The Laurier Poetry Series was conceived in 2002 as a means to celebrate Canadian poetry and to introduce new readers to the richness and diversity of its poets. Rather than curate another large anthology that featured only a few poems by each poet, we thought it a better idea to suggest the real range of a poet’s work by enlarging the selection. Our anthology would have to comprise many volumes. But why persist with a traditional anthology? Why not create a series of small and affordable volumes, each devoted to the work of a single poet? Each volume could be introduced by a knowledgeable reader, familiar with the poet’s work and addressing it in greater depth than in normal anthologies; and each volume could close with the poet contributing an afterword such as no standard anthology could offer.
Readers could pick and choose which poets they wanted to explore; instructors could also pick and choose combinations of volumes in a package for their students—and could change this selection from semester to semester. And the volumes could reach an international audience. Each would also have the potential to open out onto other books by the featured poet.
That was the blueprint. The Series was launched in 2004, with Catherine Hunter’s selection of the poetry of Lorna Crozier, Before the First Word. There have been over thirty volumes since, offering introductions to a wide range of poets and poetries, and more are in the works. The Laurier Poetry Series is now the most comprehensive collection of Canadian poetries in print anywhere. All volumes are also available as digital editions.
We are continuously grateful for the consummate professionalism of the team at Wilfrid Laurier University Press which has ensured that these sometimes technically tricky volumes are presented accurately and beautifully. In particular, we would like to acknowledge the invaluable work of Managing Editor Rob Kohlmeier, who oversaw production of the Series from its beginning until his retirement in 2020.
At this time we would also like to welcome Tanis MacDonald to the editorial team. Tanis is a professor of creative writing and English at WLU and a fine poet in her own right.
What continues to inspire us about the LPS is its reception across the country. The love and art and passion and intimacy that thirty-plus editors and thirty-plus poets have brought to their volumes; the innumerable hours and conversations and meetings; the thousands of emails between and among poets and editors and the staff at WLU Press; the generous reviews in the country’s journals; the reception in classrooms and beyond: all of this eloquently speaks to the joyful proliferation of poetry in Canada today.
With each new volume, LPS hopes to continue to recognize the growing provenance of this wealth, the wide range of these riches. Our poets—and their readers—deserve nothing less.
—Brian Henderson and Neil Besner
General Editors