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Fiction. In this post-lyrical era, poems can be stories, or they can just as easily be exuberant laughter set to words, an experiment in language, or an incidental collation of plays on a Scrabble board. THE PET RADISH, SHRUNKEN, the third full collection of poetry from the inimitable Pearl Pirie, deals in the poetics of sound, language, and play. In true Pirie style, this fresh, quirky, and clear-seeing collection speaks in a range of forms and voices: From a military convoy of turtles, to a Kafkaesque conversation with a housefly, to the dissection of a fruit machine, Pirie offers oulipo found speech as it integrates and disintegrates, plays with and tumbles through language.
"Quirky and fresh, playful yet serious, Pirie's collection, THE PET RADISH, SHRUNKEN, demands and activates new pathways of reason. These line-by-line lyrical segments both tantalize and take the reader down the rabbit hole (pulling rabbits out of hats along the way) with their semantic surprises and jumpy music. Pirie sees the world askew and brings the reader along for the ride. An invigorating collection."--Catherine Graham
About the author
Pearl Pirie is the author of
been shed bore (2010) and
Thirsts (2011), which won the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Her poetry has been published in numerous literary journals, including
filling Station, BafterC, Arc Poetry Magazine, Gusts, PRECIPICe, Dandelion, and
This Magazine. Her poem "Summer Names" was shortlisted in the Best Canadian Poetry 2014, and she made the 50-poem longlist for Best Canadian Poetry 2011, for her poem "The First Mother's Day After Dad's Death." Pirie's work has been included in several anthologies, focused on innovative poets, haiku, and other genres of writing. She has several chapbooks produced in Canada, France and Japan. She has produced two dozen titles under phafours press. Since 2009 she has managed the Tree Seed Workshop Series.
