Winner of the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book
Lori Cayer’s poems perform a kind of surgery, exposing the blind, interior terrain of the human body, navigating its hidden “forests and silt deposits,” and peeling back the layers of family life until we can see the “glistening knot of bone” beneath. These poems are about risk-takers: a daring boy who climbs the high roof of a church, a young woman who discovers the strength of her desire in a drop of poison mercury, a lover who makes a difficult choice about her sexuality, a daughter who must learn to forgive. The collection culminates in an edgy, powerful sequence about a mother who must let go of her son to let him live his dangerous life on his own dangerous terms. These poems capture the raw essence of physical being, as Cayer explores her themes through the beauty of the body, its hunger, its power, and its terrible vulnerability.
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“The laughs come fast and furiously and often. You don’t have to live in the country to relate to this delightful comedy, which reminds us that all is not bliss when thoughts turn to tying the knot.” —Dennis Cooley
About the Author
Lori Cayer has made Winnipeg her home for most of her life. She is the author of five volumes of poetry: Searching for Signal, Mrs Romanov, Dopamine Blunder, Attenuations of Force, and Stealing Mercury, which won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book in Manitoba in 2004. In 2005 Lori won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. She is co-founder of the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie, part of the Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards. Cayer was a member of the editorial collective of CV2 for many years and has served as chair of the Manitoba Writers’ Guild.
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