Pearl
Cullen has a delicious way with words that can be both biting and tender at times; Cullen has made a complex web of poetry to examine a complex woman in history. ~Kindah Mardam Bey, AnE Vibe
Cullen’s soft intense writing works without straining to impress. ~Alex Rettie, Alberta Views
“I find Pearl’s story emblematic of the renegade individualism Alberta claims to love,” Cullen writes in the introduction. Perhaps not surprisingly, though, Miller’s story isn’t well known; madams aren’t the kind of maverick the chamber of commerce celebrates. ~Lee Shedden, Calgary Herald
Like Atwoods’s Alias Grace the poet draws on true crime. With a legendary madam for inspiration, she explores the economic, sexist and psychological factors involved in the World’s Oldest Profession. Cullen culls phrases from a Modern Typewriting Manual of Office Procedures, the Penal Code, the Madam’s Little Black Book of Johns and a mock will, as well as Miller’s prison records to establish the authentic documentary purpose of the book. ~Anne Burke, Prairie Journal
Pearl spirals down to a series of epithets on the pillars of Miller’s life, much as it must have done years ago. Here, “whore” is tragic, solipsistic, business. Cullen has crafted a naked work and requiem of uncommon truth. ~Bryn Evans, Fast Forward Magazine
- Winner: Alberta Book Awards Trade Fiction Book Award
- Shortlisted for the The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize
Nancy Jo Cullen is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Science Fiction Saint and Pearl. Science Fiction Saint was short-listed for the Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poetry, the Writers Guild of Alberta’s Stephan G. Steffanson award for poetry and the book publishers Association of Alberta’s best trade book. Pearl won the Alberta book Awards Trade Fiction Book Award and was short listed for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. Nancy Jo Cullen lives in Toronto where she is at work on an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph–Humber.
Nancy Jo Cullen was the 4th recipient of the Dayne Ogilvie Grant. The grant is given annually to an emerging gay or lesbian writer who demonstrates great promise through a body of work of exceptional quality.
The roaring twenties shuddered to a halt on the heels of the Spanish Flu
The wind having blown farms to dust and boys and soldiers back to the city
Calgary grew up fast through drought, grasshopper plague, wheat rust & sawfly
A city without a drink to offer the law-abiding brokenhearted
Being fed one square meal a day, divided into three portions
The talk among the indigent turned to revolution
The trade of token services for relief encouraged entertainment
The most ambitious sort including a good fuck and some whiskey
Hard times we laughed in the small bedrooms allotted to our services
Hard, hard times.
Grace
Let us not look at ourselves differently.
Let us embrace disappointment
Lo, our companion all these many years.
And when we meet our Maker
Let us not forget ourselves
In obsequious acquiescence
In pastoral reflection
Let us embrace the vengeful Creator
Whose wrath and eccentricity
Casts a light upon our own
Let us hold the grudge close to our chests
While we lie in the bed of our own making
Brimming with remorse and resisting
Forgiveness and all it requires of us
Amen
