This volume features thirty-five of Don McKays best poems, which are selected with a contextualizing introduction by Mira Cook that probes wilderness and representation in McKay, and the canny, quirky, thoughtful, and sometimes comic self-consciousness the poems adumbrate. Included is McKays afterword written especially for this volume in which McKay reflects on his own writing processits relationship to the earth and to metamorphosis. Don McKay has published eight books of poetry. He won the Governor Generals Award in 1991 (for ) and in 2000 (for ), a National Magazine Award (1991), and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry in 1984 (for ). Don McKay was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize for and was the Canadian winner of the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize for . Born in Owen Sound, Ontario, McKay has been active as an editor, creative writing teacher, and university instructor, as well as a poet. He has taught at the University of Western Ontario, the University of New Brunswick, The Banff Centre, The Sage Hill Writing Experience, and the BC Festival of the Arts. He has served as editor and publisher of Brick Books since 1975 and from 1991 to 1996 as editor of . He resides in British Columbia.