A powerful, lyrical collection of essays from the award-winning author of Following the River, exploring the pivotal moments in her life, and how art and nature have shaped her.

Like both memory and the moon, what's written here aims to shed what light it can, bringing it home to now.

How does a woman compose a life? The Old Moon in Her Arms is a hybrid book of fragments, pivotal moments and images in the phases of a woman's life, turning points rendered in Lorri Neilsen Glenn's lyrical prose.

Like the shifting images in a kaleidoscope, these glimpses into the life of an ordinary woman lay bare the ways family, landscape, loss, and a lifelong pursuit of knowledge have forced the author in her later years to examine what really matters. Here, readers bear witness to the making of a daughter, a student, a wife, a friend, a teacher, a mother, a feminist, an award-winning scholar and writer. Neilsen Glenn's artistry weaves personal history, philosophy, pop culture, and contemporary thought to examine moments and people who've inhabited her life. "Over time and circumstance," she says, "haven't we all been various?"

Guiding her exploration are the Cree concept of wahkohtowin, the kinship in all of creation, and the elliptical path of the moon.

This hybrid collection of singular moments celebrates connection, wonder and endless curiosity.

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, Halifax's first Métis 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