I’m not sure what the question is here: Who thinks to combine hockey and poetry, or how remarkable it is that the daring combination has proven so successful? But those questions shouldn’t take up too much press and overwhelm the fact Maggs, like any poet, chose a subject for his poems and wrote well enough to win over multiple audiences and numerous critics. He believed in the idea and it worked, remarkably well. As far as reception goes for a collection of poetry, I have heard as much or more about Night Work in the last two years than I have any other collection of poetry. And I love the idea of The National Post and London Free Press praising the same book as The Edmonton Oilers’ blog just quoted from. Has that happened before? Or who has been interviewed by Prime Time Sports and CBC’s Weekend Arts Magazine and The Next Chapter?

Selected Recognition for Night Work: The Sawchuck Poems 

- Recently shortlisted for the 25,000$ Kobzar Literary Award, winner to be announced March 4, 2010.

- Winner of the 2009 Winterset Award

- Winner of the 2009 E.J. Pratt prize for Poetry

- A Globe and Mail  “Top 100 books of 2008.”

- Has read at over 10 esteemed festivals, such as Thin Air: Winnipeg International Writers Festival, WordFest: Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival, Stephen Leacock Festival, and, Writers at Woody Point.

Select Review Snippets

“Randall Maggs gets closer than any biographer to the heart of the darkest, most troubled figure in the history of our national game. This may be the truest hockey book ever written.” - Stephen Brunt, Globe and Mail and SportsNet

“Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems seems poised to become a Canadian classic.” – Dave Bidini, The Globe and Mail

“I love this book for the reasons I love the game; for its guts, its skill, and its heart. ” – Karen Solie, Award-winning Canadian poet

“Gary Bettman need look no further if the NHL is in the market for its own poet laureate .” – Barbara Carey, Toronto Star

“An unlikely a pairing as you will ever see, Newfoundland scribe Randall Maggs skillfully marries hockey and poetry into one of this year’s literary masterpieces.” - Stephen Clare, The Chronicle Herald

Here is a Bookshorts short film, Night Work: A Sawchuk Poem, directed by Justin Simms.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3cWW-6un9Y

This story was posted at http://saltyink.com/2009/12/17/an-unlikely-pairing-an-undeniable-success-randall-maggss-2008-hockey-poetry-collection-night-work-the-sawchuck-poems/

Tags: Canadian poetry, English literature, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems, Poetry, Randall Maggs, Terry Sawchuk

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Announcement, Canadian poetry, English literature, Poetry, Recommended, Review, book review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.