In the opening poem of Lost Gospels, Lorri Neilsen Glenn writes of Mahalia Jackson and Blind Willie Johnson:

... they sang, oh yes, they raised light from dark water, dug

diamonds out of the cold, cold ground ... .

In a sense this is what Neilsen Glenn herself achieves in this deeply moving third book: raising light from dark water. Her new collection confronts the deaths of dear friends and family members, returns to her prairie childhood and youth, and engages hard, hard questions of mortality, and of existence in a world fraught with suffering and violence (both global and domestic). Central is the poetic sequence "A Song for Simone" — a conversation between the poet and French mystical philosopher Simone Weil. Here is poetry reaching out to embrace a manner of being in the world that at once moves beyond the world and engages it fully. Lost Gospels confirms Neilsen Glenn as a poet of maturity, depth and power.

Lorri Neilsen Glenn's most recent book is Following the River: Traces of Red River Women (Wolsak and Wynn), an award-winning work about her Ininiwak and Métis grandmothers and their contemporaries. Lorri is the author and contributing editor of fourteen titles of nonfiction and poetry, former Halifax Poet Laureate, and Professor Emerita at Mount Saint Vincent University. An award-winning teacher and researcher, Lorri has served on juries for the Canada Council, CBC literary awards and numerous provincial and national book prizes. Neilsen Glenn's poetry has been adapted several times for libretti and her essays and poems appear in numerous anthologies and literary journals.? She was a recipient of Halifax's Women of Excellence award, has had appointments as Writer in Residence across Canada and served as President of the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia. Lorri has mentored writers across Canada and in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Greece and Chile.

She divides her time between Halifax and Rose Bay, Nova Scotia.

Lorri Neilsen Glenn's profile page