Erin Mouré

Mouré, Erin
Erin Mouré, poet (b at Calgary, Alta 17 Apr 1955). The author of 8 collections of poetry and several articles, her work challenges assumed notions of reality and is highly conscious of the power of language to influence perception. She was raised in Altadore, Alta and attended the University of Calgary and UBC. Her first 2 full-length works, Empire, York Street (1980) and Wanted Alive (1983), raise issues that she has continued to analyse, such as the function of memory in the conception of reality. Domestic Fuel (1985) is differentiated from her earlier work by its powerful attack on the political bastions of language and its underlining of the oppressive agendas for which language has been used.

Furious (1988), which won the Governor General's Award, is a feminist exploration of the relations between emotional longing, language and political dominance. The ongoing process of reconstructing language in order to define a feminine voice continues in WSW (West South West) (1989) and Sheepish Beauty, Civilian Love (1992). In these books, Mouré suggests that locating speech and experience in the body precedes the construction of sociopolitically coercive language models. The Green Word, a volume of selected poems, was published in 1994 and Search Procedures was published in 1996.

Author COLIN BOYD