?For a long time, people have looked to science as a way to understand their own lives. But while science has proven itself a useful metaphor, it has just as often been exposed as being as fallible as the flawed humans who lean on it. Newcomer Leigh Kotsilidis''s lively, thoughtful and refreshingly speculative first collection engages and questions the linguistic roots of the hypothetical, both as they apply to the Scientific Method and its faith in certainty, and to the word''s alternate meaning, as something that is merely ''supposed to be true,'' and often, over time, is proved false.

Under the poet''s wide-angled, open-hearted, open-minded gaze, scientific method slowly begins to mirror the dark art of poetry, reinforcing what we believe about ourselves and the world one minute, then abruptly throwing everything into question: ''At the heart of all matter/ is a single immutable point/ Listen, climb in, I''ll show you/ what I mean by rock.''

Leigh Kotsilidis grew up in North Bay and Niagara Falls. In 2006 she graduated from York University in Anthropology and Creative Writing. Her poems have appeared in literary journals including The Fiddlehead, Prism International and Prairie Fire, and have been anthologized in I.V. Lounge Nights, This Grace and The Hoodoo You Do So Well. In 2009 she was selected as a finalist for the CBC Literary Awards. She currently lives in Montreal where she works as a freelance graphic designer while completing her MFA in Studio Arts.