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Showing posts with the label Randall Maggs

Poetic License

On the weekend CBC Radio host Shelagh Rogers interviewed two of the top authors of hockey books in 2008: Don Cherry and Randall Maggs . While hosting the Canadian books/writing show The Next Chapter , Rogers discovers Cherry reads a lot of books, and talks to The Grapes One about his favorite Hollywood biographies. It turns out Cherry is infatuated with Bette Davis. She also talks to poet Randall Maggs about his book, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems , documenting the troubled life of Terry Sawchuk. The interview is nothing short of fascinating. You can right click to download the podcast right here, or visit The Next Chapter's website .

Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems

It is only March, but I have found the 2008 hockey book of the year. It's too bad I just can't sit down and read it cover to cover. Author/university English professor Randall Maggs (brother of former NHL/WHA defenseman Daryl Maggs) and publisher Brick Books have combined to give us Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems . It is a book that will undoubtedly win countless of industry literary awards and should go down as one of the best hockey books of all time. "Poems," as I call it, is just that. Nearly 200 pages and over 70 individual pieces of poetry that combine to create one long, narrative piece of literary beauty. Yes, poetry. Hockey books don't tend to rank as literary gems because they're not intended to be. Almost without fail they follow the same formulaic approach, to appease the supposed lower end of the reading public spectrum. The stereotype of a hockey book reader is of the "dumb jocks" theory, more likely to read Slash's autobiography ...