Life is Like Canadian Football and Other Authentic Folk Songs

A grossly inaccurate “memoir” about Canadian folk legends.

Henry Adam Svec has been pushing boundaries in Canadian folklore since he unearthed songs by CFL players in Library and Archives Canada, thereby thrusting himself into the scene—and the media spotlight. Those spartan poems are finally included in this anthology, in addition to the fruits of his subsequent expeditions, but there is much more besides, including honest accounts of the folklorist’s myriad trials and tribulations. This experimental and genre-defying book mixes the adventurous energies of Alan Lomax and Stompin’ Tom, the intertextual conceptualism of Vladimir Nabokov and Mark Z. Danielewski, and the searing intensity of Elizabeth Smart and Chris Kraus.

Henry Adam Svec is the author of American Folk Music as Tactical Media. His writing has appeared in The New Quarterly, C Magazine, MOTHERBOARD, and elsewhere, and his musical performances have been presented in galleries and festivals including 7a*11d, FADO, and Sappyfest. He is also co-creator of Donair Academy, a digital role-playing game exploring Atlantic Canadian cuisine. He was raised on a cherry farm near Blenheim, Ontario, and has also lived in New Brunswick and Mississippi. He currently teaches at the University of Waterloo.