Hive: A Forgery

by Shawna Lemay

Hive is an experimental/poetic, allusive/elusive novel about the possibility of a woman art forger, about the belief in this possibility. Hive is interested in anonymity, hidden-ness, how we see, what remains invisible, in suspicion, confessions, lies, obfuscation. Hive is interested in belief. Not to mention fakery, forgery, mystification, shams, scams, hoaxes, greed, hunger. Hive is interested in what is real and honest. Hive moves back and forth between fiction and creative non-fiction. Hive wonders what it is, and how to be, real in this world, so often fake.

Genres: Poetry

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2012

About the author

"A lamp and a flower pot in the center. The flower can always be changing." –Virginia Woolf.

The Flower Can Always Be Changing:

From the bestselling author of Rumi and the Red Handbag comes a new collection of brief essays about the intersection of poetry, painting, photography and beauty. Inspired by the words of Virginia Woolf, Lemay welcomes you into her home, her art and her life as a poet and photographer of the every day. Lemay shares visits to the museum with her daughter, the beauty in an average workday at the library, and encourages writers and readers to make an appointment with flowers, with life.

Rumi and the Red Handbag was shortlisted for the Alberta Readers Choice Award. All the God-Sized Fruit, her first book, won the Stephan G. Stephansson Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Calm Things: Essays was shortlisted for the Wilfred Eggleston Award for Non-Fiction. She has an M.A. in English from the University of Alberta.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

i'd say this is a poem-prose hybrid of a novel, of personal essay, of musings. it's for soul-sisters & kindred spirits. it's a hymn to the colour red. it's a luscious foray into art & language. it's a dream of ice & lonely hearts. it's a quest for what's missing, for what can be forged.Shawna Lemay weaves a mesmerizing anti-novel meta-novel that poses questions about the nature of character & plot & creativity; what inspires a character's development? how can the characters stay within the frame of a book? what if they can't? the book is also filled with provocative quotes on writing & invention, on the colour red, on angels. as always i am a fan of Ms. Lemay's work whether it be poetry, beautiful photos or contemplative prose. i'd recommend this book to anyone who wants a slow pace, who isn't in a hurray & who can linger & dip in & out of subjects. after reading Hive, i want to make art: i want to shatter mirrors into slivers & glue them into a box with red feathers & gold filigree. i read Hive when i was sick with flu. our fevers matched.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I mentioned in the comment section, there's a bit of a "beat poetry" feel to this book. I have an irrational bias against beat poets, somewhat akin to my (everybody's) irrational bias against hipsters...

But this won me over, in the end. I like Shawna Lemay. And this was well done.

I almost kinda wish it had been handwritten!--or illustrated, or scented, or something. I wanted a flower. I wanted a feather. But I suppose that sort of thing is expensive to produce!

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

HIVE is exquisite; mystical, it speaks in tongues, shows you not just Shawna Lemay's ever so lovely fierce vision, but your own relatedness to the world, and the ways in which you keep yourself, should keep yourself, in quest/ion. You marvel as she does it, slyly passes a world of secrets "shyfearlessly" in all their flames to you. It's a book to read over and over, as I'm doing. Every reading yields a new experience, as only the best books do. It is as fresh and radical a shift, as groundbreaking, as The Double Hook was in the 20th Century--in a completely different way.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the introduction to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, he said he deliberately wrote at the cadence of a monastery. Any reader who couldn't slow their breath the make the journey, was encouraged to read something else.

Shawna Lemay's experimental work, Hive, A Forgery, should come with a similar caution. Non-contemplatives need not crack the spine. It's a journey to the core of the imaginative life. Like all of Shawna's works, the words are ripe and polished, savoured and carefully set. I highly recommend.

[Anne McDonald]

What a tantalizing review! I'll be sure to check it out

[Sally Ito · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sumptuous, sensual read and is a hybrid text of sorts -- ostensibly about an art forgerer who is the kind of meta-foil for the narrating voice, this book takes you through the world of art and of language in a langorous, hive-like manner. The book is non-linear; it's made of cells of narrative, kind of like a hive and yet there is a profluence to it. As I'm reading Woolf right now, I see some similarities in style and voice here.

[Melanie Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, evocative, artistic, and ruminative work. I found so much to savor about this unique narrative. It raises many wonderful questions about being an artist, a woman, as well as an observer and outsider.

I enjoyed considering all of the possible scenarios for the art forger and others in the tale as well as the gorgeous diction choices. Lemay's vivid yet mysterious imagery often invited me to reread passages a few times. This is an author who adores language in its musicality and magic as well as its narrative possibilities and conundrums.

I'd recommend this book to readers who enjoy hybrid genres, books about art, books about painting, and also my poet friends who spark to the thrill of language choices.