Pigeon

Pigeon

Written by: Solie, Karen

Karen Solie launched to prominence with her first collection of poems, Short Haul Engine (2001), finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and winner of many other awards and citations. She continued her upward trajectory with Modern and Normal (2005), and is now considered one of Canada's best poets.

Pigeon is yet another leap forward for this singer of existential bewilderment. These poems are X-rays of our delusions and mistaken perceptions, explorations of violence, bad luck, fate, creeping catastrophe, love, and the eros of danger. Once again, Solie shows that her ear is impeccable, her poetic intelligence rare and razor-sharp.

Karen Solie launched to prominence with her first collection of poems, Short Haul Engine (2001), finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and winner of many other awards and citations. She continued her upward trajectory with Modern and Normal (2005), and is now considered one of Canada's best poets.

Pigeon is yet another leap forward for this singer of existential bewilderment. These poems are X-rays of our delusions and mistaken perceptions, explorations of violence, bad luck, fate, creeping catastrophe, love, and the eros of danger. Once again, Solie shows that her ear is impeccable, her poetic intelligence rare and razor-sharp.

Published By House of Anansi Press Inc — Apr 1, 2009
Specifications 112 pages | 5.63 in x 8.63 in
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Excerpt
Written By Karen Solie is the author of three collections of poems, including Pigeon, which won the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Pat Lowther Award, and the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Her poems have been published in North America, the U.K., and Europe. She lives in Toronto.
Written By
Karen Solie is the author of three collections of poems, including Pigeon, which won the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Pat Lowther Award, and the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Her poems have been published in North America, the U.K., and Europe. She lives in Toronto.

Commended, Globe and Mail Top 100 Books of the Year, 2009

Winner, Griffin Poetry Prize, 2010

Winner, Pat Lowther Memorial Award, 2010

Short-listed, Pat Lowther Memorial Award, 2010

Winner, Trillium Book Award, 2010

“As much as Pigeon sings with metaphor and language-love, it is also infused with a subtle formality that feels like listening to the echoing footsteps of someone walking by deep in thought...In wilderness, perhaps self-discovery, but also distance and solitude exist. Solie provides all three.” —Globe and Mail

“Karen Solie has established herself as one of Canada's best lyric poets...Pigeon deals out fearlessness, humour, and raw experience, one killing line after another...Among the arts, poetry has the most human of values, and among poets, few are as deeply human as Solie. Her poems respond to the many ways a day can come to us, while seeming to discover and name new constants of the heart.” —NUVO

“Lyrical but gritty, intellectual but tough-talking, colloquial yet elegant...as she delves deeper into the social and geological bedrock of our civilization. This is [Solie's] strongest book yet. - Quill & Quire” —Quill & Quire

“Pigeon...shows why [Solie] has become one of the most admired Canadian poets of her generation.” —Globe and Mail

“Solie has found a technique that others could only envy.” —National Post