Moosemilk: The Best of «The Moosehead» from 1977 to 1999

Don Precosky teaches English at the College of New Caledonia. He is the
co-editor of It’s Still Winter, an online journal of contemporary
Canadian poetry and poetics, and Four Realities: Poets of Northern B.C.

Any reader of this collection cannot avoid being struck by its
eclecticism. The book is made up of some of the best poetry and prose
from The Moosehead Anthology and before that The Moosehead Review, which
over a period of 22 years introduced readers to a range of literature,
from “forbidden fiction” and novels-in-progress to feminist poetry
and African drama.

Moosemilk (a Canadian term describing homemade or bootleg liquor) is
divided along thematic lines into five sections. Everything in it is of
high quality and within each section we find a variety of styles and
attitudes. Canadian writers dominate in numbers, but there is a strong
sampling of works from all over the world. Patrick Lane and Al Purdy rub
shoulders with Julio Cortazar and Dannie Abse. The anthology is
recommended to anyone interested in contemporary writing.