StiltJack Format: Paperback

The much-loved, yet undervalued, final book of poems by British-Canadian poet John Thompson, is reissued in a handsome edition, featuring a new introduction by Rob Winger.

Originally published in 1978, Stilt Jack is a series of powerful soliloquies on the complexity of love and the process of living. These are made immediate through Thompson’s command of metaphor, his eye for the New Brunswick landscape, his intense, often elliptical way of transfiguring everyday things into shorthand symbols of reality. This remarkable sequence of poems is based on the ghazal, an ancient Persian poetic form which is discussed in Thompson’s introduction to the original edition of the book.

These poems more than fulfill the promise of Thompson’s first collection, At the Edge of the Chopping There Are No Secrets. Stilt Jack is the last testament of a major poet at the pinnacle of his craft.

JOHN THOMPSON (1938–76) was one of the most acclaimed Canadian poets of the twentieth century. Born and raised in England, he received a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Michigan State University before moving to Canada to teach at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. His first collection, At the Edge of the Chopping There Are No Secrets, was published in 1973, and his second, Stilt Jack, appeared posthumously in 1978.

ROB WINGER is the author of three poetry collections: Muybridge’s Horse, which was a Globe and Mail Best Book, the winner of the CBC Literary Prize, and a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Ottawa Book Award, and the Trillium Book Award for Poetry; The Chimney Stone; and Old Hat. Born and raised in Ontario, Rob currently lives in the hills northeast of Toronto, where he teaches at Trent University.