Interrobang - by Mary Dalton (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The spirit of the interrobang, a punctuation mark merging the questioning and the exclamatory, informs Mary Dalton's compelling investigations of home and identity in this, her sixth poetry collection-- in extraordinary poems of aging; of despised plants once revered; of rites and sites of community abandoned. The " flared mouth" of Dalton's acclaimed musicality gives voice to lost souls and a lost sense of the earth. The collection's unique mix of bleakness and beauty is also reflected in various riddle and riddle-like series with their ambiguity, open-endedness, playfulness, and unexpected linguistic shifts. Interrobang movingly fuses notions of exploration -- of glancing at things slant-- with an emotional range that feels new and visionary. This is a steely, brilliant book from a major Canadian poet.

About the Author

Mary Dalton's volumes of poetry include Merrybegot, Red Ledger, and Hooking, as well as two prose works: the miscellany Edge and The Vernacular Strain in Newfoundland Poetry, a print version of her 2022 Pratt Lecture. Dalton's work has been widely anthologized in Canada and abroad. She has won numerous awards, including the E.J. Pratt Poetry Award, and been shortlisted for various others, among them the Pat Lowther Award, the Atlantic Poetry Award, and the Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. She lives in St. John' s, Newfoundland.