By Katia Grubisic
With the publication of the 1999 Mean, from which two of the poems in the Breakwater book are taken, Babstock stood at the cusp of a new Canadian poetics — post-nationalist but snapped in place; as easily confessional as prevaricating, and sometimes simultaneously; and demanding such acrobatics of language. . . .
By John Steffler
I was fortunate to meet Al shortly after moving to Newfoundland in 1975. My whole experience of Newfoundland opened through him and his family, through his parents, their stories and the times I spent in their generous company. . . . Photo courtesy of Newfoundland Heritage
By Stan Dragland
The selection brings out Agnes’s muscular nostalgia for the individualistic Newfoundland past of which her father was a dear part. . . .