September 2001 ISBN 0-921870-90-6 6 x 9  80 pp, $13.95 pb Poetry Native Studies, Women's Studies

Connie Fife's new collection of poems extends an invitation to the mind and heart to come together as equal partners at the banquet table of mother Earth. She asks us to reflect on our contemporary directions and what we are doing to our fellow human beings and the environment. Fife takes us into the midst of social and domestic injustice and allows us to feel the people's anger and sorrow. She conjures up the Oka crisis, the Gustafson Lake standoff and the shooting of Connie Jacobs and her son Ty by the police when she refused to give up her children to Social Services. Reflecting Fife's viewpoint as a Cree, mother and lesbian, these poems cross boundaries, speaking to each of us in our "separate homelands" reminding us of the healing power of song, words and deeds. The poems are beautifully complemented with cover art from the painting "Comes a Woman" by the Native painter Francis Dick.

"Poems for a New World pulses with an erotic politics that will take you into new countries of the flesh and mind." — Jeanette Armstrong

"Connie's songs will transport you on a beautiful journey into the soul of a powerful and passionate Cree woman." — Chrystos

"Listen well. You'll hear the blossoming of a tree born from the parts of a broken heart." — Joy Harjo

Originally from Saskatchewan, Connie Fife is Cree. Her poetry and critical writings have appeared in numerous anthologies and periodicals. She is the author of two previous collections of poetry: Beneath the Naked Sun (Sister Vision, 1992) and Speaking Through Jagged Rock (Broken Jaw Press, 1999). She is the editor of Gatherings 2 (Theytus, 1991) and Fireweed: Native Women's Issue, No. 26 (1986). She was recently awarded, in Charlottetown, the one-time Prince and Princess Edward Prize in Aboriginal Literature in acknowledgement of her contribution both in her community and in Canada. She now lives in Victoria, B.C.