Catalysts

With her characteristic fearlessness Catherine Owen examines what drives her to write and the influences that shape her writing. From her childhood memories in suburban Vancouver to her willingness to risk all for a glimpse of her muse, the essays in Catalysts allow readers unparalleled insight into Owen’s creative life. A brilliantly honest collection, these essays should be read by every aspiring author.

AUTHOR

Catherine Owen

Catherine Owen is an Edmonton-based poet (formerly of Vancouver) whose work has been published in national and international journals such as ‘Queen’s Quarterly’ and ‘Poetry Salzburg’. Her first book ‘Somatic: The Life and Work of Egon Schiele’ (Exile Editions, 1998) was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award while her second, ‘The Wrecks of Eden’ (Wolsak and Wynn, 2002) was short listed for the BC Book Prize. Her most recent collections are ‘Cusp/detritus’ (Anvil Press, 2006) and’Shall: Ghazals’ (Wolsak and Wynn, 2006). Her work has also appeared in the anthologies ‘A Practice of Spirit'(St Thomas Poetry Series 2002) and a collection of tributes to Joe Rosenblatt (Guernica Editions 2005).

Reviews

“Catalysts abounds in inter-textual references that challenge us to abandon lingering perceptions of art as a pure or timeless aesthetic practice. What we have instead is a polyphonic ‘mishmash’ of ‘language and rhythm,’ a conversation rich in peculiarities.” – Canadian Literature

“Best of all, Owen describes the essential tension between performance or spoken word poetry, and poems written for the printed page. Her advice to poets and performers in these distinct, but related genres, is the best I’ve ever heard.” – Chronicle Herald

“Catalysts is a testament to a life immersed in poetic forms, a searching for truth through the prismatic (and often cruel) facets of circumstance and self.” – Free Range Reading