Adam Dickinson’s latest book of poetry, The Polymers, has been shortlisted for a Governor General's Literary Award
Adam Dickinson’s latest book of poetry, The Polymers, has been shortlisted for a Governor General's Literary Award
A Brock professor’s latest book of poetry that explores the intersection of poetry and chemistry has been shortlisted for a Governor General’s Literary Award.
Adam Dickinson, associate professor of English Language and Literature, has been nominated for the literary award, one of Canada’s most prestigious, for his book, The Polymers, published by House of Anansi Press in 2013.
He is one of five finalists in the category for English-language poetry.
“I am absolutely thrilled by this nomination,” says Dickinson. “It means so much to me to receive this recognition from my peers. I feel really fortunate to be able to do the work that I do at Brock, surrounded as I am in the English Department by such extraordinary scholars, writers, and teachers.”
The Polymers (House of Anansi Press, 2013)
The Canada Council for the Arts, which administers the literary prizes, notes that the book “combines the study of plastic materials with that of the plastic behaviour of our culture…”
“Polymers constitute a form of writing,” says Dickinson. “My book combines the discourses, theories, and experimental methods of the science of plastic materials with the language and culture of plastic behaviour.”
The publisher’s website also notes, “A wildly experimental and chemically reactive work, The Polymers thrills and provokes. You’ll never look at the world of a poem – or the world itself – in the same way again.”
Governor General’s Literary Awards celebrate Canadian English- and French-language writers in seven categories. Winners in each category receive $25,000 as well as a specially bound copy of his or her book. Remaining finalists receive $1,000 each.
The winners will be announced in Toronto on Nov. 13, with a ceremony to follow in Ottawa on Nov. 28.
Dickinson, who has been teaching at Brock since 2006, researches and teaches poetics, creative writing and literary theory. He has published academic articles on contemporary poetry and environmental ethics, and his creative works have appeared in anthologies and literary journals both at home and abroad in the US, UK, China and Poland.
In 2007, his second book of poetry, Kingdom, Phylum (Brick Books, 2006) was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. And his first book, Cartography and Walking (Brick Books, 2002) was also a finalist for an Alberta Book award.
