Angela Long/ Off-the-Grid Author: Creatures of the Grid

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Creatures of the Grid

Today I received this month's National Geographic. An article called "The 21st Century Grid" caught my attention. Some of you may wonder what all this grid business is about. I know I'm still learning. If you're interested, here's the link:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/07/power-grid/achenbach-text

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Publications

Books:
Observations from Off the Grid

Anthologies:
Force Field: 77 Women Poets of BC, The Bare Essentials(4e), Somebody's Child, Canadian Content(7e), A Mio Padre, Fugue: UBC Anthology of Creative Non-Fiction

Periodicals:
Non-Fiction:
The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Sun Magazine, Accenti Magazine, Utne Reader, Alimentum, Geez, Grain, Kyoto Journal, PRECIPICe, Existere: Journal of the Arts, The Nashwaak Review, Room Magazine, Northword, Cahoots, S.i.W.C Anthology, Other Voices, Canadian Stories

Poetry:
Poetry Ireland Review, The New Quarterly, Event, The Antigonish Review, Prairie Fire, Arc, Canadian Literature, contemporary verse2, The New Writer, The Frogmore Papers, Equinox: A Poetry Journal, The Interpreter's House, The Nashwaak Review, Carousel, The Prairie Journal, PRECIPICe, Tower Poetry Society, S.i.W.C Anthology, Existere: Journal of the Arts, Other Voices, Canadian Stories

Fiction:
Brittle Star, The Antigonish Review, The Dalhousie Review,
Room Magazine

Praise

Angela Long's collection of poetry, Observations from Off the Grid, makes me want to leave town. "I have travelled the spine of a nation," she writes. In fact she has travelled the spines of many nations: Canada, India, Ireland, Italy, Guatemala and many other countries inform the poems in this collection. Her writing is full of fleshy, vibrant imagery. Sometimes it is heartbreaking. Sometimes it is so vivid it makes you feel as though you've just bitten into a ripe mango.

In the poem "English Lessons," themes of fear and war morph into a description of how to eat an avocado—seamlessly blending the provocative with the evocative. Long has an incredible talent for evoking all the senses at once, but never ignoring a poem's emotion. What gives her work power is the way she reminds us that everyday experience is beautiful and sensual, even in a world full of tragedy.

These are poems of poverty, war, beauty, pain and the many complexities and simple joys of the human experience. Long's work reminds us that it's a big world out there, and there is no greater thrill than seeing the lights as you taxi down the runway.

Reviewed by Leah Rae, Poetry is Dead

"Reminiscent of Michael Ondaatje, the precision and careful insistence of this serial poetry explores the relation between language and brutality, innocence and worldliness.

Long is such a keen storyteller that I almost forget that I'm reading poetry. I learn continuously from the balance she strikes between the personal and the political, between observer and participant, how she offers recognitions, sometimes horrifying truths, by way of simplistic, child-like lesson plans or apparently innocuous details of an afternoon."

– Dr.Daniel Burgoyne
Dept. of English, VIU

"Angela's poetry captures well what is said and not said. Language has its limitations. As Earl Birney said, 'words are dull servants/ who say less or more than we feel.'"

– Barbara Carter
The New Quarterly

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Creatures of the Grid

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