Description:
Welcome to Hillsdale!
In his new poetry collection, Gerald Hill invites you to take a cruise down the streets of Hillsdale, learn about its architecture, rehearse its schoolyard taunts and sample its denizens' favourite drink recipes. Fusing history, geography and autobiography to create a document of life in Regina's suburbs, then and now, Hill peels back placid suburban archetypes to expose the messy, challenging systems churning underneath.Spend some time in Hillsdale, and you'll soon realize that places have stories of their own, chronicles that can be read as deeply as any book, if you know what you're doing.
Brief description:
Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan, Gerald Hill has published six poetry collections -- two of which won Saskatchewan Book Awards for Poetry. His latest collection, Hillsdale Book, came out with NeWest Press in April 2015. Two sub-sets of that book were published in 2012: Hillsdale, a Map, produced with designer Jared Carlson, and Streetpieces, a chapbook produced by David Zieroth at The Alfred Gustav Press in Vancouver. Also in 2015, Hill published A Round for Fifty Years: A History of Regina's Globe Theatre with Coteau Books. He is also the author of Heartwood, The Man from Saskatchewan, Getting to Know You, My Human Comedy and 14 Tractors. Widely published in literary magazines and online journals, active as both organizer of and participant in workshops and readings, conferences and courses, and winner of Second Prize in the 2011 CBC Literary Awards, Gerald Hill is newly retired from his career teaching English and Creative Writing at Luther College at the University of Regina. In the fall of 2015 he was Doris McCarthy Artist-in-Residence at Fool's Paradise in Toronto.
Review Quotes:
Praise for Hillsdale:
"An intense and fascinating exploration of the layering of thought and feeling about place that goes much deeper than mothballs. This book-collage of poetry is so down to earth."
Fred Wah, former Poet Laureate of Canada and author of Diamond Grill
"Hill is a master at displaying the mystery in the mundane, what we often overlook in the obvious, and the incredible richness of how people ingeniously craft a life for themselves despite social and economic forces that do not operate for their benefit."
Tom Wayman, author of Dirty Snow and Winter's Skin
"It's a mark of his skill as a poet, prose writer and researcher that he's able to show Hillsdale, which lies between Albert Street and the University of Regina, south of 23rd Avenue, for what it was, and is: a place of innovation, hope, and occasional tragedy."
Will Chabun, Regina Leader-Post
"With maps, photographs, drawings, interviews, and the poems themselves, Hill transports us to the brand new life of a suburb, postwar hope and abundance springing forth in new houses, many children, schools, and the multitude of little stories that make up lives."
Bill Robertson, Saskatoon Star Phoenix