Triptych
Description
Known for her award-winning poetry and her intricate visual art, P. K. Page did not consider herself a writer of fiction, but she nevertheless produced a substantial and varied body of compelling stories.
Triptych: Selected Fiction of P. K. Page presents powerful examples of Page's insightful and provocative fiction. Characterized by the exploration of charged ideas, these works (including a novel, several short stories, and a collection of brief linked narratives) take inspiration from experience both lived and imagined. In them, Page meditates on the notion of memory and the process of remembering, delving into themes of imagination and identity, of art and the environment, all the while maintaining the language and lyricism epitomized in her poetry.
With a critical introduction by volume editor Elizabeth Popham, Triptych not only reproduces the captivating and lyrical prose of one of Canada's most beloved authors, but also provides readers with a tantalizing glimpse into the extension of the poet-artist's oeuvre and her development as a skillful writer of fiction.
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Persons
P. K. Page wrote some of the best poems published in Canada over the last seven decades. In addition to winning the Governor General's Award for poetry in 1957, she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1999. She was the author of more than two dozen books, including ten volumes of poetry, a novel, short stories, eight books for children, and two memoirs based on her extended stays in Brazil and Mexico with her husband Arthur Irwin, who served in those countries as the Canadian Ambassador. In addition to writing, Page painted, under the name P. K. Irwin. She mounted one-woman shows in Mexico and Canada. Her work was also exhibited in various group shows, and is represented in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Victoria Art Gallery, among others.
A two-volume edition of Page's collected poems, The Hidden Room (Porcupine's Quill), was published in 1997, and the full range of her richly varied work is being made available in a digital resource, The Digital Page, supplemented by a series of texts in print and e-book format published by The Porcupine's Quill.
P. K. Page was born in England and brought up on the Canadian prairies. She died on the 14th of January, 2010.