Climates

Herménégilde Chiasson is one of Canada's most accomplished writer-artists. He is the author of more than 20 books of poetry, over 30 plays, and several collections of essays. A multi-disciplinary artist, he has received numerous awards for his work, including the Governor General’s Award for poetry, the Molson Prize, le prix France-Acadie, le Grand prix de la francophonie canadienne, the prestigious Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and the Prix littéraire Antonine-Maillet-Acadie Vie. From 2003 to 2009, he served as Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick. Jo-Anne Elder has translated many of Chiasson's works of poetry, including Beatitudes and Conversations and, with Fred Cogswell, Climates. She and Fred Cogswell also edited and translated Unfinished Dreams: Contemporary Poetry of Acadie. Fred Cogswell was one of the scions of Canadian Poetry. A widely published poet, anthologist, translator, reviewer, and critic, he has been a figurehead on the Canadian literary scene for more than fifty years. He was the recipient of numerous awards and honours ranging from the Bliss Carman Medal in 1947, to the Order of Canada in 1981, to a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Publishers Association in 2000. He was the founder of Fiddlehead Poetry Books, one of Canada's oldest literary presses and has acted as mentor to several generations of young poets.

"Climates possesses a haunting and sustained clarity that meshes vividly with the writer's superb linguistic authority and structural virtuosity (reminiscent of the work of David Jones in its commanding prose passages, the gruesome lyricality of Hubert Aquin)... The volume's quartet of entries succeeds beautifully, tracking the emotional impoverishment and universal loneliness accompanying the perceived numbness of contemporary life."