Sylvia Legris

Sylvia Legris (born 1960) is a Canadian poet.

Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, she now lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She has published three volumes of poetry, the third of which, "Nerve Squall", won the 2006 Griffin Poetry Prize and Pat Lowther Award.

Legris has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Small Presses Series and in 2001 won the "Malahat Review's" Long Poem Prize for "Fishblood Sky". Legris also received an Honourable Mention in the poetry category of the 2004 National Magazine Awards.

Works

*"ash petals" (chapbook) 1996
*"Circuitry of Veins" 1996
*"Iridium Seeds" 1998
*"Nerve Squall" 2005 - (winner of 2006 Pat Lowther Award, winner of the 2006 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, shortlisted for Saskatchewan Book Award)

Legris' poetry implicates the reader in semiotic rhythms of abjection which resonate with the historical condition of nihilism. In this sense, she accomplishes the tracing of nihilism of Adorno's aesthetics. Like Beckett, her negation of the relations of domination involves a parallel reality suffused with a wicked sense of humour.

Legris may be considered a modernist poet, having studied with Di Brandt and Betsy Warland at important stages in her development as a writer. While feminism and eastern thought are components of her intellectual genealogy, her most disciplined activity of textual study has been a sustained reading of Paul Celan. Like Celan, Legris is capable of responding to the cellular resonances of language in order to find reality through the language of the poem.

External links

* [http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/shortlist_2006.php?t=2 Griffin Poetry Prize biography, including audio clip]
* [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060627.wxpoet27/BNStory/Entertainment/home "Globe and Mail" interview - A Poet’s Winning Season, by Patricia Robertson]
* [http://www.danforthreview.com/reviews/poetry/legris.htm "The Danforth Review" - review of "Nerve Squall"]
* [http://www.chbooks.com/content/?q=sylvia_legris_interviewed_on_rcis_spotlight_cbc RCI's "Spotlight" (CBC) interview with Sylvia Legris]
* [http://www.gotpoetry.com/News/article/sid=17230.html Sylvia Legris appointed editor of "Grain" magazine]