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News & Smoke includes selections from all six of Thesen’s previous books (of which only Aurora remains in print); unpublished poems from the fifteen year period of the late 70s to the mid 90s; as well as some work previously published only in magazines. All of the work is imbued with a spare, meticulous rigour, creating lines of a clear, pale light, punctuated by bursts of intense, flowering, staining colour-“odd graces of beauty, in whatever form, that make things real again.”
Sharon Thesen
Sharon Thesen was born in Tisdale, Saskatchewan in 1946. She moved to the British Columbia Interior in 1952 and lived in Prince George and Kamloops before settling in Vancouver in 1966. She is the author of several books of poetry and the former editor of the Capilano Review. She currently teaches English at Capilano College in North Vancouver and writes reviews for the Vancouver Sun.
“A compact and beautifully designed collection, nicely fleshed out with a broad selection of poems previously published only in journals and periodicals, not to mention its tantalizing sampling of new fare. Many will discover plenty to admire in News and Smoke. “
— Toronto Star