Kelly Shepherd wrote five poetry chapbooks prior to Shift (Thistledown, 2016), a collection of poems in which he explores human relationships with the natural world including connection, alienation and the intersections of ecology and industry. The natural world dominates the themes but the poems also reflect the many meanings of the title including a shift in point of view, physically moving or shifting position, and transformation. Shift, we are told, "rings with the energy of ecopoetics, where human encounters with nature become transformational, and the many meanings of the title are explored."

Shepard is from Smithers. He lives and teaches in Edmonton, Alberta. His writing has been published in The Goose, Geist, and The Coastal Spectator.

BOOKS:

the bony world (chapbook, 2010)
if one petal falls (chapbook, 2012)
Fort McMurray Trickster (chapbook, 2014)
The First Metaphor (chapbook, 2014)
Shift (Thistledown, 2016) $17.95 978-1-77187-104-4

[BCBW 2016]