On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood

Winner of the 3rd Prize for Poetry in the 2017 Alcuin Society’s Book Design Awards

Winner of the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry

Shortlisted for the City of Calgary 2016 W.O. Mitchell Book Prize

Finalist for the Poetry category of the High Plains Book Awards

In his final years, Richard Harrison’s father suffered from a form of dementia, but he died without ever forgetting the poems he had memorized as a student and had taught to Richard as a child. In 2013, the poet feared his father’s ashes had been lost in the flood water that ravaged Alberta?a crisis that would become the inciting event and central theme of this collection. Combining elements of memoir, elegy, lyrical essay and personal correspondence with appreciations of literary works ranging from haiku to comic books, Richard Harrison has written a book of great intellectual depth that is as generous as it is enchanting.

AUTHOR

Richard Harrison

Richard Harrison is the author of 5 books of poetry including Hero of the Play: 10th Anniversary Edition, and Big Breath of a Wish which won the City of Calgary/W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and was a finalist for the Governor-Generals Award for Poetry for 1999. Richards poems have been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. His essays as well as writings on his work have appeared in several academic publications as well as in The Globe and Mail, The Manchester Guardian and The New York Times. Richard lives in Calgary with his wife Lisa and their children, Emma and Keeghan, and he teaches English and Creative Writing at Mount Royal College.

Reviews

“The beauty in this book, what brings it close to being a gem, is the writer?s ability to craft a vision of his inner struggle through personal dilemma that jointly allows the reader to address their own internal inquiry. That vulnerability, that openness, is what makes the poems in this volume ring.” – League of Canadian Poets

“These gentle and compassionate poems are made of interlocking puzzle pieces so meticulously set into place and rendered that the seams become invisible.” – Today’s Book of Poetry

“Harrison has certainly delivered true infant gleamings of awe and sorrow in what is undoubtedly among the most searing poetry collections of 2016.” – Marrow Reviews