Robert Kroetsch

These essays span the period of Kroetsch’s writing. Included are previously published and new essays that cover (some of) his novels, (some of) his poetry, and even (some of) his critical writing. The contributors include writers who knew Kroetsch well and those who only met him on the page; critics at the beginning of their careers and those well established in the Canadian literary field; men and women, writers and poets and critics and damn fine thinkers. The contributors featured are: Robert Archambeau, Catherine Bates, George Bowering, Jenna Butler, Pauline Butling, Dennis Cooley, Tom Dilworth, Nathan Dueck, Jasmine Elliott, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Jon R. Flieger, Jay Gamble, Gary Geddes, Susan Holbrook, Christine Jackman, Brian Jensen, Wiktor Kulinski, Michael Laverty, John Lent, Ann Mandel, Nicole Markotić, John Matias, Roy Miki, John Moss, Brianne O’Grady, Jeff Pardy, and Aritha van Herk.

AUTHOR

Nicole Markotic

Nicole Markotić is a fiction writer and poet who has published two novels and two books of poetry. Her first novel, Yellow Pages: a Catalogue of Intentions, was a prose narrative about Alexander Graham Bell. She has also published two books of poetry, Connect the Dots and Minotaurs & Other Alphabets and a chapbook, more excess, which won the bpNichol Poetry Chapbook Award. A former resident of Calgary, she now teaches English Literature and creative writing at the University of Windsor. Dr. Markotić specializes in the subjects of Canadian Literature, Poetry, Children’s Literature, Disability in Film and Disability in Literature and she wrote a critical book on disability in film. She is also the Managing Editor of the chapbook series, Wrinkle Press.

Reviews

Markotić’s inclusion of biography, interviews, and poetic responses in addition to a series of compelling scholarly essays ultimately provides Essays with its unmistakably documentary feel. It surprises a reader with lyrical scholarly prose (“Tradition is not automatically bad and getting lost is not automatically good.”); with risky linguistic gestures protected by their status as academic sass (“Robert Kroetsch is a liar. Or so he’d like us to believe.”); and with scholarly citations legitimating scandalous explorations of deeply personal responses and musings (“As a serialist fondler, of words and objects, his was a citrus mind”).