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A labour of love (Polestar $12.95)
"I PULLED THIS IDEA OUT OF THE SKY," says Mona Fertig, editor of A labour of love (Polestar $12.95), An Illustrated Anthology of Poetry on Pregnancy and Childbirth, "And now it's come alive." Described by Fertig as the first major anthology on the birth process in Canada, A labour of love was inspired by Judy Chicago's "A Birth Project.' Fertig, a founder of Vancouver's defunct Literary Storefront, drew from her vast range of contacts before selecting contributions from 66 female and male poets such as Margaret Atwood, Susan Musgrave, John Newlove, Sharon Thesen and Glen Downie.
During the book's four-year gestation period, Fertig, who now lives in ladner, was corresponding with numerous prospective publishers while raising two small children. "To find time to work on the manuscript was often very frustrating," she says, "I had to be content with fragments of work time...
"But it was a fulfilling book to compile and edit. As a poet it kept me connected with the art and bread of poetry as 1 grew with my daughter and grew again with my second pregnancy" A labour of love includes poetry about the joys and sorrows of pregnancy, infertility, miscarriage, abortion, birth and bonding, Striking photographs of pregnant women are chiefly provided by Kootenay photographer Fred Rosenberg, with line drawings by Heather Spears, who has previously published Drawings from the Newborn (Ben-Simon $49.95). The premise for the book is condensed in an opening quotation from the imagist poet H.D., "The brain and the womb are both centres of consciousness, equally important"
[Summer/BCBW 1989]
During the book's four-year gestation period, Fertig, who now lives in ladner, was corresponding with numerous prospective publishers while raising two small children. "To find time to work on the manuscript was often very frustrating," she says, "I had to be content with fragments of work time...
"But it was a fulfilling book to compile and edit. As a poet it kept me connected with the art and bread of poetry as 1 grew with my daughter and grew again with my second pregnancy" A labour of love includes poetry about the joys and sorrows of pregnancy, infertility, miscarriage, abortion, birth and bonding, Striking photographs of pregnant women are chiefly provided by Kootenay photographer Fred Rosenberg, with line drawings by Heather Spears, who has previously published Drawings from the Newborn (Ben-Simon $49.95). The premise for the book is condensed in an opening quotation from the imagist poet H.D., "The brain and the womb are both centres of consciousness, equally important"
[Summer/BCBW 1989]
Submitted on February 5, 2004 in By David.
