One of the great Greek lyrists and few known female poets of the ancient world, Sappho was born some time between 630 and 612 BC. She was an aristocrat who chose to spend her life studying the arts on the isle of Lesbos, then a major cultural center. Sappho was called a lyrist because, as was the custom of the time, she wrote her poems to be performed with the accompaniment of a lyre. Sappho composed her own music and refined the prevailing lyric meter to a point that it is now known as sapphic meter. She innovated lyric poetry both in technique and style, becoming part of a new wave of Greek lyrists who moved from writing poetry from the point of view of gods and muses to the personal vantage point of the individual. She was one of the first poets to write from the first person, describing love and loss as it affected her personally.
"Mirror, Mirror" was inspired by the legendary Canadian folksinger Stan Rogers' song "Lies". I am extraordinarily tickled to have been recognized in the "Legacy" section of the Stan Rogers website. -- Genevieve Kierans 2004
"Because persistence and faith are such important virtues for aspiring writers, it's always good to see previous finalists listed again in the top ten. This year was no exception. It was, therefore, a distinct pleasure to award first prize to last year's second-place winner, Genevieve Kierans of Canada. In "Mirror, Mirror," Ms. Kierans once again visited rural and isolated small-city landscapes and again populated them with recognizable human beings often trapped in arguably insoluble situations. In the case of the exhausted housewife and mother in "Mirror, Mirror," Marie-Helene Carter obtains the enchanted mirror of the title after she's rescued from a potentially deadly midwinter road accident by a being who just might be a modern avatar of an ancient Indian nature deity. In the final analysis, Marie-Helene must attempt to come to terms with natural aging and the question of possibly wasted potential. It's an intensely human story, gracefully and empathetically told. Ms. Kierans's story is a wonderful portrait of a frustrated and questioning woman... [her] protagonist convincingly comes to breathing, agonizing, deeply affecting life. It's a fine accomplishment." -- Edward Bryant, January 2004
"I must say that Canadian Genevieve Kierans's lovely and affecting tale of trans-time haunting in rural Quebec is also a remarkable accomplishment, and it checks in for a very close second prize. "The Lady of Land's End" is about love and loyalty, generational strain and the agony of lovers parting. It's gentle in the unignorable way that soft velvet conceals a mailed hand. It's a story most of all about the human heart; but a muscular storytelling sense ripples beneath the surface here, and one must remember that as muscles go, the heart is among the strongest." -- Edward Bryant, January 2003
"This story is told in beautifully evocative prose, in whose cadences you can hear waves crashing on the rocks of Percé... But what makes this story particularly satisfying is Maggie herself. Kierans remembers what it was like to be sixteen...Kierans' conclusion is both startling and lovely." -- Theodora Goss, March 2003
To find out more about me, I invite you to browse through my incarnations, both current and prior, by clicking on their respective links
