National Network for Equitable Library Service

Bronwen Wallace was recognized in the last decade of her short life as a major Canadian poet and a significant figure in the growth of the feminist movement. The author of five collections of poetry and a book of short fiction, most of which have been out of print for decades, Wallace worked in a range of poetic styles in a voice as intimate as a conversation between friends. Offering the full breadth of this celebrated poet's output in a single, long-awaited volume, Collected Poems of Bronwen Wallace brings the text of all five published collections back into print alongside unpublished poems from earlier in her career, allowing readers to see the stylistic evolution of her poetry from its first incarnation to her last written work. In an engaging and often moving tone, the poems draw the reader in even as they document the poet honing her craft during the turbulent 1970s and reveal her fascination with the politics of the personal, the everyday concerns of ordinary people, and inequality and violence. Carolyn Smart's introduction and notes supplement the collection, along with a bibliography that catalogues the scholarly and literary responses to Wallace's work for the first time. An exhilarating reading experience, Collected Poems of Bronwen Wallace celebrates the clarity, humour, righteous anger, and inclusivity of Wallace's poetry, which remains timely and original thirty years after her death.