Daughters of Men (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781894078641)

Shortlisted 2009 Lampman-Scott Award

Vivid accessible poems revealing the mythic proportions of a seemingly simple, rural childhood and the passions that course through every life.

what do you do
with other people's memories
when they are carved into this land
the land offering up proof
- from "Prayer for Rain"

Brenda Leifso's first volume of poetry is a stunning debut: haunting, disturbing but resolutely beautiful. With an unflinching eye, Leifso explores the uncertainty of memory, the legacy of place, the powerful dynamics of sexuality and secrecy, and the violence inherent in family relations. Her central section, "The Theban Women," is a multi-voiced re-imagining of Euripides's The Bacchae; this drama in verse gives voice to women long silent, and together with Leifsois more personal poems, it forms a book of exceptional power from a poet whose voice is as honest as it is beautiful.