Kingston Launch: On High

Novel Idea Bookstore, 156 Princess Street, Kingston, ON
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Join Neil Surkan for the Kingston launch and reading of his new collection of poetry, On High. Neil will join fellow poets Abena Beloved Green and Jason Heroux.

ABOUT THE BOOK

On High, Neil Surkan's debut collection of poetry, searches for spirits in myriad places. Wondering how, why, and when to act with a conscience, speakers try out steep hikes, strong drugs, and earnest meditations as they attempt to make meaning in a divided and distracting world. Reaching for the sprigs of our shared humanity, Surkan's poems offer courage and compassion in violent times. As the speaker in "The Branch Breaker" muses, "sarcasm won't dissolve our enemies." On High is a book for the contemporary moment.

Neil Surkan has published poems in numerous Canadian magazines and is the author of the chapbook Super, Natural. He lives in Calgary.

"On High is at once meticulous and defiant. Neil Surkan orders the world and then trashes those hermeneutics, championing all that is fierce yet "pinned to the earth." The poet's voice is textured, lively, wry as each poem frankly offers "a wall of open doors" for us to bravely walk through." Adèle Barclay, author of If I Were in a Cage I'd Reach Out for You

"These poems ping between two poles: that of the taut, directed, chimed, intensity of Richard Hugo, and the Seamus Heaney-like precision of a measured, landscape-rooted vocabulary. On High makes a deadly serious grab at trying to say something about what it is to live on a corner of the earth right now and yet it does not lose its playfulness, encouraging us to "…think less/ of your destination, more on where/ you're bound to go."" Shane Book, author of Congotronic