A Cemetery for Holes by Tom Prime & Gary Barwin
In A Cemetery for Holes, poetic language bends and breaks, resists and reforms under the stress of family trauma. Consensual reality shifts with nonconsensual harm. It is this history of violence which is ultimately, confronted, fought against, and overcome. While engaged in this struggle, the poems also strive to rebuild, to console and to rediscover the world, its beauty, tenderness, humour, and joy.
Praise for A Cemetery for Holes
"An impressive, startling collaboration from two shape-shifting poets." – Jonathan Ball, Winnipeg Free Press
"There is an intimate sense of dark and light that run throughout, from a dark humour to surreal twists. Throughout the collection, the poems begin to change physically as the two writers intertwine, poems that begin to pull apart physically, stretched across the canvas of the page". – Rob McLennan, rob mclennan's blog
"A Cemetery For Holes is an important reminder of how communication should work—not always as a search for answers but as a respectful dialogue." – Robert Colman, PRISM international
"Punchy, funny, and dark... Tom Prime and Gary Barwin's muddying of language and meaning speak to the experience of a victim, and their sense of humour encourages us to look past victimhood, at the individual." – Alex Pospisil, Broken Pencil
"A Cemetery for Holes is an important read, one that I recommend to all who seek clarity on toxic masculinity and sexual violence. It is a book that is infinitely playful and flexible, yet palpably informative and educational." – Khashayar Mohammadi, ARC Poetry (Summer 2020)