GILLIAN SZE

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Blackened brick chimney,
the haze of wood heat
blends frozen stone behind.

   The sky is cruel blue
   stretched full of wind.


Here is the beginning. By mail, we will have more time to think about what comes next.

~A.




Redrafting Winter

9781894543859 | Poetry
Published by BuschekBooks, 2015

In March 2007, after reading And Once More Saw the Stars, Alison Strumberger penned the first lines of a poem, mailed them to Gillian Sze, and, unbeknownst to them, started a three-year correspondence that would include over seventy letters and postcards mailed from thirteen cities around the world. Part memoir, part epistolary, and part poetry, Redrafting Winter documents the friendship of two writers navigating their twenties, each in search of a footing in the world.

Recognition:

⌘ Finalist for the 2016 Quebec Writers' Federation A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry

*After twenty years of publishing some of Canada's finest poets, BuschekBooks shut down their operations in 2017. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Redrafting Winter, please get in touch with me.







Some kind words:



Comprising poems and prose, spanning continents and years, Redrafting Winter by Alison Strumberger and Gillian Sze opens their friendship up for the pleasure of poetry readers. Spontaneity and connection weave together in a stream of poetic encounters between two writers, their many changing time zones and life experiences. Poignant and personal.

—QWF JURORS



The letters are vivid and touching in fondness for one another as each travelled around the world, sometimes in opposite directions. Instead of the common posture of ironic distance, these poems dare to be intimate and vulnerable and to stretch language, making it play and cover what the writers want it to when straightforward can't get there ... The authors espouse enthusiasm for life, love of place, and people. They are resilient and articulate.

—PEARL PIRIE



This book is beautiful, and even if you think you hate poetry, you should think again, give this book a look, and ponder the small moments rendered so carefully here. Is life worth living? After reading this book, your answer will assuredly be "yes."

—LAURA ROBERTS