“Writing Galore felt like writing the book I was meant to write,” said author Michael Crummey in a recent interview with CBC’s Sheila Rogers. Crummey started writing at seventeen. It was in a university English class that poetry was presented in a way that he somehow knew it was what he wanted to do.
Readers will agree that his use of Newfoundland history, landscape, as well as its singular characters, language and folklore, are rich and particular, they are aspects that he is particularly familiar with. Crummey was born in Buchans Newfoundland in 1965 and spent his childhood in the mining town as it was closing down. His family had a cabin on Red Indian Lake, an area that is featured in his work. As a teen he moved with his family to Wabush Labrador before going off to Memorial University and then Queens.
Both his poetry and prose have garnered praise as well as a long list of awards. He had his first professional success in 1994 winning The Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers for his poetry. He has since written nine books, one book of short stories, Flesh and Blood 1998, four books of poetry, including one newly published this year entitled Under the Keel. After finishing the epic Galore, (short-listed for the Governor General’s Award) Crummey returned to what he has described as his ‘most pleasurable,’ way to write. He says it’s more meditative and less strenuous for him; he makes writing poetry sound like home. Toronto poet Liz Worth writes about Under The Keel, “Tender but also at times chilling, Under the Keel contains all the tension and anticipation that may be found in the moment before a first kiss or a fall off a ledge. The faces it conjures are hauntingly engaging, and the sentiments it conveys echo long after the end has been reached.”
Crummy has served as a writer in residence and has been honoured with the Timothy Findley Award in 2007, in recognition of the body of his work.
Michael Crummey will be at the Hudson Village Theater for the GreenwoodStoryFest on Tuesday the 29th of October at 7:30pm. He is sure to enthrall the audience. As Random House Website describes Crummey’s writing “[There is a] grace always present to redeem whatever hardships his characters endure. Both lyrical and political, Crummey shows the inevitability of loss and suffering in our lives without letting us lose sight of what’s worth loving, holding onto, and fighting for.”
Tickets are $15 and are available at the door or online. www.greenwoodstoryfest.com or call 450-458-5396 See you there.
