Witness
by Robert Currie
Paperback (Poetry)
8.5" x 5.25" · 126 pages
Release Date: May 2009
ISBN 9780978344078
In this sweeping collection of poems Robert Currie explores the intersections of societal change, and personal survival in our recent 20th Century history. Robert Currie gives us his most compelling work to date in poems that thread together humanity, history and art. Ranging from the brief, lucid lyric to the long, narrative sequence Currie's poems sing with hope as we "look for home". Language, time, and the act of witnessing merge through out this book as Currie writes about such diverse iconic figures as Auden, Elvis and Jackie Robinson. Even as Currie writes of difficult and sometimes dark subjects he always imbues his poems with delight and solace. These new poems by Saskatchewan's Poet Laureate are not to be missed.
Robert Currie
Robert Currie, who was born in Lloydminster, lives in Moose Jaw, where for three decades he taught English and creative writing at Central Collegiate, winning the Joseph Duffy Memorial Award for excellence in the teaching of language arts. He and his wife, Gwen, continue to live in the same house where they raised their children, Bronwen and Ryan, both of whom have moved on, raising children of their own.
Currie began publishing poetry and fiction in 1967, and since then his work has appeared in numerous literary magazines (Grain, Canadian Forum, Fiddlehead, CVII, NeWest Review, Queen's Quarterly, Wascana Review, and Prairie Fire included) plus more than 40 anthologies. He is the author of four poetry chapbooks, several books of poetry and three of prose, including the novel Teaching Mr. Cutler and the poetry collection Running in Darkness.
In 1980 Currie won third prize for poetry in the CBC National Literary Competition. He has won first prize on four occasions in the Saskatchewan Writers Guild Literary Awards (thrice for poetry, once for children's literature). One of his radio plays won the 1977 Ohio State Award for Radio Drama. In 1984 he was honoured by the Saskatchewan Writers Guild with a Founder's Award, and in 2004 he received the Guild's Volunteer Leadership Award. He is currently Saskatchewan's Poet Laureate.
