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by Susan Braley (Author)
A fierce debut examining the tension of gender dynamics amidst the firm immutability of the church and the cyclical nature of rural life on a farm in the 60s.
In Susan Braley's debut poetry collection, Tilling the Darkness, a young woman born into a family of eleven navigates the inequities of gender roles on the farm and in the church. In this dramatic rural setting--birth and death sudden in the barn, the seasons vivid over the fields--she experiences first-hand how swiftly seedlings become stalks ploughed down, how easily she and her sisters are discounted. Tilling the Darkness explores how we all undertake this tilling ritual, season after season, in the finite field of our lives. Our darkness may be a calamity we seek to escape--a grave, a war, a grief--and our wish is the promise of renewal. In these powerful poems, it is often women who, even in the face of injury and erasure, turn dark to light. Braley's poetry traces how this woman, after leaving the farm, comes to appreciate the complex, bountiful legacy of her early life.Author Biography
Susan Braley grew up in a family of eleven on a farm in Southern Ontario. Her poetry is included in Best Canadian Poetry 2023, and was nominated for the 2022 National Magazine Award in Poetry. She was the winner of the inaugural BC Cedric Award for Poetry. Her poetry has appeared in the literary journals Antigonish Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, Canadian Women's Studies, CV2, The Literary Review of Canada, The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire, and Room. Her poems have been recognized in numerous writing contests, including Arc's Poem of the Year.
Number of Pages: 96
Dimensions: 0.4 x 7.8 x 5.3 IN
Publication Date: June 13, 2023
