With links to intense poetic works like John Berryman’s Dream Songs, Gilbert Sorrentino’s Corrosive Sublimate and Erin Mouré’s Furious, Jon Paul Fiorentino’s new collection is a whip-smart poetic investigation of anxiety in all its many manifestations. Anxiety caused by geography, anxieties of influence and looming worries about loss inform the poems as they weave narrative threads and associations that highlight both the treachery of language and its necessity in shaping human experience: 'All roads, side roads/all text, signage/All seasons, autumn/ all memories, winter.'The poems here build on Derrida’s ideas about the psychological implications of memory and the archival impulse and on philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotics of 'the index.' Indexical Elegies is a rich, emotionally charged work that showcases Fiorentino’s talents at their feisty, engaged best. From its Post-Prairie pamphleteering and its comic Montreal musings to its moving elegies, this is provocative poetry that never loses touch with the reader’s pleasure.**

Needs Improvement, the latest collection from acclaimed poet Fiorentino, consists of three sections: Needs Improvement, a suite of experiments that address various misreadings of pedagogical and evaluative material; Moda, a section of civic, alyric villanelles that take city and borough mottos for their refrains; and Things As Facts, a section of highly manipulated and manipulative free verse.About the AuthorJon Paul Fiorentino: Jon Paul Fiorentino is the author of the novel Stripmalling, which was shortlisted for the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, and four poetry collections, including The Theory of the Loser Class, which was shortlisted for the A. M. Klein Prize. He lives in Montreal, where he teaches writing at Concordia University, edits Matrix magazine.

The characters in I'm not Scared of You or Anything are invigilators, fake martial arts experts, buskers, competitive pillow fighters, drug runners, and, of course, grad students. This collection of comedic short stories and exploratory texts is the ninth book by the critically acclaimed and award-winning author Jon Paul Fiorentino. Deftly illustrated by Maryanna Hardy, these texts ask important questions, like: How does a mild mannered loser navigate the bureaucratic terrain of exam supervision? What happens when you replace the text of Christian Archie comics with the text of Hélène Cixous? And, most important of all, what would it be like if Mr. Spock was a character in the hbo series girls?Illustrated throughout by the wonderful, full colour artwork of Maryanna Hardy!"I'm sure something scares Jon Paul Fiorentino, and maybe it drives him toward the deadpan magic he wields so masterfully in these pages. This is a daring and funny collection." (Sam Lipsyte)