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Threading Light: Explorations in Loss and Poetry
Lorri Neilsen Glenn in Threading Explorations in Loss and Poetry offers a compelling and poetic work. This collection of linked prose explores Neilsen Glenn's journey into poetry and deepening understanding of poetry as a model of secular compunction that serves as a form of prayer. Here are personal essays about loss from childhood through to adulthood as well as essays about Neilsen Glenn's initiation into the practice of poetry that was both timely and necessary. Neilsen Glenn is the author of four books of poetry and her non-fiction has been shortlisted and won awards in contests sponsored by Prairie Fire, Event, as well as the National Magazine Awards. She has been the Poet Laureate of Halifax.
- GenresNonfictionPoetryEssays
144 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2011
15 people want to read
About the author
Lorri Neilsen Glenn
11 books12 followersBorn and raised in Winnipeg, MB, Lorri Neilsen Glenn has lived in Halifax, NS since 1983. In addition to her work as a poet, Glenn is also an ethnographer and essayist. Glenn has studied at the Universities of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Harvard.
Her first collection of poetry, all the perfect disguises (Broken Jaw Press), was published in 2003. 2007 saw the publication of both a chapbook, Saved String (Rubicon Press), and a second collection, Combustion (Brick Books). In 2010, Glenn published her third full collection, Lost Gospels, also through Brick Books. In 2011, Hagios Press published Threading the Light: Explorations in Loss and Poetry. Most recently, Glenn was the editor for Untyping the Apron: Daughters Remember Mothers of the 1950s (2013, Guernica).
Glenn has won or been shortlisted for numerous awards for her poetry throughout her career, including the National Magazine Awards, Short Grain Contest, CBC Literary Awards, and the Bliss Carman Poetry Awards. She has also received recognition for her scholarship, having won awards in Grain, Event Magazine, and Prairie Fire.
From 2005-2009, Glenn served as poet laureate for the Regional Municipality of Halifax. She currently teaches at Mount Saint Vincent University.
Her first collection of poetry, all the perfect disguises (Broken Jaw Press), was published in 2003. 2007 saw the publication of both a chapbook, Saved String (Rubicon Press), and a second collection, Combustion (Brick Books). In 2010, Glenn published her third full collection, Lost Gospels, also through Brick Books. In 2011, Hagios Press published Threading the Light: Explorations in Loss and Poetry. Most recently, Glenn was the editor for Untyping the Apron: Daughters Remember Mothers of the 1950s (2013, Guernica).
Glenn has won or been shortlisted for numerous awards for her poetry throughout her career, including the National Magazine Awards, Short Grain Contest, CBC Literary Awards, and the Bliss Carman Poetry Awards. She has also received recognition for her scholarship, having won awards in Grain, Event Magazine, and Prairie Fire.
From 2005-2009, Glenn served as poet laureate for the Regional Municipality of Halifax. She currently teaches at Mount Saint Vincent University.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 2, 2020
A beautiful book, lyrically written and full of insights, making me want to go back and start again from the beginning. It also makes me want to read Lorri's poetry.
July 18, 2015
This is a very personal and deeply felt memoir, but more than a memoir. It is an exploration of a coming to poetry and a probing for a secular spirituality in response to loss. Complex, and not a quick read, but a beautiful one. In places, it brought tears to my eyes.
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December 20, 2017Lyical, philosophical, thought-provoking and beautifully written. This book brings forth a gentle exploration of the meaning of loss, of the place of grief in our lives. If I ranked books, I'd give this one five stars. Lorri Neilsen Glenn is a wonderfully talented and intelligent writer.
Here's a sample:
An anthropologist visits Hopi people to record their music. “Is water all you people sing about down here? Our need for water is great, says the old man. I notice all your people write about is love, he adds. Is it because you don’t have much?” p. 66
And
"I had been reading Murray Stein’s comments about the work of midlife – separation, liminality and reintegration. This midlife work is often chaotic and flowing: we need to learn to float, to listen to the unconscious and take notes of the signs that Hermes, our guide, throws in our way. Maggie Ross, a Christian mystic, says we need to commit to unknowing, to an empty silence that brings forth water and fire and light. It’s difficult. As we age we accumulate so much – memories, possessions, illusions – and we resist the relinquishing. Nanabush, Hermes, Coyote – remind me: loss is no disaster.” P 68
Lovely.
Here's a sample:
An anthropologist visits Hopi people to record their music. “Is water all you people sing about down here? Our need for water is great, says the old man. I notice all your people write about is love, he adds. Is it because you don’t have much?” p. 66
And
"I had been reading Murray Stein’s comments about the work of midlife – separation, liminality and reintegration. This midlife work is often chaotic and flowing: we need to learn to float, to listen to the unconscious and take notes of the signs that Hermes, our guide, throws in our way. Maggie Ross, a Christian mystic, says we need to commit to unknowing, to an empty silence that brings forth water and fire and light. It’s difficult. As we age we accumulate so much – memories, possessions, illusions – and we resist the relinquishing. Nanabush, Hermes, Coyote – remind me: loss is no disaster.” P 68
Lovely.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews