Under the Abdominal Wall
- Publisher
- Anvil Press
- Initial publish date
- Jan 1999
- Category
- General
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781895636246
- Publish Date
- Jan 1999
- List Price
- $9.95
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Description
Selected for the BC 2000 Book Awards Program
Under the Abdominal Wall is a moving collection of poetry, an elegy for ones loved and lost. The pieces in this volume focus largely on the subjects of childbirth, illness and loss - of a sibling and a parent. While the subjects of death and illness are forefront, they are countered by a theme of rejuvenation. McCartney addresses difficult, emotionally straining subjects head-on with strength, wonder and passion.
Praise for Under the Abdominal Wall:
"Exact, unflinching, intelligent. Poems that do not look away, that render life's messy complexities as precisely as a scalpel separates flesh from bone. I cannot recommend Under the Abdominal Wall highly enough." (Patricia Young, recipient, Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize)
"This is an extraordinary first book, a voice relentless in its self-examination, fierce and joyous at once." (Marlene Cookshaw, Editor, The Malahat Review)
"Some readers may find the litany of complaints surrounding illness bordering on the sacrilegious or obscene, but McCartney is able to pull it off by infusing a raw energy into her work. While adolescence is a universal time for rebellion, 'I wear bikinis and smoke as much dope and whisper fuck you to my sister who is dying,' the poet pushes beyond convention ... the narrator's uncompromising honesty reveals the grim hold and toll illness and death have on the living." (Quill & Quire)
About the author
Sharon McCartney is the author of two previous poetry
collections, Under the Abdominal Wall (Anvil) and Karenin Sings the Blues (Goose Lane), and the chapbook Switchgrass Stills (littlefishcartpress). Her work has been published in numerous magazines and journals including PRISM international, Event, Grain, sub-TERRAIN, Prairie Fire, Iowa City and the Malahat Review. McCartney has an MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and a law degree from the University of Victoria. She works as a legal editor in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and is poetry editor for The Fiddlehead.
