Trobairitz
- Publisher
- Anvil Press
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2012
- Category
- Canadian
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781897535974
- Publish Date
- Oct 2012
- List Price
- $18
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Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 16
- Grade: 11
Description
Finalist, ReLit Award
Twenty-first century metalheads; twelfth century troubadours and their female counterparts, the trobairitz - what could they possibly have in common? The creation of an often misunderstood and at times reviled genre for one; for another, a kin preoccupation with the questioning of structures set up by class, gender, and religion.
Praise for Trobairitz:
BC Books in BC Schools Pick
"Owen pounds out sombre love, transcendent rhythms, and gender-bending boldness ... Trobairitz starts the heart like the thud of a bass line and opens the mind like a scream, poem after poem." (Quill & Quire)
"In this subtle but gripping blend of time and place and sexualities, Catherine Owen has created a modern epic in which a contemporary female voice from the metal scene reclaims the troubadour tradition, imagining the equality of the sexes in even these most heavily male-dominated musical worlds. Part love story, part musical proclamation of independence, Owen moves us through time and space to explore how women who go first' may struggle, but are not alone and in fact, are part of a long, long tradition." (Kate Braid, author of Turning Left to the Ladies)
"Describing metal fans as raw birds, eyes banged out of their heads,' Owen's loving scorn allows her to walk a fine line between paying homage to the subculture and dissecting its darkness." (Jonathan Ball, Winnipeg Free Press)
About the author
Catherine Owen lives in New Westminster, BC. She is the author of ten collections of poetry, among them Designated Mourner (ECW, 2014), Trobairitz (Anvil Press 2012), Seeing Lessons (Wolsak & Wynn 2010) and Frenzy (Anvil Press 2009). Her poems are included in several recent anthologies such as Forcefield: 77 Women Poets of BC (Mothertongue Press, 2013) and This Place a Stranger: Canadian Women Travelling Alone (Caitlin Press, 2014). Stories have appeared in Urban Graffiti, Memwear Magazine, Lit N Image (US) and Toronto Quarterly. Her collection of memoirs and essays is called Catalysts: Confrontations with the Muse (W & W, 2012). Frenzy won the Alberta Book Prize and other collections have been nominated for the BC Book Prize, ReLit, the CBC Prize, and the George Ryga Award. In 2015, Wolsak & Wynn published her compendium on the practices of writing called The Other 23 and a Half Hours or Everything You Wanted to Know That Your MFA Didn’t Teach You. She works in TV, plays metal bass and blogs at Marrow Reviews.
Librarian Reviews
Troubairitz
Catherine Owen is an accomplished writer, photographer and bass player in metal bands. In Trobairitz (a trobairitz is a female troubadour), she combines medieval poetic style with heavy metal subject matter, adding a strong feminist bent. The medieval forms used create an interesting juxtaposition with the very modern theme. The structure of the book consists of five parts with the first part made up mostly of “canso” poems, originally courtly love poems. Her very modern theme adds eroticism. Other sections include a variety of styles and centuries, flipping back and forth. The glossary educates the reader in the world of the medieval lyricist.Owen’s works have been nominated for a number of awards. Frenzy won the Alberta Literary Award in 2010.
Caution: Contains many drug culture references, vulgarities, profanities, sexual terms and sexually suggestive scenes.
Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2013-2014.
Other titles by
Moving to Delilah
Locations of Grief
An Emotional Geography
Riven
Poems
The Day of the Dead
Sliver Fictions, Short Stories & an Homage
Dear Ghost,
The Day of the Dead
Sliver Fiction, Short Stories & an Homage
Other 23 & a Half Hours, The
Or Everything You Wanted to Know that Your MFA Didn't Teach You
Designated Mourner
Catalysts
Confrontations with the muse
