Haunted by the People's Temple tragedy, Fraser Sutherland has, in this extraordinary long poem, reconstructed Jonestown in all its horror and dark comedy, as well as the career of its monstrous architect. Like a cracked mirror image of Christ, the shadow of Jones falls on every page-a hollow man who could not live outside the din of his own voice, a voice that Sutherland renders in the third person. Tracking Jones's perverse pilgrimage from Indiana to California to Guyana, Sutherland shows him melting at the edges so he becomes only a blundering instrument of control, a social chameleon, a monkey in the jungle. Fraser Sutherland's published fiction, poetry and criticism include books such as Madwomen (Black Moss, 1978), John Glassco: An Essay and Bibliography (ECW Press, 1984), The Monthly Epic: A History of Canadian Magazines 1789-1989 (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1989), Jonestown: A Poem (McClelland & Stewart, 1996), and Manual for Immigrants (Tightrope Books, 2007). His diverse works have been published worldwide in numerous magazines and anthologies both in print and online, and he has been translated into French, Italian, Albanian, Serbo-Croatian, and Farsi. Having written and edited for many dictionaries in three countries, Sutherland may be the only Canadian poet who is also a lexicographer.
After earning his Bachelor of Journalism from Carelton University in 1969, Sutherland worked as a reporter and staff writer for several major newspapers and magazines, among them the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and the Wall Street Journal. He became a freelance writer and editor in 1970, and was the founding editor of Northern Journey from 1971-1976, a columnist for Quill & Quire, and the managing editor of Books in Canada. He served as the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Edinburgh, and in 1982-83 he taught at David Thompson University Centre. Born in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Sutherland now lives in Toronto.
