I had a hunch when I saw the job title Publishing Assistant/Bosun on the Quill and Quire website today that the position advertised was probably at Coach House Books in Toronto, and I was right. Jobs at small publishers never quite fit the parameters of the traditional titles, but it's nice when the people advertising let you know that from the start.
Seeing that word bosun also reminded me of the first time I encountered it, which was just a few years ago (not enough seafaring literature in my childhood, obviously) in the manuscript for a chapbook I was working on with Dennis Lee. I queried it, thinking it might be a typo, and then after some other correspondence in which I audaciously/stupidly suggested his rhythm might be off at one point in another poem, he called and proceeded to recite, with gusto, that entire poem over the phone, and I had to conclude that in fact his rhythm was bang on. Even though it did nothing much to bolster my confidence in my editorial sensibilities, it will probably always be one of the highlights of my career.
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