I was thrilled to wake up Saturday morning to find Tom Sandborn’s rave review of my new book Devolution in the Vancouver Sun.
He bills it an “elegant and ferocious collection of poems and fables. Like Magritte and other surrealist painters, Goldberg is fascinated by dream-like images dredged up from the muck at the bottom of the mind, and she deploys these images to reflect on our intertwined crises of environmental collapse and social injustice.”
Book review: Nanaimo poet deploys dreamlike surrealism in ferocious collection
From the review: “Goldberg creates a dream world in her writing, full of nightmarish loss, fragmentation and decay juxtaposed with shards of radiant, resonant beauty. Like Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne, Goldberg shows us where to look amongst the garbage and the flowers.”
And: “She can write lines that literally take your breath away, and creates images that will remain with you long after you close the book.”
The pandemic has been hard on poets. Especially those of us with new books. No coffee shops or libraries or other cool haunts where we can perform our words and connect with a live audience.
I was scheduled to launch Devolution on March 21st, World Poetry Day, at Nanaimo Harbourfront Library. But by the time that date rolled around, lockdown had commenced and the library (like most other establishments) was closed so we could all shelter in place and head off a potential crisis that could flatten our health care resources.
Poets have had to carve out and invent new methods of sharing our work in the last three months. Online launches and readings with Zoom and other crowdcasting platforms, for example.
I held an online launch and reading for Devolution on June 5th with Planet Earth Poetry. You can view that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUAYxoRaS04
A video of my Devolution poem “A Tall Girl” was featured on Poet’s Corner here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZnrWk-OAac
You can watch and hear me read 3 of my Devolution poems here on rob mclennan’s periodicities virtual reading series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0gu2QNkah8&feature=emb_logo
And if you want a glimpse inside the poet’s mind (it’s scary in there!) to see what went into the creation of Devolution, you can read my essay here on the All Lit Up blog Under the Cover: https://alllitup.ca/Blog/2020/Under-the-Cover-Seizing-absurdity-in-Devolution
Devolution can be ordered directly from the publisher.
Caitlin Press: https://caitlin-press.com/our-books/devolution/
Or from any online bookseller (Amazon, Chapters, etc), or through your favorite indie bookstore.
And I am selling signed copies from my door or garden in Nanaimo for $18. Or I can ship you a signed copy for $23. (e-transfer to goldberg@ncf.ca)
Pig Squash Press 