Return of the Wild Goose explores the life of writer and activist Katherine Hughes. Set against the intimate relief of a PEI landscape, these poems are inspired by what is known—and unknown—about her contradictory life as a Catholic teacher in Mohawk territory; a journalist working alongside Canada's first-wave feminists and suffragettes; the first public archivist of Alberta; and finally, as a zealous Irish nationalist. This (auto) biographical dialogue between Jane Ledwell and Katherine Hughes offers the reader a fierce remembrance of a PEI radical.

What made Hughes a trailblazer but not a feminist? An archivist who kept so few records of her own? What made her overthrow ideas of empire for Irish republican nationalism? Return of the Wild Goose remembers (and maybe fights a bit) with a fascinating historical Prince Edward Island woman so that she won't be forgotten.

Jane Ledwell has been awarded local and regional prizes and grants for her prose and poetry, notably first prize for both prose and poetry in the Atlantic Writing Awards in 2001. Her work has been broadcast on CBC Radio, most recently as part of the CBC Poetry Face-Off 2005, and has been published in journals such as blueSHIFT and anthologies such as Landmarks and A Bountiful Harvest. Her book of poetry, Last Tomato was published by Acorn Press in 2005.

Jane Ledwell's profile page