To read the Globe's review of the books listed here, click on the title.
NIGHT WORK The Sawchuk Poems, by Randall Maggs, Brick Books, 192 pages, $20
Newfoundland poet Randall Maggs signals early on his focus on the humanness of this god of hockey. He opens with a found poem from the postmortem examination of goalie legend Terry Sawchuk, who died in 1970 after a still-mysterious tussle with a teammate. Maggs displays his own deep knowledge of "an ancient game with ancient rules." This book of long, narrative poems is, in fact, an exquisite biographical novel, in the tradition of Michael Ondaatje's classic The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. John Degen
THE SELECTED GWENDOLYN MacEWEN Edited by Meaghan Strimas, Exile Editions, 330 pages, $32.95
This collection is a signal event in Canadian culture. Not only does it provide readers with sumptuous samplings and generous helpings of entries across the swath of genres with which the late, haunted wordsmith wrestled, it also cements her reputation as the greatest poet of her generation. This gorgeously produced objet d'art towers above the field. Judith Fitzgerald
TROUBLED By R. M. Vaughan, Coach House, 80 pages, $16.95
This gorgeous and courageous book is a memoir in poems that chronicles the disastrous sexual relationship that Vaughan had with his actual (and unnamed) psychiatrist, and the emotional, legal and professional fallout that ensued from it. It would be easy to let this kind of book sink into a morass of embittered diary entries and tawdry sentimentality, but Vaughan is too canny and too gifted for that. Paul Vermeersch