Tractors

My 14 Tractors scored the Poetry Award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards gala last night.  Not expecting to win, I did nevertheless sketch out the thank you list: the photographs by Shelley Sopher, the Writers/Artists Colony program of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild (wherein this book was first perceived, imagined, written, and re-composed), the financial support of the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Regina and Luther College, the expertise and commitment of my publisher, NeWest Press, and the two beautiful young women--my daugher Emmaline and her friend Nat--who sat with me at table 26 last night.  Had I stayed up there longer, I would have gone on to point out that my own writing practice gets a boost every time one of my friends publishes a book or gives a reading or receives acclaim in some other way.  Thank you to you writers out there.

That's one of Shelley's photos, the International Harvester 300 Utility, which I imagined for a long time as the cover image.