Medium

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From award-winning writer Johanna Skibsrud, Medium shares the lives and perspectives of women who—in their roles as biological, physical, or spiritual mediums—have helped to shape the course of history.

Helen of Troy, Anne Boleyn, Shakuntala Devi, Hypatia of Alexandria, Marie Curie: Medium interprets the voices of women vilified over time, silenced by famous husbands, forced into sex work, or wrongly accused. Reckoning with the dominant historical narratives of each woman’s era, Skibsrud underscores the power of poetry to bring about new formulations for understanding the relationship between past and present, self and other.

These deeply resonant and performative poems use language as a bridge across experience, sensibility, and time. Each exploration begins with a brief vignette inspired by the “vidas” that once began manuscripts of the troubadours. Both vidas and poems provide lyrical reinterpretations of real and imagined elements in the lives of scholars, scientists, computer engineers, mystics, entrepreneurs, artists, nurses, and other leaders.

AUTHOR

Johanna Skibsrud

Johanna Skibsrud is a Canadian-American writer, whose debut novel, The Sentimentalists, was awarded the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize, making her the youngest writer to ever win Canada’s most prestigious literary prize. She is the author of two novels, two collection of short fiction, three collections of poetry, and the co-author of a children’s book, Sometimes We Think You are a Monkey — proceeds of which are being donated to the Himalayan School Project. She received her BA in English Literature at the University of Toronto, her MA in English and Creative Writing from Concordia University in Montreal, and her PhD in English Literature at the Université de Montréal.

Reviews

The book through its own mediumicity and its exploration of such is a portal into lives and bodies whose histories may only be understood through a particular historical narrative And while theltem gtvidasoffer specific details needed to set up the historical context of the particular womans life the poems offer an emotional depth and energetic charge that give the stories heightened powerltem gtToronto Star

Johanna Skibsrudsltem gtMedium is a rhapsody of voices and imaginative conversations with powerful historical females both the exalted kind and the forgotten making for a poetic dialectic that satisfies both mind and heartltem gtTheltem gt Woodlot

The structure ofltem gtMediumis fascinating Skibsrud skillfully weaves these narrative notes with lyrical persona poems that act as mediums themselves giving voice to women like Marie Curie Clytemnestra Sojourner Truth Rachel Carson and othersltem gtThe Poetry Foundation