While Supplies Last

by Anita Lahey

A hard-knuckled look at the other half, this collection of lively poems mix a girl-about-town cockiness with an all-too-rare emotional honesty about men, love, and relationships. Whether the subject is a one-man chimney demolition, the lifelong fidelity of seahorses, a lover at war in Afghanistan, or a kickboxing match, Lahey confronts the enduring disconnect between the sexes in a language that is slangy and quick, punctuated with jabs. She eyes those moments— in a day, in a life— when the normal clues we rely on disappear, shifting the line between domesticity and danger.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2023

About the author

Anita Lahey’s second collection of poems, Spinning Side Kick, was released by Véhicule Press in 2011. Her first book, Out to Dry in Cape Breton (2006), was nominated for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and the Ottawa Book Award, and she is a past winner of the Great Blue Heron Poetry Prize and the Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem, among others. Her work has been shortlisted several times for the CBC Literary Award for Poetry. She served as editor of Arc Poetry Magazine from 2004 to 2011, and is also a journalist who has written on a wide range of topics for Canadian publications such as The Walrus, Cottage Life, Maisonneuve, Toronto Life, Reader’s Digest, Canadian Geographic, Quill & Quire and several others. A former resident of Ottawa, Montreal and Fredericton, she lives in Toronto.

(from http://www.openbooktoronto.com/news/p...)

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great collection and introduction to Lahey’s work. I especially loved the Pandemic Traffic Reports section of this collection.

[Zoe Desjardins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pleasently surprised with so many poems talking about Ottawa! Loads of thinking and loads of reflexion, love it!

[Barbara Sibbald]

This is such a wonderful, accessible and meaningful collection. And there are many laughs as well.

I particularly enjoyed how Anita integrated historical views with current environmental concerns, especially "Don River: Crossings and Expeditions." It was so skillfully done.

Pandemic Traffic Reports were so inventive and very funny, and I re-read all the poems in The Great Fire of Main-a-Dieu. I especially loved "Horse's Hearty Caper Welcome," though they all resonated and leaned together to form a more complete picture of that town and what happened.

Anita is a wonderful poet with a quick and inventive mind that makes reading her work a true pleasure.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

April is national poetry month so it’s very fitting that I read this book earlier this month. I loved WHILE SUPPLIES LAST by Anita Lahey! This book is divided into four sections and the first section Seasonal Affective Disorder featured my two fave poems. I enjoyed all the poems in this book and my faves are Ice-Age Surprise and Pacific Ocean Tariffs and Tradeoffs. I love how the first section focuses on climate, nature and animals. And of course I loved the mentions of Canadian places like Don River and Lake Ontario. The third section The Great Fire of Main-à-Dieu contains poems based on research and family history. I loved the journalistic quality of this section and the strong sense of community. This is one of my fave poetry books of 2023!

Thank you to Vehicule Press for my gifted review copy!