May 1, 2003, Gazette
Helix: New and Selected Poems
By John Steffler
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The poems in Helix: New and Selected
Poems cover a span of more than 20 years of writing and deal with
a variety of subjects: the landscape and recent social history of Newfoundland,
the problem of finding and keeping a home, and issues of loss and renewal.
The poems show a perennial interest in the power of wilderness, the dangerous,
vital forces in the psyche and the physical world.
Published by Signal Editions, the literary division of Montreal’s
Vehicule Press, the book is arranged in four sections, the first three
consisting of selections from three of Mr. Steffler’s earlier books
of poems and the fourth section presenting a group of his new poems. All
of the selections of Mr. Steffler’s old and new poetry were made
by Carmine Starnino, Signal Edition’s literary editor.
John Steffler has been a professor of English at Sir Wilfred Grenfell
College since it opened in 1975. He writes fiction and poetry and in recent
years has served as writer-in-residence at Concordia University, Saint
Mary’s University, the Université de Moncton, and the University
of New Brunswick.
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The author of seven books, he has received
the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council Artist of the Year Award, the
Atlantic Poetry Prize, and the 1998 Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland
and Labrador’s Poetry Book Award. His novel, The Afterlife of George
Cartwright, won the Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the
Thomas Raddall Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s
Award and the Commonwealth First Novel Award. He is currently at work
on a new novel.
Helix: New and Selected Poems was recently named the winner of the
2003 Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Poetry
Book Award.
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