Alphabet Game ─ A Bpnichol Reader

bpNichol was one of Canada’s most innovative, eclectic, entertaining, and, yes, enigmatic poets, making startling interventions in the development of poetry and profoundly influencing both his own and subsequent generations of writers.

The Alphabet Game: A bpNichol Reader amasses key texts from the very broad spectrum of Nichol’s work, including both classic favorites and more obscure treasures. From the early typewriter poetry of Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer and the lifelong poem The Martyrology to the heart-breaking prose of Journal and the whimsical autobiography of Selected Organs, The Alphabet Game traces the trajectory of this wildly imaginative and prolific poet.

A great and diverse sampling of his work, this Nichol anthology is an ideal introduction for readers encountering Nichol for the first time, and a much-needed compendium for Nichol fans seeking access to works not readily available. ?

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bpNichol (1944–88) is the author of countless publications in a variety of forms, including poery (lyric, concrete, visual, sound), fiction, and children’s stories, and a winner of the Governor General’s Award for Poetry. He also wrote drama for the stage and television scripts, including Fraggle Rock. Nichol was a member of the Toronto Research Group and the Four Horsemen, a sound-poetry performance group. His major work is the nine-volume The Martyrology, widely taught and considered a seminal work in Canadian letters.

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Smaro Kamboureli is the Canada Research Chair in Critical Studies in Canadian Literature at the University of Guelph. She is the editor of the Writer as Critic series and of Making a Difference: Canadian Multicultural Literatures in English, and the author of Scandalous Bodies: Diasporic Literature in English Canada.

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Darren Wershler-Henry is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. His most recent books are apostrophe, with Bill Kennedy, and The Iron Whim: A Fragmented History of Typewriting.