I’ve been meaning to write about this title for quite some time now. I have been a fan of Frog Hollow Press for several years. They are without a doubt one of the best chapbook publishers in the country, both in terms of editorial quality and design. Editorially credit goes to Shane Neilson, frequent CNQ contributor, poet, critic and editor, who has over the last four or five years done a wonderful job assembling a lineup of some of the best young and established writers in the country, including, in no particular order, A. F. Moritz, Alexander MacLeod, Sharon McCartney, Wayne Clifford, Steven Heighton, and Mark Callanan, among many others. Forthcoming titles include work by Rebecca Rosenblum and Goran Simic. Whether publishing poetry, fiction, or criticism, there have been few Frog Hollow titles not worth reading, and I happily own almost all of them.
The feel of a Frog Hollow production, however, is entirely Caryl Peters. Her chapbooks, broadsides and trade books, whether produced, as almost all of the earlier books were, exclusively via letterpress, or with more modern technologies, are works of art: beautifully typeset, designed, illustrated; sometimes hand coloured; often hand stitched or sewn. Printed on excellent text papers, cover papers, many of the later editions available in both wrappers and even more limited cloth-backed editions. And sold, for anyone with a sense of the work that goes into the production of these books, for a song.
Mark Callanan’s Sea Legend is no exception. 32 pp. wrap-around jacket, hand-sewn with silk thread into a inner cover of Indian cotton, with an illustrated colour title page, with three colour illustrations internally, it is gorgeous, a production I have admired as it has sat on my desk for weeks now. I’ve not, however, had a chance to read it until this afternoon.
Two of these poems first appeared in CNQ, so might be familiar to readers of this blog. Though there is much of the sea, as one would expect in a book with this title, and by a Newfoundalnd-based poet, here, the strongest poems are more tied to the land: I’m thinking of The Meaning of Life, Medieval Woodcut, Snowman, Rain Stick. Take the last stanze from Woodcut:
The wolf, as always, is just doing a job.
No hard feelings. No guilt rides her back
on the return journey to the den, her cubs
growling as they nip each other’s skin.
Hunger can only be staved off for so long.
Meat has no name when the spirit is gone.
To check out this and other Frog Hollow Press offerings, please go here.
Tags: Caryl Peters, chapbooks, Frog Hollow Press, Mark Callanan, Poetry, Shane Neilson