Death of Persephone

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By (author): Yvonne Blomer

In Death of Persephone, the patriarchal myth of the maiden taken, raped, and made the potent and sexualized queen of the underworld is questioned, altered, flipped. Instead, we have Stephanie, a girl of seven, taken and raised by her Uncle H. who is obsessed by her, tries to control her, to keep her, to have her even as she blooms out from underneath him.

In poems both lyrical and narrative, a woman paints Hecate on a building, a Hyacinth Macaw flies overhead, a detective bumbles from crime to crime. This is a city with a vast underground where bats hang and paperwhites bloom, a city where men still rule.

Who sees what, who will pay, and who will survive in this ancient story altered at the core?

AUTHOR

Yvonne Blomer

Yvonne Blomer lives in Victoria, BC where she works as a poet, memoirist, writing teacher, event organizer and mom. She was born in Zimbabwe and came to Canada when she was two years old. With her husband she has taught in Japan, cycled in Southeast Asia and lived in the UK where she completed an MA in Creative Writing: Poetry. Her poems have twice been shortlisted for the CBC Literary awards and have appeared in literary journals in Canada and abroad. Her first collection of poetry, a broken mirror, fallen leaf (Ekstasis Editions), was shortlisted for The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award in 2007. She is the Artistic Director of the Planet Earth Poetry Reading Series in Victoria, B.C. In 2012 Yvonne?s illustrated series of poems Bicycle Brand Journey as well as her second full collection The Book of Places were released.

Reviews

InDeath of PersephoneBlomer stalks back alleys asking urgent questions Why is the violence against women and girls in myth still haunting us today Blomer is a poet at the height of her powers her stanzas blooming with paperwhites blazing with graffiti And so the reader gets to be the grieving mother the doomed daughter and the hellbent detective as Blomer walks us out of the old story and into this essential retelling

Ariel Gordon poet and author ofFungal Foraging in the Urban Forest

Complex layered and deeply allusive Blomers startling narrative poem combines a reinterpretation of myth with a reimagining of mystery The reader becomes a flneuse bravely walking the language corridors and striding through a gritty glittery real and mythic city A beguiling interweaving of codeswitching and genreshiftingDeath of Persephone A Murderrewrites the myth of what women can become

Mira Cook author ofThe Full Catastrophe

Hardboiled detective tropes meet classical myths and freeform poetry A breathtaking work of imaginative crosspollination Postmodern in absolutely the best sense of the word

Will Ferguson Giller Prizewinning author of419