An independent scholar, Bringhurst is known for his award-winning translations of the Haida storytellers from islands in the Pacific Northwest. Named by W.S. Merwin as a 2011 Witter Bynner Award-winner As author of The Elements of Typographic Style, Bringhurst is one of the world’s deep thinkers about words, letterforms, and their presentation. His work has been translated into many languages. Selected Poems gathers the best work from fifteen collections The collection’s geography is wide-ranging: Japan, the Middle East, El Salvador, and British Columbia. Bringhurst has long been fascinated with polyphonics: “If conditions are right, it is good for poems to be spoken aloud. I mean that the poems themselves can benefit—and if that occurs, people may benefit too.” Selected Poems contains complete versions of, and special design treatments for, the polyphonic poems “Conversations with a Toad” and “The Blue Roofs of Japan”
