Anne Simpson, acclaimed author and StFX adjunct English professor, has launched a new book of poetry, Strange Attractor.
The new collection focuses on the idea of self and the many selves we are within our lifetimes.
“This one is really about the question of self—what it is, how it changes. I was curious about the fluidity of this idea of the self. Who are we when we’re children? Who are we as we age? Who are we when we have an illness? For instance, I have a series of poems about dementia, with questions from the Mini-Mental State Exam, which doctors often used, and in some cases still use, when diagnosing the illness. I thought about what it would be like to be asked these questions, and I created a character who can’t answer them. And yet the richness of her imagination is obvious to the reader. This is one strand of this book, one way of looking at the notion of self,” says Ms. Simpson, the author of four previous books of poetry: Light Falls Through You, winner of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Atlantic Poetry Prize; Loop, winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize; Quick, winner of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award; and, most recently, Is.
She is also the author of two novels, Canterbury Beach and Falling, longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and winner of the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction. Her book of essays, The Marram Grass: Poetry & Otherness, was published in 2009.
She says one thing that inspired her with this book was the ancient story of Gilgamesh, the first recorded work of literature that has come down to us. “It’s really about the friendship between Gilgamesh, the king, and Enkidu, the wild man. The poems I wrote are a way to have a conversation with another work of literature. I wrote poems from Enkidu’s point of view, poems from Gilgamesh’s point of view. It was wonderful to dig deep with each of them,” she says.
“That’s one thing that inspired me. But I have to say that I’m equally interested in the place where I live, and the ordinary stories of people, often those I’ve never met. No one would be able to see themselves in what I write, I hope, but I’m often compelled by stories. And I’m compelled by this place—northeastern Nova Scotia. It comes up so often in my writing. Could I write poems if I didn’t live here? Maybe I could, but this place haunts my work.”
Ms. Simpson says it feels wonderful to have the book published. “To have a book published is a gift these days, but to have a book of poetry published feels a lot like winning the lottery.” Poetry, she says, is not something we pay much attention to, most of the time, and yet if someone gets married, or if someone dies, we often turn to it. It contains the things we all wish we could say at those times when it is most necessary to say it.
McClelland & Stewart, now part of PenguinRandomHouse, is the publisher. Strange Attractor is available at the StFX Campus Store, the Bookmark in Halifax and Charlottetown, and on Amazon.ca.
A book launch will take place at the Red Sky Gallery at 320 Main St., Antigonish, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 19th and all welcome to attend.