95 Books In 2006, George W. Bush read 95 books. We will do better.

Prismatic Publics: Innovative Canadian Women’s Poetry and Poetics. Fifteen of the most interesting avante garde Canadian women poets alive and writing today, spotlighted via thought-provoking interviews and excerpts from their ouevres. Though I was certainly aware of each of the writers before picking up the book (for the record: Nicole Brossard, Margaret Christakos, Susan Holbrook, Dorothy Trujillo Lusk, Karen Mac Cormack, Daphne Marlatt, Erin Moure, M. NourbeSe Philip, Sina Queyras, Lisa Robertson, Gail Scott, Nathalie Stephens, Catriona Strang, Rita Wong, Rachel Zolf) I am ashamed to admit that I haven’t read nearly enough of each of them. The editors have done a masterful curatorial job in pulling these selections together, but for me the most edifying part of the book was the interviews, which offer a glimpse into the process and theoretical concerns of each woman. As a young (woman) writer, it was a necessary reminder that we each have our own interests, obsessions, and process to work through. I started reading PP late in 2009, and named it as one of my picks for the Advent Book Blog Holiday Edition.

-Nikki Reimer