Halfmoon Bay poet picks up major prize

Congratulations to Halfmoon Bay Poet Joe Denham, whose third poetry collection, “Regeneration Machine” (Nightwood Editions, $18.95), has won the 2016 Canadian Authors Assocation (CAA) Award for Poetry. The prize is awarded to the Canadian author of the best work of poetry published in the preceding year.

“Regeneration Machine” is a 100-stanza, 9,000-word letter-in-verse to his friend’s ghost—a requiem, elegy, lament; a sort of flailing attempt to make sense of the nonsensically violent way that a non-violent, caring, intelligent young man chose to end his life. Quill & Quire gave the book a starred review, calling it “a keeper.”

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