Rick Lupert's brings you back to the hidden Canada in the follow up to his 2011 collection, Sinzibuckwud written in Montreal, Death of a Mauve Bat steers you through Toronto and Niagara Falls with Lupert's one of a kind satirical filter. You'll learn Toronto like no-one ever should. You'll climb an unfinished castle, drink a blue drink, mosey in and out of the requisite museums and wonder at the ekphrastic glories that are revealed. You'll wander the streets in search of vegetarian hot dogs and stand in the lights which illuminated the most famous funnytarians of our time. Throw away your guidebook, bring this instead. (okay, maybe bring both.) This is travelogue poetry for the 21st century. I have long been a fan of Rick Lupert's spare and ironic poetry and delight in witnessing its evolutions from book to book. In Death of a Mauve Bat, his 14th collection, he continues to refine his singular style, summoning verse at once astounding in its simplicity and richly humane. I know of no other poet able to establish intimacy with the reader as fast as Lupert. If this is your first experience of his work, I urge you to receive him as you would any friend of a friend. Brendan Constantine The first time I ever heard Rick Lupert read his work in public - maybe the first time he ever had - it was already abundantly clear that he was one of the most gifted humorous poets on the planet (Earth, that is, since we are already being urged to move to another as soon as we can afford to do so.) He is also a master of conciseness, which appeals to me since my attention span has, with age, devolved to one-word poems of no more than one syllable. He is also a master of two types of poems to which I have myself either progressed or regressed or egressed (which is what I guess egrets do): the travel sequence and the ekphrastic meditation. And he's as generous with his time and talents in support of fellow poets of anyone I know. Read this latest book - read all his books - and try to catch a performance of his as well. He's one of a kind. Gerald Locklin