Constructive Negativity

Constructive Negativity is a book of criticism without precedent in Canadian Literature. The result of over twenty years of participation in the nations poetry community, it combines Shane Neilsons lived experience of disability with prize culture theory in order to create that rarest of creatures: criticism as page-turner. In the first section of the book, Neilson repurposes Rilkes famous admonition, saying to poets You must change your genre meaning, you must write criticism in order for poetry to have a life in an era dominated by prize culture. Later, Neilson provides a starting point for others to engage with books of Canadian poetry using the lens of disability, covering a range of texts and especially weighing in on the authors particular community, those with invisible disability.