By Jane Silcott
FINALIST, HUBERT EVANS NON-FICTION PRIZE (BC BOOK PRIZES)
In this debut collection of personal essays, Silcott looks at the tangle of midlife, the long look back, the shorter look forward, and the moments right now that shimmer and rustle around her. Here is love, grief, uncertainty, longing, joy, desire, fury, and fear. Also wandering bears, marauding llamas, light and laundry rooms.
“Jane Silcott writes crisp and compelling narratives; as their import emerges, small epiphanies wink into consciousness, and we are taken up into everyday life. Reading this collection of her work we glimpse layers of the real that seem so often to conceal the world from us. A wonderful book, a book of wonders.”
— Stephen Osborne, Publisher, Geist Magazine
“Reading ‘Fish,’ I was so deeply brought back to my own subdued memories of losing my mother, that I felt in Jane the presence of a found sister. For me, these essays are about what we once were, about ageing itself, about the solidity of those we love and the porousness of who we are. They are searching, self-deprecating, celebratory and sorrowful, and they rustle with wondrous detail and brave observation.”
— Madeleine Thien, author of Dogs at the Perimeter
“Jane Silcott is the kind of writer we discover and then immediately wonder where she has been all our lives. Her work is fearless, honest, and every sentence is edged like a gem. Her insight and intelligence locate human grace in the midst of even the most difficult of subjects. She is a writer to put your faith in.”
— Curtis Gillespie, Editor, Eighteen Bridges
“Read these wonderful essays slowly; savour their lively intelligence, their thoughtfulness, their cheek. Silcott takes the personal essay right back to its most productive origins and purpose: to explore (essayer) our world’s mysteries with amazement and humility.”
— Andreas Schroeder, author of Renovating Heaven
Jane Silcott is a writer, editor, and teacher. Her work has been published widely in Canadian literary magazines and anthologies and been recognized by the CBC Literary Awards, the National and Western Magazine Awards, and the Creative Nonfiction Collective of Canada. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of BC. She lives in Vancouver with her family and teaches for the Writing Centre at UBC and the Southbank Writing Program at SFU.
