Mobility of Light by Nicole Brossard

Mobility of Light by Nicole Brossard

The poems in Mobility of Light were chosen by Louise Forsyth to elicit a sense of these whirling garlands and convey the intense energy - physical, creative, spiritual, erotic, imaginative, playful, ethical, and political - that has carried Nicole Brossard to a uniquely significant vision of the human spirit.

``As American poet Anne Waldman usefully asks, 'And what to make of [poetry]? "Do" with it? "Do" anything? Is it part of the poet's vow to perpetually catch, distill, refine, re-imagine where one walks, what one notices?' I can't answer for all poets hereAs a teacher, however, I can say that yes, it is our vow as instructors to show students how poetry perpetually catches, distills, refines, and re-imagines our selves and our worlds. I agree with Neil Besner, general editor of Wilfrid Laurier Press, that what we 'do' with poetry starts with our students. We need to attend more carefully to what poetry we teach as well as how we teach it. I thus applaud the efforts of the Laurier Poetry Series, which, with the hopes of creating and sustaining 'the larger readership that contemporary Canadian poetry so richly deserves,' has been publishing 'useful, engaging, and comprehensive introductions' to the life's work of major Canadian poets. Each of these volumes includes 35 poems selected and introduced by a critic, followed by an afterword by the poet. The volumes are intended, Besner argues, to make the connections between the life and the work more accessible to a 'general' reader ('Foreword'). ``Besner's eloquent, timely, and practical arguments remind me of Lyn Hejinian's belief that our poetic revolutions will always be 'local, particular, and temporary,' but are nonetheless undiminished. Let us consider what poetry is doing in the world. Let us consider how Laurier's texts differ, as Besner argues in their intent, from the conventional anthology and whether they in fact demonstrate the relevance of poetry to a life. Let us consider, for example, how in the Laurier Poetry Series' most recent collections, Mobility of Light: The Poetry of Nicole Brossard and Fierce Departures: The Poetry of Dionne Brand, we might understand what it means to live. Let us think about how, through poetry, we can re-imagine who we are as well as the world we walk through.'' -- Emily Carr -- ARC Poetry Magazine, Winter 2010, 201001
``The quest for a wider audience for poetry may be quixotic, but this series makes a serious attempt to present attractive, affordable selections that speak to contemporary interests and topics that might engage a younger generation of readers. Yet it does not condescend, preferring to provide substantial and sophisticated poets to these new readers. At the very least, these slim volumes will make very useful introductory teaching texts in post-secondary classrooms because they whet the appetite without overwhelming.'' -- Paul Milton -- Canadian Literature, 193, Summer 2007, 201003
``Wilfrid Laurier University Press continues its stellar Laurier Poetry Series with this much anticipated volume. They could not have picked a better person than Louise H. Forsyth as its author, Forsyth having edited the definitive work on Brossard, Essays on her Work (Guernica Editions, 2005).... Forsyth has done an amazing job. One of the pleasures of this collection is to see the original French alongside the English translation.... Forsyth has been extremely judicious in her selection of poems in Mobility of Light. They capture all the characteristics for which Brossard has become known. This is an excellent representative sample of fifty years of Brossard--a daunting task rendered exquisitely.'' -- John Herbert Cunningham -- Prairie Fire, 201004

Nicole Brossard published her first collection of poetry in 1965. The national and international influence of her thirty collections of poetry, ten novels, four book-length essays, and numerous theoretical articles has been enormous. Her latest work in translation, Notebook of Roses and Civilization, was shortlisted for the 2008 Griffin Poetry Prize.

Louise H. Forsyth was the chair of the French department at the University of Western Ontario, dean of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Saskatchewan, and president of the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Her academic specializations are contemporary Quebec women poets and playwrights, and she has recently edited Nicole Brossard: Essays on Her Works and Anthology of Québec Women's Plays in English Translation, Vol. I (1966 - 1986) and Vol. II (1987 - 2003).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781554580477
ISBN 10	1554580471
Title	Mobility of Light
Author	Nicole Brossard
Series	Laurier Poetry
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Year published	2009-04-30
Number of pages	144
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.