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Winner of the 2002 Dorothy Livesay Award for Poetry (BC Book Prizes)
Shortlisted for the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize
The 2002 Gerald Lampert Award for first book
Longlisted for the 2002 ReLit Awards.
Karen Solie takes risks with perception and language, risks that pay off in such startling ways that it's hard to believe this is a first book. Short Haul Engine is one great twist of fate and fury after another. The writing is clear, striking and open to all sorts of possibilities. Even at their most playful, these poems dive much deeper than initially expected. There's a remarkably dark sense of humour at work here, but tempered with a haunting vulnerability that makes even the sharpest lines tremble.
from "Signs Taken for Wonders"
...Too delicate for these dog-days, small, clover-blonde, my sister sews indoors. I ask her to fashion me into something nice, ivory silk. I am a big girl, sunburnt skin like raw meat, sweating two pews in front of the Blessed Virgin...
About the author
Karen Solie was born in Moose Jaw and grew up on the family farm in southwest Saskatchewan. Over the years, she has worked as a farm hand, an espresso jerk, a groundskeeper, a newspaper reporter/photographer, an academic research assistant, and, presently, an English teacher. Her poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have appeared in numerous North American journals, including
The Fiddlehead,
The Malahat Review,
Event,
Indiana Review,
ARC,
Other Voices, and
The Capilano Review. She has also had her poetry published in the anthologies
Breathing Fire (Harbour, 1995),
Hammer and Tongs (Smoking Lung, 1999) and
Introductions: Poets Present Poets (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2001) where her work is presented by Don McKay. One of her short stories is featured in
The Journey Prize Anthology 12. She currently lives in Victoria, BC.
