Like the rhapsodists, the storytellers of ancient Greece, A Pretty Sight shapes voices of the past and present into a stitched song lifted and sounded toward the next century. Haunted by ‘time's frame / that dark shape near the edge of the canvas,’ O’Meara's new book explores aspects of culture, art, war, rebellion and technology, offering defiance amid decay.
‘O’Meara is a poet of the personal. Of the person. In and amongst the social documentary and human observation at which he excels, here is a writer prepared to put feelings on the line and to argue his case with the reader. This is proud, felt, and affecting work — I can't think of many other poets so prepared to engage and so equipped to succeed.’ —Simon Armitage
David O'Meara is the author of four previous collections of poetry, most recently A Pretty Sight (Coach House Books, 2013). He is the Director of the Plan 99 Reading Series, and was the founding Artistic Director for VERSeFest (Canada's International Poetry Festival). A past winner of the Archibald Lampman Prize and the Ottawa Book Award, David was recently the Poet-in-Residence for Arc Poetry Magazine and served as a faculty member at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. He lives in Ottawa, Canada where he tends bar.