I am indebted to the creative writing programs and communities that supported me. Here they are in roughly reverse chronological order: the Sage Hill Writing Experience (mentor: Don McKay), Creative Writing at Guelph (mentor: Paul Vermeersch), the Toronto New School of Writing (mentor: Phil Hall), U.S. 1 Poets’ Cooperative (Princeton, N.J.), Banff International Research Station (Creative Writing in Mathematics and Science workshop organizers and participants), the Banff Centre Wired Writing Studio (mentor: Elizabeth Philips), the Writer-in-Residence program at the University of Guelph (particularly Jane Urquhart, Larissa Lai, and Christopher Dewdney), the Humber College School for Writers (mentors: Olive Senior and D.M. Thomas), and Eden Mills Writers’ Festival (Fringe).
As a scientist I have had the privilege of working with many brilliant and creative colleagues and students (too many to name here) who provided encouragement and inspiration. I am thankful in particular for my Ph.D. supervisor, Professor László Orlóci, who insisted that I publish the first few (unpublishable!) poems I ever wrote within the pages of my Ph.D. thesis (Towards a Unifying Theory of Vegetation Dynamics, University of Western Ontario, 1997). I also thank my advisory and examination committee members for being open-minded enough to let them stay.
Several individuals agreed to read and critique my poems. They provided a lifeline for this book and in return asked only for friendship: Norman Cheadle, Elizabeth Socolow, Richard Sanger, and Ljiljana Coklin.
Paul Vermeersch and Noelle Allen provided invaluable encouragement on an earlier version of this manuscript. Paul provided generous feedback, for which I am forever grateful.
Earlier versions of some of the poems published here have appeared in Literary Review of Canada, Lemon Hound, The Awl, Guelph Mercury, Room, CV2, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, U.S. 1 Worksheets (Princeton), Interim, Grain, The New Quarterly, Vallum, The Shape of Content: Creative Writing in Mathematics and Science, Our Lakes Shall Set Us Free, and Spirit of the Red Pine: Art to Save the Old-Growth Forests of Wolf Lake. Thank you to the editors of these publications for including them.
I acknowledge financial support from the Ontario Arts Council (Writers’ Reserve grants; recommenders: The New Quarterly, Wolsak & Wynn, Brick Books, and Diaspora Dialogues), and the Canada Council for the Arts (Grants for Professional Writers).
The School of Environmental Sciences (Ontario Agricultural College), the Ontario Veterinary College, and the College of Arts, all at the University of Guelph, and the Musagetes Foundation supported this work indirectly by sponsoring reading events in which I took part.
I am grateful to the fine people at M&S for making the book a reality and in particular to poetry board member Dionne Brand for editorial mastery bordering on wizardry.
Finally, this book would not be possible without the all-encompassing support of my husband (and friend and collaborator and brilliant scientist), my children, my parents, my siblings, and family-like friends. Thank you for your love.