The Story of Pears
The Story of Pears
Lesley-Anne Bourne
Artwork by Marie Stewart
6 X 9 inches, 80 pages
Six b&w watercolour illustrations
FIRST LOVES, SO MANY OF THEM, percolate through The Story of Pears. These poems, like fresh fruit, taste of the sweet and poignant awakenings of a young woman through her teens and twenties. Bite into these pears and watch as old family dynamics shift their footings. This first volume of poems by Lesley-Anne Bourne marked the debut of a young and exciting writer. The Story of Pears was shortlisted for the Lampert Award, given annually for the best first book of poetry. Skinny Girls would follow in 1993 and Field Day in 1996.
"This is a clear and intelligent voice whose economy and intelligence of imagery is not minimalist but, rather, efficient, like the movements of ballet dancers when they need to make an emotional point."
on the cottage roof. They discuss
the ice on the lake,
remember when she was six
diving into arms
off the raft he built her.
Man had just walked
on the moon. But this afternoon
they've left
earth's atmosphere, hope they're clamped
to the safety cable.
She tells him I love a man
you won't like. He
sips� The spaceman's stuck
looking at Horton's boathouse
and the bay.
—Father and Daughter Drink Mandarin Liqueur
Lesley-Anne Bourne
Author
Now living in Charlottetown, PEI, where she teaches at the University of Prince Edward Island, Lesley-Anne Bourne grew up in North Bay, Ontario. She holds an honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing as well as a Masters Degree in Fine Arts. She has attended the Banff Centre for the Arts, and has been awarded both the Bliss Carman Award (1986) and the Air Nova Poetry Award (1990). She also received the Air Canada Award (1994) administered by the Canadian Author's Association, for the most promising Canadian writer under thirty.
Marie Stewart
Illustrator
Marie Stewart was born and educated in Peterborough, Ontario. Living in northern Ontario since 1970, primarily in Kapuskasing and North Bay, she has taught painting through Northern College, Candore College, and the Kapuskasing Board of Education. She now paints full-time, usually in water colour, in a style she calls Impressionistic Realism. Her main subjects are the people and landscapes of the north.
