Leaving the Island

By (author): Talya Rubin

St Kilda is a barren, rocky archipelago 100 miles off the west coast of Scotland. In 1930, harsh conditions led the islands’ remaining 36 inhabitants to relocate to the mainland. Left behind were seabirds and a population of feral sheep. In Leaving the Island, her first poetry collection, Talya Rubin enters the isolated lives of those last Kildareans, and probes the “desert places”–to use Frost’s phrase–in herself. Written during a series of extended trips abroad, including stays in Australia and Greece, Rubin’s poems return, again and again, to a psychological landscape where “mud and rock / and sea and salt and oily smell / of fish and fowl is all, all.” Rife with exacting wordplay and frank self-reckonings, Leaving the Island is a book about endings and what remains when we start over.

AUTHOR

Talya Rubin

Poet, playwright and theatre creator/performer, Talya Rubin‘s poetry has garnered the Bronwen Wallace Award Emerging Writers. In 2011, she was short-listed for the Winston Collins/Descant prize for Best Canadian poem and was a finalist for the Montreal International Poetry Prize. She lives in Montreal with her husband and son.

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Excerpts & Samples ×
St Kilda is a barren, rocky archipelago 100 miles off the west coast of Scotland. In 1930, harsh conditions led the islands’ remaining 36 inhabitants to relocate to the mainland. Left behind were seabirds and a population of feral sheep. In Leaving the Island, her first poetry collection, Talya Rubin enters the isolated lives of those last Kildareans, and probes the “desert places”–to use Frost’s phrase–in herself. Written during a series of extended trips abroad, including stays in Australia and Greece, Rubin’s poems return, again and again, to a psychological landscape where “mud and rock / and sea and salt and oily smell / of fish and fowl is all, all.” Rife with exacting wordplay and frank self-reckonings, Leaving the Island is a book about endings and what remains when we start over.

Reader Reviews

Details

Dimensions:

70 Pages
8.5in * 5.5in * 1in
1lb

Published:

April 01, 2015

Country of Publication:

CA

Publisher:

Vehicule Press

ISBN:

9781550654035

Book Subjects:

POETRY / Canadian

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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