ALONE ON A WINDY RIDGE: From the periphery, the outside

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

From the periphery, the outside

...is where "economies, ecosystems, and writing all begin" says Rob Budde in "Writing the Place Awake: Culture in a Northern City." I love the Wallace Stegner quote in this piece.

Tomorrow I'm off on the final leg of the Northern Manitoba tour. I haven't visited Thompson in years and I've never been to Churchill. I look forward to the readings and the train ride, not to mention the birds and the whales and everything else. My next post should appear on June 29.

2 comments:

Anita Daher said...: Hurrah! Say hit to Trevor at the library in Thompson for me, and enjoy Churchill!! If you drive out to Fort Churchill and on the way happen to see "The Stampes" still painted on big rocks...um...when I lived there my name was Anita Stampe (but it wasn't me -- I swear!).; 16/6/05 5:47 AM
Brenda Schmidt said...: Anita, I said hi to Trevor from you. And I will be looking for your name near Churchill! People at the reading last night had great things to say about Churchill and pointed us to their favourite places to eat. I look forward to getting on that train. In the meantime I'll enjoy Thompson. Nice city!; 17/6/05 7:57 AM

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"This is a skilled poet having good fun, and inviting us all to join the party." - Shelley A. Leedahl, SaskBooks Reviews. Read more.

"Employing a variety of forms and the culvert stories — who knew? — of numerous people, she digs beneath the obvious roads to find out what keeps the water — the subconscious, the unconscious — flowing smoothly, discovering a variety of things about herself, notably the everyday masks we wear and the aging process we won’t always admit to." - Bill Robertson, The Star Phoenix. Read more.

"For Schmidt is indeed a poet. Readers can expect to encounter many visual and acoustic delights along the way, from internal rhymes to arresting images." - Trevor Cook, The Antigonish Review #196.

"In Grid..., Creighton's Brenda Schmidt turns a colder eye to the landscape than most other Canadian poets." - Jonathan Ball, Winnipeg Free Press. Read more.

"You can just feel the stones rattling off your undercarriage on this Grid." - Bill Robertson, The Star Phoenix. Read more.

"Like the Prairies, this is not a collection that gives itself away: the true beauty of this book lies in subtleties that may not be obvious at first glance." - Emily McGiffin, The Malahat Review. Read more.

"In Grid, moments are approached in their apparent stability only to be swept away in song rife with interruption and fresh stimuli, lending a new perspective. It is as though the familiar ground is an eye glancing back and the reflection only a nodal-point, open to opportunity and play." - Justin Dittrick, SPG Book Reviews. Read more.

"There is grit in these poems, so much that it seems unfair to think of them as nature poems; like the best nature writing, they undo our expectations of nature rather than uphold them." - Tanis MacDonald, Arc Poetry Magazine. Read more.

"In her fourth collection Grid, Schmidt’s wry humour transcends what we have watched heap up in Canada for more than a century—nature poems—balancing in canola fields between the beautiful lure of nature and our curious urge to separate ourselves from disappearing allotments of our own solace. We have wandered “off the grid” but fortunately Schmidt is an entertaining and insightful guide who can still find Li Po in a Dark-eyed Junco, if she has to." - Garry Thomas Morse, Jacket 2. Read more.

"These supple, witty, and incisive poems delineate our relationship to grids and systems both visible and invisible, natural and political." - Judges' citation, Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry nomination. Jurors: Shawna Lemay, Barbara Nickel, Sharon Thesen.