Jason Camlot

Language Acts: Anglo-Qubec Poetry 1976 to the 21st Century Jason Camlot

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Publisher Marketing: Language Acts brings together twenty provocative essays on the state of English-language poetry in Qubec since 1976. Born and raised during this historically resonant period of Trudeauism, organized Qubecois nationalism, language legislation, and profound demographic and cultural change, Anglo-Qubec poetry has come of age in the 21st century as a literature with its own distinct arguments about itself, and its own poetical acts in language. Language Acts features essays on many important, even canonical, figures such as Robert Allen, Anne Carson, Leonard Cohen, Louis Dudek, D. G. Jones, Irving Layton, Michael Harris, Erin Mour, David McGimpsey, Robyn Sarah, and Peter Van Toorn, and on a wide range of poetry activities including those of the Vhicule Poets and the Montreal Spoken Word scene. This is the first critical collection of its kind to appear in over forty years and will set the terms used to discuss English language poetry in Qubec for years to come. Contributor Bio:  Camlot, Jason Jason Camlot is the author of three previous collections of poetry, The Debaucher (Insomniac Press, 2008), Attention All Typewriters (DC Books, 2005), and The Animal Library (DC Books, 2001). He co-edited the essay anthology Language Acts (Vehicule Press, 2007), about English-language poetry in Qubec, and has done extensive research into sound recordings of 19th- and 20th-century poetry. Jason teaches Victorian literature, among other things, at Concordia University in Montreal. He edits the Punchy Poetry imprint for DC Books. Contributor Bio:  Swift, Todd Todd Swift was born in Montreal on Good Friday, 1966. He is the author or editor of seven books of poetry. During his college years he was a champion debater, and upon graduation wrote many hours of TV. In 1997 he was given the Young Quebecer of the Year Award in the Arts and Education category, for his poetry projects. From 1998-2001 he was Visiting Lecturer at Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, specializing in courses on poetry and film. In late 2001 he moved to Paris where he lived and wrote for two years. His work has appeared on stage and radio in many countries. He has been poetry editor of nthposition.com since 2002. In 2003 he was editorial coordinator for Poets Against The War. He has reviewed for Books in Canada, Poetry London, and The Dubliner, among others. He lives in London, England, with his wife.