Meredith Quartermain's Lullabies in the Real World is a sequence of poems about a train journey from West Coast to East Coast that invokes a patchwork of regions, voices and histories. Her language zings with train rhythms as she unfolds a complex conversation with poets such as bpNichol and Robin Blaser.This collection reflects and refracts Canada from diverse angles, and challenges colonizing literatures such as the Odyssey and various canonical British and US voices. As it moves from west to east, the book journeys back in time to interrogate historical events such as the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the exclusion of Acadians. It ends by imagining a time before or outside colonization.Rich, playful and confrontational, Lullabies in the Real World widens the poetic lens of poetry to investigate the place of a colonial nation in history, and the place of a poet vis-à-vis the voices of other poets.

At the height of the Great Depression, two Prairie children struggle with poverty and uncertainty. Surrounded by religion, law, and her authoritarian father, Cora Wagoner daydreams about what it would be like to abandon society altogether and join one of the Indian tribes she's read so much about. Saddened by struggles with Indian Agent restrictions, Hunter George wonders why his father doesn't want him to go to the residential school. As he too faces drastic change, he keeps himself sane with his grandmother's stories of Wîsahkecâhk.As Cora and Hunter sojourn through a landscape of nuisance grounds and societal refuse, they come to realize that they exist in a land that is simultaneously moving beyond history and drowning in its excess. Praise for Rupert's Land "The background of despair is familiar from writers like Sinclair Ross, but the way Quartermain brings an age to life while staring unflinchingly at its attitudes and injustices through the eyes of children is reminiscent of To Kill A Mockingbird. The same innocent intelligence that characterizes Scout in that novel informs Cora's and Hunter's acute observations, conveyed in a blend of pitch perfect dialogue and inner voices." ~ Margaret Thompson, The Coastal Spectator "Quartermain's background in poetry is evident in the novel's lyricism. The imagery is vivid ... the picture Quartermain paints will stay with you for some time." ~ Megan Moore Burns, Quill & Quire "The best fiction brings serious issues into sharper focus. Rupert's Land did this for me because the storyline includes Indian residential schools in Canada - although this is the furthest thing from a preachy book. Gifted Canadian poet Meredith Quartermain shows rather than tells." ~ Linda Diebel, Toronto Star