In The Ridge, Robert Bringhurst offers a work of nonfiction in poetic form, intensely focused on the ecological past, present and future of the West Coast of Canada.

At the book's heart is a long poem, "The Ridge," in which Bringhurst makes meticulous use of scientific language and, with a poet's perspective and precision, translates abstract concepts into tangible and devastating imagery. Global energy consumption is measured in cords of wood instead of BTUs or megawatts; subatomic particles demarcating time and space are prayer flags tearing free in the slow destruction of the solar system. In dazzling prose that weaves together the physical and the metaphysical, Bringhurst shifts his attention from tiny spores to fish farms, the spirit world, telescopes and epistemology.

Beautiful, profound and insightful, The Ridge reflects the author's reputation as one of Canada's most esteemed poets (From Harbour Publishing).

Robert Bringhurst is a writer and former Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. His poetry collection The Beauty of the Weapons was shortlisted for a Governor General's Award in 1982 and his nonfiction book A Story as Sharp as a Knife was shortlisted for a Governor General's Award in 2000.

In 1985, he won the CBC Poetry Prize for his poem The Blue Roofs of Japan and later won the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence in 2005. He is also recipient of the Order of Canada and lives on Quadra Island, B.C.