Shadow Blight
9781554472383
Shadow Blight is a book written by Canadian poet Annick MacAskill from Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is her third collection of poetry and was published in June 2022 by Gaspereau Press. The book is the winner of the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language poetry.
Synopsis
Shadow Blight is an experience of loss and, through poetry, a means of conveying something that would otherwise be too difficult to express. This collection addresses the sensation of being overwhelmed by grief and silenced by the outside world by drawing on the stories of Niobe, whose immense suffering over the death of her children essentially turned her and others to stone.
Awards
Shadow Blight won of the Governor General's Literary Award for English-language poetry at the 2022 Governor General's Awards.[1]
It was shortlisted for the 2023 Pat Lowther Award.[2]
Reception
The book was generally well received. Melanie Brannagan Frederiksen writes in the Winnipeg Free Press, "MacAskill’s resonant use of image and language in both accounts of grief, the mythical and the modern, establishes a plane on which the stories refract one another."[3] In the Ampersand Review, Jacob Alvarado expresses, "Shadow Blight ultimately succeeds on its ability to show its readers its pain and to teach them how to find beauty within it".[4] The Governor General's Literary Award peer assessment committee members Joe Denham and Stewart Donovan stated, “This rare achievement combines formal poetic mastery with honesty and vulnerability.”[5]
References
- ^ Dundas, Deborah (November 16, 2022). "Sheila Heti, Eli Baxter win 2022 Governor General's Literary Awards for fiction and non-fiction". Toronto Star. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
- ^ Cassandra Drudi, "League of Canadian Poets announces 2023 Book Awards shortlists". Quill & Quire, April 20, 2023.
- ^ Brannagan Frederiksen, Melanie (August 27, 2022). "MacAskill's musings on grief mine myths". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
- ^ Alvarado, Jacob. "Annick MacAskill, Shadow Blight". The Ampersand Review. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
- ^ Arsenault, Tim. "Halifax poet Annick MacAskill wins Governor General's Literary Award". SaltWire Network. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
External links
- Official website
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- F. R. Scott, The Collected Poems of F. R. Scott (1981)
- Phyllis Webb, The Vision Tree: Selected Poems (1982)
- David Donnell, Settlements (1983)
- Paulette Jiles, Celestial Navigation (1984)
- Fred Wah, Waiting for Saskatchewan (1985)
- Al Purdy, The Collected Poems of Al Purdy (1986)
- Gwendolyn MacEwen, Afterworlds (1987)
- Erín Moure, Furious (1988)
- Heather Spears, The Word for Sand (1989)
- Margaret Avison, No Time (1990)
- Don McKay, Night Field (1991)
- Lorna Crozier, Inventing the Hawk (1992)
- Don Coles, Forests of the Medieval World (1993)
- Robert Hilles, Cantos from a Small Room (1994)
- Anne Szumigalski, Voice (1995)
- E. D. Blodgett, Apostrophes: Woman at a Piano (1996)
- Dionne Brand, Land to Light On (1997)
- Stephanie Bolster, White Stone: The Alice Poems (1998)
- Jan Zwicky, Songs for Relinquishing the Earth (1999)
- Don McKay, Another Gravity (2000)
- George Elliott Clarke, Execution Poems (2001)
- Roy Miki, Surrender (2002)
- Tim Lilburn, Kill-site (2003)
- Roo Borson, Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida (2004)
- Anne Compton, processional (2005)
- John Pass, Stumbling in the Bloom (2006)
- Don Domanski, All Our Wonder Unavenged (2007)
- Jacob Scheier, More to Keep Us Warm (2008)
- David Zieroth, The Fly in Autumn (2009)
- Richard Greene, Boxing the Compass (2010)
- Phil Hall, Killdeer (2011)
- Julie Bruck, Monkey Ranch (2012)
- Katherena Vermette, North End Love Songs (2013)
- Arleen Paré, Lake of Two Mountains (2014)
- Robyn Sarah, My Shoes Are Killing Me (2015)
- Steven Heighton, The Waking Comes Late (2016)
- Richard Harrison, On Not Losing My Father's Ashes in the Flood (2017)
- Cecily Nicholson, Wayside Sang (2018)
- Gwen Benaway, Holy Wild (2019)
- Anne Carson, Norma Jeane Baker of Troy (2020)
- Tolu Oloruntoba, The Junta of Happenstance (2021)
- Annick MacAskill, Shadow Blight (2022)
- Hannah Green, Xanax Cowboy (2023)