Mono-browed cousins, clandestine paperboys, murderous action heroes and Swiss euthanasia clinics jostle for position in Ross Sutherland's intelligent and wildly entertaining debut collection of poetry.  Sutherland charts the never-ending urban excursions of Pac-Man; constructs mash-ups of celebrity obits; and dons a surgical mask to conduct an 'Experiment to Determine the Existence of Love'. Things To Do Before You Leave Town is a sharp, ambitious and blackly comic exploration of the end of things, where 'all the roads that lead out are really leading back in'.  REVIEW QUOTES  'In his free-wheeling lyricism, caustic wit and brilliantly surreal turn of image, Sutherland is a truly contemporary original. His poetry rejuvenates techniques as disparate as collage, memoir, sound experiment and formal appropriation in vigorous but finely wrought lines. Refreshingly fearless and bleakly funny, Things To Do Before You Leave Town collects works that shock and delight in performance but reveal their true depth on the page.' Luke Kennard  'Ross Sutherland's poetry approaches the epic; a kind of epic on a human scale. If he were a piece of furniture, he would be an elegant high stool that felt uncomfortable and stylish at the same time.' Ian McMillan, BBC Radio 3

Things To Do Before You Leave Town

Literature & Fiction

Sutherland, Ross

Poetry

Penned in the Margins

Imaginary Advice: Guided Writing Journal (Paperback Edition)

Computers & Technology

Internet & Social Media

lulu.com

Imaginary Advice: Guided Writing Journal

Party Trap

Ross Sutherland

Offering a daring exposé of Canada’s laboratory system, this investigation unveils its historical and contemporary development, contending that its landscape has been heavily influenced by private, for-profit companies to the detriment of public health care. The study covers the ongoing debate between private and public organizations, the history of the for-profit companies’ rise to power, how laboratory services vary outside of Canada, and more. This is an important contribution to an evolving discussion, featuring commentary on cost and integration as well as quality and accessibility.

False Positive: Private Profit in Canada’s Medical Laboratories (Fernwood Basics)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Fernwood Publishing

Welcome to a science fiction reality of mirrors, windows and menacing simulacra - where nothing is as it seems. In this ambitious and long-awaited second full collection, Sutherland interrogates the language of authenticity, presenting the poet as an anxious, disorientated collaborator trapped in a world of hacked computers and digital avatars. Emergency Window features new poems alongside excerpts from two recent sequences, including a hilarious and strangely prescient version of Little Red Riding Hood, a poem written using Google Streetview, sonnets inspired by the Street Fighter 2 video game, and a sequence of computer-generated translations of classic literature. Surreal, funny, intelligent and experimental, these poems chart a search for meaning in a disintegrating world. Reviews of Emergency Window "lucid observations, smart conceits and insight into the contemporary world as a fragmented, self-constructed thing" Holly Williams, The Independent "The images cohere and expand, making gloriously relevant new ones; the crows rising up in omen as ornate costumes burn is undercut by the pile of singed polyester flares and pink Mia Wallace wigs. Neither image can flatten the other, both floundering in the disconnect between feeling and circumstance." Carmel Doohan, Exeunt Magazine "These poems have a particular beauty, liberated from any notion of original meaning which clears space for new, surprising significance. [... Sutherland's] engagement with the hyper- and sub-real is subtle and enjoyable." Jessica Stacey, The Literateur "playful, energetic and saturated in the environment (if not the values) of late-consumerist society" Steve Spence, Stride Magazine

Emergency Window

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Books by Sutherland, Ross