Shop Talk: The Vancouver Industrial Writers' Union

Donalee Moulton-Barrett was a writer and editor in Halifax.

Shop Talk, an anthology featuring nine poets, was inspired by The Vancouver Industrial Writers’

Union, a coalition of writers who work, have worked, and/or continue to work at a variety of jobs. “We are a group,” writes member Zoë Landale in the Foreword, “which has had to adapt in order to both create and survive” — a factor they believe makes them distinct from “the ninety percent of those who write poetry in this country...university professors.”

Their poetry reflects their diverse backgrounds and variety of occupations. Shop Talk is divided into four sections: Against the Loss of Caring; Pain as Lover; Alchemy; and Dangerous. It is an ambitious attempt to cover all the bases. Although the group has aimed higher than they’ve ultimately reached, it does not detract from their attempt to spotlight “work poetry” as a vital and complex genre, nor does it prevent the strength of certain poems from coming through loud and clear. Zoë Landale, Erin Mouré, and Tom Wayman are the best-known poets in the anthology and their poetry, overall, is, as is to be expected, the crystal in the collection.

There are, however, other gems. Andrew Wreggitt’s “Swimmers, Prince Rupert,” for example, opens with these lines: “They say, sooner or later / you stop noticing the rain / Like a swimmer moving through water / you don’t think about being wet / Like Gordon / who was laid off four times this year.” These lines reveal the sincerity and honesty of feeling that lie at the heart of Shop Talk and give it both purpose and substance.