Learning to Love a River

Learning to Love a River

Poetry

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About the book

Navigating through tragedy with sincere inquiry, Learning to Love a River explores unlikely existences in and of Thunder Bay, a small northern Ontario city which is rife with stereotype and misconception. With its insider’s perspective, this collection offers a sympathetic but frank accounting for these misconceptions, challenging facile assumptions about race and class. Deep down, the poems are asking important epistemological and ontological questions. But, they are also reminding us to try and move forward with a light heart, while looking for the best in others.

About the author

Minor, Michael

Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Michael Minor is a settler scholar teaching and studying decolonization through Indigenous literature. He teaches academic writing at the University of Manitoba in the Inner City Social Work Program and graduated with a PhD in English Literature from the University of Manitoba in 2016. Before his time at the University of Manitoba, he completed an undergraduate degree at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario and a Master of Arts at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s. In addition to teaching and academic writing, he writes reviews for CV2 and the Winnipeg Review. Some of his poetry has been previously published in the Antigonish Review and CV2. Learning to Love a River is his first book of poetry. He was once a runner, and has good intentions of putting in enough long runs to claim that title once again. He is also a songwriter, living in Winnipeg with his partner and their child.

Excerpt

from TEASPOON

The game is called spoons
and the white boys from the university
drive around with teaspoons
in their cup holders just in case
but in a pinch, they’ll use anything at hand:
water bottles
fast-food leftovers
trailer hitches
If you hit her you win
but if you miss, you have to get out
retrieve your spoon.

Reviews

Tough Pastoralism
Poetry collection explores Thunder Bay, Lake Superior
Although he now lives in Winnipeg, Michael Minor was born in Thunder Bay, on the north side of Lake Superior, Canada’s Gateway to the West. He dedicated his new,… >>

— Quentin Mills-Fenn Prairie Books NOW


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