While Supplies Last - Paperback

by Anita Lahey (Author)

Anita Lahey writes the kind of rigorously observed, emotionally charged poetry few can match. In While Supplies Last, her first collection in eleven years, Lahey throws herself on the mercy of a changing climate, takes refuge in art and revels in everyday wonders. In the final section, about a forest fire that devastated the Cape Breton village of Main-à-dieu in 1976, she becomes a custodian of local histories. No matter the subject, whether traffic reports during the pandemic, a fossilized baby mammoth, or Toronto's iconic Don River, Lahey extends the sense of what language can do and say. This is tour de force writing: mischievous, unpredictable, urgent, never boring. In While Supplies Last, Lahey comes fully into her own.

Author Biography

Anita Lahey is the author of The Mystery Shopping Cart: Essays on Poetry and Culture and two poetry collections: Spinning Side Kick and Out to Dry in Cape Breton. An award-winning magazine journalist, her most recent book, The Last Goldfish: A True Tale of Friendship, was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award. Lahey serves as series editor of the annual anthology, Best Canadian Poetry. She lives in Ottawa with her family.