Nineteen Fifty-Seven

Jim McLean’s new poetry collection weaves in and out of the decades of experience accrued by the author in the thirty years since his first work was published – creating an intimate world for the reader that is at the same time beautiful and haunting.

Nineteen Fifty-Seven is much more than a look at Prairie life after World War II - with sections on Women, Family, Memories, Work, Writing and Music - these poems are an exploration on what makes life worth living. In plain language, McLean weaves fascinating, sentimental images of Moose Jaw and the Prairie landscape, as well as stories of workers and the railroads. At the same time, McLean creates a separate persona to move in an out of darker poems on death, suicide, alcoholism and voyeurism. Through poems such as "my brother, who I looked out for when we were kids", "After" and "about MacKay", McLean delves into the heart of humanity: what keeps us alive, and what shapes our past, present, and future.