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The Ventriloquist gives us four fearless and seminal works by one of Canada's master poets. A scathing indictment of war and its ravages, it's also a testament to the power of poetic narrative. Gary Geddes is known for his first-person narrative poems and "seamless impersonations." Those figures reaching out from the near or distant past to have their story told include a youth in charge of horses on a doomed and bloody mission to the New World during the Spanish conquest; a so-called "mad bomber" who dies in a washroom of the House of Commons when the dynamite he is carrying explodes; a wily and outrageous Chinese sculptor and his legion of warrior subjects struggling against imperial edicts to conform; and POWs in Hong Kong and Japan in World War II doing their damnedest to survive, a struggle that continued back home in the face of shocking neglect. Geddes finds the phrase that best describes this kind of historical rescue work is "the ventriloquism of history," but jokingly admits that he's never quite sure if he's ventriloquist or dummy. The critics have no doubt about this, however, calling his work "stunning," "wonderful," "breathtaking in its imaginative reach and verbal dexterity." Robert Kroetsch described War & Other Measures as "the kind of poem poets are only supposed to be able to dream ... the sustained calibration is beautiful. I didn't know the long poem could be so taut.... The years of art and craft are in the book." Hong Kong Poems prompted Michael Estok to say in a review in The Fiddlehead: "It is a weighty and worthy and admirable undertaking.... [Geddes's] book of elegies puts him on the same level of poetic intensity (perhaps he even surpasses it) of Milton's 'Lycidas' or Tennyson's In Memoriam." These words of praise are reflected in the awards the books received on first publication: the E.J. Pratt Medal and Prize, Writers Choice Award, National Magazine Gold Award, and Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Americas Region). The Terracotta Army, which won the latter award, was also dramatized and broadcast by CBC and BBC radio.REVIEWS"A powerful indictment of war, showing through narrative power and lyrical intensity the personal cost of armed conflict.... Like [John] McCrae, Geddes speaks for the dead, reclaiming their voices, their stories, and a forgotten part of their lives. And what they have to tell us isn't pretty or patriotic. We are not told to 'take up the quarrel' or grasp the torch of war, but to beware, especially of language. The epigraph to Geddes' collection is a quote by Margaret Atwood: 'War happens when language fails.' If only our world leaders would exchange literature and not missiles, we might be able to avoid the destruction of life, spirit, and dignity that happens in war. Geddes' The Ventriloquist: Poetic Narratives from the Womb of War should be first on their, and our, reading lists." ---Kevin Bushell, The Fiddlehead

The minimalist approach in After the Fire A Still Small Voice heeds the pseudo-proverb, "One picture is worth a thousand words," and the advice, attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, "Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words."Selected quotations are from the authorized King James Bible. The challenge was for the author to write, and then for the artist to sketch, their respective inspirations. The pattern was to select a quotation, compose a meditation, and then ask the artist to create a drawing to add still other voices to the ancient, and yet, contemporary story of human encounter with the divine from beginnings to future hope. The creative interface between the poems and the abstract-expressionist charcoal drawings is devised to complement one another.The astute reader will discern thematic development from ancient Hebrew texts to C.E. accounts of causation, dynamic settings, particularities of time and place, emotional struggle, maturation, and insight hidden in the paradoxical shadow world of the perennial divine mystery. Light and dark are juxtaposed to produce dynamic tension. What is implied is as important as what is explicit. Imaginative projection, connotative values, and non-traditional creative interpretation are keys to expanded transformative understanding.The observant art aficionado will see in the Abstract Expressionist charcoal sketches little of representative reality. Instead, the artist created from swirls, dark specks (voices?), vertical horizontal circular energy, emotive forces, light source, silhouetted figures, womb-like contours, explosions of presence and absence, intensity, the chalice viewed Daliesque from above, disregard for convention, and tendered security in the eternal sway between the earth-bound and the transcendental. ---from the Foreword by the author

Today's turbulent, ever-changing world has made the practice of internal communications more important than ever, as both private and public sector organizations deal with such challenges as global pandemics, remote and hybrid work arrangements, and innovative technologies-including the nascent "metaverse." The result is a new and growing opportunity for public relations practitioners, as the field of internal communications diverges from traditional human resources roles and functionalities.Internal Communications in Canada provides a concise, cutting-edge introduction to the field. Intended for students and junior practitioners, this exciting resource-created by Canadian practitioners for Canadian practitioners-covers a variety of key topics, including:The basics of organizational theoryPublics, cultures, and climates within organizationsBest practices for working in groupsEmployee engagementCommunications models and theoriesInternal communications researchThe importance of privacy considerations in internal communicationsMultigenerational communicationsCrisis communicationsDiversity, equity, and inclusion in internal communicationsCommunications and change managementCommunications within a collective-agreement environmentNew social-media approaches to internal communicationsChapters contributed by PR practitioners David Scholz, Sarah K. Jones, Colleen Killingsworth, William Wray Carney, and Danielle Kelly provide additional layers of insight and analysis. The result is-as Daniel Granger points out in his Foreword-an important addition to the study of public relations in Canada.

In this thought-provoking book, noted cultural scholar D. Paul Schafer makes the case for what he calls the world as culture --- a world in which culture is the central organizing principle of human civilization. For the past two and a half centuries, we have lived in a world in which economics and economic principles reign supreme. Although the world of economics is likely humanity's greatest achievement, Schafer argues that economics and its associated modes of thought is incapable of coming to grips with the enormous problems we face today. Humanity must move toward the world as culture, a world in which cultural modes of knowing and doing play a central role.Schafer considers the various manifestations of culture that have evolved over the centuries, painting a fascinating panorama unique to this book. Those manifestations include culture as cultivation of the soul, which originated with Roman statesman and scholar Marcus Cicero; culture as the arts, the humanities, and the heritage of history; culture in the context of personality development; the anthropological and sociological manifestations of culture; and, most recently, ecological, biological, and cosmological conceptions of culture.Culture's embrace of holism, its attention to the total pattern of human life, and its incorporation of artistic and humanistic modes of thought make it the ideal organizing principle for a brighter and more sustainable future. The author concludes by considering how the world as culture might be brought into existence in the years ahead.

The Caregiver's Companion is a book for people who care for others. It is intended to be a companion, in the sense of a compassionate ally, for those who find themselves, perhaps abruptly, needing to care for others. In November 2012 Patricia Jean Smith's husband Ron suffered a massive attack on his brain. In these pages she describes how her husband's stroke affected her and talks about the critical demands and the marvellous rewards of caring---of exercising and extending care. She also writes about the adventures that otherwise would not have chanced the couple's way had it not been for Ron's stroke. Ultimately she demonstrates that caring for each other, our communities, and the Earth we inhabit, is the most vital work we can do.

The Caregiver's Companion is a book for people who care for others. It is intended to be a companion, in the sense of a compassionate ally, for those who find themselves, perhaps abruptly, needing to care for others. In November 2012 Patricia Jean Smith's husband Ron suffered a massive attack on his brain. In these pages she describes how her husband's stroke affected her and talks about the critical demands and the marvellous rewards of caring---of exercising and extending care. She also writes about the adventures that otherwise would not have chanced the couple's way had it not been for Ron's stroke. Ultimately she demonstrates that caring for each other, our communities, and the Earth we inhabit, is the most vital work we can do.

The Ventriloquist gives us four fearless and seminal works by one of Canada's master poets and is a scathing indictment of war and its ravages. It's also a testament to the power of poetic narrative.Gary Geddes is known for his first-person narrative poems and "seamless impersonations." He sometimes speaks of his poetry as rescue work, a term he attributes to Joseph Conrad, which involves "gathering the vanishing fragments of memory and giving them the permanence of art." For Geddes, however, it's not personal memory, but tribal or collective memory that most demands his attention.Those figures from the past reaching out to be heard in The Ventriloquist include a youth in charge of horses on a doomed and bloody mission to the New World during the Spanish conquest; a so-called 'mad-bomber' who dies in a washroom of the House of Commons when the dynamite he is carrying explodes; a wily and outrageous Chinese sculptor and his legion of warrior subjects struggling against imperial edicts to conform; and POWs in Hong Kong and Japan in World War II doing their damnedest to survive, a struggle that continued back home in the face of shocking neglect.Geddes finds that the phrase "the ventriloquism of history" perfectly describes his poetic process here and in other poems and jokingly admits that he's never quite sure if he's ventriloquist or dummy. His critics, however, have no doubt about his talent for giving voice, and have called his work "stunning," "wonderful," "breathtaking in its imaginative reach and verbal dexterity."Of War & Other Measures Robert Kroetsch wrote, "It's the kind of poem poets are only supposed to be able to dream.... The sustained calibration is beautiful. I didn't know the long poem could be so taut.... The years of art and craft are in the book."Hong Kong Poems prompted Michael Estok to say in a review in Fiddlehead: "It is a weighty and worthy and admirable undertaking.... [Geddes's] book of elegies puts him on the same level of poetic intensity (perhaps he even surpasses it) of Milton's 'Lycidas' or Tennyson's In Memoriam."These words of praise are reflected in the awards the books received: the E.J. Pratt Medal and Prize, Writers Choice Award, the National Magazine Gold Award, and Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Americas Region).

Eleonora Duse spends her whole career producing, directing and acting in the great female roles of the theatrical repertoire. She claims that when she is not on stage, she does not exist. A poet publishes a novel in which an aging actress's only role is to be a young poet's muse. The publication of the novel is a crisis for La Duse as the fictional portrait of a pathetic, clinging female threatens to fill the void and become her personal myth in the public mind. But her greatest fear is that the imagery of the poet's book will alter the way she thinks of herself.Together, this novel and the accompanying journal and notebook comprise the twenty-seventh installment in an ongoing novel-writing project in which the author is exploring the concept of form and meaning in the novel, and of the novel as a form of expression in the 21st century. All of the published journals and notebooks are available for free download at www.johnpassfield.ca.

The poet, performer and author Pauline Johnson was born on the Six Nations Reserve in near Brantford, Ontario in 1861. Her life and work were tied up with questions of identity. Her Mohawk stage name, Tekahionwake, means "double life." Was Johnson American, British, or Canadian? Was she Mohawk, English, or "Mixed"? In the end, Johnson added up her assets and liabilities and decided that the Pauline the world would see would be "Pauline the Performance Artist"-"Pauline on Stage." As for the real Pauline, she would keep that to herself.Pauline Johnson: Know Who I Am is the latest installment in Canadian writer John Passfield's exploration of the concept of form and meaning in the modern novel. It is accompanied by a reflective journal and planning notebook, both available on the author's website. Other novels by Passfield include Terry Fox: Somewhere the Hurting Must Stop and John Passfield: Saturday Morning.

A twenty-one-year-old would-be writer, John Passfield, spends his last few months as a garbage collector on the streets of his home town, St. Thomas, Ontario, in the summer of Canada's Centennial year, 1967. As he works, he captures the imagery of his life so far -- and of his upcoming marriage and pending career as a high school teacher -- to the imagery of the great books he is reading, all while in pursuit of building the perfect load of garbage.

The onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic leads to the cancellation of a renowned quartet's planned performance of Schubert's Quintet in C. But the group continues to practice, in hopes of at least an eventual private performance, and in an effort to draw the musicians closer together and improve their music-making, Boris -- the group's founder and cellist -- asks each of them to keep and share diary entries, from which he'll choose a daily entry as a record of the journey they are making together, and yet apart.So begins Plague Year, the latest novel by Hamilton writer Peter Abbot. Written as a series of diary entries and emails, Plague Year affords an intimate glimpse into the impact of a global pandemic at a personal level. The result is a poignant chronicle of a world-altering event as reflected in miniature in everyday life, written with grace and empathy.A sample from Chapter One ...Friday 3rd April 2020 / JENNYI'm surprised that the newspaper is still being delivered. I must try to thank the newsboy - if I talk to him from this side of the front-door, surely I would be far enough away, but maybe I shouldn't give him a tip - they say that type of physical contact could transmit the virus or whatever it is - but at least I could say Thank You at arm's length, surely? I wonder when he delivers the newspaper? Probably too early for me to get to the front-door, maybe I should pin a thank-you note to the screen-door? But if he stops delivery, I wouldn't really miss it - the CBC News on the radio is enough, more than enough, these days, I think! In fact, there's a lot of things that clutter one's life which, I confess, I wouldn't really miss.But what a shock when I did read the newspaper - I saw the main headline, "We're in a race against time", so then I read, in the end, almost everything there - and as I say, what a shock to see how the whole COVID-19 situation, here in Hamilton, is much much more serious than I knew. That disturbed me all day on and off - I could hardly concentrate on what I was reading - and then on TV in the evening, the news under the screen had this: "80K COVID-19 CASES IN ONT. BY APRIL 30" - and in the American news in the CBC newscast, "Trump orders US Company to stop exporting masks to Canada" - just when it seems wearing a mask - I haven't got one - is likely to become mandatory even in the supermarket. As I say, all a shock to me, and no doubt to many Canadians.And it's a real pity about the Schubert Quintet, I was really looking forward to that - the rehearsals and the three performances - they're such a good Quartet, one of the best, otherwise they wouldn't be in such demand to go on tours in Europe as well as Canada. I was lucky to be invited because they needed an extra cello for the Schubert - which I love! It was Anna who arranged the invitation, I think - she has played Second Violin in the Quartet for quite a few years, and I know that Boris, who started it after he came to Canada with his parents, all those years ago - they were refugees, I think - has said how much he admires her playing, he told me that - I had a sort of interview with him, he's an old man and he did make some strange comments, I thought - Anna said he had been a refugee from I think she said Hungary and came to Canada as a boy or young man, with his parents who had been members of a major orchestra. He has a strong accent! But I had no problem understanding him. He's tough, I think, and of course he has very high standards. I played movements from Bach, the third cello suite, which I have always loved, and he grunted and said I'd "do".

Inspired by nature and religion, Neil Paul and Sheldon H. Clark collaborate in Voices Extended to present this moving and evocative collection of poems. As Alan Bishop of McMaster University writes in his preface, "Both poets express their thoughts and emotions succinctly and memorably. Sheldon Clark's poems are forcefully direct, often focus sharply on religious themes, and frequently use repetition to strengthen emotion. Neil Paul's poems are characteristically quieter and apparently simple, restrained, as they soberly observe and comment on the natural and familial. Brought together in one volume, these two sets of poems complement each other effectively, deepening meaning and strengthening the pleasure they can give to attentive readers." Evocative photographs and line drawings enhance the volume.

A moving collection of poetry designed to inspire contemplation and nourish the soul ..."In Still Voices the sensitive reader will encounter a wide range of place and time-from standing by a pond at dawn before beginning farm work, to hearing the ancient echo of liturgy in a stone abbey. The contemplative reader will find sacred space in the author's interior reading of Psalms. All will know that Sheldon Clark is a person of faith, whose deep engagement with sacred text opens to the voice of Divine Providence, which we, too, are able to hear. This is a beautiful book-there is a black and white image on every page to provide exquisite visual setting for each poem. I heartily endorse Still Voices as poetry to lighten our path." -Rev. F. Gardiner Perry, D. Min. Member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Swedenborgian Studies at the Graduate Theological Union Berkeley, California"Sheldon Clark's volume Still Voices offers a sensitive articulation for such a time as this. His meditative style is rooted in ancient scripture but offers a comforting wisdom that our generation needs to hear. In his poetry Clark awakens our senses to inhabit the subtle movements of nature. Honest to the rhythms of life this volume arouses the wisdom of a contemporary sage who, in his poetry, guides us on the spiritual paths of grace. Reading the poems in this volume evokes the joy and sorrow, the triumphs and tragedies of life. Readers will find it to be spiritually uplifting as they connect with the expression of an interior vision of life with God. I am so pleased to have gained the acquaintance of the author and to celebrate the publication of this book of poetry. I hope others will find its refreshment and spiritual nurture in the way that I did." -Phil C. Zylla, D.Th., Vice President, Academic, Professor of Pastoral Theology, J. Gordon and Margaret Warnock Jones Chair in Church and Ministry, McMaster Divinity College

"Earth continues to travel in a slightly elliptical orbit around the sun, but some years ago the world started veering to the right."So observes Robert Brym in his introduction to this fifth volume of the proceedings of the S.D. Clark Symposium on the Future of Canadian Society. The aim of the collection is to examine anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism in Canada today, particularly in the context of the rise of right-wing populist movements in Canada and around the world. Abdolmohammad Kazemipur, Akwasi Owusu-Bempah and Carl E. James, Morton Weinfeld, Neda Maghbouleh, and Brym himself draw on the latest research to examine the patterns of prejudice and discrimination that continue to persist in Canadian society. Racism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism and the Future of Canadian Society gathers together the revised proceedings of the fifth S.D. Clark Symposium on the Future of Canadian Society. The Symposium, hosted by the Department of Sociology of the University of Toronto, honours the memory of S.D. Clark, the department's first chair and one of Canada's leading sociologists of the twentieth century.