Karen MacCormack's poetry always seems to arise out of a state of emergency, at the "point of collapse." She would disdain the suggestion of heroism in her writing, but I read it as a heroic effort to bring light into the dark conjunctions of language, effort, and technology. I have long wanted to get another chance to hear Karen MacCormack read in San Francisco; thank you, Stanford University, and Marjorie Perloff, for helping to make this dream come true! MacCormack is the author of six books of poetry, most recently The Tongue Moves Talk (Chax Press/West House Books, 1997), and Marine Snow (ECW Press, 1995). New from Coach House Books is the online version of Fit to Print, MacCormack's collaboration with the English poet Alan Halsey (trade publication from Coach House/West House Books to follow any minute). Her work has appeared in such anthologies as Moving Borders, Out of Everywhere, and The Art of Practice. Of dual Canadian/British citizenship, she lives in Toronto.

October 30, 1998