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Seldom Seen Road

by (author) Jenna Butler

Publisher
NeWest Press
Initial publish date
Apr 2013
Subjects
Canadian, Women Authors, General

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Description

Seldom Seen Road is a collection of sharply observed and understated poems about the land and its people, specifically those who have made it grow. Bare bones, full of wit, insight, and fine imagery, they make up a book carefully constructed around a striking vision of the Prairies and its slowly disappearing history. Butler illuminates an oft-hidden world of strong women spanning two centuries, focusing the most powerful sequence of the book, "Lepidopterists", on them. These poems find their place in a tradition of prairie poetry that owes much to the work of such poets as John Newlove, Robert Kroetsch, and others. Combining an exacting attention to detail with organic sensibilities, Seldom Seen Road will grow on you.

About the author

Jenna Butler is the author of three critically acclaimed books of poetry, Seldom Seen Road (NeWest Press, 2013), Wells (University of Alberta Press, 2012) and Aphelion (NeWest Press, 2010); an award-winning collection of ecological essays, A Profession of Hope: Farming on the Edge the of Grizzly Trail (Wolsak and Wynn, 2015); and a poetic travelogue, Magnetic North: Sea Voyage to Svalbard (University of Alberta Press, 2018).

Butler's research into endangered environments has taken her from America's Deep South to Ireland's Ring of Kerry, and from volcanic Tenerife to the Arctic Circle onboard an ice-class masted sailing vessel, exploring the ways in which we impact the landscapes we call home. A professor of creative writing and environmental writing at Red Deer College, she lives with seven resident moose and a den of coyotes on an off-grid organic farm in Alberta's North Country.

Jenna Butler's profile page