Seaway: New and Selected Poems

Seaway: New & Selected Poems gathers together 80 poems and is the first full retrospective of a poetry career that spans over two decades.

"There is, in the Beat-influenced imagination of Swift''s earliest poems, an exquisite timing and formal innovation that goes on to characterise his work so far. As intensely spiritual as it is erotic, this is writing of sometimes uncomfortable honesty, which never fails to tell us something about the strange business of being alive. The elegiac melancholy of ''Cafe Alibi'' and the free-wheeling imagistic felicity of ''Rue de Regard'', meet in his latest work to form a poetry as poignant as it is celebratory, shot-through with eccentric details and rueful wit."
Luke Kennard

"I love the way Swift ranges from the heartbreakingly beautiful stories about his family to the witty experiments with form where any subject matter is up for scrutiny. Sincerity and comedy attuned to a subtle ear make Swift a top quality poet!"
Daljit Nagra

Todd Swift is one of the leading Canadian poets and poetry activists of his generation. His collection of essays about Anglo-Quebec poetry, Language Acts (which he co-edited with Jason Camlot), was a finalist for the 2007 Gabrielle Roy Prize. He has had four previous collections of poems published by DC Books in Montreal, Canada. He lives in London, England, with his wife, where he works as a lecturer in creative writing, editor, and writer.

Seaway: New & Selected Poems gathers together 80 poems and is the first full retrospective of a poetry career that spans over two decades.

"There is, in the Beat-influenced imagination of Swift''s earliest poems, an exquisite timing and formal innovation that goes on to characterise his work so far. As intensely spiritual as it is erotic, this is writing of sometimes uncomfortable honesty, which never fails to tell us something about the strange business of being alive. The elegiac melancholy of ''Cafe Alibi'' and the free-wheeling imagistic felicity of ''Rue de Regard'', meet in his latest work to form a poetry as poignant as it is celebratory, shot-through with eccentric details and rueful wit."
Luke Kennard

"I love the way Swift ranges from the heartbreakingly beautiful stories about his family to the witty experiments with form where any subject matter is up for scrutiny. Sincerity and comedy attuned to a subtle ear make Swift a top quality poet!"
Daljit Nagra

Todd Swift is one of the leading Canadian poets and poetry activists of his generation. His collection of essays about Anglo-Quebec poetry, Language Acts (which he co-edited with Jason Camlot), was a finalist for the 2007 Gabrielle Roy Prize. He has had four previous collections of poems published by DC Books in Montreal, Canada. He lives in London, England, with his wife, where he works as a lecturer in creative writing, editor, and writer.