Songs for Relinquishing the Earth
- Publisher
- Brick Books
- Initial publish date
- Nov 1998
- Category
- Canadian
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781926829098
- Publish Date
- Oct 1998
- List Price
- $11.99
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781894078009
- Publish Date
- Nov 1998
- List Price
- $20.00
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Description
Songs for Relinquishing the Earth contains many poems of praise and grief for the imperilled earth drawing frequently on Jan Zwicky's experience as a musician and philosopher and on the landscapes of the prairies and rural Ontario.
Songs for Relinquishing the Earth was first published by the author in 1996 as a hand-made book, each copy individually sewn for its reader in response to a request. It appeared between plain covers on recycled stock, with a small photo (of lavender fields) pasted into each copy. The only publicity was word of mouth.
Part of Jan Zwicky's reason for having the author be the maker and distributor of the book was a desire to connect the acts of publication and publicity with the initial act of composition, to have a book whose public gestures were in keeping with the intimacy of the art. She also believed the potential audience was small enough that she could easily sew enough copies to fill requests as they came in. While succeeding in recalling poetry's public life to its roots, she was wrong about the size of that audience and her ability to keep up with demand as word spread, Hence, this facsimile edition. In publishing it, Brick Books has attempted to remain as faithful as possible to the spirit of those original gestures, while making it possible for more readers to have access to this remarkable book.
About the author
Jan Zwicky is an accomplished poet, philosopher and musician whose intense and vivid lyricism imbues her poetry with music and passion. Born in Calgary, Alberta, Zwicky studied at the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto before undertaking an academic career teaching philosophy at a number of North American institutions. She is also a professional musician, with an active interest in baroque performance technique. Zwicky is a prolific essayist, as well as the author of a dozen books. Her works have won her the Governor General's Award (Songs For Relinquishing the Earth, 1998) and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (Robinson's Crossing, 2004) as well as many other accolades and shortlist nominations. Zwicky lives on Quadra Island, British Columbia.
Other titles by
Once upon a Time in the West
Essays on the Politics of Thought and Imagination
Sixty-Seven Ontological Studies
49 Poems and 18 Photographs
The Collected Poetry of Carol Shields
The Experience of Meaning
Learning to Die
Wisdom in the Age of Climate Crisis
The Long Walk
Wittgenstein Elegies
Brick Books Classics 6
Alkibiades' Love
Essays in Philosophy
Chamber Music
The Poetry of Jan Zwicky
