GREEN HEART OF THE TREE (THE): Essays and Notes on a Time in Africa (cuRRents) - Softcover

A. S. Woudstra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0888644760 ISBN 13: 9780888644763

Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA PRESS, 2007

Synopsis

Woudstra's literary essays, rooted in personal experience and travel, are long and loving looks into the mysterious heart of Africa. Her writings explore topics as diverse as volcanic eruptions and wild trees, African art and ritual, life in Rwanda, and turtle eggs in warm sand. "Like Annie Dillard, Annette Woudstra is a poet of observation. She carefully works experience and reflection to create sentences and scenes of exceptional clarity and grace." -Greg Hollingshead

About this title

About the Author

A.S. Woudstra returned to Canada after living for several years in the central African country of Gabon. Her essays and poetry have been published in various Canadian literary and academic journals. Her research is published as Annette Wentworth. She now divides her time between South Africa and Edmonton, Alberta.

From the Back Cover

&;What follows is not cohesive narrative, nor is it a memoir. There are gaps and there are spaces around the words. (I&;d like to think that there is room to breathe.) There is little mention of time, exact locations, or itineraries. I wrote all the essays in this collection at my bamboo desk in Libreville, Gabon, except for two. They are, I hope, and at best, meditations on various things. Turtle eggs in warm sand. Wild trees. Masked dancers. They are long and loving looks into mysterious life. If you feel a bit disoriented at times, that&;s exactly what I&;ve hoped for.&; &;from the Introduction Woudstra&;s literary essays, rooted in personal experience and travel, are explorations of living and being in Africa. The vivid imaginery and contemplative moments in The Green Heart of the Tree incite in us an undeniable longing to be immersed, like Woudstra, in the unfamiliar. &;Like Annie Dillard, Annette Woudstra is a poet of observation. She carefully works experience and reflection to create sentences and scenes of exceptional clarity and grace.&; &;Greg Hollingshead &;An extremely engaging and intelligent collection...these essays are above all distinguished by a deep and serene vitality.&; &;Elisabeth Harvor &;Quiet and wise, the essays of Annette Schouten Woudstra live, as she says, &;close to the bone.&; The writing is both lyrical and gritty, her gaze unflinching and tender. Woudstra writes with integrity and complexity about those things which divide us and those that pull us together.&; &;Shawna Lemay In 2004, Annette Schouten Woudstra returned to Canada from Central Africa, where she lived with her family in Rwanda and then Gabon while her husband worked for a non-profit medical agency. Woudstra has published in Brick, Queen&;s Quarterly, and Room of One&;s Own. She lives with her husband and two children in Edmonton, Alberta.

Edition details

• Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA PRESS
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0888644760
• ISBN 13: 9780888644763
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 1