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Subduction Zone
Subduction Zone is a book of meditations on empire — the desires and agendas of empire, and empire’s detritus. From a sweeping panorama of imperial landscapes both classical and modern, it carries us into the troubled natural beauty of the world. Its third and final sequence brings Canadians home, to the manifestations of global technocracy in northwest BC.
Whether contemplating rain forests in the Visayan Islands or Edward Burtynsky’s photographs, these poems gaze unflinchingly at the exploitation and upheaval that define several millennia of global politics. Their questions are both urgent and intricate. Who are we individually, collectively, in this era of looming ecological collapse? How do we acknowledge the blood on our hands yet bear witness to the beauty that remains? Subduction Zone is a collection of great integrity and ambition: trenchant, political, shot through with ravishing eroticism and tenderness. Emily McGiffin is poised to become one of the major voices in Canadian poetry.
Whether contemplating rain forests in the Visayan Islands or Edward Burtynsky’s photographs, these poems gaze unflinchingly at the exploitation and upheaval that define several millennia of global politics. Their questions are both urgent and intricate. Who are we individually, collectively, in this era of looming ecological collapse? How do we acknowledge the blood on our hands yet bear witness to the beauty that remains? Subduction Zone is a collection of great integrity and ambition: trenchant, political, shot through with ravishing eroticism and tenderness. Emily McGiffin is poised to become one of the major voices in Canadian poetry.
90 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 30, 2015
Association for the Study of Literature and Enviornemtnal Book Award Winner 2015. The book is divided in 4 parts: "Postcards from the Supply Chain" are poems inspired by Edward Burtynsky's disaster-porn photography; "Expat" poems are about the Philipines; "Hinterlands" & "Nocturnes" are other environmentally-themed poems.
It is printed on lovely ecru paper with a woven texture--very beautiful to hold and read.
When the mountain has eaten
all the men they can feed it, they order more
from overseas and shovel those in too. Coal
It is printed on lovely ecru paper with a woven texture--very beautiful to hold and read.
When the mountain has eaten
all the men they can feed it, they order more
from overseas and shovel those in too. Coal
January 25, 2021
This new work by Emily McGiffin changed titles halfway through the editorial process and is now called SUBDUCTION ZONE. Winner of the Association for Studies in Literature & the Environment Creative Book Award.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews