BRUCK, Julie. Monkey Ranch. London [Ontario]: Brick Books, 2012. Third Printing. 228x157mm. Trade Paperback. New. 85pp.

Winner of the 2012 Governor General's Award for Poetry.

Julie Bruckís third book of poetry is a brilliant and unusual blend of pathos and play, of deep seriousness and wildly veering humour. Though Bruck "does not stammer when it's time to speak up," and "will not blink when it's time to stare directly at the uncomfortable," as Cornelius Eady says in his blurb for the book, "in Monkey Ranch she celebrates more than she sighs, and she smartly avoids the shallow trap of mere indignation by infusing her lines with bright, nimble turns, the small, yet indelible detail. Bruck sees everything we do; she just seems to see it wiser. Her poems sing and roil with everything complicated and joyous we human monkeys are."

"Monkey Ranch has all the antic sensuality and thrilling precision weíve come to expect from Julie Bruckís work. This volume has a pitch-perfect elegance that calms the ruckus just long enough for us to glimpse the vulnerability of everyone involved. Monkey Ranch is like the best sort of letter from a friend &nhash; full of gossip, lively observation, and serious wit." – Sharon Thesen