Carole Glasser Langille

Carole Langille is an Atlantic Canadian Women Poet

Biography

Carole Langille, the author of three books of poetry, is originally from New York City, where she studied with the poets John Ashbery and Carolyn Forche. She has taught at The Humber School for Writing Summer Program, Maritime Writer's Workshop, the Community of Writers in Tatamagouche, and at Women's Words the University of Alberta. She has also taught courses called “Creative Writing” at Mount Saint Vincent University, “Writing for the Arts” at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and “Creative Writing: Poetry” at Dalhousie University. Several selections from Carole Langille's most recent book of poetry, Late In A Slow Time, have been adapted to music by renowned Canadian composer Chan Ka Nin. The production, narrated by Barbara Budd, debuted at the 2006 Sound Symposium in St. John's, Newfoundland and is on Duo Concertante's CD Wild Bird (October 2010). Langille has given poetry readings in Athens, Delhi, Prague, London England, New York City, Kirkcudbright Scotland, and throughout Canada. She has received Canada Council Grants for poetry, non-fiction and fiction as well as Nova Scotia Cultural Arts grants for poetry and fiction. Carole Langille lives in Black Point, Nova Scotia, Canada with her family. ,

Awards & Recognition

" When I Always Wanted Something, long listed for the 2009 ReLit Award for short fiction, 2009.
" In Cannon Cave: Governor General's Award for Poetry, finalist, 1997; Atlantic Poetry Prize finalist, 1998.
" CBC Literary Awards, finalist, 1997.
" Where the Wind Sleeps: Canadian Children's Book Centre Choice, 1996.
" MacDowell Fellowship, 1986.

Critical Observations

"'Late' in Carole Glasser Langille's new book (Late in a Slow Time) comes to mean not 'too late' but 'recently achieved, after long experience.' Her poetry takes the always provisional knowledge derived from living and thinking, and produces the delight of fine and fresh perception - a delight constantly enacted in memorable language, sparkling and original yet direct and simple. Wise and funny, private and public, various in their tones and subjects, Langille's poems never lose their thread, they project "To eat life's brevity/the way the North wind eats winter/and grows strong." - A.F. Moritz

In “Her Kind” (from In Cannon Cave) Langille learns from Anne Sexton, a potentially deadly muse, to tell her story no matter what it costs. Sexton promises that doing so will not “pull her under,” and the depth of her dive into story will be her own choice. Sexton waits for Langille at the mouth of the cave, a combined allusion to the cave of the Oracle at Delphi, and Cannon Cave near Lunenburg, which speaks as it is filled and emptied by the tide. In “Her Kind” the image of the tidal shore transforms from describing the margin between creativity and death as a filling and emptying, through the liminal threshold between living perception and death’s incommunicable gnosis, to the threshold between gravid time, and mythic story. – Kathy Mac

Selected Publications

Poetry

Late in a Slow Time. (Mansfield Press, 2003).
In Cannon Cave. (Brick Books, 1997).
All That Glitters in Water. (New Poetry Series, Baltimore, 1990).

Children

Where the Wind Sleeps. (Roseway Publishing, 1996).
Interview with a Stick Collector. ( Roseway Publishing, 2004).

Prose

When I Always Wanted Something. (The Mercury Press, 2008).

Anthology

In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry. (Raincoast Books 2005).
Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada. (Gooselane 2002).
Words Out There: Women Poets in Atlantic Canada (Roseway 1999).
Windhorse Reader: Choice Poems of ‘93. (Samurai Press, 1993).
Vintage'92. (Sono Nis Press, 1993).
Blood to Remember: American Poets on Holocaust. (Texas University Press, 1991).