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In this compelling collection of poems and art, the colour of living is red with excitement, pain, sunsets, blood, and tropical flowers. Along the way, the poet paints herself into the works of Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet and Maud Lewis. Diane Driedger confronts the body in two different contexts: through her participation in the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival and through her experience of undergoing breast cancer treatment and of being chronically ill. This is poetry that celebrates the body in all its varied forms.
About this Author
Diane Driedger is a poet, writer, visual artist and educator. Her poetry collection, The Mennonite Madonna was published by gynergy in 1999. She has also co-edited or edited four anthologies of writings by women with disabilities around the world, including most recently, Living the Edges: A Disabled Women's Reader (Inanna, 2010). She has been involved in the disability rights movement locally, nationally and internationally for 35 years. She lives in Manitoba and is Assistant Professor in Disability Studies at the University of Manitoba.
Reviews
"A naturalized Trinidadian through marriage, Diane, with an acute eye, successfully explores in poetry and art the contrasts between her Mennonite heritage in wintry Manitoba with the "letting go" carnival culture of Trinidad's opulent tropical landscape. Lines such as "mashing down the place" and "Women would go mad without Carnival" are a foil to "standoffish Canadians" and "my past a black statue dress/ unrumpled/ not even a swish." A bi-cultural tribute to both cultures."
-- Madeline Coopsammy, author of Prairie Journey
"Diane Driedger's artful poems and allusive paintings tumble us through a carnival of the rebellious body. Red With Living invites a nervy reassessment of pain and pain's intimate trespass upon the suffering, joyous body."
-- Méira Cook, author of Monologue Dogs
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