Common Magic

by Bronwen Wallace

pp. 5 87, paperback edition, signed by the author on title page

Genres: Poetry, Canada

87 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1985

About the author

Wallace was born in Kingston, Ontario. She attended Queen's University, Kingston (B.A. 1967, M.A. 1969). In 1970, she moved to Windsor, Ontario, where she founded a women's bookstore and became active in working class and women's activist groups. In 1977, she returned to Kingston, where she worked at a women's shelter and taught at St. Lawrence College and Queen's. She wrote a weekly column for the Kingston Whig-Standard. In 1988, she was writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario.

Her collections testify to her social activism involving women's rights, civil rights, and social policy. A primary focus of her work was violence against women and children.

Reviews

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

in a similar vein to marge piercy's the moon is always female and adrienne rich's a wild patience has taken me this far, bronwen wallace's common magic is a critical text for me, one that i found accidentally and return to, over and over.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wallace uses the clearest, most conversational language to tell us her stories— the stories of a woman asking questions of family and heredity, institutions and marriage, and how they affect women, and the identity of women.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dipping toes into the poetry pool and this just isn’t for me.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be returning to this again and again. Such a wonderful collection.

[Andrea MacPherson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous.

[Marg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bronwen Wallace was, plain and simple, a great poet, rooted in the real but often transcendent.