Blue Portugal and Other Essays

Using the richness of braided essays, Theresa Kishkan thinks deeply about the natural world, mourns and celebrates the aging body, gently contests recorded history, and considers art and visual phenomena. Gathering personal genealogies, medical histories, and early land surveys together with insights from music, colour theory, horticulture, and textile production, Kishkan weaves a pattern of richly textured threads, welcoming readers to share her intellectual and emotional preoccupations. With an intimate awareness of place and time, a deep sensitivity to family, and a poetic delight in travel, local food and wine, and dogs, Blue Portugal and Other Essays offers up a sense of wonder at the interconnectedness of all things.About the Book: - Braided essays about the natural world, aging bodies, family histories, and art and visual phenomenon.- In these interconnected essays, you will float down rivers, explore old maps with news of family history, listen to Bach, sew stars onto indigo fabric, mourn and celebrate the aging body, and tap your toes to the Supremes as the table is laid for a summer feast.- Gathering personal genealogies, medical histories, and early land surveys together with the liminal spaces of memory and insights from music, colour theory, horticulture, and textile production, Kishkan weaves patterns and dangles loose threads, welcoming readers to share her intellectual and emotional preoccupations.- The title essay recalls a wine she first drank in her grandmother's homeland; another dances with memories of mothering and the structure of Bach's Partita No. 2 for solo violin. - With an intimate awareness of place and time, a deep sensitivity to family, and a poetic delight in travel, local food and wine, and dogs, Blue Portugal and Other Essays offers up a sense of wonder at the interconnectedness of all things.>About the Author: Theresa Kishkan was born in Victoria, BC and has lived on both coasts of Canada as well as in Greece, England, and Ireland. She now makes her home on the Sechelt Peninsula in British Columbia. She has published more than a dozen books, including poetry, fiction, and collections of essays. Her books have been nominated for many awards, including the Hubert Evans Award and the Ethel Wilson Prize. >Audience: People who know Kishkan's work already (she has a devoted readership), lovers of the literary essay, people interested in place and history, people attempting to discover their own family stories, readers who hope for one thing (information about indigo or Ukraine or Dante) but discover in her writing something else entirely! Her work is often taught as individual essays and whole books.