The Ottawa City Project

Working in the tradition of such previous poetry collections as Daphne Marlatt’s Vancouver Poems (1972), George Bowering’s Kerrisdale Elegies (1986), Joe Blades’ River Suite (1998) and, closer to home, William Hawkins’ own Ottawa Poems (1966), rob mclennan’s thirteenth trade poetry collection The Ottawa City Project reads like a love song to a city caught between competing identities of local and national. The poems in this collection work to not only reflect the more conservative, even bureaucratic aspects of the city, but the myths of the city, and work through references and concerns that go completely against those myths, into their own stories, and into the realities of the city itself.

AUTHOR

Rob McLennan

rob mclennan is a poet, essayist, editor, reviewer, and blogger based in Ottawa. He has been published by many of Canada’s most prestigious publishers and he runs above/ground press, periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics. He is also the editor of my (small press) writing day, and an editor/managing editor of many gendered mothers. His writing is grounded using language in fresh ways to discover, clarify, and understand the world and his surroundings. He does “not wish to remain still.” mclennan is the author of more than thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, as well as over one hundred chapbooks of poetry and fiction. He has been twice long-listed for the CBC Poetry Prize, and was awarded Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award and the John Newlove Poetry Award.