Sharon Thesen began her life in poetry early, first publishing in literary journals in the 1960's. She has always been sparing in what she commits to print, not publishing at all for roughly ten years, from the late 60's until the late 70's. Most of that ten year hiatus was spent in a rigorous apprenticeship of transcribing, listening to, thinking about, and editing the work of others, most notably in the preparation of Robin Blaser's monumental book, The Holy Forest (Talonbooks 1993) for the press, and in the editing of Phyllis Webb's Selected Poems: The Vision Tree (Talonbooks, 1982). The publication of her first book of poems, Artemis Hates Romance (Coach House Press, 1980), won Thesen instant critical acclaim and immediately caught the attention of other poets around the world. This initial success was followed by Holding The Pose (Coach House Press 1983); the Governor Generals Award nominees Confabulations: Poems for Malcolm Lowry (Oolichan Books, 1984) and The Beginning of the Long Dash (Coach House Press, 1987); her first selected poems, The Pangs of Sunday (McClelland & Stewart, 1990), and most recently Aurora (Talonbooks, 1995). She has just co-edited, with Ralph Maud, Charles Olson and Frances Boldereff: A Modern Correspondence (Wesleyan University Press, 1998), and her work has been widely anthologized in Canada, the USA and the UK.AKAKNews & Smoke includes selections from all six of her previous books (of which only Aurora remains in print); unpublished poems from the fifteen year period of the late 70's to the mid 90's; as well as some work previously published only in magazines. All of the work is imbued with a spare, meticulous rigor, creating lines of a clear, pale light, punctuated by bursts of intense, flowering, staining colouróodd graces of beauty, in whatever form, that make things real again.

AKAKWinner of a BC 2000 Book AwardAKAKAKAK--------------------------------------------------------------------------------AKAKAKISBN 0-88922-417-X; $16.95 Canada / $12.95 U.S.A.AK©1999; 144 ppAKAKAK--------------------------------------------------------------------------------AKAKGovernor General's Award Nominee, 1984 and 1987AKAKAK--------------------------------------------------------------------------------AKAKAKTo order Talonbooks.