New Brunswick

Heralding a new regionalism, New Brunswick interrogates the popular representations of Shane Neilson’s home province. Structured as a group of serial long poems, this fifth book by the winner of the 2017 Walrus Poetry Prize recasts the political, economic, and social histories of settler New Brunswick, particularly as they relate to the sacrifices of his parents. As forests are reborn and fields are healed by rest, Neilson insists that though “we want catastrophes of fire,” out of the ashes of charred dreams and old myths arise avenues for reconciliation through vulnerability and affect.

AUTHOR

Shane Neilson

Shane Neilson is a poet, physician, literary critic, and scholar of Canadian literatures who lives with disability. He published his first review in 1998 and has had to look over his shoulder ever since. In 2012, his critical prose won Arc Poetry Magazine?s ?Critic?s Desk? award as selected by Amanda Jernigan. In 2018, his scholarly work on Canadian literature that is rooted in disability studies was awarded SSHRC?s $50,000 ?Talent? Award. In 2019, his article on the representations of pain in Canadian literature was shortlisted for Canadian Literature?s 60thAnniversary Graduate Student Essay Prize. Shane?s own poetry has received several accolades, including the Hamilton Literary Award for Poetry in 2018; The Walrus Poetry Prize in 2017, selected by Margaret Atwood; and in 2011, he was shortlisted for the Trillium Poetry Prize. Shane is an assistant professor in family medicine at McMaster University (adjunct) and he continues to practice medicine at a little clinic in Guelph, Ontario.

Reviews

Praise for New Brunswick

“Immediately evident in Neilson’s writing is an attentive musicality…Extensive and grounding imagery…[His] sharp observations entice. New Brunswick rings in tone and tribute as a moody historic elegy.” —Quill & Quire

Praise for Shane Neilson

“Shane Neilson’s Meniscus is an example of that rare and defining moment in a poet’s career when subject and language meld into authentic poetic voice.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“Neilson’s ability to make the bipolar mind comprehensible, a place that needs to be understood, in ‘Manic Statement’ is perhaps the book’s greatest success. It never lapses into cliché and even manages to slip in a bit of wit.” —Canadian Literature

“Neilson’s use of language is stark, but this off-kilter beauty is arresting . . . Although the territory Neilson covers in his debut tradebook is undoubtedly dark, there are still many worthwhile moments to be forged in its depths.” —Northern Poetry Review

“[Neilson] dares to dream.” —The Prairie Journal