Leeds Beckett professor's experimental book shortlisted for three publishing awards

My Works, Ye Mighty, published by Athabasca University Press, has been nominated for Trade Non-Fiction Book of the Year, Book Cover Design of the Year and Book Design of the Year.

Professor Bök, who teaches Fine Art in Leeds Beckett's Leeds School of Arts and is a member of the Leeds Arts Research Centre (LARC), is internationally recognised for his pioneering work in experimental poetry and conceptual art.

My Works, Ye Mighty discusses the role of ‘scale’ in theories of poetics. The book opens with an epic poem in the voice of Ozymandias (the inventor of ‘the library’), scoffing at his belittlement by the Romantics - after which the book presents an illustrated declamation about the ‘zoom lens’ of poetic vision, expanding discussions of poetry from the tininess of the atom to the vastness of the void.

The publication itself reflects this experimental approach. Produced in a limited edition of 500 printed copies, each book features a unique cover design, depicting a small speck of sand, magnified gradually from cover to cover, until the granule fills the entire spread. A digital edition has been made freely available by the publisher.

Professor Bök said: "My book argues that every school of poetry has some unspoken concepts about the ‘minimal unit of writing’ (be it a letter, a syllable, a word, etc.) - an ‘atom,’ if you like, whose ‘scale’ of permutation determines the aesthetics of a poem."

The Alberta Book Publishing Awards celebrate excellence in publishing across the Canadian province of Alberta. This year, judges assessed 90 submissions across 14 categories, with My Works, Ye Mighty receiving the unusual distinction of being shortlisted in three separate categories.

As well as being recognised for its content, the book has also been shortlisted for its visual presentation. Its cover, designed by Natalie Olsen of Kisscut Design, is nominated for Book Cover Design of the Year, while the publication is also in contention for Book Design of the Year.

Professor Bök is one of Canada's most celebrated contemporary poets. His acclaimed work Eunoia won the Griffin Poetry Prize, while his ambitious project The Xenotext explored the intersection of poetry, art and synthetic biology by engineering DNA to store a poem.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, The Power Plant in Toronto and the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. The winners of the 2026 Alberta Book Publishing Awards will be announced at a gala ceremony in Edmonton on 17 September.