Before Guy Gavriel Kay became known for his groundbreaking works of speculative fiction, establishing himself as one of the world's most respected writers in that genre, he was an accomplished poet, his work appearing in major literary journals such as The Antigonish Review and Prism. Through the years, while writing his dramatic international bestsellers, Kay has continued to quietly explore the paths and boundaries of poetry as well.
Now for the first time, Guy Gavriel Kay's poetry has been gathered and selected for publication. For those familiar with his fiction, the poems in Beyond This Dark House will resonate for their linguistic and emotional nuances and their mythological allusions, echoing and illuminating themes of his fiction.
But readers of contemporary poetry will also be captivated by the exquisite craft and power of these poems. Some are ironic and austere, slyly tracing the interplay of writer and world, present and past; others are sensual, even erotic, charting the mercurial but abiding nature of passion-in love, in language, in history.
“Ranging from the elegiac to the humorous, from the mythic to the wistful, Kay’s poems are polished gems, the product of an artisan.” —Quill & Quire
“Kay, a best-selling Canadian novelist, shifts delightfully between high-veracity memory poems and the classical in Beyond This Dark House, happily swinging between detailed childhood memories of Winnipeg and more literary flashbacks like the Medea backstory.” —The Edmonton Journal
“Cast in accessible diction, governed by a decidedly romantic sensibility, and given to strong narrative line, these poems celebrate imaginative connection: to people, to place, and to both private and cultural history.” —Winnipeg Free Press
“In prose and now in poetry, Kay has a gift for making something real; reading his poetry is like lifting a seashell to one’s ear and hearing the distant echo of the ocean where it was born.” —Alma A. Hromic, SF Site
Guy Gavriel Kay is the international bestselling author of fifteen previous novels, including the Fionavar Tapestry series, Tigana, The Last Light of the Sun, Under Heaven, River of Stars, Children of Earth and Sky, and A Brightness Long Ago. He has been awarded the International Goliardos Prize for his work in the literature of the fantastic and won the World Fantasy Award for Ysabel in 2008. In 2014 he was named to the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages.
View titles by Guy Gavriel Kay
Before Guy Gavriel Kay became known for his groundbreaking works of speculative fiction, establishing himself as one of the world's most respected writers in that genre, he was an accomplished poet, his work appearing in major literary journals such as The Antigonish Review and Prism. Through the years, while writing his dramatic international bestsellers, Kay has continued to quietly explore the paths and boundaries of poetry as well.
Now for the first time, Guy Gavriel Kay's poetry has been gathered and selected for publication. For those familiar with his fiction, the poems in Beyond This Dark House will resonate for their linguistic and emotional nuances and their mythological allusions, echoing and illuminating themes of his fiction.
But readers of contemporary poetry will also be captivated by the exquisite craft and power of these poems. Some are ironic and austere, slyly tracing the interplay of writer and world, present and past; others are sensual, even erotic, charting the mercurial but abiding nature of passion-in love, in language, in history.
Praise
“Ranging from the elegiac to the humorous, from the mythic to the wistful, Kay’s poems are polished gems, the product of an artisan.” —Quill & Quire
“Kay, a best-selling Canadian novelist, shifts delightfully between high-veracity memory poems and the classical in Beyond This Dark House, happily swinging between detailed childhood memories of Winnipeg and more literary flashbacks like the Medea backstory.” —The Edmonton Journal
“Cast in accessible diction, governed by a decidedly romantic sensibility, and given to strong narrative line, these poems celebrate imaginative connection: to people, to place, and to both private and cultural history.” —Winnipeg Free Press
“In prose and now in poetry, Kay has a gift for making something real; reading his poetry is like lifting a seashell to one’s ear and hearing the distant echo of the ocean where it was born.” —Alma A. Hromic, SF Site
Guy Gavriel Kay is the international bestselling author of fifteen previous novels, including the Fionavar Tapestry series, Tigana, The Last Light of the Sun, Under Heaven, River of Stars, Children of Earth and Sky, and A Brightness Long Ago. He has been awarded the International Goliardos Prize for his work in the literature of the fantastic and won the World Fantasy Award for Ysabel in 2008. In 2014 he was named to the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages.
View titles by Guy Gavriel Kay
