Interrobang

by Mary Dalton

The spirit of the interrobang, a punctuation mark merging the questioning and the exclamatory, informs Mary Dalton’s compelling investigations of home and identity in this, her sixth poetry collection—in extraordinary poems of aging; of despised plants once revered; of rites and sites of community abandoned. The “flared mouth” of Dalton’s acclaimed musicality gives voice to lost souls and a lost sense of the earth. The collection’s unique mix of bleakness and beauty is also reflected in various riddle and riddle-like series with their ambiguity, open-endedness, playfulness, and unexpected linguistic shifts. Interrobang movingly fuses notions of exploration —of glancing at things slant—with an emotional range that feels new and visionary. This is a steely, brilliant book from a major Canadian poet.

Kindle Edition

Published September 12, 2024

About the author

Mary Dalton is a Canadian poet and educator, born in Conception Bay, Newfoundland. She is professor emerita in the Department of English at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, and founder of the SPARKS Literary Festival at the university. Dalton is also a former editor of the Newfoundland literary journal Tickleace and St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador's poet laureate for 2019–2020.

Reviews

[Jacob McArthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharp, sturdy, social poems. Dalton is such a sure-footed writer, she writes in a kind of national chatter among Newfoundland writers. She understands the lexicon of Newfoundland English not only at the vocabulary level but deeper: she knows the pattern and the rhythms so well.