Richard Harrison’s previous books include the Governor General’s Literary Award finalist Big Breath of a Wish and Hero of the Play, the first book of poetry launched at the Hockey Hall of Fame. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, a position he took up after being the Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary in 1995. His work has been published, broadcast and displayed around the world, and his poems have been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic.

On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood

In On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood, Richard Harrison reflects on his father’s death, the Alberta Flood and what poetry offers a life lived around it. In his final years, Harrison’s father suffered from a form of dementia, but he died without ever forgetting the poems he had memorized as a student and taught his son. The fear that his father’s ashes had been lost in the flood water that ravaged Alberta in 2013 becomes the inciting event and central theme of this collection. Combining elements of memoir, elegy, lyrical essay and personal correspondence with appreciations of literary works ranging from haiku to comic books, Richard Harrison has written a book of great intellectual depth that is as generous as it is enchanting.