The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader

From Lori Emerson:

Dear friends, I'm so happy to announce the publication of The
Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader, edited by Darren Wershler-Henry and Lori Emerson (Coach House Press 2007). Please forward this announcement far and wide!

yours, Lori Emerson
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The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader
Coach House Press
CAD $21.95
ISBN: 1552451879
http://www.chbooks.com/catalogue/index.php?ISBN=1552451879

bpNichol was one of Canada's most innovative, eclectic, entertaining, and, yes, enigmatic poets, making startling interventions in the development of poetry and profoundly influencing both his own and subsequent generations of writers.

The Alphabet Game: A bpNichol Reader amasses key texts from the very broad spectrum of Nichol's work, including both classic favourites and more obscure treasures. From the early typewriter poetry of Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer and the life-long poem The Martyrology to the heartbreaking prose of Journal and the whimsical autobiography of Selected Organs, The Alphabet Game traces the trajector of this wildly imaginative and prolific poet.

This Nichol anthology is an ideal introduction for readers encountering Nichol for the first time, and a much-needed compendium for Nichol fans seeking access to works not readily available.

'His wit, along with the seriousness, was there to keep the language free and untethered, to keep the poem aware of its roots, like a tuxedo worn with bare feet in a muddy river … No other writer of our time and place was so diverse, attempted so much, and never lost sight of his intent.' – Michael Ondaatje

The Alphabet Game: Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
The Complete Works (1969) 11

CONCRETE AND VISUAL POETRY
Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer (1967/1973)
NOT WHAT THE SIREN SANG BUT WHAT THE FRAG MEANT 14
Poem for Kenneth Patchen 15
Blues 16
Easter Pome 17
Early Morning: June 23 18
Dada Lama: to the memory of Hugo Ball (1968) 19
The Cosmic Chef: An Evening of Concrete (1970)
untitled [nnnnnn] 25
Still Water (1970)
excerpts 26
ABC: the aleph beth book (1971)
manifesto 34
excerpts 35
Aleph Unit (1973)
Aleph Unit Closed 42
Aleph Unit Opened 43
Aleph Unit Surface 44
Aleph Unit Observed 45
Aleph Unit Not 46
Afterword 47
Alphhabet Ilphabet (1978)
H (an alphhabet) 48

FROM THE MARTYROLOGY (1972–1987)
Book 1 50
Book 2 55
Book 3 58
Book 4 78
Book 5 91
Book 6 Books 111

SHORTER POEMS AND SEQUENCES
Journeying & the Returns (1967)
Part 1: Blues on Green 130
Part 3: Ancient Maps of the Real World 133
Statement 142
The Other Side of the Room (1971)
circus days 143
stasis 145
Translating Translating Apollinaire: a preliminary report from a book
of research (1979)
TTA 4: original version 146
TTA 7: re-arranging letters alphabetically 147
TTA 13: sound translation 148
TTA 17: acrostic translation 149
from TTA 18: 10 views: view 1 (walking east … ) 153
TTA 30: poem as a machine for generating line drawings 154
TTA 53: typewriter translation after the style of Earle Birney 155
Extreme Positions (1981)
Extreme Positions 4 158

PROSE AND PROSE POETRY
Two Novels (1971)
Andy 170
For Jesus Lunatick 180
Craft Dinner: stories & texts, 1966–1976 (1978)
Gorg: a detective story 186
The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid 187
The Long Weekend of Louis Riel 191
Two Heroes 195
Journal (1978)
1 200
3 217
Two Words: A Wedding (1978) 219
Still (1982) 220
Selected Organs: Parts of an Autobiography (1988)
The Vagina 226
The Mouth 228
The Tonsils 230
The Lungs: A Draft 231
Sum of the Parts 234

LOVE ZYGAL ART FACTS
love: a book of remembrances (1974)
Frames 238
Trans-Continental 243
Allegories 272
zygal: a book of mysteries and translations (1985)
song for saint ein 280
Self-contradiction 281
probable systems 8 282
Pastoral 284
love song 285
love song 3 286
three small songs for gladys hindmarch 287
probable systems 289
probable systems 15: division of the signified 290
art facts: a book of contexts (1990)
The Frog Variations 291
Three Months in New York City: The Actual Life of Language 1 293
Sixteen Lilypads 307
untitled [asea/ease] 308
Catching Frogs 309
untitled [fr/pond/glop] 310
Water Poem 5 311
probable systems 24: physical contexts of human words 312

EPIPROLOGUE
Before Closure 313

afterword
Editorial Statement 316
Notes on the Poems 318
Select Bibliography 322
Permissions 326
Index of Poem and Book Titles 328
Acknowledgements 331
Biography 332