The Fly in Autumn

by David Zieroth

tagged: canadian

Description

Selected for Poetry in Transit 2009

The Fly in Autumn is a nuanced work with an absurdist twist in which recognizable landscapes--of North Vancouver quays and piers and harbour fog--are sometimes irrevocably altered by "water-light" into places of the mind alive with "the hundred thousand thoughts everyone collects in a day." Risking unease, using language both tender and ironic, Zieroth's poems range from the cockiness of flight, from Dick and Jane readers to insurance clerks and blind nurses, and to the inevitability of decline. Still, the poet remains alert to the re-emergence of "his boyhood hope: to be brave, to ship out, to learn to sleep on waves."

About the Author

David Zieroth was born in Neepawa, MB, in 1946. His 2009 collection The Fly in Autumn won the Governor General’s Literary Award. Zieroth also won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for How I Joined Humanity at Last (1998). Other publications include the trick of staying and leaving (2023), the bridge from day to night (2018), Albrecht Dürer and me (2014), The Village of Sliding Time (2006), the speculative-fiction work Zoo and Crowbar (2015) and the memoir The Education of Mr. Whippoorwill: A Country Boyhood (2002). His poems have been included in the Best Canadian Poetry series and shortlisted for National Magazine and ReLit awards. He lives in North Vancouver, BC, where he runs The Alfred Gustav Press and produces handmade poetry chapbooks.

Age:: 16
Grade:: 11

Awards

Short-listed, Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (BC Book Prize)
Short-listed, Acorn-Plantos Award for People's Poetry
Winner, Governor General's Award for Poetry

About BC Books Online

The Fly in Autumn

by David Zieroth

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