Selected from Ricardo Sternberg's four collections, along with astonishing new poems, One River is a major event. A poet who, according to one reviewer, "has divined the secret connections between the words," Sternberg's voice is unlike any other: witty, earthy, exuberant, inventive. His poems also forgo conventional subjects. Alchemists, mermaids, angels, and "jongleur" grasshoppers share space with all manner of eccentrics: a trapeze artist, a pilot who navigates by smell, a millionaire who sneaks into heaven disguised as a camel. At the heart of Sternberg's practice is prestidigitation: the sleight of hand that inheres in effortless turns of phrase, brisk syntax, and bold forms. "Leave it to me," he says to his muse, "to come up with something / that while not highfalutin, /carries a whiff of the sublime." Charismatic and original, Sternberg's enduring work is captured in all of its extraordinary range in this new book. (From Véhicule Press)

Ricardo Sternberg is a Toronto-based author and poet. His previous books include The Invention of Honey, Map of Dreams, Bamboo Church, and Some Dance. He is also the author of a book on the Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade.