Goose - Paperback

by Melanie Dennis Unrau (Author)

Poems that retrace unconscious lines of thought and flight to write a new history of the tar sands

Tracing words the way a tracker moves across land,
Goose collects hand-copied details from Northland Trails, a
book of self-illustrated short stories, poems, and essays about the
Athabasca region authored by "father of the tar sands" S. C. Ells.
At turns cheeky, sharp-witted, and grave, Melanie Dennis Unrau's
poems explore extraction and the relationship between humans, non-
humans, and the land, resulting in an act of irreverent, deconstructive
literary criticism.

Author Biography

Melanie Dennis Unrau is a poet, editor, scholar, and climate organizer of mixed European ancestry from Winnipeg, Manitoba, traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, Ininiwak, Anishininewuk, Dakota Oyate, and Dene peoples and the homeland of the Red River Métis. She is the author of the literary study The Rough Poets: Reading Oil-Worker Poetry (McGill-Queen's UP, 2024) and the poetry collection Happiness Threads: The Unborn Poems (The Muses' Company, 2013). A former editor of The Goose journal and Geez magazine, Melanie also co-edited I'll Get Right on It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis (Fernwood, 2025).