Six Mats and One Year — Alison Smith

Over the past decade, countless young Canadians, lured by adventure and the promise of well-paid work, have travelled to Asia to teach English in the many private language schools that have sprung up there. Although these schools provide new opportunities for Asians by opening up Western language and culture, those who have travelled to Asia to teach have as often found themselves the students. Alison Smith''s poems chronicle her experience teaching English in Japan, exploring this cross-cultural exchange in the clear, unadorned narrative voice that typified her debut collection.