Chores is about families and the domestic work of settler women on the island of Newfoundland. A comedy and a tragedy in equal parts, Chores explores everyday life with all its pleasures and suffering.
The simple, indirect, and accessible language of Chores creates vivid, recurring images of food, household objects, body parts, and animals. The poems scrutinize the physical and social details of domestic labour and of the conditions in which women did, and continue to do, the work of sustaining life.
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Newfoundland poet Maggie Burton is a multi-genre writer, professional violinist, and municipal politician. Burton holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Memorial University and has spent much of her career teaching with the Suzuki Talent Education Program and playing with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. Chores was awarded the 2024 Griffin Canadian First Book Prize, received a silver medal in poetry from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Burton’s poetry explores the social and physical realities surrounding women’s domestic labour, sexuality, and relationships through a queer, feminist, working class lens. Burton writes and lives on the Avalon Peninsula, where she is raising her four young children.
Winner - Griffin Poetry Prize Canadian First Book Award for 2024
Shortlisted - The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for Best First Book of Poetry
Silver Medalist - The Independent Publishers Book Awards for Poetry
ISBN: 9781550819632 , 9781550819649
Item Publish Date: 2023 / 04 / 01
Measurements: 7.75 in X 5 in X .25
Weight: 0.05 kg
Page Count: 64
