to test her mettle. The writing of these poems became a way to process what she was learning in the ring as well as a method of exploration around her decision to participate in the fight. The poems explore her reasons for taking on the challenge, the way the sport changed her perceptions of herself and her capabilities, and how her relationship with her husband factored into the adventure. ‘Vs.’ is part instruction manual, part rationalization. Throughout the collection the author reflects on what it means to be a woman and a fighter, as wellas a poet and a fighter. But, ultimately, ‘Vs.’ is about the fights we all face: brain vs. body, intention vs. action, perceptions vs. identity, and who we are vs. who we want to be.

“The poems in Kerry Ryan’s ‘Vs.’ come at you like quick jabs of light – the writing is taut, worked over, sinewy, spare, and lean – but never mean. A delightful collection. What else can be said? These poems pack a punch.” – Jeanette Lynes, Author, ‘The New Blue Distance’

“Muhammad Ali, keep your guard up. You’re being measured by a better boxing poet. Kerry Ryan has the clarity of vision that comes with a boxer’s discipline and daring, the grace of a true poet’s music of body and mind made one.” – Robert Kroetsch, Author, ‘Too Bad: Sketches Toward a Self-Portrait’

Winner of the Acorn-Plantos Award