Susan Gillis
Biography
Susan Gillis - Photo Courtesy Véhicule Press
Susan Gillis is a Halifax-born-and-raised poet who divides her time between Montreal, QC (where she teaches English at John Abbott College) and her home in Perth, ON. She is the author of four books of poetry: Yellow Crane (Brick, 2018), The Rapids (Brick, 2012; nominated for the A.M. Klein Prize in Poetry), Volta (Signature, 2002; received the A.M. Klein Prize in Poetry), and Swimming Among the Ruins (Signature, 2000; finalist for the Pat Lowther and ReLit awards). Gillis is also a member of Yoko's Dogs, a poetry collective who write Japanese renku. Yoko's Dogs has published Whisk (Pedlar, 2013) and Rhinoceros (Gaspereau, 2016). Visit her blog Concrete & River.
Additional Information:
Author's Wikipedia
“View with Teenage Girl”
“View with Portrait of Frida Kahlo"
“Solstice Night”
Selections from The Rapids
Selections from Yellow Crane
Interview with Open Book
Author's Wikipedia
“View with Teenage Girl”
“View with Portrait of Frida Kahlo"
“Solstice Night”
Selections from The Rapids
Selections from Yellow Crane
Interview with Open Book
Everything’s frozen, and breaks on contact.
Everyone’s staying close to the tracks, not leaning back on the fence.
I eat chocolate for energy but can’t taste it.
In this cold everything goes missing.
Near the bridge the steeple is shedding light,
great flakes of it, sloughing into the boughs of surrounding fir.
We’re all waiting, stamping our little feet,
printing the map of our waiting into the snow.
There’s a sliver of light above the clouds’ folds
the moon has hacked into the darkening sky.
It used to be thought the liver was the seat of our passions.
If so, there’s a crescent-shaped scar in mine
where the moon hacked its way through my body
to open a frozen river.
The train arrives first as broken light--
utterly, utterly silent--
across the trestle bridge, flashing--
then as a screech and roar we press toward,
our hundred exhalations willing open the doors.
Published in The Rapids. (Brick Books, 2012).
Used with permission of the author.
Everyone’s staying close to the tracks, not leaning back on the fence.
I eat chocolate for energy but can’t taste it.
In this cold everything goes missing.
Near the bridge the steeple is shedding light,
great flakes of it, sloughing into the boughs of surrounding fir.
We’re all waiting, stamping our little feet,
printing the map of our waiting into the snow.
There’s a sliver of light above the clouds’ folds
the moon has hacked into the darkening sky.
It used to be thought the liver was the seat of our passions.
If so, there’s a crescent-shaped scar in mine
where the moon hacked its way through my body
to open a frozen river.
The train arrives first as broken light--
utterly, utterly silent--
across the trestle bridge, flashing--
then as a screech and roar we press toward,
our hundred exhalations willing open the doors.
Published in The Rapids. (Brick Books, 2012).
Used with permission of the author.
Critical Analysis: "The Enlightened Everyday in Susan Gillis' "On the Station Platform"
Michelle Twomey (for ENGL 3403: Canadian Poetry)
Susan Gillis's poetry embraces everyday activities and events, revealing the profundity in the mundane. Her simple diction, in conjunction with the universal scenarios of her poems, highlights the necessity of connection between reader and speaker. In her 2012 collection The Rapids, this connection is evidenced throughout her poem “On the Station Platform,” as Gillis’s speaker waits pensively for a bus on a frigid winter’s night.
The poem opens with four understated, declarative lines that describe the cold while waiting for the train. Gillis’s diction is replete with the harsh consonants of “breaks” (1), “tracks” (2), and “cold” (4), while the speaker initially observes that “everything’s frozen, and breaks on contact” (1). The platform on which Gillis’s speaker stands, and everything surrounding it, creaks and cracks with the coldness of the winter’s night. The harsh, glottal break of Gillis’s diction further evokes this cracking, heightening the connection between speaker and reader: as the speaker feels the cold, so too does the reader.
While the beginning of the poem emphasizes the dread that a cold winter night can bring, Gillis soon brings in a hopeful image: “near the bridge the steeple is shedding light” (5). The linguistic flow of “shedding light” provides a spot of solace in the bleak darkness of the poem’s harsher diction. While the moon is high in the sky, it brightens the dark night to the point that it has “hacked” (10) into it. Light continues to pervade the poem, as “[t]he train arrives first as broken light – / utterly, utterly silent –” (15-16). Light comes first, then its positivity follows.
The poem’s speaker meticulously details the experience of waiting for a train:
We're all waiting, stamping our little feet,
printing the map of our waiting into the snow.
There's a sliver of light above the clouds' folds
the moon has hacked into the darkening sky (7-10).
Once again, there is a “sliver” (9) of light to placate the waiting passengers and signal later reward. With her intricate diction, Gillis heightens the reader’s experience of a winter evening, yoking the experience of speaker and reader into a shared understanding.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Gillis, Susan. “On the Station Platform.” The Rapids. London, ON: Brick Books, 2012. 21.
Susan Gillis's poetry embraces everyday activities and events, revealing the profundity in the mundane. Her simple diction, in conjunction with the universal scenarios of her poems, highlights the necessity of connection between reader and speaker. In her 2012 collection The Rapids, this connection is evidenced throughout her poem “On the Station Platform,” as Gillis’s speaker waits pensively for a bus on a frigid winter’s night.
The poem opens with four understated, declarative lines that describe the cold while waiting for the train. Gillis’s diction is replete with the harsh consonants of “breaks” (1), “tracks” (2), and “cold” (4), while the speaker initially observes that “everything’s frozen, and breaks on contact” (1). The platform on which Gillis’s speaker stands, and everything surrounding it, creaks and cracks with the coldness of the winter’s night. The harsh, glottal break of Gillis’s diction further evokes this cracking, heightening the connection between speaker and reader: as the speaker feels the cold, so too does the reader.
While the beginning of the poem emphasizes the dread that a cold winter night can bring, Gillis soon brings in a hopeful image: “near the bridge the steeple is shedding light” (5). The linguistic flow of “shedding light” provides a spot of solace in the bleak darkness of the poem’s harsher diction. While the moon is high in the sky, it brightens the dark night to the point that it has “hacked” (10) into it. Light continues to pervade the poem, as “[t]he train arrives first as broken light – / utterly, utterly silent –” (15-16). Light comes first, then its positivity follows.
The poem’s speaker meticulously details the experience of waiting for a train:
We're all waiting, stamping our little feet,
printing the map of our waiting into the snow.
There's a sliver of light above the clouds' folds
the moon has hacked into the darkening sky (7-10).
Once again, there is a “sliver” (9) of light to placate the waiting passengers and signal later reward. With her intricate diction, Gillis heightens the reader’s experience of a winter evening, yoking the experience of speaker and reader into a shared understanding.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Gillis, Susan. “On the Station Platform.” The Rapids. London, ON: Brick Books, 2012. 21.
Bibliography
Primary Sources:
Gillis, Susan. "After Lattimore's Sappho." Matrix (2004): 58.
---. "Animal."Arc 68 (2012): 20.
---. "The Auction." Matrix (2004): 59.
---. “Backyard Light.” The New Canon: An Anthology of Canadian Poetry. Ed. Carmine Starnino. Montréal: Signal Editions. 96.
---. "Basement Stairs." The Fiddlehead 212 (Summer 2002): 27.
---. "The Beauty of the Table." Fiddlehead. (2016): 76.
---. "Between the Acts." Literary Review of Canada 19.4 (2011): 16.
---. “Blackberries, Brambles." Arc (1997): 34.
---. "Chasing the Pear." Malahat Review 122 (1998): 14.
---. "Crossroads." Matrix (2004): 58.
---. "Cruise." Arc 69 (Summer 2012): 21.
---. "Dealmaking." Malahat Review 130 (2000): 102.
---. "Delicate Hanging Nest." Arc 69 (Summer 2012): 22.
---. "Eagle Bridge."Matrix (1999): 38.
---. “Eagle Bridge.” Starnino et al. 97.
---. "Everything, This Near." Rev. of Field Notes for the Self by Randy Lundy. Arc Poetry Magazine, arcpoetry.ca, 18 July 2020.
---. "Forgive Me, I Thought It Was Just Wind in the Marsh Reeds." The Malahat Review 198 (Spring 2017): 65.
---. "Fretwork." The Fiddlehead 249 (2011): 83.
---. "From Winter Diary." Juniper 3.3 (Winter 2020). Juniper, juniperpoetry.com.
---. "Full Dark." Prism International. 52.4 (2014): 23.
---. "Garbage." The Malahat Review 130 (2000): 103.
---. "Habitat (A Funny Arrangement).” The Fiddlehead 223 (2005): 47.
---. "Habitat (A Good Plan)." The Fiddlehead 223 (2005): 46.
---. "Habitat (Two Birches)." The Fiddlehead 223 (2005): 48.
---. "Inscrutable." The Pottersfield Portfolio (1999): 34.
---. "Kitchen Floor." The Fiddlehead (2002): 26.
---. "Morning Light." Prism International. 52.4 (2014): 22.
---. "November." The Fiddlehead 249 (2011): 82.
---. Obelisk. Kentville: Gaspereau Press, 2017.
---. “Papaver Somniferum. The Malahat Review 114 (1996): 67.
---. "Pomegranate." Matrix (2004): 59.
---. "Radical Translations, Parallel Poems: Translating the Earl of Surrey." Matrix (2001): 61-3.
---. The Rapids. Toronto: Brick Books, 2012.
---. "Salamander." Fiddlehead. (2016): 77.
---. “Sleep Walking.” Starnino et al. 97-99.
---. "Spring Storm." The Malahat Review 168 (2009): 78.
---. “Summer Holiday.” Starnino et al. 100.
---. "Sun Crossing Autumn." Prism International (1997): 37-38.
---. Swimming Among the Ruins. Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2000.
---. "Toward Magnetic North." Prism International (1997): 39.
---. “Under Ceanothus.” The Malahat Review 114 (1996): 66.
---. “The Vacant Lot a Landing Pad.” Prairie Fire (1994): 19.
---. "View at Dusk." The Fiddlehead 249 (2011): 84.
---. "View with Portrait of Frida Kahlo." The Malahat Review 178 (2012): 14.
---. "View with Teenage Girl." The Malahat Review 178 (2012): 13.
---. Volta. Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2002.
---. "The Walk." Matrix (1999): 38.
---. “When I Bend at the Waist." The Malahat Review 122 (1998): 15.
---. Yellow Crane. London, ON: Brick Books, 2018.
Secondary Sources:
Bartlett, Brian. "Getting on with Becoming More of Itself." Rev. of Out All Day, by John Donlan, and Yellow Crane, by Susan Gillis. The Fiddlehead 282 (Winter 2020): 114-116.
Colford, Ian. "Swimming among the Ruins / Volta." Rev. of Swimming Among the Ruins andVolta by Susan Gillis. Dalhousie Review 82.2 (2002): 309-11.
"Congratulations to Susan Gillis and Her Book The Rapids a Finalist for the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry!!" Congratulations to Susan Gillis. Brick Books, n.d.
Craig, Heather. "First Review for The Rapids by Susan Gillis." Brick Books. Brick Books, 2 Oct 2012.
Good, Graham. “Freezing and Burning in Ice: Two New Collections by Nancy Holmes and Susan Gillis.” Rev. of The Adultery Poems by Nancy Holmes and Volta by Susan Gillis. Books in Canada (2003): 34-35.
Latimer, Joanne. "Desperately Seeking Susans." Maclean's Mar 12 2012: 80-.
Lavorato, Mark. "A Place Dark Enough to See: Susan Gillis's The Rapids." Arc Poetry. N.p., 7 Feb. 2013.
MacDonald, Tanis. "Art of Translation." Canadian Literature 182 (2004): 131-2. ProQuest.
McLennan, Rob. "Swimming among the Ruins." Rev. of Swimming Among the Ruins by Susan Gillis. Montreal Review of Books (2001): 21.
Munro, Stacey. “Volta.” Rev. of Volta by Susan Gillis. Stacey Munro. Arc (2003): 131-2.
"Montreal Writers: A Gallery of Montreal Writers - Susan Gillis."Montreal Writers: A Gallery of Montreal Writers-Susan Gillis. N.p., n.d.
Paige, Abby. “Mining Moments of Purposeful Dislocation.” Rev. of The Rapids by Susan Gillis.Montreal Review of Books 40 (Spring 2013): n.p. Montreal Review of Books.
Pearson, Miranda. “Refer to the Poem and it Refers Back: Three New Collections by Canadian Women.” Rev. of The Adultery Poems by Nancy Holmes, A Secret Envy of the Unsaved by Rebecca Frederickson, and Volta by Susan Gillis. Event (2003):114-7.
Ritland, Laura. Rev. of Yellow Crane by Susan Gillis. The Malahat Review 207 (Summer 2019): 101.
Starnino, Carmine. "The Poetry of Second Thoughts: Susan Gillis Articulates in-Betweenness in Volta." Rev. of Volta by Susan Gillis. Montreal Review of Books (2003): 16-7.
Thurston, Meaghan. "What the Tide Brings In." Rev. of The Rapids by Susan Gillis. The Rover. The Rover, n.p. 12 Feb 2012.
Walker, Anne F. "The Void Looks Back." Canadian Literature 175 (2002): 131-2.
Gillis, Susan. "After Lattimore's Sappho." Matrix (2004): 58.
---. "Animal."Arc 68 (2012): 20.
---. "The Auction." Matrix (2004): 59.
---. “Backyard Light.” The New Canon: An Anthology of Canadian Poetry. Ed. Carmine Starnino. Montréal: Signal Editions. 96.
---. "Basement Stairs." The Fiddlehead 212 (Summer 2002): 27.
---. "The Beauty of the Table." Fiddlehead. (2016): 76.
---. "Between the Acts." Literary Review of Canada 19.4 (2011): 16.
---. “Blackberries, Brambles." Arc (1997): 34.
---. "Chasing the Pear." Malahat Review 122 (1998): 14.
---. "Crossroads." Matrix (2004): 58.
---. "Cruise." Arc 69 (Summer 2012): 21.
---. "Dealmaking." Malahat Review 130 (2000): 102.
---. "Delicate Hanging Nest." Arc 69 (Summer 2012): 22.
---. "Eagle Bridge."Matrix (1999): 38.
---. “Eagle Bridge.” Starnino et al. 97.
---. "Everything, This Near." Rev. of Field Notes for the Self by Randy Lundy. Arc Poetry Magazine, arcpoetry.ca, 18 July 2020.
---. "Forgive Me, I Thought It Was Just Wind in the Marsh Reeds." The Malahat Review 198 (Spring 2017): 65.
---. "Fretwork." The Fiddlehead 249 (2011): 83.
---. "From Winter Diary." Juniper 3.3 (Winter 2020). Juniper, juniperpoetry.com.
---. "Full Dark." Prism International. 52.4 (2014): 23.
---. "Garbage." The Malahat Review 130 (2000): 103.
---. "Habitat (A Funny Arrangement).” The Fiddlehead 223 (2005): 47.
---. "Habitat (A Good Plan)." The Fiddlehead 223 (2005): 46.
---. "Habitat (Two Birches)." The Fiddlehead 223 (2005): 48.
---. "Inscrutable." The Pottersfield Portfolio (1999): 34.
---. "Kitchen Floor." The Fiddlehead (2002): 26.
---. "Morning Light." Prism International. 52.4 (2014): 22.
---. "November." The Fiddlehead 249 (2011): 82.
---. Obelisk. Kentville: Gaspereau Press, 2017.
---. “Papaver Somniferum. The Malahat Review 114 (1996): 67.
---. "Pomegranate." Matrix (2004): 59.
---. "Radical Translations, Parallel Poems: Translating the Earl of Surrey." Matrix (2001): 61-3.
---. The Rapids. Toronto: Brick Books, 2012.
---. "Salamander." Fiddlehead. (2016): 77.
---. “Sleep Walking.” Starnino et al. 97-99.
---. "Spring Storm." The Malahat Review 168 (2009): 78.
---. “Summer Holiday.” Starnino et al. 100.
---. "Sun Crossing Autumn." Prism International (1997): 37-38.
---. Swimming Among the Ruins. Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2000.
---. "Toward Magnetic North." Prism International (1997): 39.
---. “Under Ceanothus.” The Malahat Review 114 (1996): 66.
---. “The Vacant Lot a Landing Pad.” Prairie Fire (1994): 19.
---. "View at Dusk." The Fiddlehead 249 (2011): 84.
---. "View with Portrait of Frida Kahlo." The Malahat Review 178 (2012): 14.
---. "View with Teenage Girl." The Malahat Review 178 (2012): 13.
---. Volta. Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2002.
---. "The Walk." Matrix (1999): 38.
---. “When I Bend at the Waist." The Malahat Review 122 (1998): 15.
---. Yellow Crane. London, ON: Brick Books, 2018.
Secondary Sources:
Bartlett, Brian. "Getting on with Becoming More of Itself." Rev. of Out All Day, by John Donlan, and Yellow Crane, by Susan Gillis. The Fiddlehead 282 (Winter 2020): 114-116.
Colford, Ian. "Swimming among the Ruins / Volta." Rev. of Swimming Among the Ruins andVolta by Susan Gillis. Dalhousie Review 82.2 (2002): 309-11.
"Congratulations to Susan Gillis and Her Book The Rapids a Finalist for the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry!!" Congratulations to Susan Gillis. Brick Books, n.d.
Craig, Heather. "First Review for The Rapids by Susan Gillis." Brick Books. Brick Books, 2 Oct 2012.
Good, Graham. “Freezing and Burning in Ice: Two New Collections by Nancy Holmes and Susan Gillis.” Rev. of The Adultery Poems by Nancy Holmes and Volta by Susan Gillis. Books in Canada (2003): 34-35.
Latimer, Joanne. "Desperately Seeking Susans." Maclean's Mar 12 2012: 80-.
Lavorato, Mark. "A Place Dark Enough to See: Susan Gillis's The Rapids." Arc Poetry. N.p., 7 Feb. 2013.
MacDonald, Tanis. "Art of Translation." Canadian Literature 182 (2004): 131-2. ProQuest.
McLennan, Rob. "Swimming among the Ruins." Rev. of Swimming Among the Ruins by Susan Gillis. Montreal Review of Books (2001): 21.
Munro, Stacey. “Volta.” Rev. of Volta by Susan Gillis. Stacey Munro. Arc (2003): 131-2.
"Montreal Writers: A Gallery of Montreal Writers - Susan Gillis."Montreal Writers: A Gallery of Montreal Writers-Susan Gillis. N.p., n.d.
Paige, Abby. “Mining Moments of Purposeful Dislocation.” Rev. of The Rapids by Susan Gillis.Montreal Review of Books 40 (Spring 2013): n.p. Montreal Review of Books.
Pearson, Miranda. “Refer to the Poem and it Refers Back: Three New Collections by Canadian Women.” Rev. of The Adultery Poems by Nancy Holmes, A Secret Envy of the Unsaved by Rebecca Frederickson, and Volta by Susan Gillis. Event (2003):114-7.
Ritland, Laura. Rev. of Yellow Crane by Susan Gillis. The Malahat Review 207 (Summer 2019): 101.
Starnino, Carmine. "The Poetry of Second Thoughts: Susan Gillis Articulates in-Betweenness in Volta." Rev. of Volta by Susan Gillis. Montreal Review of Books (2003): 16-7.
Thurston, Meaghan. "What the Tide Brings In." Rev. of The Rapids by Susan Gillis. The Rover. The Rover, n.p. 12 Feb 2012.
Walker, Anne F. "The Void Looks Back." Canadian Literature 175 (2002): 131-2.
