Research Catalog

Title

The Anansi reader : forty years of very good books / edited by Lynn Coady.

Publication

Toronto : Anansi, 2007.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Coady, Lynn, 1970-

Description

389 pages; 22 cm

Summary

"In 1967, then-unknown writers David Godfrey and Dennis Lee founded a tiny press they grandly named "The House of Anansi," after an African trickster spider-god (Godfrey was fresh from a trip to West Africa). Their goal was unprecedented and seemingly crazy: to publish new work by Canadian writers in three genres - literary fiction, poetry, and intelligent nonfiction. Publishers at the British- and American-owned houses that dominated the Canadian literary scene are said to have given the enterprise eighteen months at best. Forty years later, Anansi is not only going strong, it is enjoying a fascinating creative renaissance, bolstered in part by the strength of its rich backlist and in part by its renewed independence and commitment to seeking out the best new writers to publish alongside established, now-iconic ones." "Here, in this reader, Lynn Coady has gathered excerpts from influential Anansi books - a mix of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction - that comprise ten entries from each decade of the press's existence. She also gives us a glimpse of the future: excerpts from seven exciting works-in-progress to be published within the next two years."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• Canadian literature > 20th century
• House of Anansi Press
• Canadian literature > 21st century

Note

• Includes index.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Contents

Introduction / Lynn Coady -- The First Decade: 1967-77 -- 1. A Sampling of the Poetry -- excerpt from Circle Game (1967) / Margaret Atwood -- excerpt from Airplane Dreams (1968) / Allen Ginsberg -- excerpt from Winter of the Luna Moth (1968) / Joe Rosenblatt -- excerpt from The Gangs of Cosmos (1969) / George Bowering -- excerpt from The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) / Michael Ondaatje -- excerpt from Nobody Owns the Earth (1971) / bill bissett -- excerpt from Civil Elegies (1972) / Dennis Lee -- excerpt from Crusoe (1973) / Eli Mandel -- excerpt from Waterloo Express (1973) / Paulette Jiles -- excerpt from Poems for All the Annettes (1973) / Al Purdy -- excerpt from Beware the Months of Fire (1974) / Patrick Lane -- 2. excerpt from Death Goes Better with Coca-Cola (1967) / David Godfrey -- 3. excerpt from Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada (1968) / Mark Satin -- 4. excerpt from Five Legs (1969) / Graeme Gibson -- 5. excerpt from Cape Breton is the Thought-Control Centre of Canada (1969) / Ray Smith -- 6. excerpt from The Honeyman Festival (1970) / Marian Engel -- 7. excerpt from When He Was Young and Free He Used to Wear Silks (1971) / Austin Clarke -- 8. excerpt from No Pain Like This Body (1972) / Harold Sonny Ladoo -- 9. excerpt from The Wabeno Feast (1973) / Wayland Drew -- 10. excerpt from Kamouraska (1973) / Anne Hebert -- The Second Decade: 1977-87 -- 1. excerpt from Stilt Jack (1978) / John Thompson -- 2. excerpt from The Hockey Sweater and Other Stories (1979) / Roch Carrier -- 3. excerpt from Wake-Pick Poems (1981) / Kristjana Gunnars -- 4. excerpt from Foreign Bodies (1982) / Rachel Wyatt -- 5. excerpt from Second Words (1982) / Margaret Atwood -- 6. excerpt from Selected Tales (1984) / Jacques Ferron -- 7. excerpt from The Immaculate Perception (1986) / Christopher Dewdney -- 8. excerpt from Hammerstroke (1986) / Don Domanski -- 9. excerpt from Technology and justice (1986) / George Grant -- 10. excerpt from Rochdale: The Runaway College (1987) / David Sharpe -- The Third Decade: 1987-97 -- 1. excerpt from Furious (1988) / Erin Moure -- 2. excerpt from Ana Historic (1988) / Daphne Marlatt -- 3. excerpt from Necessary Illusions (1989) / Noam Chomsky -- 4. excerpt from The Malaise of Modernity (1991) / Charles Taylor -- 5. excerpt from The Educated Imagination (1993) / Northrop Frye -- 6. excerpt from The Ecstasy of Skeptics (1994) / Steven Heighton -- 7. excerpt from The Unconscious Civilization (1995) / John Ralston Saul -- 8. excerpt from These Festive Nights (1997) / Marie-Claire Blais -- 9. excerpt from Anchoress (1997) / Esta Spalding -- 10. excerpt from Becoming Human (1998) / Jean Vanier -- The Fourth Decade: 1997-2007 -- 1. A Sampling of the Poetry -- excerpt from Queen Rat (1998) / Lynn Crosbie -- excerpt from Light-crossing (2001) / Michael Redhill -- excerpt from Hypothesis (2001) / John Barton -- excerpt from Un (2003) / Dennis Lee -- excerpt from Crowd of Sounds (2003) / Adam Sol -- excerpt from Night Street Repairs (2004) / A. F. Moritz -- excerpt from Past Imperfect (2005) / Suzanne Buffam -- excerpt from Drift (2005) / Kevin Connolly -- excerpt from The Good Bacteria (2006) / Sharon Thesen -- excerpt from Airstream Land Yacht (2006) / Ken Babstock -- 2. excerpt from The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches (2000) / Gaetan Soucy -- 3. excerpt from The Middle Stories (2001) / Sheila Heti -- 4. excerpt from The Truth About Stories (2003) / Thomas King -- 5. excerpt from The Big Why (2004) / Michael Winter -- 6. excerpt from Moving Targets (2004) / Margaret Atwood -- 7. excerpt from Paradise (2004) / A. L. Kennedy -- 8. excerpt from A Short History of Progress (2004) / Ronald Wright -- 9. excerpt from Alligator (2005) / Lisa Moore -- 10. excerpt from The Law of Dreams (2006) / Peter Behrens -- Seven for the Future -- 1. excerpt from Cockroach (2008) / Rawi Hage -- 2. excerpt from stories in progress (2008) / Pasha Malla -- 3. excerpt from Chameleon Hours (2008) / Elise Partridge -- 4. excerpt from The Order of Good Cheer (2008) / Bill Gaston -- 5. excerpt from Butterfly Mind (2008) / Patrick Brown -- 6. excerpt from Viveka's Story (2009) / Shani Mootoo -- 7. excerpt from novel in progress (2009) / Lisa Moore.

ISBN

• 9780887847752 (pbk.)
• 0887847757 (pbk.)

LCCN

99820342675

OCLC

• 150223067
• ocn150223067
• SCSB-5403286

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries