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Description
Rebel Women begins by moving in and out of women's kitchens, parlours, meetings and wagon-rides on the eve and throughout Toronto's 1837 Rebellion. The poems let the reader eavesdrop on the loves, fears, hatreds and courage of these feisty pioneers as they are engulfed by an uprising some did or did not support. The poems are based on the stories, gossip, and rumours that Kasper's grandmother, Statira Catherine Shepard - the granddaughter of Joseph Shepard, a prominent leader of the Reform Party (after whom Sheppard Avenue is named) and the youngest daughter of Rebel Joseph (jailed for insurrection with his three brothers) - shared with the poet when she was growing up. Almost nothing has been written about the women who supported, opposed or endured the failed December Rebellion of 1837--certainly not in poetry. This collection honours these daring women, what happened to them, and how they took charge of their lives. This volume also features poems about Kasper's impoverished, eccentric family and provide a glimpse of Toronto when it was still considered a "hick town."
Contributor Notes
Vancy Kasper is a Toronto poet, author and journalist. Her work includes her first poetry collection, Mother, I'm So Glad You Taught Me How to Dance; the best-selling Young Adult novel, Always Ask For a Transfer and Y.A. novels Escape to Freedom (First Honourable Mention, Canadian Library Association) and Street of Three Directions, also published in Italy. Her poems have been published in Fireweed, Canadian Women's Studies, Quarry, Waves, and Landscape and have been broadcast on Bravo TV, CKLN and the University of Toronto radio station. She has Poet in Residence in various Ontario schools. One of the first members of the Women's Writing Collective, she wrote for the Toronto Star for nine years. She is included in Greg Gatenby's Literary Toronto.
Awards
- Short-listed, Raymond Shouster Award
Editorial Review
"Kasper's exquisite lines encompass us all, simply desiring to live our daily lives, left in peace. The sensuous beauty and elegance of the poetry amply serves its historical and personal mandate. The multiple connections are deeply satisfying in their flawless symmetry."--Arc Poetry Magazine"Rich, ripe, resonant, Kasper's poems showcase a poet in her mature and creative prime."--Feminist Caucus, League of Canadian Poets"Vancy Kasper has been a feminist for over 30 years. That's a long time to spend making oneself heard. Kasper brings life to the poignant sounds of several generations of women as they discuss their lives with passion. These are lives full of hardship and loss, lives where women have borne witness and now Kasper animates their voices. These characters aren't bigger than life, they are life, the rich unrecorded lives of our mothers, sisters, daughters, friends. All of these women know their own horrors of conflict whether it is war and rebellion or in the home. Vancy Kasper has given them a voice."--michaeldennispoet.blogspot.ca/
