News
06/04/2004
It has again been quite some time since the site has been updated.
Since the last update there are a few exciting things that have happened:
09/12/2003
It's been a while since the site had a significant addition, but we've finally gotten to it. A new
CD -- Sidewalks & Sidehills -- has been released. You can take a look and listen
here.
We have also added a page on the book "There Are Many Ways" here.
09/16/2002
We are launching the new website today. Hope you like it! We have added a couple of things. There is a new book out (see There Are Many Ways below).
In addition to the books, there is a new CD of poetry reading and jazz called Kisses in the whisky coming out from Transsiberian. You should be able to find the CD when available from Scratch Records. Here is a link to a page that (as of this writing) has a sound file that you can listen to: Poetry Reading with jazzy background music. This is a really great, but underappreciated art form.
New Book: There Are Many Ways
A new book is just coming in from the printers. It is called There are many ways.
The book includes beautiful artwork by the late Jack Wise. Jack did the artwork for one of Peter's earlier books Moving Through the Mystery
06/12/2002 This day was designated as 'Author Appreciation Day' by the City of Vancouver in honour of Peter Trower. He won the BC Gas 'Lifetime Achievement Award'.
Here's a little info about the award from the B.C. Gas website:
BC Gas Lifetime Achievement Award
The BC Gas Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates and supports outstanding literary careers in British Columbia. In partnership with the Vancouver Public Library and BC Bookworld,
this program was initiated in 1995 in association with the official opening of the new Vancouver Public Library. This award goes to a BC author who has made an outstanding contribution to
the literary arts in BC. The recipient receives a $5,000 cheque, and his or her name is added to the library's "Walk of Fame" near the northeast plaza, close to the library's Georgia Street
entrance.
Older News
10/18/2001 We noticed a flattering review of Dead Man's Ticket by vintner Kent Rasmussen at Amazon.com and have been given
permission to post it here by the author.
I picked this book up on the Vancouver ferry as something to read by a local author. It turned out to be a very enjoyable read. Trower writes in an almost autobiographical style that makes
you feel that the characters are real people doing real things. ... (more)
Our thanks to a different Kent Rasmussen for helping us to track down the author of the review.
07/21/2001 The Globe and Mail published a nice article by Paul Vermeersch which examines the poem "Not-So-Still-Life with Damp Beer Tables" from Hitting the Bricks. Here's a quote from the end of the article:
How do poems work? Well this one works fast, like a shot of tequila. In less than a minute we are transported to a place and made to feel we know it's inhabitants, understand their lives, and
feel the appropriate sympathy. Peter Trower has accomplished this with a stark eloquence that mimics the way we see and interpret the world around us, in a sense, by creating a voice stripped
bare of artificiality.
It's a nice analysis that illuminates the poem and articulates why this is professional poetry written by a master at the top of his game.
11/27/2000 Pete has recently published two new books:
A Ship Called Destiny
The Judas Hills
Buy your copy today!
Peter turned 70 on August 25, 2000. Here's a quote from a flattering story that appeared in the Globe and Mail on Tuesday August 29, 2000:
Despite more than 30 years as a professional poet and author, with fans such as Al Purdy, Earle Birney, Patrick Lane, Dorothy Livesay, Jim Christy and countless others, Trower has remained
virtually unknown outside his home province and has received no honours or awards until winning a B.C. 2000 Book Award this year.
"Peter Trower is British Columbia poetry," Olafson said. "No other poet around represents the wilderness and the urban streets better than Trower. His poetry is at the same time tough and
tender, [he is] one of the most eloquent poets you'll ever find and yet largely looked over."
So, on Sunday, at least 100 people flocked to Bukowski's, a trendy hangout for new and old breeds of local poets, to wish Trower a happy 70th birthday and present him with the first annual
Peter Trower Alternative Poetry Award.
It was standing room only as 16 people got up to read their favourite Trower poem. And while every presentation ended with a "Happy birthday, Pete," all spoke of the evening not only being a
celebration of a man, but the miracle of poetry when crafted to near-perfection.
Trower admitted he was at a rare place in life -- a loss for words.
[JAMES EKE Special to The Globe and Mail Tuesday, August 29, 2000 ]
Here's the poem they publised in the story:
SKOOKUMCHUCK
Reprieved for a merciful moment
from repetitive conversation
in the ramshackle evening bunkhouse,
I watch the alders move like great grey reeds
to a wrinkling wind
below the ruined watersheds wrung slopes
where new roads snake past the snowline
and the black amputated claws
of charred stumps
grip dirt in the scarcountry
I have stumbled back to the woods
after drunken years of absence
driven again by several needs --
found my way to this woebegone place
of weatherbattered buildings
where a disused landing barge
landed forever
rusts in the bushes
like all my hamstrung dreams
Sing a song of recompense --
noisy joshing suppertimes
in a cookhouse with a broken guthammer
Sing a song of necessity
in this ancient logging camp
by the tidal rapids called Skookumchuck
which means Strong Water
and must be drunk
beyond bottles.
from Chainsaws in The Cathedral, Collected Woods Poems,
by Peter Trower (Ekstasis Editions, 1999)
