Norm Sibum and Bruce Serafin were two originators of The Vancouver Review. Born in Oberammergau, Germany in 1947, Sibum grew up in Germany, Alaska, Utah and Washington prior to coming to Canada in 1968. A joint U.S.-Canadian citizen, Sibum has lived in Montreal for the 21st century, but he evolved as a poet in Vancouver within the very loose configuration of writers within the Pulp Press circle.

Described as a sustained howl against libertarianism under George Bush, Sibum's The Traymore Room evokes an old walk-up apartment building in downtown Montreal with denizens who drink at the nearby café. They include Eggy, a red-faced, West Virginian and a veteran of Korea; Eleanor R (not Eleanor Roosevelt); Dubois, a French-Canadian optimist; Moonface, a waitress-cum-Latin-scholar and "sexpot inexpert"; and
"our hero Calhoun," described as a draft dodger and poetical type.

POETRY:

Banjo (1972)
Small Commerce (1978)
Loyal and Unholy Hours (1980)
Beggars (1981)
Among Other Howls in the Storm (1982)
Ten Poems (1985)
Eight Poems (1987)
Café Poems (1988)
Narratives and Continuations (1990)
In Laban's Field (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1993)
The Apostle's Secretary (1993)
Septimius Felton (1994)
The November Propertius (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1998)
Girls and Handsome Dogs (Porcupine's Quill, 2002)
The Pangborn Defence (Biblioasis) $17.95 978-1-89723-152-4
Smoke and Lilacs (Biblioasis) $17.95 978-1-85754-936-2
Sub Divo (Biblioasis) $18.95 978-1-92684-596-8
The Traymore Rooms (Biblioasis 2013)

[BCBW 2014] "Poetry"