ALONE ON A WINDY RIDGE: Books brought back from my road trip

Monday, October 29, 2012

Books brought back from my road trip

...to Regina, and lovely books they are.

Violet Quesnel by Coby Stephenson.

Emily via the Greyhound Bus by Allison Kydd.

I bought these two books at Coby Stephenson's wonderful launch on Thursday. Allison Kydd was one of the guest readers.Courtney Bates and Cassidy McFadzean read as well. I look forward to Cassidy's chapbook, Farwell, which will be published by JackPine Press this fall.

How to Be a River by Brenda Niskala.

This book came out this fall from Wild Sage Press, a new publisher based in Regina who publishes limited edition books on exquisite paper. I first learned about Wild Sage Press when pics from this Facebook page showed up in my feed, familiar faces of writers gathered to stitch books among them.

Flyways by Devin Krukoff.

This book, along with my book Grid, are being studied this fall in English 110 at Luther College, University of Regina. I had a great time during my class visit on Friday and was totally impressed with the questions and observations put forward by the students. The time flew. At the end of the class Professor Gerald Hill, aka Gerry, presented me with a copy of Flyways. Nice. Many thanks to all.

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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.