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Karen Solie

Karen Solie was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan where she grew up on the family farm. She currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, of which she supposed jokingly, “You will love Toronto more if you can get out of it.” Her bio has an interesting work history; it states she worked as a farm hand, an espresso jerk, a groundskeeper, a newspaper reporter/photographer, an academic research assistant, and an English teacher. Karen has steadily become one of the key players in Canadian literary academia. In 2007 she was one of the judges for the Griffin Poetry Prize.

My post ‘Poetry Brigade’ scribbling about Karen at the Kingston Writersfest has her as a poet that stood up and stood out at her reading. She was wonderful to listen to, her work was original on many levels and she really connected with the audience.

During an open discussion with the other poets there, including Lorna Crozier (the moderator), Kevin Connolly and David O’Meara, she recalled a quote that she repeated to us affectionately (she could not source it and it is paraphrased) ‘If I knew where poems came from, I would go there.’ It was most appropriate and well received.

As Wordfest describes Karen’s most recent writing - “Her newest book of poetry, Pigeon, delves into the intersection of technology and the environment through explorations of violence, bad luck, fate, creeping catastrophe, love and danger.”

Click here to read Karen Solie’s Tractor
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