The Words Wanting Out: Poems Selected and New

The Words Wanting Out is the first selection from one of Canada’s most respected poets. In 1982 Barry Dempster landed on the short list for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry for his very first book, and has since published seven more collections to high praise.

Over this time, Dempster has chosen to keep a relatively low profile, relocating from Toronto to the small town of Holland Landing, Ontario, and only publishing his work at small literary presses. Many of his collections are either out of print or not widely distributed, making all of his titles highly sought after by poetry readers across Canada who have discovered his poignant writing by reputation, word-of-mouth, literary journals or by his contributions to our cultural landscape as an editor, instructor and critic.

The Words Wanting Out collects the best poems of Dempster’s varied and dynamic output, including those from his 2003 collection Living Well (available in limited edition only from Poppy Press).