Thirty-Two Degrees — Raymond Beauchemin

32 Degrees" is an anthology of prose, poetry, and drama edited by Raymond Beauchemin, "distin-guished" (in the words of Elizabeth Spenser) "by talents which have been nurtured into significant growth, and featuring] ... a variety of styles, each of which rings clear and true." For Clark Blaise, both the new and established writers in this collection are "on the road, turning heads, leaving foreign models in the dust."
The author list of" 32 Degrees" (simultaneously post graduates of Montreal's Concordia University writing program) includes nationally recognised writers such as Nino Ricci, allowing the reader a glimpse into the early world of his extraordinary novel, Lives of the Saints, as well as less familiar, but no less talented writers like Nova Scotian David McGimpsey meditating on the legendary and dismal death of country music great, Hank Williams.
Also present? Toronto's April Bulmer, who writes a taut lyric, subtle with the details of her Ontario milieu. Fellow Ontarian Richard Harrison examines the new evolving attitudes of his generation of men and women. Out of the Mennonite community of Southern Manitoba, Grant Loewen invents the character 'Brick', whom Robert Kroetsch has identified as a "new champion" in a novel which is "a computer game for the end of the millenium." Clowns and real magicians inhabit the rodeo, stetson, and sawdust world of Saskatchewan in the magic-realist realm of Dan McBain. Other pieces in the anthology are by Pacific Coast resident Mark Cochrane, the accomplished Elizabeth Harvor, Ray Smith, Robert Majzels, Sharon Sparling, and Stephen Henighan.