Silent Sister
The Mastectomy Poems
- Publisher
- Frontenac House
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2016
- Category
- Canadian
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781927823613
- Publish Date
- Sep 2016
- List Price
- $15.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
More than a narrative of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, silent sister: the mastectomy poems bears witness to social and psychological impacts, for better or worse, of the altered body and mind. You enter the cave, and in it are fragments of truth, recollection, dream, hallucination, and birds. You laugh. You cry. You in•spire. And you breathe.
About the authors
She has worked as a freelance writer and editor, as a travel writer, and as a fiction editor. She has been teaching writing and literature and leading workshops for 20 years. Her poetry, fiction and essays have been published in a variety of journals, and she has had plays produced. She is currently working on three literary projects: a novel, an unusual book of grammar, and an illustrated childrenÕs novel. In another life, she is also a silver-smith. Her biggest project, by far, and at the same time the most frustrating and rewarding, is raising her two daughters.
Micheline Maylor is a Poet Laureate Emeritus of Calgary (2016-18) and was the Calgary Public Library Author in Residence in fall 2016. She teaches creative writing at Mount Royal University. Her most recent book Little Wildheart (UAlberta Press) was long-listed for both the Pat Lowther and Raymond Souster awards. Find her online at www.michelinemaylor.com.
Excerpt: Silent Sister: The Mastectomy Poems (by (author) Beth Everest; illustrated by Neil Petrunia; edited by Micheline Maylor)
*
i phone. let my sisters
know that Dr. Kanashiro tells me
they are now at risk, in that strange
mathematics by which
my illness has made them more
vulnerable.
yes, yes, one sister says. i understand.
and the other, i’ll book a mammogram
and the third, well, my friend had a
mastectomy, and she’s just fine.
my neighbour visits. do you
want to see, i say. do you
want to show me? yes,
yes i do. i want to show you,
i want to scream naked
thru the streets and run
and run and run, one breast
flapping.
then they’ll see, won’t they
then they’ll see.
