The Weight of Oranges/Miner's Pond

by Anne Michaels

Prior to her stunning first novel, Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels had already won awards and critical acclaim for two books of poetry: The Weight of Oranges (1986), which won the Commonwealth Prize for the Americas, and Miner's Pond (1991), which received the Canadian Authors Association Award and was short-listed for the Governor General's Award and the Trillium Award. Although they were published separately, these two books, along with Skin Divers, a collection of Michaels's newest work, were written as companion volumes.

Poems brings all three books together for the first time, creating for American readers a wonderful introduction to Anne Michaels's poetry. Meditative and insightful, powerful and heart-moving, these are poems that, as Michael Ondaatje has written, "go way beyond games or fashion or politics . . . They represent the human being entire."

Genres: Poetry, Canada

142 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2001

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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."

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Chaneli · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.