An excerpt from
The Signal Anthology
by Edited by Michael Harris
The poets in this anthology have all appeared in - or have manuscripts set to be published by - the Signal Editions poetry series of Véhicule Press inaugurated by Publisher Simon Dardick and myself in 1982.For ten years Signal has drawn to its imprint an eclectic array of extraordinarily interesting poets - some fine 'new' voices, some internationally well-regarded writers. The poets live in Victoria, Montreal, and in Boston, Gainesville, and Berkeley. A number of them come from elsewhere, or spend a lot of time in England, Venezuela, Greece, Japan, Lebanon, Brazil, and the United States. (It is not accidental that a small, but vital part of Signal's publishing program is translation.) Perhaps the poets in this book - who have come from, or live in such a variety of places - are just the ones to look to, to begin to discover where at least part of this country's rich and varied cultural future lies.
My impulse from the outset was to look for work that was of the highest rank in terms of craft and use of language. I wanted insight and revelation - clear evidence of life lived, and then caught and transformed - in work that stirred and exhilarated.
For Signal, to judge by what the first ten years have produced, the next decade looks very bright indeed.
Michael Harris
Montreal, August 1993