Included in this unparalleled collection are Christian Bök, Anne Carson, and Erin Mouré, whose experiments with genre have landed them international acclaim; Lisa Robertson and Ken Babstock, whose explorations of the pastoral and the sonnet, respectively, reach as far back into poetry's history as they do into the future of those forms; George Elliot Clarke, whose striking lyrics have been adapted for opera; and Tim Lilburn, Don McKay, and Jan Zwicky, who have reinvented some of poetry's primordial components from the wilder fringes of the Canadian landscape.

Along with Nicole Brossard, Dionne Brand, Christopher Dewdney, Susan Goyette, Dennis Lee, Daphne Marlatt, Michael Ondaantje, Fred Wah, and others, these poets have been carefully chosen to convey the exhilarating commotion and diversity of Canadian verse. For native readers, Open Field represents a handy selection of their country's most vibrant writers, both established and emergent; for readers in the United States and elsewhere, it is the perfect introduction to the skill and daring ubiquitous in Canadian poetry today.