On Wednesday, May 11, at 6 pm BC time, I’m going to participate in Alberta author Sid Marty’s online book launch of his new and collected poems, Oldman’s River. The book, published by NeWest Press, spans more than a half-century of singing the Rocky Mountains. Sid and I both published our first books of poems in 1973, both from McClelland & Stewart. Sid’s Headwaters launched his career, which includes the later nonfiction masterpieces Men for the Mountains (1978; an account of his own experiences as a national park warden, woven into a history of the Rocky Mountain parks’ warden service) and The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek (2008; about the fumbled attempts of the authorities to deal with a killer grizzly on the outskirts of Banff townsite in 1980).

My own efforts at the May 11 launch will be interviewing Sid about his poetry career generally and Oldman’s River specifically. The new book not only reprints his earlier three poetry collections but includes previously uncollected poems from the 1960s and 1970s as well as newer work up through 2021.

The Zoom launch is an Eventbrite offering. To receive the Zoom link, click here, or go to Eventbrite.ca, and search for “Sid Marty’s Oldman’s River”. The launch site provides an opportunity to register; a Zoom link will be sent to registrants 30 minutes before the launch begins.