The Islands

May 2011
96 pages | ISBN 978-1-894987-55-4

The Islands is a voyage through images of islands and water and an exploration of memory, ritual, grief and childhood. It is an important collection in the work of the seminal feminist Québécoise poet Louise Cotnoir, a writer who helped redefine how a strongly gendered language can be turned to feminist poetry.

While French poetry, and Québécoise poetry in particular, is known for being abstract and philosophical, Cotnoir's poetry is specific and sensual. Her rich poetic voice pulls the reader into her poems. When Cotnoir writes of grief, the reader does not merely read of grief, but experiences it. This is an arresting collection, deftly translated into English for the first time.

Reviews

'Chubby sonnets' hilarious, brilliant (Jonathan Bell, Winnipeg Free Press, 10/22/2011).
"The Islands brims with ornate, visceral imagery."

Excerpt

The Islands Excerpt.pdf
Read an excerpt of The Islands by Louise Cotnoir and translated by Oana Avasilichioaei.

About the Authors

Oana Avasilichioaei is a poet and translator whose work explores history, geography, public space, textual architecture, multilingualism, translation, textual and collaborative performance, and who transformed the landscape of Vancouver’s Hastings Park into an acclaimed book of poems, feria: a poempark (Wolsak & Wynn, 2008). She has translated Nichita Stanescu from Romanian, published as Occupational Sickness (BuschekBooks, 2006), created visual textworks for galleries in Montreal and Vancouver, and has performed her work in Canada, USA, Mexico and Europe. She recently collaborated with Erín Moure on Expeditions of a Chimæra (BookThug, 2009), a dialogic work exploring the boundaries between author/translator and original/copy. The Islands, a translation of Les Îles by Quebecoise poet Louise Cotnoir, is forthcoming from Wolsak and Wynn in 2011 and We, Beasts, Avasilichioaei's newest poetry collection, in 2012.

Born in 1948 in Sorel, Québec, Louise Cotnoir has published over fifteen books of poetry, fiction and drama. Many of her books have received critical acclaim, including nominations for the Governor General’s Award. She has participated in numerous conferences on writing and women and has served on the editorial boards or collaborated in other ways with many Canadian and international journals, including Sorcières, Estuaire, Arcade, Tessera, Matrix, Moebius, Room of One's Own, Ellipse, Trivia, Silencíada Festada Palabra, El Ciervo and Cahiers internationaux du symbolisme. Some of her works have been translated into English, Spanish, Catalan, Swedish and Chinese. Her next collection of poetry, Les sœurs de, will be published by Éditions du Noroît in 2011.

Other Titles by this Author

We, Beasts (2012)

feria: a poempark (2008)

Abandon (2005)