Read This, Then That: The Poetry of Science

Read This, Then That features literary pairings for the voracious reader. As big readers ourselves we know you always want your next book picked out before you finish your current one, so let us help you out with a two-fer recommendation.Read this: Everyone is C02 by David James Brock (Wolsak and Wynn Publishers Ltd.)Then that: Astatine by Michael Kenyon (Brick Books)David James Brock brings his experience as a dramatist to his poetry — using succinct narrative and a lyrical style to surprising subject matters that run the gamut of high and low brow, from the epic of Gilgamesh to pop culture. A debut collection, David James Brock’s poems have been called “An expert combination of smart, snappy phrasing and interesting, offbeat subject matter…” and “… whipsmart stuff from start to end.  Reading Brock is bit like a carnival you never expected to attend but enjoy thoroughly.” Astatine by Michael Kenyon, marks Kenyon’s fourth book of poetry — Kenyon is the author of The Sutler(Brick Books) and The Last House (Brick Books), though he is also known as a fiction writer. Kenyon’s work has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Smith Books/Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Baxter Hathaway Prize in fiction, The Malahat Review Novella Prize, PRISM international’s fiction contest, the Journey Prize, the National and the Western Magazine Awards.In his latest collection, a woman named Astatine, named after a radioactive element whose isotopes endure half-lives of mere seconds, haunts the poet, much like Dante’s Beatrice. Like Brock’s Everyone is C02, Kenyon uses parts of the earth and the ideas behind scientific elements to weave rumination on the nature of life. By using surprising subject matter, both collections have keen emotional depth and insight through unexpected and lyrical styles. Get in touch with yourself, the earth, and the fabric of our society through both of these surprising and insightful poetry collections that importantly incorporate science as a foundation of understanding our own humanity.