Early Poems

by A.F. Moritz

A.F. Moritz is the author of thirteen books of poetry, numerous chapbooks and limited edition volumes. He has received major honours including the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Award in Literature of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His book Rest on the Flight into Egypt was nominated for the 2000 Governor General's Award. In the Blackwells Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry, Moritz is one of four major Canadian poets discussed as having emerged since Ondaatje and Atwood. Early Poems reprints Moritz's first four books of poetry, Here (1975), Black Orchid (1981), Between the Root and the Flower (1982) and The Visitation (1983). In addition, it includes his first collection, New Poems, a long chapbook published in 1974. The poems in this collection were written from 1965 to 1977. These works brought him the Ingram Merril Fellowship in poetry and inclusion in such anthologies as August Kleinzahler's Seven Canadian Poets and Dennis Lee's New Canadian Poets 1970 1985.

Genres: Poetry

237 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

A.F. Moritz has published more than twenty collections of poetry as well as important works of literary history and numerous translations of Latin American verse. A leading figure in the literary life of Canada, he has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a major award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Two of his most recent works have reaffirmed his reputation: Night Street Repairs (2004) received the ReLit Award and The Sentinel (2008) won both the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine and the Griffin Poetry Prize. He teaches at the University of Toronto.

Reviews

[Chris Hutchinson]

A.F. Moritz's more recent books have received many well-deserved accolades, but his
early poems shouldn’t be missed. Reading them is like discovering hidden doors and
labyrinths of secret passageway inside the mansion.