Lost August

Olga Costopoulos teaches English at the University of Alberta.

Esta Spalding’s second collection, from Anansi Press, has on its cover
what one supposes must be an homage to her famous father by way of a
great visual pun: a (piece of) toast to (for) the English patient. (Even
the color of the broiler pan in which it rests is reminiscent of the
lighting of the film. Well done.)

The poems inside are independently strong. Some of the poems are
inspired by memories that, while unique to the speaker, take on a
universal by virtue of their rich detailing. The whole collection is a
broad range of new experience of the language, and new experience of a
world somewhere between sleeping and waking, that this poet has smuggled
back for us. A lovely book, lovingly written, to be savored in small
bites.