Peter Gerald Trower is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and novelist.

Trower was born in St Leonards-on-Sea

St Leonards-on-Sea

St Leonards-on-Sea is part of Hastings, East Sussex, England, lying immediately to the west of the centre. The original part of the settlement was laid out in the early 19th century as a new town: a place of elegant houses designed for the well-off; it also included a central public garden, a...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and came to Canada in 1940. He worked for 22 years as a logger and has been writing professionally since 1971.

Peter has published three novels to date, more than ten books of poetry and numerous articles. One of his novels, Grogan's Cafe, is in pre-production for a film

In 1976, Trower was the subject of a CBC

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

documentary titled Between the Sky and the Splinters, after his 1974 book of poetry of the same name.

Quotations

• "He has written at least ten great poems. Who has done that? Anyone? Not many. When you read these poems you feel like falling down on your knees to praise the divine muses." -- Howard White, The Georgia Strait
• "All right then: Pete's words jump and push and leap and whisper and roar in your ears. All the strange jargon of loggers is at his command. Sometimes he uses rhyme and metre, but more often it's bounding careening free verse. Sometimes ten dollar educated words, then woods jargon that snaps and crackles in the ears." -- Al Purdy, from The Introduction to Chainsaws in the Cathedral

Poetry

• Moving Through the Mystery - Talonbooks - 1969
• Between Sky and Splinters - Harbour - 1974
• The Alders and Others - Harbour - 1976
• Ragged Horizons - McClelland & Stewart - 1978
• Bush Poems - Harbour - 1978
• Goose quill Snags - Harbour - 1982
• The Slidingback Hills - Oberon - 1986
• Unmarked Doorways - Harbour - 1989
• Where Roads Lead - Reference West - 1994
• Hitting the Bricks - Ekstasis - 1997
• Chainsaws in the Cathedral - Ekstasis - 1999
• A Ship Called Destiny - Ekstasis - 2000
• Haunted Hills and Hanging Valleys: Selected Poems 1969-2004 - Harbour - 2004

Prose

• Rough and Ready Times - Glassford - 1993
• Grogan's Cafè - Harbour - 1993
• Dead Man's Ticket - Harbour - 1996
• The Judas Hills - Harbour - 2000

Anthology contributions

• Best Poems - 1967
• West Coast Seen
• Kites and Cartwheels
• Listen
• Skookum Wa Wa
• Storm Warning 2
• Raincoast Chronicles First Five
• A Government Job at Last
• Western Windows
• Who Owns the Earth
• Assault on the Worker
• Poems for a Snow-eyed Country
• For Openers
• Going for Coffee
• Raincoast Chronicles Six/Ten
• British Columbia/A Celebration
• Soul of a City
• Vancouver Poetry
• Vancouver and its Writers
• Strong Voices
• Paperwork
• Oberon Poetry
• Vancouver
• Songs from the Wild
• Because You Loved Being a Stranger
• Witness to Wilderness
• Raincoast Chronicles Eleven Up
• Earle Birney - A Tribute

Periodical contributions

• Poetry (Chicago)
• Poetry Australia
• Prism International
• West Coast Review
• This Magazine
• Canadian Poetry Magazine
• Vancouver Magazine
• West World
• Equity
• Western Living
• Raincoast Chronicles
• The Georgia Straight
• Sunshine Coast News
• Business Logger
• B. C. Studies

Current projects

• Way Stations (Selected Prose)
• The Counting House (Short stories centred around Oakalla Prison)
• Holy Herb - Master Cracksman (Semi-fictionalized biography)
• Rainbow's End Horizons (Travel pieces)
• Booking In (Selected book and film reviews)
• Reluctant Brush Ape (Autobiographical logging pieces)
• The Gathering (Poems new, revised and uncollected)

External links

• Official Website: http://www.petertrower.com
• More on Peter Trower from Harbour Publishing
• Winner George Woodcock Award 2002
• Review at ArcPoetry