Description
“Sick for the language nan speaks,” Robin Durnford’s poems pursue the “dervish verbs” of a torquey local idiom, their punchy rhythms and visceral imagery invoking a sort of barbaric yawp for Newfoundland’s south coast. Whether she’s writing of childbirth, family lore or teenage shenanigans, her work is rooted, her “tongue still twists / in the deserted weeds of barren banks / for recitations, caribou, heroic deeds, and blessèd / fishing coast I cannot leave.”
About the author
Robin Durnford’s poetry collection A Lovely Gutting was short-listed for the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland & Labrador Heritage & History Award, and her illustrated chapbook, Fog of the Outport (artwork by Meagan Musseau) was the subject of a 2013 CBC Land & Sea documentary. Born in St. John’s and raised on the west coast of Newfoundland, Durnford currently teaches at Grenfell Campus of Memorial University in Corner Brook.
