Rogue Stimulus

Edited by: Stuart Ross, Stephen Brockwell

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament (for the second time in a year!) on December 30, 2009, he punted many vital bills into oblivion. But he also inspired hundreds of poems after Mansfield Press announced this government-toppling anthology. This book gathers a range of responsesÑfrom outrage to slapstickÑby acclaimed poets (including Canada’s first Parliamentary Poet Laureate and several winners of the Governor General’s Award for Poetry), previously unpublished poets and, to paraphrase Stephen Harper, ordinary working Canadians.

AUTHOR

Stuart Ross

Stuart Ross is a writer, editor, and writing teacher living in Cobourg, Ontario. He is the acclaimed author of 20 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. His recent books include Our Days in Vaudeville (Mansfield Press, 2014), A Hamburger in a Gallery (DC Books, 2015), Further Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer (Anvil Press, 2015), and A Sparrow Came Down Resplendent (Wolsak and Wynn, 2016). He was shortlisted for the 2000 Trillium Book Award, won the 2010 ReLit Prize for Short Fiction for Buying Cigarettes for the Dog (Freehand Books, 2009), and his novel Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew (ECW Press, 2011) was co-winner of the 2012 Mona Elaine Adilman Award.

AUTHOR

Stephen Brockwell

Stephen Brockwell spent the first half of his life in Montreal, and the second half in Ottawa. Where he will spend the third half is uncertain. His poetry collections include The Wire in Fences, The Cometology, and Fruitfly Geographic, which won the Archibald Lampman Award.

Reviews

Psalm-like and surreal, diverse and surprising, Something Burned Along the Southern Border maps a seldom-recorded region of Canada, the joint of WindsorÐDetroit, and beyond. Like a scent, this poetry tugs, pulls open our memories. It smells like pancake houses, maple, diesel, tobacco, blood, and forest brush.Ó (Emily Schultz, author of Songs for the Dancing Chicken and Heaven Is Small)