The Voluptuous Gardener: The Collected Art and Writing of Joe Rosenblatt, 1973-1996 Paperback - 1996

Joe Rosenblatt has been Writer-in-Residence and visiting lecturer at University of Victoria, University of Western Ontario and has traveled extensively for readings in Italy (many of his works have been translated into Italian), Sweden and Finland.

His work in the 60s and 70s included The voyage of the mood, The LSD Leacock, The winter of the lunar moth, Greenbaum, Bumblebee dithyramb, Dream craters, Virgins and Vampires, Doctor Anaconda's solar fun club and Losely tied hands: an experiment in punk. The unity of organic forms and the interconnectedness of natural life is a theme which permeates the body of Rosenblatt's writing signalling the collision of conventional and visionary forces which produce a hybrid science of "poetic biology." For Rosenblatt this is a fecund energy - the mystic form made flesh, a divine bestiary.

In 1976 his book Top Soil won the Governor General's Award for Poetry. He has appeared in more than 50 anthologies and literary magazines.

Of his 17 books to date, recent titles include: The Sleeping Lady ( Exile, 1980) Brides of the Stream (Oolichan, 1983) Poetry Hotel (McClelland & Stewart, 1985) winner of the B.C. Book Prize, Escape from the Glue Factory (Exile, 1985) The Kissing Goldfish of Siam (Exile, 1989) Bed & Consenting Dreamers (Oolichan, 1994) A Tentacled Mother (Exile, 1995) The Rosenblatt Reader (Exile, 1995).