What’s New?
NEW BOOKS
All My Love and Then Some
All My Love and Then Some: The Letters of Cpl. Polly G. Meilman RCAF (WD) to Her Parents, 1942-1944 is not one of my artist's books, but a just-published book of letters edited by my sister Margaret Melhorn. I didn't become a funny feminist artist all on my own—both my parents had a sense of humour, but my mother was particularly wacky. (It was she who chose Light and Flaky as the title of the memoir with recipes which I produced many years ago.) As the description on the Friesen Press website says: "Filled with Meilman's characteristic wit and humour, these letters provide a lively firsthand account of a young woman learning, adjusting and maturing during her service in the air force." More than eighty of the letters Polly wrote home were saved in a brown paper bag. Margaret has compiled and edited these letters and augmented them with insights into their historical and familial context.
To buy a copy, just click this link:
Friesen Press
House Guest
House Guest is the latest in a series of sewn books using poems about sewing as text. So far, there are five books with text by Lorna Crozier (see Button, Zipper, Needle, Ironing Board and Scissors on the LIST-sewing page,) four with poems by Hazel Hall (see Counterpanes, Heavy Threads, Mending, and Two Sewing,) one with a poem by Terry Ann Carter (see Zipper: A Suite,) one by Alexandra Cussons (see Sewing Pattern,) two by Diane Dawber (see Grandmother and Aunt,) one by Bronwen Wallace (see Like the Petit Point) and one by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (see I Sit and Sew.)
Elizabeth Bishop's poem tells the sad story of an unhappy seamstress, who would rather be a nun! Removal of 1960's garments reveals the stanzas of the funny yet poignant poem.
See the LIST page, for more information. Click on the Poems about Sewing button.
Permission to use poem from Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
2024, Kingston. (13 x 9 x 9" when closed ) Edition of 6. $900
Thank-You Note for a Quilt
Thank-You Note for a Quilt, is a meander book, made up with pieced fabric pages, which open in a spiral to form a 16-patch quilt in a Falling Leaves pattern. The poem, by Barbara Kingsolver, is dedicated to her friend Neta Webb-Findley, who taught Kingsolver to quilt. The text speaks about living on a piece of land for one's whole life, and sharing skills and friendship with neighbours.
Barbara Kingsolver has written 17 novels, books of poetry and non-fiction books. She was been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Demon Copperhead, which also received Britain’s prestigious Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize), making Kingsolver the first author in the history of the prize to receive the award twice. Kingsolver was named one the most important writers of the 20th Century by Writers Digest. In 2000 she received the National Humanities Medal, the highest honor for service through the arts in the United States. Critical acclaim for her books includes multiple awards from the American Booksellers Association and the American Library Association, among many others. The Poisonwood Bible was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Orange Prize, and won the national book award of South Africa, before being named an Oprah Book Club selection. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle won numerous prizes including the James Beard award. The Lacuna won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010. In 2011, Kingsolver was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for the body of her work. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Permission to use the poem was granted by HarperCollins Publishers.
2024, Kingston. (9 x 9" when closed. Opens to about one yard square. ) Edition of 9. $900
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