Cameron Anstee lives and writes in Ottawa, where he runs Apt. 9 Press and holds a Ph.D. in Canadian Literature from the University of Ottawa. He is the editor of The Collected Poems of William Hawkins (Chaudiere Books, 2015).
"Anstee's small poems, by virtue of their brevity, expose the
elisions and accidents of language as symbolically rich and
complicated."--Prairie Fire"There's a palpable compression, and
concretism, lurking within Anstee's minimalist
exercises."--Canadian Literature"Short but never slight, the poems
in Book of Annotations are deeply engaged with poetic
history."--Quill & Quire"There
is fearlessness to explore the common while simultaneously
considering
the sublime... The true enjoyment, however, comes from appreciation
of
how the diversity of the structure ties into the diversity of
the
subject matter; the structure reflects the theme in each
different
narrative that Anstee takes the reader on--a trip well worth
taking."--CV2"Cameron Anstee's Book of Annotations collects
haiku-like short poems that manage to be painterly despite (or
perhaps
because of) their minimalism: "now here light leafs small small
lines."--Winnipeg Free Press"Anstee's debut collection of poetry is
definitely worthy of all acknowledgements and eligible
accolades."--Arc Poetry Magazine"Incredibly short and playful poems
packed with enormous density."--rob mclennan"Wise and playful, the
epigrammatic poems in Book of Annotations push
past the limits of each word and into a space tense with
imagination
and truth. Not a word is wasted as Cameron Anstee demonstrates
supreme
control of space and minimalism. The pithiness of the poems reminds
one
of coordinates of a constellation, or the tips of icebergs. To
borrow
Anstee's words, 'the smallest unit of feeling' ... 'out of these a
world.'
As delightful as it is challenging, Book of Annotations has a
unique pulse of its own."--Archibald Lampman Award jury
citation"Book of Annotations
is a wonderful accrual of Cameron Anstee's minimalist gems. They
are
rich and varied. Cameron's poems are short but not brief. Most
are
subtle, some are perplexing, some humorous, and many are
astonishingly
expansive. This book is a large treat!"--Nelson Ball"In Book of
Annotations,
Cameron Anstee brings us the ephemeral, the existential, the
entropic,
and the elemental. Akin to koanlike maxims, this work presents
an
exquisite perception of and reverence for the here-and-now, the
before
and after, the timeless and the fleeting. Anstee disassembles
and
reassembles the fundamental phenomenon of being. Sensuous,
natural,
familiar, unexpected, elusive, vertiginous--this work brings us
closer to
understanding ourselves."--Sandra Ridley"[Book of Annotations]
is a slight collection that goes easy on his publisher's
inkjets
(several poems have a word count in the single digits). It has
been
enjoyable consuming the glassine craftsmanship of these kindred
texts at
such different rates. I devour Anstee's book whole every time I pry
it
open."--Ben Ladouceur-- "Prairie Fire"
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