gillianwigmore

Orient (Brick Books 2014)

http://www.brickbooks.ca/shop/orient/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Brick Books: A polyphonic hymn to Northern British Columbia by one of its boldest, most exciting writers.

“Orient is the third collection from one of Western Canada’s most accomplished poets. Composed mainly of three long poems—an extended meditation on the connection between man and fish, the lament of a big-souled cowboy poet looking up from rock bottom, and a historical envisioning of an intimate relationship between a pioneer and a powerful crone—Orient leaps, sings, burrows down, and orients the reader within its rich ecosystem. The appeal of these poems lies partly in their blend of humility (the open-minded approach), in their force (the taut style, the original vision) and in an astonishing boldness. Wigmore is a ‘poet of place’ in the best sense.”

Grayling(MotherTongue Publishing 2014)

http://www.mothertonguepublishing.com/2014-new-books.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Wigmore’s writing is incredibly sensual, her prose vivid with bodies and their feelings (and their food!). The connection between the two characters is so rich and complex, resisting cliches and ever fresh, and so too is her story, which would earn a place in my hypothetical “Death By Landscape” anthology, even though no one dies exactly, because that too would be too easy, but instead her ending is mysterious and shocking, unsettling and swift.

Grayling was a runner-up for the 1st Search for the Great BC Novel contest, and one can certainly see how it stuck out in the crowd. For a debut novel, this one is remarkably assured, and here’s hoping that the multi-talented Wigmore has more fiction in store for us.” from Kerry Clare at http://picklemethis.com/

Dirt of Ages (Nightwood Editions 2012)

http://www.harbourpublishing.com/title/DirtofAges

Dirt of Ages

 

 

“Wigmore digs out the right words for each moment of hardship and exultation, inviting us all to “wash off all this dirt in / the dirt of ages… we run til we’re half standing and jump / hoping like hell…til you’re lying face up / in a whirlpool, laughing at the sky” (“Water Girls”).” http://web.uvic.ca/malahat/reviews/182reviews_herman.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

soft geography (Caitlin Press 2007) winner of the 2008 ReLit Award, nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Prize

http://www.harbourpublishing.com/title/SoftGeography

“What to say about Gillian Wigmore?

Believe the hype, I guess, would be an excellent place to start. Every book comes with blurbs aplenty, and it’s not unusual for a younger poet to be called an important/brave/talented “new voice.” Wigmore’s no different in that respect (Robert Hilles providing the relevant blurb here), but there’s something quite different about her verse. Tonight, what stands out is that she goes after small moments with clear eyes; of course there’s the occasional Big Move, but the poems keep ending small, precisely small…

it’s not a question of her having found a voice that works (confessionally, for example) and ridden it until the legs fell off. No, she’s worked her craft relentlessly, and the result has been tremendous flexibility in the narrative or lyric voice. These voices share an eye for small things (a knitter’s arthritic hands, a camper’s presumption that a tent muffles all sounds) and a sense of enmeshedness in the worlds around us (social, ecological, familial, etc), but they come out sounding different.“

–Richard Pickard, book addiction, boughtbooks.blogspot.com

“What a wonderful, fresh voice Gillian Wigmore brings to the page. These wise poems know the push and pull within family. They reveal the tender truths behind the rough edges of small-town life. Her voice resonates with authenticity, and whether she is writing about a near drowning or ice fishing, she is ultimately writing about the complications of love. These are poems you will not soon forget.”
—Robert Hilles,
Governor General’s Award-winner for Poetry