Intermission is an uncommon and refreshing excavation of popular culture, memory, and relationship. It offers startling interpretations of the fashionable sitcoms and young-adult novels which were prevalent during the late 1970s while exploring the nuances of belonging, faith, and loss. With a tensile gesture we are moved from the icons of the 1960sÑJanis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and the playful insertion of Jim MorrisonÕs documented acronym of his own name, Mr. Mojo RisinÕÑto the cityscapes inherited by Generation X:

& they became icons worn to waste behind our mothers
& our fathers like a cityscape, like a black & white photograph,
like a muted reflection, like a background of a lost era,
like a misplaced decade, like a shaky foundation which has shaped the minds of my own generation.

intermission is peopled with a richness of character and stories that move from one piece to the next. It is a still and revealing inquiry into the elastic sense of memory. Striking and astounding, this collection of work is a luminous reflection on lossÑthe loss of childhood, adolescence, relationship, and life.

Heather Simeney MacLeod has two previous collections of poetry, My Flesh the Sound of Rain as well as The Burden of Snow. Her poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and reviews have appeared in many journals and magazines. Her creative nonfiction piece, How to Discover the Various Uses of Things, was a finalist in the 2011 CBC Literary Awards. Heather is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta in the Department of English and Film Studies.

Heather Simeney MacLeod's profile page