The Middle - by Stephen Collis (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Written amid wildfires and atmospheric rivers, The Middle extends Stephen Collis's investigation of threatened climate futures into a poetics of displacement and wandering. The fulcrum of a trilogy begun with A History of the Theories of Rain, The Middle hikes the shifting treelines of our warming world to reflect on the way all life is on the move. Focusing on the human-plant relationship, each of The Middle's linked sequences employs various forms of citational practice, rooted in the idea of a "poetic commons," a kind of literary seed dispersal where words are blown, carried, and scattered from one textual field to another, akin to all the plants and animals in motion on our dangerously heating planet.

Review Quotes

"Stephen Collis's latest tour de force." -- melanie brannagan frederiksen, The Winnipeg Free Press

"This book is a dense, rich reflection on the natural world and ... human impact. Collis considers poets and their writings, as woven in ... a "poetic commons," the current and historic ecology that poets and language's evolution share. There is sorrow, there is hope ... Stephen Collis sees the interweaving, seeks understanding, and expresses awe and awareness." - Steven Ross Smith, The British Columbia Review