The Algonquin Park Experiments by Brittany Renaud
First electronic edition
ISBN 978-1-989668-01-6
Praise for The Algonquin Park Experiments:
It’s hard to tell if these poems are magic realism or just plain magic: a voice you hear only in the sunlight, standing among the trees of Algonquin Park. These poems are the underbrush, the dappling sunlight, the whir of unseen birds through the branches — but also the alluring glint of an ancient chip bag half-buried in the sand … Renaud puts the reverence back into irreverence — the way broken bottles are rubbed by waves into sea glass, until they once again become something precious …
- Dessa Bayrock, publisher of post ghost press
Renaud’s collection is the perfect balm for the sunburned and the bug-bitten; it smartly captures our often bizarre, fraught, and pre-packaged desires to ‘escape to nature.’ This is one camping trip where the fun comes in the unpacking.
- Tom Cull, author of Bad Animals
The Algonquin Park Experiments draws attention to all the human infrastructure in the form of roadside cheeseburgers, errant beer cans and email confirmations we require to facilitate our experiences of nature. Here, the worlds of the natural and the digital continue to merge, and if you think otherwise, Renaud has the receipts to prove it.
- Ben Robinson, author of Mayami, Mumbles in Hollywood, California, and The Sims in Real Life
Featuring cover art by Kailee Wakeman
Scroll down for an excerpt
Excerpt: "2014-2015 Metal Detector Treasures
(Lake of Two Rivers)"
3 pull tags
(1 small and green)
(1 medium and “silver”)
(1 large and “gold”)
1 Hot Wheels Corvette
(blue-green)
1 rusted bobby pin
1 hair clip
(pink with white hearts)
7 bottle caps
(1 white and blue “Corona Extra”)
(2 grey)
(2 “Moosehead Lagers”)
(1 white and green “Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer”)
(1 “gold” with black lines, a heraldic crest with a
two-headed bird holding a sceptre and a sphere with a
crown above and two bulls to the left and right)
1 rusted bolt
(perhaps from a lawn chair)
1 crushed and folded tinfoil wrapper
(presumably an applesauce cover)
1 large “Walmart Special” engagement ring with
3 stones of presumed “diamonds”
2 pennies
(1 blackened Canadian 2001)
(1 rusted and green American, indiscernible year)
Sand