2023 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry Finalist 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize Finalist A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book 2022 Walcott Prize Shortlist
From the award-winning poet known for her bracing honesty and sharp yet compassionate gaze, here is a new collection of poems that explore life, marriage, addiction, death, and heart-wrenching grief.
If grief is the willingness to be claimed by a story bigger than ourselves, Susan Musgrave writes, “in that / tender wavering, I let grief in.”
"Writing about grief or tragedy is tricky. Hard to meet it at a heart-level without being effusive; hard to meet it at a brain-level without being cold. Hard not to make it about ourselves. Hard to meet it at a visceral level because it can take us out at the knees," wrote author Carrie Mac, responding to the death of Musgrave’s partner, Stephen Reid, in 2018. Following this traumatic loss, in September 2021 their daughter, Sophie, died of an accidental overdose after a twenty-year struggle with addiction.
But to say this is a collection solely about grief would be to miss the whole nature of Musgrave’s voice and sensibility. Wit is one counterpoint; the natural world is another. The poems share a landscape whose creatures, minutely observed, wild and tame—the winged ones most of all—dance attendance on the helplessness of our brief and mystifying human lives. Throughout Exculpatory Lilies, Musgrave’s alertness to even the most desolate places makes her personal sorrows astonishingly potent; and her scrutiny of language, and emotions, makes shot silk out of sackcloth and ashes.
Praise for Susan Musgrave and Exculpatory Lilies:
“The sheer humanity and gift to show our fragile, broken selves is nothing less than prayer, as spoken in Musgrave’s Exculpatory Lilies. That she brings us to the sacred ground of loss and grief, and then lifts us toward our own humility is a ceremony. A ceremony wherein we must bow down our heads to the fragility of all we know, the darkness and light we all must carry.” —Judges' Citation, Griffin Poetry Prize “Musgrave’s poetry is rooted in conversational phrases and natural observation interpolated with startling metaphors drawn from nature and everyday living. [Exculpatory Lilies] alights on many truthful moments.” —EVENT magazine
Praise for Susan Musgrave and Origami Dove:
"Enough tragedy to break your goddamn heart. But also enough craft to parse it for her readers. These poems might be bitter pills but they're coated with artisanal chocolate and gold leaf." —Winnipeg Free Press
"Musgrave at her funniest. She hasn’t lost her edge; in fact, she’s been sharpening it." —Globe and Mail
"Musgrave writes short, pristine poems, with the elegance of fresh tracks on snow. Her poem’s stark lines are freighted with wisdom deep enough that I’ve yet to scrape the bottom." —Dalhousie Review
"Through the collection’s quiet, mindful acceptance of sorrow, Musgrave has managed to suck the pain out of it. Sorrow simply becomes another way to experience beauty." —Pacific Rim Review of Books
2023 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry Finalist 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize Finalist A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book 2022 Walcott Prize Shortlist
From the award-winning poet known for her bracing honesty and sharp yet compassionate gaze, here is a new collection of poems that explore life, marriage, addiction, death, and heart-wrenching grief.
If grief is the willingness to be claimed by a story bigger than ourselves, Susan Musgrave writes, “in that / tender wavering, I let grief in.”
"Writing about grief or tragedy is tricky. Hard to meet it at a heart-level without being effusive; hard to meet it at a brain-level without being cold. Hard not to make it about ourselves. Hard to meet it at a visceral level because it can take us out at the knees," wrote author Carrie Mac, responding to the death of Musgrave’s partner, Stephen Reid, in 2018. Following this traumatic loss, in September 2021 their daughter, Sophie, died of an accidental overdose after a twenty-year struggle with addiction.
But to say this is a collection solely about grief would be to miss the whole nature of Musgrave’s voice and sensibility. Wit is one counterpoint; the natural world is another. The poems share a landscape whose creatures, minutely observed, wild and tame—the winged ones most of all—dance attendance on the helplessness of our brief and mystifying human lives. Throughout Exculpatory Lilies, Musgrave’s alertness to even the most desolate places makes her personal sorrows astonishingly potent; and her scrutiny of language, and emotions, makes shot silk out of sackcloth and ashes.
Praise
Praise for Susan Musgrave and Exculpatory Lilies:
“The sheer humanity and gift to show our fragile, broken selves is nothing less than prayer, as spoken in Musgrave’s Exculpatory Lilies. That she brings us to the sacred ground of loss and grief, and then lifts us toward our own humility is a ceremony. A ceremony wherein we must bow down our heads to the fragility of all we know, the darkness and light we all must carry.” —Judges' Citation, Griffin Poetry Prize “Musgrave’s poetry is rooted in conversational phrases and natural observation interpolated with startling metaphors drawn from nature and everyday living. [Exculpatory Lilies] alights on many truthful moments.” —EVENT magazine
Praise for Susan Musgrave and Origami Dove:
"Enough tragedy to break your goddamn heart. But also enough craft to parse it for her readers. These poems might be bitter pills but they're coated with artisanal chocolate and gold leaf." —Winnipeg Free Press
"Musgrave at her funniest. She hasn’t lost her edge; in fact, she’s been sharpening it." —Globe and Mail
"Musgrave writes short, pristine poems, with the elegance of fresh tracks on snow. Her poem’s stark lines are freighted with wisdom deep enough that I’ve yet to scrape the bottom." —Dalhousie Review
"Through the collection’s quiet, mindful acceptance of sorrow, Musgrave has managed to suck the pain out of it. Sorrow simply becomes another way to experience beauty." —Pacific Rim Review of Books
