Helen Hajnoczky's above/ground chapbook, A History of Button Collecting, is reviewed in Broken Pencil #55

Anne Emberline was good enough to review Helen Hajnoczky's above/ground chapbook, A History of Button Collecting (above/ground press, 2010) in Broken Pencil #55 (spring 2012 issue). Thanks, Anne! There are a few copies of Hajnoczky’s chapbook still available, here [and here's a piece derek beaulieu wrote on her a while back, for the Globe & Mail book blog]. We eagerly await a second chapbook manuscript, and possibly more. If you can't wait, make sure to check out her blog, here.

Now THIS is some beautiful work. There are 12 pages of poetic prose in this zine, each laid out with a single unadorned paragraph at the top of the page -- no titles, no images. The writing is succinct but also so evocative and cryptically poetic that it's best read slowly. I had to pause to let each page absorb before going on to the next one. And though the pieces seem disconnected, there seems to be a common thread of memory and loss, making this is a beautiful and sad read. A History of Button Collecting was thoroughly enjoyable and continually made my brain tingle with wordy delight.