Synopses & Reviews
?We look away from his open mouth, look instead at the corn, the crows floating above the river in their private worries. Tonight, when we turn in, the candle will sputter and blow. Pinched out easily, all flame gives way to this wide black wing. excerpt from Black Wing” The poems in Ashland, originally published by ECW in 2003, lay the groundwork for Adamsons award-winning and internationally bestselling novel, The Outlander. Neogothicism, the surrealist snapshot, feminist Western and postmodern parable are just some of the elements that feed Gil Adamsons second collection of poems. Adamson creates a world fully awash in violence and history, the absurdities of the frontier, the gorgeous terrors of death. Everything is simple, and yet nothing is as it seems. Moving easily from prose poem to lyric, verbal portrait to improbable biography, Ashland leads us on a macabre tour of our nightmares, perverse secrets, and death-focused mythologies: In the end we see ourselves. We last longer. The night opens its mouth, and we step in.”
Review
"Lean prose, full-bodied characterization, memorable settings, and scenes of hardship all lift this book above the pack." —Publisher's Weekly on The Outlander
Review
"Adamson cleverly integrates techniques of the adventure-suspense novel with a refined, often poetic style." —Booklist on The Outlander
Synopsis
An assemblage of vivid prose-poetry, both gripping and furious, this collection navigates a macabre tour of nightmares, perverse secrets, and death-focused mythologies. Creating a world awash in violence and history, a landscape of gunslingers, madwomen, ghosts, and wolves is given greater shape with each concise, narrative verse. Enigmatic and thrilling, these compiled pieces lay the groundwork for Adamsons award-winning and best-selling novel, The Outlander. Combining neo-gothicism, surrealist snapshots, feminism, and postmodern parables, each lyric moment echoes the characteristics of the outlaws described withinseductive and a little bit dangerous.
Synopsis
From Gil Adamson, author of The Outlander and Ridgerunner, nominated for the Giller Prize Neogothicism, the surrealist snapshot, feminist Western and postmodern parable are just some of the elements that feed Gil Adamson's second collection of poems. Adamson creates a world fully awash in violence and history, the absurdities of the frontier, the gorgeous terrors of death. Everything is simple, and yet nothing is as it seems. Moving easily from prose poem to lyric, verbal portrait to improbable biography, Ashland leads us on a macabre tour of our nightmares, perverse secrets, and death-focused mythologies: "In the end we see ourselves. We last longer. The night opens its mouth, and we step in." The poems in Ashland lay the groundwork for Adamson's award-winning and internationally bestselling fiction. We look away from his open mouth, look instead at the corn, the crows floating above the river in their private worries. Tonight, when we turn in, the candle will sputter and blow. Pinched out easily, all flame gives way to this wide black wing. -- excerpt from "Black Wing"
About the Author
Gil Adamson is a poet and the author of "Help Me, Jacques Cousteau"; "Mulder, It's Me: The Gillian Anderson Files"; "The Outlander"; and "Primitive." She lives in Toronto, Ontario.