Gaptoothed steps into the voided spaces and fissures that disrupt our sense of identity and obscure our connections to a world that otherwise seemed our own. Chronicling the alienating effects of the death of family members and her disorienting unmooring from her Newfoundland home, her culture, and her history, Durnford’s autobiographical poems inhabit gaps that left so much of her experience unnamed, unspoken, and missing. While confronting significant matters like death, adolescence, gender inequality, and the instability of history, Durnford retains an ear for language’s wildness, resulting in poems as vigorous, playful, and brash as an open-mouthed laugh.

Robin Durnford’s poetry collection A Lovely Gutting was short-listed for the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland & Labrador Heritage & History Award, and her illustrated chapbook, Fog of the Outport (artwork by Meagan Musseau) was the subject of a 2013 CBC Land & Sea documentary. Born in St. John’s and raised on the west coast of Newfoundland, Durnford currently teaches at Grenfell Campus of Memorial University in Corner Brook.

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