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PALIMPSEST is the traditional name for a tablet or parchment showing traces of old inscription scraped off to make way for new. Today, amid a tempest of technology where scroll has been replaced by screen, the term may have adapted for a more generic connotation, yet those timeless traces live on. It is in celebration of our priceless legacy of literature that I have created 'Palimpsest: A Book of Literary Classics Penned Again in Verse'. Each of the original poems it contains is based on, or inspired by, a plot, style, theme or character either from the best-loved work of a past master or from history itself. 

The verses of this unique treasury include tributes to best-loved authors like Shakespeare, Poe, Tennyson and Dickens, as well as lively re-tellings of myth, folk and fairy tale. Accompanied by nine prose passages of background information, they would make a creative supplement to home school study or classroom instruction, or the ideal gift this holiday season for that special book worm or word nerd on your list! Whether you read them silently or aloud, alone or in company, I hope they convey a little of the boundless admiration I feel for the founding genius that inspired me to their composition.

Elizabeth Faris studied English Language and Literature at the University of British Columbia and Literacy Instruction at Simon Fraser University and, for the past twenty years, has enjoyed working with English and ESL learners of all ages and ethnic origin. Her passion for writing extends to creative non-fiction and poetry, formal and informal, based either on a spectrum of original themes or the plots of literature and traditional tales. Her work reflects her special interest in nurturing continuity between past and present when it comes to our beloved legacy of classics.