Restless White Fields

by Barbara Langhorst

On May 26, 1991, Barbara Langhorst's father shot and killed her mother, then turned the gun on himself.Restless White Fields asks: how do you rebuild a life? In this unsentimental collection of poems, Barbara Langhorst revisits personal horrors few of us can imagine, with startling imagery that rends even as it heals.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2012

About the author

Barbara Langhorst's first book, Restless White Fields (2012), won Poetry Book of the Year Awards in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Her debut novel, Want (2018), was shortlisted for the Regina Public Library Book of the Year. Her second novel, The Winter-Blooming Tree, was released in Oct. 2021. After teaching at St. Peter's College in Muenster, SK for nearly 20 years, she and her husband have relocated to a townhouse with a tiny perfect kitchen in Edmonton, AB.

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The late Robert Kroetsch said, "Barbara Langhorst makes poetry new." Take his word for it. Restless White Fields takes your breath away. Langhorst never flinches as she brings a powerful healing witness to love, to horror, to beauty, to absence and presence. Read it.

[Shawna Lemay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Restless White Fields is a book about living with loss, about healing, and the persistence of memory. This is an exquisitely, daringly, written book, full of love and humanity, one that I have no doubt will find its place in the Canadian canon of poetry.