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Poetry Canadian

Short Haul Engine

by (author) Karen Solie

Publisher
Brick Books
Initial publish date
Oct 2001
Category
Canadian
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781926829425
    Publish Date
    Sep 2001
    List Price
    $11.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781894078177
    Publish Date
    Oct 2001
    List Price
    $20.00

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Description

Karen Solie takes risks with perception and language, risks that pay off in such startling ways that it's hard to believe this is a first book.

Short Haul Engine is one great twist of fate and fury after another. The writing is clear, striking and open to all sorts of possibilities. Even at their most playful, these poems dive much deeper than initially expected. There's a remarkably dark sense of humour at work here, but tempered with a haunting vulnerability that makes even the sharpest lines tremble.

from "Signs Taken for Wonders" ... Too delicate for these dog-days, small, clover-blonde, my sister sews indoors. I ask her to fashion me into something nice, ivory silk. I am a big girl, sunburnt skin like raw meat, sweating two pews in front of the Blessed Virgin...

About the author

Karen Solie was born in Moose Jaw and grew up on the family farm in southwest Saskatchewan. Over the years, she has worked as a farm hand, an espresso jerk, a groundskeeper, a newspaper reporter/photographer, an academic research assistant, and, presently, an English teacher. Her poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have appeared in numerous North American journals, including The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Event, Indiana Review, ARC, Other Voices, and The Capilano Review. She has also had her poetry published in the anthologies Breathing Fire (Harbour, 1995), Hammer and Tongs (Smoking Lung, 1999) and Introductions: Poets Present Poets (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2001) where her work is presented by Don McKay. One of her short stories is featured in The Journey Prize Anthology 12. She currently lives in Victoria, BC.

Karen Solie's profile page

User Reviews

Self reliant voice, lonely, wistful poems

The voice in many of the poems is that of someone who is tough, self reliant but also lonely and wistful. (Phrases like "heart wagging its little tail" are surprising and touching.) The fresh attention to the mundane details of life - driving and engaging in other activities in a car, watching an in-flight movie, drinking shots - is at times almost startling.

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