As a grade seven student living in an affluent suburb of Vancouver, our unnamed narrator and his closest friend Nettie, are introduced to the exciting world of super-8 filmmaking by a progressive young teacher. Together Nettie and the narrator find in film a means of expressing their somewhat skewed world views.

At the age of sixteen the narrator shoots his first adult film, surreptitiously capturing his neighbours having sex. He believes that through representations of sexual activity he can comment on that which he finds both painful and confusing. Nettie, an idealistic poet now away at school, sees in pornography the opportunity to do something artistic, liberating, and socially relevant, and she pushes the narrator to make films that subvert the way the world is constructed. Ultimately, despite his radical intentions, the narrator falls into a world of greed, delusion, and hypocrisy - the same world he once rebelled against.

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

WINNER 2000 - BC Book Prize's Ethel Wilson Award for Fiction

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

"Michael Turner is simply one of the best writers in this country.-- Reading The Pornographer's Poem is exciting in a way books very rarely are." -The Georgia Straight

"Very few novels manage to be funny, moving and true: Turner is capable of hitting some very difficult notes." -National Post

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

Michael Turner's first book, Company Town, was nominated for the 1992 Dorothy Livesay B.C. Book Prize for Poetry. His second book, Hard Core Logo, was made into an acclaimed feature film for which he received a Genie Award for his contribution to the movie's soundtrack. His screenplay-cum-novel, American Whiskey Bar, was produced as a live television special on Toronto's CityTV in 1998. He lives in Vancouver.

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page