New Releases by Gwendolyn MacEwen

Award-winning poet and novelist Gwendolyn MacEwen explores her strongly personal responses to the landscape, culture, and people of Greece in this exquisitely written travel diary, which was originally published in 1978. Originally published in 1978, beloved poet and novelist Gwendolyn MacEwen’s first work of nonfiction explores her strongly personal responses to a complex civilization. Partly written during a trip to Greece in 1971, MacEwen moves from the urban tumult of Athens to the radiant simplicity of an island in the Aegean. In this intimate and exquisitely written travel diary, she evokes the very spirit of Greece — the exuberance of the people, the sun-drenched landscape, and the shaping power of ancient traditions and myths in modern Mediterranean life.

"MacEwen described what she set out to achieve as a "sort of powerful poetic mad half-abandoned prose somewhere between [Kenneth] Patchen and Virginia Woolf." Set in a medieval past that has distinctly modern overtones, the novel is about Julian, a young man who believes he is Christ. Wandering the countryside in a horse-drawn wagon, Julian learns "to suspend logic like a whale on a thread." He becomes a master of alchemy, performing "miracles" like curing the mad and changing water into wine. When his rapt audiences begin to lose faith, Julian must pay with his life. MacEwen skillfully implies a relationship between alchemy, miracles and belief, and the art forms she is engaged in herself, poetry and prose. What is the price the writer-magician must pay to engender belief in her audience? Is something true merely because we believe it? With an afterword by the author''s sister."--Jacket

The Insomniac Library is proud to reissue Gwendolyn MacEwen''s second novel, more than thirty years after its original appearance in 1971. The novel bears important resemblances to MacEwen''s earlier Julian the Magician. Writing to poet Al Purdy, MacEwen confessed she wanted her second novel to be ''''bulky, readable, and not overly mysterious.'''' Unlike in Julian, however, here MacEwen sets out to write a deeply serious novel that also functions as entertaining historical fiction. The novel''s hero is Akhenaton, Pharaoh of Egypt''s Eighteenth Dynasty, who was the first ruler to introduce the idea of monotheism. As Rosemary Sullivan remarks in her biography of MacEwen, he was, like Julian, ''''one more human being filled with the god-lust.'''' Akhenaton''s single-mindedness in his quest for his own brand of reason is a powerfully paradoxical distillation of the artistic temperament: originality, fertility and beauty set against death and despair and an inability to love.

Spanning Gwendolyn MacEwen''s career from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, this is a comprehensive collection of work by one of the greatest women writers of the 20th century. It traces the trajectory of her verse and the development of her fiction and drama, and includes letters, paintings, and photographs from the oeuvre of this beloved Canadian poet.

Her poetry is both groundbreaking and unforgettable. Now you can enjoy the powerful first works of this poet in The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen, Volume One: The Early Years. These poems show the beginnings of a poetic style that inspired other poets and amazed readers for years. Her poetic voice is in turns playful, melancholy and daring; this is a must-read for all fans of MacEwen and poetry lovers that want an introduction to this important writer.

Her ascent to the top of the literary world is well known. Now you can enjoy the great works of this formidable writer in The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen, Volume Two: The Later Years. Readers will gain a solid understanding of MacEwen''s works, as these poems represent her strongest poetic voice, developed from years of writing. Her unique voice is both playful and melancholy, all the while being a daring addition to her genre. This book is a great introduction to the works of MacEwen.

Two of these pieces are original while the others are derived, rather than translated, from oral and written folk tales and legends well-known in the Arabic speaking world. Grades 2-4.

The T.E. Lawrence Poems is Gwendolyn MacEwen''s most integrated, complete and respected work. It is now recognized as her signature poetic achievement."In 1962, I was staying in a hotel in Tiberias, Israel; the tall, white-haired proprietor invited me downstairs one evening and served me syrupy tea and a plate of fruit. He showed me a series of old sepiatone photographs which lined the walls - photographs of blurred riders on camels riding to the left into some uncharted desert just beyond the door. Some of them were signed.''It''s Lawrence isn''t it?'' I asked, walking up to one.''Yes, '' said my host, offering me a huge section of an orange. ''I rode with him once a long time ago. I see you always carry a pen and paper to write things down. I thought you''d be interested; I thought you''d like to know.''These poems were written some twenty years later."