The Weight of Oranges / Miner's Pond

by Anne Michaels

Prior to her stunning début novel, Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels had already won prizes and acclaim for her two poetry collections. The Weight of Oranges and Miner’ s Pond are now brought back into print in this one-volume collector’s edition.

Published in 1986, The Weight of Oranges created a sensation, garnering the kind of praise rarely accorded a first book of poems. It went on to win the Commonwealth Prize for the Americas. Miner ’ s Pond appeared in 1991 and received the Canadian Authors Association Award, and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award and the Trillium Award.

Genres: Poetry, Canada

132 pages, Paperback

Published April 5, 1997

About the author

Anne Michaels (born 15 April 1958) is a Canadian poet and novelist whose work has been translated and published in over 45 countries. Her books have garnered dozens of international awards including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Lannan Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Americas. She is the recipient of honorary degrees, the Guggenheim Fellowship and many other honours. She has been shortlisted for the Governor General's Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, twice shortlisted for the Giller Prize and twice long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award. Michaels won a 2019 Vine Award for Infinite Gradation, her first volume of non-fiction. Michaels was the poet laureate of Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 2016 to 2019, and she is perhaps best known for her novel Fugitive Pieces, which was adapted for the screen in 2007.

Reviews

[jo ianni]

4.5

A worthwhile read for scientists, historians and poets. Michaels never ceases to fail at speaking to memory whilst gesturing to the personal and the shared histories of peoples.

One of the few times I have enjoyed longer form and segmented poems.

For me the most memorable line, "Blood, that euphemism for what moves in us." is concluded at the end of the collection with "Slowly you translate fear into love, / the way the moon's blood is the sea."

[Rhonda Leanne]

3.5⭐️ for The Weight of Oranges
4⭐️ for Miner's Pond

I enjoyed the imagery in many of the poems, especially in Miner's pond. I much preferred reading her poetry to the novel I read.

[Trevor]

Memorable images. Prefer this earlier work to her new poems.

[Chaneli]

so much of the body and nature as it relates to the world is in this collections. Michaels also talks about marriage, divorce, different memories/moments in life, various artists. She is such an incredible writer. There were moments when i had to pause and re-read a section so that i could re-live the beauty of her words. the way she describes the body, the river, the world, is all so breathtaking. I'm excited to read more of her work.

[Flaneurette]

Anne Michael is the greatest sense-maker of them all in her way of connecting our existence and emotions to the world around us in the most beautiful way. I will read these collections many more times and I cannot wait for her next books to be released.

[Andrea Taylor]

As always Anne Michaels moves me to contemplate the universe! She presents life in a wonderous way. It's not a wonder that she has won prizes both for her poetry and her fiction!

[stephanie roberts]

After all these years I still feel closest to you
in the hours reserved for nightmares,
even in our distant bedrooms.
Because I know you're awake too

[Colette]

I can't comment on the Spanish translation as I read this collection in the English original. But I love Michaels' writing. Her poems are lush and yet stark, provocative but also tender.