The distinguished poet and writer Lorna Crozier discusses her new memoir Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats) (McCelland & Stewart, 2020), with Joseph Planta.

Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats) by Lorna Crozier (McClelland & Stewart, 2020). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Through the Garden

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Lorna Crozier joins me again. She has just published to wide acclaim a new memoir, Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats). In the book she recounts the history of her relationship with the writer and poet Patrick Lane, as well as his final years as they dealt with his illness. The book is also about the cats they had, and the garden they lovingly cultivate in the forty years they were together. It’s a beautiful book, and one that I enjoyed because it gives the reader a sense of their passionate relationship, sometimes tumultuous but full of beauty, affection and words; the words they spoke, words unspoken, and the remarkable output both have had as writers. The book is a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, and this past Sunday she received the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for her poetry collection The House the Spirit Builds. Lorna Crozier is author of eighteen previous books of poetry, receiving the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry for Inventing the Hawk. Three additional collections were finalists for the same prize. She received the Hubert Evans Award for Creative Nonfiction for her memoir Small Beneath the Sky, which she was on this program with in 2009. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in this province has received the BC Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence, and the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Victoria. Visit www.lornacrozier.ca for more. This new book is published by McClelland & Stewart. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Lorna Crozier; Professor Crozier, good morning.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (29.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS