He Speaks Volumes : A Biography of George Bowering

George Bowering has read, written about, and corresponded with them all, from influential mid-century writers such as Sheila Watson, Earle Birney, and Al Purdy, through a veritable Who's Who of the Canadian literary avant-garde, including bpNichol, Daphne Marlatt, and Fred Wah, to literary superstars such as Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood. This biography of the two-time Governor General's Award winner and inaugural Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada illuminates the intimate, intellectual, and artistic life of one of Canada's greatest literary ambassadors. Based on exhaustive research, including access to decades of Bowering's diaries, He Speaks Volumes is an indispensable guide to the life, work, and community of this multifaceted writer. Born in 1935 in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, George Bowering is a larger-than-life character, a lover of baseball, and a playful creator of alter egos - as well as a distinguished poet, novelist, editor, professor, popular historian, and tireless supporter of fellow writers. A founder of the seminal West Coast poetry magazine TISH, he has written more than a hundred books. Book jacket.