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A Ragged Pen
By Robert Finley, Patrick Friesen, Aislinn Hunter, Anne Simpson, and Jan Zwicky
A Ragged Pen brings to the page five essays on memory. First delivered in Vancouver in the spring of 2005, these talksby Robert Finley, Patrick Friesen, Aislinn Hunter, Anne Simpson and Jan Zwickyexamine the narrative challenges, lyric energy and questions of verity that ... Read more
Overview
A Ragged Pen brings to the page five essays on memory. First delivered in Vancouver in the spring of 2005, these talksby Robert Finley, Patrick Friesen, Aislinn Hunter, Anne Simpson and Jan Zwickyexamine the narrative challenges, lyric energy and questions of verity that surround the subject of memory in a creative context.
Finley’s essay searches out appropriate, genuine voices for memories. Comparing photo narrative projects, his own and a friend’s, he proposes a form of storytelling that incorporates both memory and creation, a dialogue that speaks to, rather than for, the past. Within the discussion of narrative Zwicky posits a distinction between lyric and narrative treatments of memories, what each accepts about and tries to do with what memory delivers, and whether a difference in the degree of verity is part of this distinction. Hunter picks up the thread of verity and examines the discrepancy between seeing and imagining, the notion of “real” and the power of memory, drawing on the work of Borges, Seamus Heaney and recent science that calls into question commonly held perceptions of truth. Friesen begins with a childhood memory he suspects may be an invention, and opens onto the role of longing in memory and in poetry, challenging the assumption of past experience in longing, arguing for a note of loss in every new experience, a longing for what has never been. Simpson uses a myth of longing, that of Orpheus and Eurydice, to dig beneath metaphor, bringing new ideas and influences to the role of metaphor in social interactions and artistic endeavours.
Together these essays make fascinating crossovers and offer fresh insight on memory and art. A Ragged Pen is a valuable new contribution to the study of poetics and narrative philosophy.
Robert Finley
Robert Finley is coordinator of Memorial University's Creative Writing Diploma Program where he teaches literature and creative nonfiction. His books, translations and collaborations include The Accidental Indies, A Ragged Pen, and K.L.Reich.
Patrick Friesen
Patrick Friesen has published more than a dozen books of poetry, a book of essays, stage and radio plays, three CDs of text and music, and has co-translated five books of Danish poetry. He won the McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award in 1994, and was runner-up for the Milton Acorn Memorial People's Poetry Award in 1996. Friesen has twice been a Dorothy Livesay Poetry Award nominee and once a Governor General Poetry's Award nominee. He won the P. K. Page Founders Award for Poetry in 2012, and the ReLit Award for Poetry the same year. In 2016 his co-translation of Ulrikka Gernes' Frayed Opus With Strings and Wind Instruments was short-listed for the Griffin Trust Poetry Award. He won the Most Outstanding New Work Award for Winnipeg Theatre Awards in 2018. He lives in Victoria, BC.
Aislinn Hunter
Aislinn Hunter is a poet, essayist, and novelist. She is the author of six books, including the novel The World Before Us, which won the Ethel Wilson Prize. She lives in British Columbia.
Anne Simpson
Anne Simpson has published two novels, Canterbury Beach and Falling, longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and winner of the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction. She has also written five poetry collections, of which Strange Attractor is the most recent. She won the Griffin Poetry Prize for Loop in 2004. Her book of essays, The Marram Grass: Poetry and Otherness, examines poetry, art, and philosophy. Simpson has worked as a writer-in-residence at libraries and universities across the country. She lives in Nova Scotia.
Jan Zwicky
Jan Zwicky is a musician, philosopher and award-winning poet. In 1999, she won the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry for Songs for Relinquishing the Earth. Her Thirty-seven Small Songs & Thirteen Silences was also nominated for the Pat Lowther Award and the Dorothy Livesay Prize in 2006.
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- Dimensions 96 pages, 5 x 8 x 0.4 in
- Published October 1, 2006
- Publisher Gaspereau Press Ltd.
- Category Literary Collections
- Keywords Essays
Other titles by Robert Finley
Other titles by Patrick Friesen
Other titles by Aislinn Hunter
Other titles by Anne Simpson
Other titles by Jan Zwicky
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