Eunoia

The word eunoia, which literally means beautiful thinking, is the shortest word in English that contains all five vowels. Directly inspired by the Oulipo (l Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle), a French writers group interested in experimenting with different forms of literary constraint, "Eunoia" is a five-chapter book in which each chapter is a univocal lipogram the first chapter has A as its only vowel, the second chapter E, etc. Each vowel takes on a distinct personality: the I is egotistical and romantic, the O jocular and obscene, the E elegiac and epic (including a retelling of the Iliad!).

Stunning in its implications and masterful in its execution, "Eunoia" has developed a cult following, garnering extensive praise and winning the Griffin Poetry Prize. The original edition was never released in the U.S., but it has already been a bestseller in Canada and the U.K. (published by Canongate Books), where it was listed as one of the "Times " top ten books of 2008.

This edition features several new but related poems by Christian Bok and an expanded afterword."