The Crow Who Tampered With Time From Lloyd Ratzlaff
The Crow Who Tampered With Time, acclaimed collection of literary essays
The Crow Who Tampered With Time, an acclaimed collection of essays reflecting on nature and spirituality by noted Saskatchewan author Lloyd Ratzlaff, now has a new home with Shadowpaw Press Reprise, which publishes new editions of notable, previously published work. Shadowpaw Press will also be republishing Ratzlaff’s second collection of essays, Backwater Mystic Blues, in 2023.
“The Crow Who Tampered With Time was published twenty years ago by Thistledown Press,” says Ratzlaff. “It was my first book, and after three printings seemed to have run its course. To have this new edition released by Shadowpaw Press makes me feel (as Mark Twain said) ‘very proud and happy.’”
“Each essay in The Crow Who Tampered With Time is a sparkling gem of literary nonfiction. As a whole, the collection elicits the full panoply of emotions from readers, who will close the book feeling both thoughtful and fulfilled,” says Edward Willett, editor and publisher of Shadowpaw Press. “I’m thrilled to be able to bring The Crow Who Tampered With Time back into the marketplace, where I hope many new readers will find it and fall in love with it as I did.”
The Crow Who Tampered With Time can be ordered through any brick-and-mortar or online bookstore. It can also be purchased directly from Shadowpaw Press at https://shadowpawpress.com/product/the-crow-who-tampered-with-time/.
More about the book
In this collection of essays, Lloyd Ratzlaff brings the prairie landscape to life through a capacious imagination charged with wonder and the gentle irony of an awareness tempered by time and love. Ratzlaff connects with the challenges posed by skepticism and belief, countering both the cynicism and doctrinairism of contemporary life with a renewed praise of the profound depths of the spirit and the natural world.
“The Crow Who Tampered With Time blossoms with essays that find radiance and coherence in a world (both natural and human) that formal religious dogma has forgotten. A visionary humility and an original, engaging voice make these essays and recollections both accessible and wonder-filled . . . This is a book of exquisite imagery, humorous observation, breathtaking honesty and profound insight. The essays pulse with emotional poignancy . . . ” – All Lit Up
“Sometimes we read exactly the right book at exactly the right time in our life. The Crow Who Tampered With Time, a book of short, spiritual reflections by Saskatoon’s Lloyd Ratzlaff, was a healing balm for me. I took it into my garden, pulled a chair into the sun, and didn’t move again—except to wipe tears of joy and enlightenment—until I’d completed it . . . The author is a man who can sit alone in a park and announce to the air, ‘I love this world, I love being here,’ and, after reading his book, I was able to do that, too. Highly recommended.” – Shelley A. Leedahl, SaskBooks Reviews
“(Ratzlaff’s) prose is so sensual, so sensitive to sound, and so layered with meanings that it often elicits a gasp of surprise, followed by delight over the rightness of the phrase. This is language to be savoured. . . It is not possible to read these short essays . . . without having one’s vision expanded.” – Edna Froese, Journal of Mennonite Studies
“This is a book of exquisite imagery, humorous observation, breathtaking honesty, and profound insight. As I read, the poignancy of each piece left me shaking my head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. In many cases, it was both . . . This ‘small’ book carries within its pages the expansiveness of the prairie sky-it changes and deepens at each look.” – Maureen Weber, Prairie Messenger
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
The most recent book by Lloyd Ratzlaff is a third collection of literary nonfiction, Bindy’s Moon (Thistledown Press). His essays are also featured in several anthologies, including Sons and Mothers: Stories From Mennonite Men, Reading the River: A Traveller’s Companion to the North Saskatchewan River, and apart: a year of pandemic poetry and prose. A former minister, counsellor, and lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan, he has taught writing classes for READ Saskatoon, the Western Development Museum, and the University of Saskatchewan Certificate of Art and Design. He was a columnist for Prairie Messenger Catholic Journal through its last nineteen years of publication. He lives in Saskatoon.
