Finding Ft. George

by Rob Budde

Finding Ft. George is the poetic record of Rob Budde's growing love of Prince George and the Cariboo north-central region of BC. The poems are an act of discovery and they describe the various social, political, historical and environmental systems that Budde encounters with the eye of a patient, astute observer. Engaging in the language of location, each poem explores a place, a time and the process of building a relationship between the two. Sometimes gritty, sometimes ironic, sometimes barely able to see the place at all, the poems are all love poems to a new home--gifts of arrival.

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2007

About the author

Rob Budde teaches Creative Writing and Postcolonial Literature at the University of Northern BC and has taught previously at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba. He has published five books (two poetry—Catch as Catch and traffick, two novels—Misshapen and The Dying Poem, and, most recently, short fiction--Flicker). In 2002, Rob facilitated a collection of interviews (In Muddy Water: Conversations with 11 Poets). He has been a finalist for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer and the McNally-Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year. In 1995, Budde completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Calgary. Most recently Budde published a book of poetry titled Finding Ft. George, a collection of poems about Rob’s growing relationship with Prince George and Northern BC. He is currently working on a science fiction novel called The Overcode. Rob lives in Prince George with his partner, Debbie Keahey and four children: Robin, Erin, Quinlan, and Anya. Check out his online literary journal called stonestone (http://stonestone.unbc.ca) and his poetry blog writingwaynorth (http://writingwaynorth.blogspot.com).

Reviews

[Magdelanye · Rating 3 out of 5]

RB appears to be a lovely, man, earnest and playful, a good combination.
Some of his poems I like very much, which is pleasing. His almost anachronistic idealism may be edged with doubt but it does not render him less eager to encounters with the new. His language games may be a bit obscure for me and that may be why I feel like a lot of the poems floated off to the side or right over my head.

here, where poetry and place are conditional:
the weather and my walks
miss everything
p100