Focusing on the tough and gritty North End of Hamilton, the individual pieces in this collection form a long narrative that artfully explores issues of masculinity.

Michael Knox has two previous books, Play Out the Match (2006) and The North End Poems (2008), and his work has appeared in a range of literary journals and magazines. He lives with his wife in Toronto.

Michael Knox's profile page

"Each poem annunciates its nested group of main and supporting characters whose poetic sketches are so visceral as to grant the reader the feel of cigarette ash, grime, and blood under his or her fingers....The reader can expect to be drawn in by the bald drama of the characters in each poetic sequence, and to be kept in a kind of headlock of rapt attention as the story unfurls."  “Scene Magazine

"Powerful, heady, alert, no-surrender writing. Knox inhabits the stratosphere with this book. He makes it sound easy and flawless. He sings expansively about narrow lives, and lovingly about connections, and about failures to connect. He is the man to bring this slice of urban life alive, and I suspect he will be heard from for a long time into the future."  “Prairie Fire