Karen Solie – författare

Winner of the Forward PrizeWinner of the Governor General's Literary Award Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot PrizeShortlisted for the PEN Heaney PrizeA new collection of urgent, essential poems that "e;take your breath away"e; (The Daily Telegraph), from the celebrated Canadian poet Karen Solie. The poems in Wellwater, Karen Solie's sixth collection, explore the cultural, economic, and personal ideas of "e;value,"e; addressing housing, economic and environmental crises, and aging and its incumbent losses. Places we might think of as home have become unaffordable or inaccessible. A poor excuse for an apartment, a basement suite is "e;cold on five sides, like childhood,"e; and "e;tries to forget we are here."e; Power lines, radios, and fluorescent lights all emit a "e;low hum of menace,"e; and "e;vulgar muffins, overstuffed as geese with funnels down their throats"e; come to represent a culture in decline.Solie, who grew up in Saskatchewan on a small family farm, sees the economic and environmental crises as intertwined. Climate change has made small farming untenable, and onward creeps the corporate control of food production. "e;There is no starting over,"e; Solie writes. And yet, life, echoing with the presence of those lost, ambles along day by day.

Winner of the Forward Prize for Best CollectionWinner of the T.S. Eliot PrizeWinner of the Governor General's Literary Award for PoetryAn Observer, Telegraph, TLS, Guardian, Scotsman, New Statesman, Financial Times and Irish Times Book of the YearShortlisted for the PEN Heaney PrizeWellwater demonstrates a poet writing at the height of her powers. In poems that are supple, philosophical, bracingly honest and ribbed with erudition, Wellwater conducts a self-interrogative conversation with a culture in crisis and a natural world on the brink. Thresholds abound, ‘doors between dimensions’ where past selves or lost loved ones speak to us again: ‘death is not Saskatchewan’ shrugs one encountered soul, ‘we don’t all know each other in this place’.Solie excels as a laureate of the transitory, of ‘baffling flats . . . tiny museums of illegalities’, motel rooms exuding a ‘low hum of menace’. Her roving, syntactically elegant poems will often resolve in disarming directness, a precise admission of the emotional stakes. Karen Solie is increasingly recognised as one of the essential voices in world poetry. Wellwater will delight those already in the know, while new readers of her work will be astonished.'Solie is an essential writer . . . anyone remotely interested in 21st-century literature, or 21st-century life, should read her' – Tristram Fane Saunders, Telegraph'Powerful, philosophical, intelligent . . . [Solie is] adept at pulling great wisdom from the ordinary' – Griffin Prize judges Anne Carson, Kathleen Jamie and Carl Phillips'A work of political profundity and linguistic dexterity that constantly surprises.' – Susannah Dickey, PEN Heaney Prize-winning author of ISDAL and Tennis Lessons'Karen Solie should be read wherever English is spoken' – Michael Hofmann, LRB'Half-expertise and half-magic . . . Wellwater is a terrifying book – and a masterly one. Solie is as good as poetry gets' – Declan Ryan, Telegraph

Winner of the Forward Prize for Best CollectionWinner of the T.S. Eliot PrizeWinner of the Governor General's Literary Award for PoetryAn Observer, Telegraph, TLS, Guardian, Scotsman, New Statesman, Financial Times and Irish Times Book of the YearShortlisted for the PEN Heaney PrizeWellwater demonstrates a poet writing at the height of her powers. In poems that are supple, philosophical, bracingly honest and ribbed with erudition, Wellwater conducts a self-interrogative conversation with a culture in crisis and a natural world on the brink. Thresholds abound, ‘doors between dimensions’ where past selves or lost loved ones speak to us again: ‘death is not Saskatchewan’ shrugs one encountered soul, ‘we don’t all know each other in this place’.Solie excels as a laureate of the transitory, of ‘baffling flats . . . tiny museums of illegalities’, motel rooms exuding a ‘low hum of menace’. Her roving, syntactically elegant poems will often resolve in disarming directness, a precise admission of the emotional stakes. Karen Solie is increasingly recognised as one of the essential voices in world poetry. Wellwater will delight those already in the know, while new readers of her work will be astonished.'Solie is an essential writer . . . anyone remotely interested in 21st-century literature, or 21st-century life, should read her' – Tristram Fane Saunders, Telegraph'Powerful, philosophical, intelligent . . . [Solie is] adept at pulling great wisdom from the ordinary' – Griffin Prize judges Anne Carson, Kathleen Jamie and Carl Phillips'A work of political profundity and linguistic dexterity that constantly surprises.' – Susannah Dickey, PEN Heaney Prize-winning author of ISDAL and Tennis Lessons'Karen Solie should be read wherever English is spoken' – Michael Hofmann, LRB'Half-expertise and half-magic . . . Wellwater is a terrifying book – and a masterly one. Solie is as good as poetry gets' – Declan Ryan, Telegraph

'Wry, sharp-eyed and uncompromising, The Caiplie Caves is the most ambitious collection yet from an essential poet.' The Telegraph‘Karen Solie should be read wherever English is spoken’. – Michael Hofmann, LRB The Canadian Karen Solie is rapidly establishing a reputation as one of the most important poets at work today. Her fifth book of poetry, The Caiplie Caves, is a profound and timely consideration of the nature of crisis: at its heart is the figure of St Ethernan, a seventh-century Irish missionary to Scotland who retreated to the caves of the Fife coast in order to decide whether to establish a priory on May Island or pursue a life of solitude. His decision would have been informed by realities of war, misinformation and power; Solie imagines this crisis also complicated by grief, confusion – and a faith placed under extreme duress.Woven through Ethernan’s story are poems that orbit the caves’ geographical location, and range through the recurring violences of history and myth, of personal and public record. In poems of the utmost lyric subtlety and argumentative strength, Solie addresses how we might distinguish self-delusion from belief, belief from knowledge – and how, in the frailty of our responses, we can find the courage to move forward.'Powerful, philosophical, intelligent . . . [Solie is] especially adept at pulling great wisdom from the ordinary' — Anne Carson, Kathleen Jamie, and Carl Phillips, Griffin Poetry Prize Judges’ Citation