THE AFGHAN WAR’S IMPACT ON CANADIANS’ DAILY LIVES THE THEME OF A NEW POETRY COLLECTION BY TOM WAYMAN, TO BE LAUNCHED APRIL 27 AT NELSON’S OXYGEN ART CENTRE

How the Afghan War has impacted daily life in Canada is the focus of West Kootenay author Tom Wayman’s newest collection of poems, Dirty Snow, which will be launched April 27 at the Oxygen Art Centre, 320 Vernon St. (alley entrance), Nelson.

The launch, which begins at 7:30 p.m., is free and open to the public.

“The core of Dirty Snow is the Afghan War, whose effects hang over all of us: the financial, moral, and social waste, as well the destruction of lives, minds and bodies that has resulted from Canada’s military intervention in a civil war between two odious sets of combatants,” Wayman said.

He said the poems of Dirty Snow explore the tension between two realities.  “We are citizens of a nation which has impoverished itself through pointless military adventurism, and simultaneously we in B.C.’s southeastern Interior are inhabitants of one of the most beautiful and inspiring landscapes on the planet, a region whose networks of caring, intelligent and strong-minded individuals allow for an existence here that is rich beyond measure.”

Winlaw resident Wayman has had more than a dozen collections of his poems published, and his books have been nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry and the B.C. Book Prize for Poetry.  His collection of short fiction, Boundary Country, currently is a contender for the 2012 One Book One Kootenay selection, a project of the Kootenay Library Federation.  He has taught writing at several post-secondary institutions, including Nelson’s David Thompson University Centre and the Kootenay School of the Arts, and most recently the University of Calgary.

The launch of Dirty Snow is part of Oxygen Art Centre’s Presentation Series, which hosts artists’ talks, author readings, book launches, independent film showings and community forums.