A Good Time Had by All

Overview

Brimming with quirky characters and uncommon insights, this collection of poems introduces a Karaoke King who almost blows his one shot at true love; a misanthrope who loses his only friend; and a young girl who recites an ode to “Dirty Donnie,” the name she has given her constant companion: a cigarette. Accessible and open, jaunty and energetic, these poems pay homage to everyday experiences and poetic tradition—with monologues that rub shoulders with aubades and odes and incantatory rhyme throughout.

Reviews

A Good Time Had by All: "These poems keenly observe the serrated edge of urban life. They have a clarity, a pitiless compassion." –Dionne Brand, author of No Language is Neutral, Inventory and What We All Long For (McLelland & Stewart) Strimas is the editor of The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwen (Exile Editions, 2008), a Globe & Mail Top 100 Books of the Year selection in 2008. Junkman's Daughter (Strimas' first collection of poetry, Exile Editions, 2004) - "A loving cartographer of the "everyday"; Strimas has a heart-breakig devotion to the overlooked, the forgotten, the precious meanings of those whose dramas don't make it to the public light. A poet of precise compassion, she brings a craft that is arresting in its forms and range. Rarely have a seen such a keen "know how" of what poems should do on the page, with complexity and heart. An expert debut." –Pier Giorgio Di Cicco

Author Biography

Meaghan Strimas is a staff member at Quill & Quire magazine and a teacher at the creative writing MFA program at the University of Guelph. She is the author of Junkman’s Daughter and the editor of The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwen. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.