Open Wide a Wilderness

"Two of the best-known ideas of what is distinctive, what is Canadian, about Canadian literature involve 'our' relationship to nature, or more specifically, to 'wilderness.' Margaret Atwood said CanLit was about survival, that the Canadian identity which seeks to survive in the shadow of American cultural dominance has its roots in the struggle of early settlers to stay alive in a harsh, unfamiliar landscape. Northrop Frye projected his own terror of the wilderness onto all he read, and decided that we Canadians were all about hunkering down and fending off cruel nature: the garrison mentality. So it is surprising that, until now, no one has ever put together a collection of Canadian nature poetry. An important new anthology, Open Wide a Wilderness, is the first such collection." - Sonnet L'Abbé, The Globe & Mail, July 2009
``Nancy Holmes...is to be congratulated.... This beautiful anthology begins hugging you very quickly. Read Open Wide a Wilderness for refreshment and discovery, for epic journeys into the minds of insects and the lives of flowers, to rejoin your totems and familiars, and to rekindle your resolve to continue the good fight. Keep it close at hand in case you wake up lonely at night--and when you crave solitude. Read the poems aloud to your friends and sing them to the river.'' -- Greg Michalenko, University of Waterloo -- Alternatives, Vol. 36 no. 4, 201007
``Nancy Holmes, the editor of this, the first anthology of Canadian nature poetry...has risen marvellously to the challenge of sifting through over 200 years of Canadian poetry to produce a collection that proves both fresh and familiar, revisiting the poems of early settlement and introducing the eco-poetry of the present generation.'' -- Linda Knowles -- British Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 24, #1, 2011, 201110
``With 192 poets and almost 300 poems, this `first-ever survey of Canadian nature poetry' is a welcome resource for exploring a feature of the Canadian literary imagination that was once considered central to Canadian national identity. Demographic developments in the country since WWII have `heterogenized' any such identity, and many of the works Holmes (Univ. of British Columbia, Okanagan) selected specifically reflect changes in `the rural-urban interface' that have transformed Canadian society and culture.... McKay's introductory essay, `Great Flint Singing'...is sure to be much analyzed and debated by critics.... Highly recommended.'' -- D.R. McCarthy, Huron University College -- CHOICE, March 2010, 201004
``If Canadians have a cultural inferiority complex, it is not on display in Nancy Holmes's anthology. This 'first-ever survey of Canadian nature poetry' surprises with its belatedness and impresses with its ambition: two hundred poets appear, spanning the years 1789-2008.... This anthology deservces a place on every ecocritic's booksheld.... Holmes arranges her selections chronologically by author's date of birth, tracing a historical trajectory while placing poets amongst their (often lesser-known) contemporaries. So Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, for example, take their place among a generation of influentical poets little-known beyond Canada's borders, including Daphne Marlatt, Don McKay, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Dennis Lee, John Newlove, John Thompson, and Pat Lowther. Holmes does a wonderful job surrounding these poets, whose work encompasses the collection's core, with colonial, Confederation-era, and Modernist predecessors, and with post-Nationalist, postmodern, postcolonial, and other recent poets, both obscure and celebrated. Though formally avant-garde work is largely absent, challenging ideas about `nature' and `wilderness' are not. The paratext assembled by Holmes establishes her anthology's value as a critical and teaching resource. In addition to brief author bios, she provides a subject index enabling searches for poems about diverse topics such as pioneers, roadkill, birdwatching, canoes, language, mining, rivers, science, individual flora and fauna, and wilderness. Holmes's editorial work is introduced by fellow poet Don McKay's essay, `Great Flint Singing.' Avuncular, witty, and erudite, McKay (easily Canada's most respected living eco-poet) provides an overview of Canadian nature poetry while at the same time arguing for its national, global, and environmental relevance.... The beauty of this anthology is that readers can test McKay's claims for themselves by dipping into the rich tradition of nature poetry that Holmes has carefully gathered from a wilderness of options.'' -- Travis V. Mason, Dalhousie University -- Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, February 2011, 201101