The Book of Grief and Hamburgers

By (author): Stuart Ross

Sales and Market Bullets

  • Ross is a well-known and acclaimed author of 20 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. Ross has won the Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contributions to Canadian literature; other prizes include the ReLit Award for Shoft Fiction, the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, and the Mona Elaine Adilman Award for Fiction on a Jewish Theme.
  • The celebrated surrealist poet’s most direct and accessible meditation on what it means to be human to date.

Audience

  • Readers of To The River and Moments of Glad Grace
  • Chapbook buyers and collectors
  • Canadian poetry fans
  • Readers of The West End Phoenixand similar
  • CanLit enthusiasts
  • Fans of Ross’s work
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.

Reviews

The Book of Grief and Hamburgers is an ode and celebration of friendships, family, and the footprints that they affectionately leave.” — Excalibur
“Ross is a generous writer; he wants this ease for others, even if his own nature has a tendency toward melancholy. He would rather avoid the whimpers: If you want to cry, then cry. If you want to rage, climb to the top of the highest building and howl at the moon. When it comes to his own pain, he calls his deflections cowardice. But a more forgiving term would be ‘human.’ A burger might be a means of avoidance, but it is also a reminder, a treat, a touch of levity in what can be a cruel and trying existence. Grab a chair. Order up.” — Literary Review of Canada
“A series of bereavements (including that of a close friend and his brother) prompts the Canadian poet to muse on mortality with lyricism and irreverence in this conversational, and often darkly humorous, book-length essay, about a man who has a hard time engaging with grief.” — Zoomer Magazine
“It’s the kind of book you can pick up and revisit — and I already have — rereading a passage here and there. It’s moving, elegiac, and deeply sad, but it’s also a comfort.” — Bloggy Come Lately
“The humour and courageous honesty of The Book of Grief and Hamburgers offers relief to any of us who have struggled with despair during the pandemic and the exponential growth of grief as we age.” — Northumberland Festival of the Arts
The Book of Grief and Hamburgers is the best thing since brioche buns … I hope Stuart Ross’s Book of Grief and Hamburgers has touched as many readers as deeply as it did me, and if you haven’t read it yet, I very much hope you get the chance to, too.” — periodicities : a journal of poetry and poetics

Awards

  • Trillium Book Award 2023, Winner
  • Excerpts & Samples ×

    Winner of the 2023 Trillium Book Award

    A poignant meditation on mortality from a beloved Canadian poet

    A writer friend once pointed out that whenever Stuart Ross got close to something heavy and “real” in a poem, a hamburger would inevitably appear for comic relief. In this hybrid essay/memoir/poetic meditation, Ross shoves aside the heaping plate of burgers to wrestle with what it means to grieve the people one loves and what it means to go on living in the face of an enormous accumulation of loss. Written during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, shortly after the sudden death of his brother left him the last living member of his family and as a catastrophic diagnosis meant anticipating the death of his closest friend, this meditation on mortality — a kind of literary shiva — is Ross’s most personal book to date. More than a catalogue of losses, The Book of Grief and Hamburgers is a moving act of resistance against self-annihilation and a desperate attempt to embrace all that was good in his relationships with those most dear to him.

    Sales and Market Bullets

    • Ross is a well-known and acclaimed author of 20 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. Ross has won the Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contributions to Canadian literature; other prizes include the ReLit Award for Shoft Fiction, the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, and the Mona Elaine Adilman Award for Fiction on a Jewish Theme.
    • The celebrated surrealist poet’s most direct and accessible meditation on what it means to be human to date.

    Audience

    • Readers of To The River and Moments of Glad Grace
    • Chapbook buyers and collectors
    • Canadian poetry fans
    • Readers of The West End Phoenixand similar
    • CanLit enthusiasts
    • Fans of Ross’s work

    Reader Reviews

    Accessibility Detail

    Print-equivalent page numbering
    Short alternative textual descriptions
    Table of contents navigation
    Language tagging provided
    Publisher contact for further accessibility information
    ascsofficer@ecwpress.com
    EPUB Accessibility Specification 1.0 AA
    Single logical reading order

    Details

    Dimensions:

    152 Pages
    8in * 5in * 0.3599in
    0.4lb

    Published:

    April 05, 2022

    City of Publication:

    Toronto

    Country of Publication:

    CA

    Publisher:

    ECW Press

    ISBN:

    9781770416567

    Featured In:

    Globe Top 100 – 2022

    Language:

    eng

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