I Heart Edmonton

Former #yeg poet laureate Alice Major offers an anthology of profound and often complex poems in Standard Candles by paula e. kirman ALICE Major is one of the most prominent contemporary poets Edmonton has produced. The city's first poet laureate and an inductee into Edmonton's Cultural Hall of Fame, Major's work runs a gamut of themes from family to mythology, to cosmology.  She explores these themes again in her new poetry collection Standard Candles . Using both contemporary and classical poetic forms, Major explores both personal and universal topics. Her language is complex, but not complicated, and the poems often read like mini-stories or windows into the universe – both Major's and the one around us at large.  In fact, many of the poems have an emotional resonance but go further by intersecting with dimensions of space and time, even when specific time periods or places are discussed. The juxtaposition of post-modern free verse and tradition...

Established local poet and writer Alice Major explores how we occupy our space and time on earth in her collection of poetry The Occupied World . BY PAULA E. KIRMAN The Occupied World S OME people have drinking buddies. I have writing buddies. We critique each other's work. Actually, I have drinking buddies also, but I digress. One of my writing buddies recently handed me a copy of Alice Major 's poetry collection The Occupied World .  Major is well known on Edmonton's poetry circuit. She was the city's first Poet Laureate and is a familiar face at the annual Edmonton Poetry Festival in April. Published in 2006, The Occupied World is a clear presentation of why Major is so well regarded. Her language and imagery is at once familiar and other worldly, juxtaposing the local and familiar with other times and places.  Through her words, Major begins with the theme of building a city, using the framework of rituals used in Roman times to sanctify ...

Edmonton writer Jason Lee Norman takes a 'love it or hate it' approach to chronicling the one season that, sometimes, never seems to go away. BY PAULA E. KIRMAN Jason Lee Norman's '40 Below' W HEN you live in Edmonton, winter is a fact of life. It’s long, it’s cold, and it’s often dark. It’s also the topic of conversation – we all talk about the winter at some point, even if it is just passing expressions of love or hate. Such sentiments are expressed throughout 40 Below , an anthology of writing by current and former Edmontonians about winter. Edited by current Edmonton Public Library Writer-in-residence Jason Lee Norman , 40 Below contains a huge variety of voices: those who love it, hate it, miss it, reminisce about it, or who simply tolerate it. The range of writing styles also varies, from short stories, to essays, to creative non-fiction, to poetry, and even one piece of visual artwork. Most of the submissions are short and sweet, whic...