Pearl
Pearl is a poetic exploration of the life of the legendary Pearl Miller, early Calgary’s most famous, and successful madam. Cullen fuses traditional lyric lines and experimental uses of form and language to fabricate a biography of Calgary’s mythical brothel keeper.
Awards/Award Nominations
Winner: Alberta Book Awards Trade Fiction Book Award
Shortlisted for the The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize
Reviews
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
Samples
Relief
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
