Flicker

by Rob Budde

Call it what you will -- the short-short story, the prose poem, micro-fiction -- accomplished poet, anthologist and novelist Rob Budde uses the form to convey glimpses of narrative and character, or story, through the intense personal imagery of poetry. Flicker is made up of short prose pieces, many with the emotional intensity of lyric poems. While a narrative arc penetrates the pieces and binds many of them together, the tightly constructed language and profoundly personal imagery tell another story, the emotional heartbeat that lives beneath language. A young man's summer in the bush becomes a dark, frightening and mysterious meditation on the meaning of wood. The old man for whom he works is seen through the narrator's eyes becoming a gnarled relic of the forest, the tree as human. These stories of youth and experience lure the reader in through plot and characterization using the subjective immediacy of poetry.

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

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).