In this second collection of poetry, Backhand Through The Mother, poet Renee Norman, picks up several thematic threads from her first book, True Confessions (Inanna Publications, 2005), and weaves them into poems about mothering, aging and loss set amongst the cultural traditions of family and Judaism. Relationships between mothers and daughters are celebrated, deconstructed, and mourned, as the poems resonate with the slippage of time and the emptiness of hands once full and busy. From babyhood to adolescence to young adulthood, Norman writes about the poignancy of motherhood, set against her own aging and the illness, death, and widowhood of aging parents. She also writes hopefully and with some humour as she navigates her daughters' growing pains, middle-age, her Jewish background, and the legacies our parents leave us.

Renee Norman, PhD, is a prize-winning poet, writer, and retired educator. Her poetry book, True Confessions (Inanna), was awarded the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award for poetry. She is also the author of 2 other books of poetry, Backhand Through the Mother, and Martha in the Mirror (Inanna). She received the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies Distinguished Dissertation Award for House of Mirrors: Performing Autobiograph(icall)y in Language/Education, published by Peter Lang, NY. Previously she worked as a classroom teacher in public schools, an arts educator, a university professor, and school board consultant. She lives in Coquitlam, BC.

Carl Leggo is a poet and professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia. His books include: Growing Up Perpendicular on the Side of a Hill; View from My Mother's House; Come-By-Chance; Lifewriting as Literary Métissage and an Ethos for Our Times (co-authored with Erika Hasebe-Ludt and Cynthia Chambers); Creative Expression, Creative Education (co-edited with Robert Kelly); Sailing in a Concrete Boat: A Teacher's Journey; Arresting Hope: Women Taking Action in Prison Health Inside Out (co-edited with Ruth Martin, Mo Korchinski, and Lynn Fels); and Arts-based and Contemplative Practices in Research and Teaching: Honoring Presence (co-edited with Susan Walsh and Barbara Bickel). He lives in Steveston, BC.

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