JACK is a collection about loss, and how its various speakers deal with loss through addiction.  Whether that addiction is alcohol, drugs, sex, love, or an inability to deny the past, these are narrative poems that reconsider the method in which the desperate periphery manage the minutiae of existence.  Set against the backdrop of a distilled urban landscape, the speakers in JACK find themselves lost in the bars, bottles and back alleys of their narratives.  The result is a dark, acerbic, honest, and humorous collection that challenges the way we read poetry.

isbn: 9780973943870 / 0973943874  |  10.00  |  4.75 x 7 inches  |  76 pages  |  2008

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Mike Spry is originally from Ottawa, and is now a Montreal-based writer and editor.   He currently  serves as the Managing Editor of Matrix magazine and the coordinator of The Pilot Reading Series, as well as the Programs Coordinator for Summer Literary Seminars.

Praise for Mike Spry’s Writing

“…the book emerges into an unexpected maturity…[and] the work evolves into a more knowing set of poems” - Broken Pencil

“These poems aren’t avant-garde exercise routines. They’re funny… A series of meditations involving a breakup, brutal self-mockery, and sardonic moping over imaginary photographs? You mean, there’s unrest in—Ottawa?” - Utne Reader

“…fresh and mean.” - Blake Butler, No One Does That