Poetry. A long poem at the fringes of the Canadian tradition, EX MACHINA is a latticework of poetic and philosophical statements concerning the symbiosis of humans, books, and machines. A series of three intertwining sequences, the reader is encouraged to move back and forth from statement to statement, seeking development but meeting frustration. The reader thus becomes a larval stage in the poem's development, forging connections between its disparate parts during the course of this mental processing, as the text evolves over multiple readings.

Author Hometown: Calgary, AB CAN



About the author: Jonathan Ball is a writer, filmmaker, scholar, and teacher. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Calgary, with specializations in Canadian Literature and Literary Theory, and a focus in Creative Writing. He is the author of two books of poetry: EX MACHINA (BookThug, 2009) and the forthcoming CLOCKFIRE (Coach House, 2010). Jonathan is also a screenwriter and director. His film Spoony B aired on The Comedy Network and he is the co-author of an original screenplay, Way of the Samurai, which was re-written by the director as the independent feature film Snake River. Jonathan is the former short films programmer for the Gimli Film Festival and the former editor of the literary journal dANDelion.

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http://www.jonathanball.com/