I Am Here and Not Not-There [Paperback]

Margaret Avison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

This question was put by a registrant: `What makes a poet's language distinctive?' We all fell silent, trying to pin it down, then tried to answer. Not just affection for words, which is common to all good writers; not necessarily a matter of cadence, formal structures, rhythm. The answer that came to me, forced out of minutes of dismissing options, was new to me too: `It is saying ``I am here and not not-there''.'

(Margaret Avison )

Editorial Reviews

Review

`This week I received a large package in the mail. I opened it to find the 352-page volume I Am Here And Not Not-There: An Autobiography. It is the autobiography of Margaret Avison -- the exceptional Canadian poet who passed away on July 31, 2007. Not only is Margaret Avison one of the most celebrated poets Canada has ever had -- having won the Governor General's Award for poetry in 1960 and 1990, and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2003 -- but she participated with The Word Guild by twice contributing to the Write! Toronto conference, and by being the winner of the Leslie K. Tarr Career Achievement Award in 2005. I am not writing of this book, so much, to encourage you to buy it -- unless you are a long-time fan of Avison -- but primarily to point out the weight of her contribution. Sarah Klassen once wrote in Prairie Fire, ``It is Avison's unique accomplishment to write, in and for a secular world, about faith and God, with intelligence and without becoming either sentimental or preachy.'' Surprisingly, it is the secular literary community -- not the church -- that has most valued Avison's legacy. I think it's high time that we begin to celebrate Margaret Avison!'

(D. S. Martin twgauthors.blogspot.com )

`A high-school teacher once told a young Margaret Avison to eschew the first person singular in her writing for 10 years. It was a directive the naturally withdrawn Avison readily took to heart. Nevertheless, the quintessential Canadian literary question is Alice Munro's: ``Who do you think you are?'' It is a question an older Avison consistently demands of herself in this posthumously published autobiography.'

(Zachariah Wells Quill & Quire )

`A consummate perfectionist who savoured every word, delighted in twisting and extending its conceptual sinews, purified its cadence, and plumbed its deepest interiority, Avison fought with words in the same way you would wrestle with an angel. Her startling images drawn from nature and technology left one in no doubt that a greater wisdom than knowledge is lost to those whose gods of efficiency, calculation, technical mastery, and data assembly deafen them to the sounds and furies of the natural world, blind them to the beauties of ordinary epiphanies, and dull that imagination that brings us close to Divinity.'

(Michael Higgins Saint John Telegraph-Journal )

To the question, `What makes a poet's language distinctive?' Avison once ad-libbed, `Not just affection for words, which is common to all good writers; not necessarily a matter of cadence, formal structures, rhythm ... [but the realization] I am here and not not-there.' This attention to word and story, delivered with a pleasing humility, permeates Avison's life story, I Am Here and Not Not-There. Avison died before finishing the book; her close friend and assistant, Joan Eichner, with editor Stan Dragland, completed the project, adding an appendix of essays, letters, and interviews. The result is an intimate portrait of one of Canada's most beloved and well-known poets.

A minister’s daughter, Avison was brought up to be kind. Her grandmother told her, `You can learn something from everybody, something to do, or something not to do.' She suffered a teenage bout of anorexia nervosa and peer-group smoking and drinking, but later devoted her life to church missions and caring for her blind mother. She became an educated professor, but her primary identity was that of a poet.

Avison's autobiography is filled with anecdotes about her poetry, day-to-day events, and people with whom she came in contact. She details childhood memories with an adult's perspective; her topics range from family holidays in the snowy countryside to walking through interesting neighborhoods while living in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Toronto, and Ottawa. She writes about both World Wars, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and her ongoing education -- a B.A., M.A. and all courses for a doctorate -- as well as her clerical, teaching, and editing jobs. She even visited France as a nanny. The poems based on these experiences, each written honestly and with the skill of a master, won her Canada's literary honors and affection.

That affection was returned: Avison loved her home. In 1956, Avison won a Guggenheim Foundation Grant that took her to Chicago, where she organized decades of her poetry. She responded in amazement when her new friends suggested she become a U. S. citizen: `But I want to be back in Canada!'

The poet continued to follow early advice to eliminate the first person singular pronoun, and this characteristic humility remained a core part of Avison's identity even as she received publishing honors: two Governor-General's Awards, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and the Canadian Authors Association's Jack Chalmers Award. In 2005, she accepted the Leslie K. Tarr Award for her prestigious Christian writing in Canada. Her most prestigious books include Winter Sun, sunblue, and No Time.

This is an enjoyable and educational autobiography of an accomplished artist, and a model for not only poets, but teachers and others dedicated to serving humankind.

(ForeWord Reviews )

`In editing the unfinished manuscript of Avison's autobiography and reissuing her 1993 Pascal Lectures on Christianity and the University, Stan Dragland and Joan Eichner, Avison's long-time friend and editorial assistant, have provided a fascinating journey through the allusive prose of a strong and private poet.... [T]hese books are treasures. Reading between and below the lines, we encounter Avison as a woman whose life was extraordinary, not because she traveled to far-distant places or had heroic adventures, but because she identified with the lives of the poor and disadvantaged in her own city, lived in extreme simplicity, and delved deeply into the wellsprings of her faith and her poetry.'

(Deborah C. Bowen Canadian Literature )

About the Author

One of Canada's most respected poets, Margaret Avison was born in Galt, Ontario, lived in Western Canada in her childhood, and then in Toronto. In a productive career that stretched back to the 1940s, she produced seven books of poems, including her first collection, Winter Sun (1960), which she selected in Chicago when she was there on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and which won the Governor General's Award. In a work that focussed on her interest in spiritual discovery and moral and religious values, No Time (Lancelot Press) also won the Governor General's Award in 1989. Avison's published poetry up to 2003 was gathered into Always Now: the Collected Poems (Porcupine's Quill, 2003), including Concrete and Wild Carrot which won the 2003 Griffin Prize. Her most recent book, Listening, Last Poems, was published in 2009 by McClelland & Stewart. Margaret Avison was the recipient of many awards including the Order of Canada and three honorary doctorates.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Porcupine's Quill; First edition (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0889843155
• ISBN-13: 978-0889843158
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,197,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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