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The Alphabet Game: A bpNichol Reader
A member of the sound-poetry collective, The Four Horsemen, winner of a Governor General's Award for Poetry and writer of Fraggle Rock, bpNichol was one of Canada's most important poets.
All of Nichol's writing is distinguished by his desire to create texts that are engaging in themselves as well as in context, and to use indirect structural and textual devices to carry meaning. The astounding range of Nichol's practice included musical theatre, children's books, comic book art and collage/assemblage. Broadly spanning the history of Nichol's work, The Alphabet Game: A bpNichol Reader includes both classics and esoteric treasures. From the early typewriter poetry of Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer and Nichol's life-long work of poetry The Martyrology, to the heartbreaking prose of Journal and the whimsical autobiography of Selected Organs, this collection maps the literary career of this enigmatic poet.
For first-time readers of Nichol, this comprehensive collection is a perfect introduction to his groundbreaking work; for loyal Nichol fans, this reader is the the long-awaited compilation of his less readily available work.
All of Nichol's writing is distinguished by his desire to create texts that are engaging in themselves as well as in context, and to use indirect structural and textual devices to carry meaning. The astounding range of Nichol's practice included musical theatre, children's books, comic book art and collage/assemblage. Broadly spanning the history of Nichol's work, The Alphabet Game: A bpNichol Reader includes both classics and esoteric treasures. From the early typewriter poetry of Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer and Nichol's life-long work of poetry The Martyrology, to the heartbreaking prose of Journal and the whimsical autobiography of Selected Organs, this collection maps the literary career of this enigmatic poet.
For first-time readers of Nichol, this comprehensive collection is a perfect introduction to his groundbreaking work; for loyal Nichol fans, this reader is the the long-awaited compilation of his less readily available work.
- GenresPoetry
334 pages, Paperback
First published October 14, 2004
About the author
bpNichol
66 books19 followersBarrie Phillip Nichol, known as bpNichol, was a Canadian poet, writer, sound poet, editor and grOnk/Ganglia Press publisher. His body of work encompasses poetry, children's books, television scripts, novels, short fiction, computer texts, and sound poetry. His love of language and writing, evident in his many accomplishments, continues to be carried forward by many.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Want to read
September 18, 2008this just looks like a really fun book. However, the cover on some are just horrible looking.
May 9, 2021
It's an extensive anthology of bpNichol's work through his whole career. I didn't love all of it, but over such a breadth of styles and forms, not all the poems can be great. Yet almost every one presents a surprising idea about how language works, or could work, or can't work. Relentlessly inventive poetry.
December 17, 2007
as always with bpNichol, a kaleidoscope of language performances, including about 50 pages of The Martyrology, and selections from just about every one of his books. Many more people should know about bpNichol's work. This is a great introduction to his work.
November 12, 2012
Great edition, considering how versatile and unanthologizable a poet Nichol is. Nicely printed pages, semi-faithful type setting and decent reproductions of images and concrete texts.
November 7, 2017
probably never going to read everything in here but the true eventual story of billy the kid is probably the great canadian novel if you know what i mean
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews