Crummey, Michael: Hard Light

Poetry. New light on Michael Crummey's classic depiction of Newfoundland and Labrador's past. On the occasion of the press's 40th anniversary, Brick Books is proud to present the fifth of six new editions of classic books from our back catalogue. This edition of HARD LIGHT features a new Introduction by Lisa Moore, a new Afterword by the author and a new cover and design by the renowned typographer Robert Bringhurst. First published in 1998, HARD LIGHT retells and reimagines his father's and others' stories of outport Newfoundland and the Labrador fishery. These deeply felt poems are rooted in the places where "human desire comes up against rock" (John Steffler).

I have a fair trial on the fishing line now,
being three summers out from home, two summers on
the French Shore, four down on the Labrador,
and three trips this year to the Banks of Newfoundland,
and this is what I have learned to be the price of fish

--"'The price of fish.' (September, 1887)"

Praise for HARD LIGHT:

"In these stories and poems, an intimate, bright world flares up, glowing in the darkness of recent history, full- blown and vivid."--Lisa Moore, from the Introduction

Michael Crummey is an internationally celebrated novelist and poet; he has published nine books of poetry and fiction. Galore won the Canadian Authors Association's Fiction Award, the Commonwealth Prize (Canada and Caribbean Region), and was short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Award and the Governor General's Award. Sweetland was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Governor General's Award in 2014. His most recent poetry collection is Under the Keel. (Anansi, 2013). He lives in St. John's.