The Porcupine's Quill
Celebrating forty years on the Main Street
of Erin Village, Wellington County
BOOKS IN PRINT
Quickening by Terry Griggs
For the most part, the stories take place on an island locale, but range widely in subject, character, and design. A story like ‘Man With the Axe’, which deals with creativity within the context of a testy brother-sister relationship, moves along in a fairly traditional way, while ‘Unfinished’ is composed of a shattered narrative, a collage of grief and anger that reflects the distraction of its speaker. The stories told are familiar ones, of loss and generational conflict and obsession, though the angle taken is often idiosyncratic and the humour admittedly quirky. The odd ghost may slip in; a dog may be given his intellectual due. The author has allowed the actual and believable to flirt with the imagined, the fantastic. In places, she confesses, to have stretched the truth until its face resembles one you might encounter in a funhouse. But then, when you meet up with it, the truth isn’t always a beautiful friend.
Terry Griggs’s first book, Quickening, was nominated for the Governor General’s Award in 1991. She has published in magazines and anthologies, including The Journey Prize Anthology and Writing Home: A PEN Anthology. She has also written one literary mystery novel and a novel for young adults, and won the Marion Engel Award in 2003. She is also the author of a trilogy of children’s books, Cat’s Eye Corner, The Silver Door, and Invisible Ink. Terry Griggs lives in Stratford, Ontario.
The Porcupine's Quill would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. The financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) is also gratefully acknowledged.