Elizabeth Smart, author of By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept (1945), has been heralded as a complicated and passion fuelled artist who dared to live in disregard of the burdensome expectations for women in the first half of the last century. 97 Positions of the Heart is a lyrical travelogue through the courageous life of this Canadian writer. Poet Jaik Josephson mines both her biography and literary catalogue to escort the reader into her remarkable world. Each poem charts Smart’s persistent quest to resist the forces that sought to claim and silence her. Text is paired with illustrations by Erin Josephson-Laidlaw to reveal a vast emotional range that meditates upon Elizabeth’s bewildering childhood, a tumultuous romantic pairing with English writer, George Barker, the experience of motherhood and her pursuit of a prosaic language that speaks a truth about life in the social margins.
About the Author
Jaik Josephson‘s work fuses poetry and theatre. His 97 Positions of the Heart is based on the life of Elizabeth Smart, and The Colour of Vowels, is based on the life and poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. Josephson also works in the field of mental health.
Erin Josephson-Laidlaw is a visual artist who often works in drawing, painting and collage. She received her BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2010 and completed her thesis work in Florence, Italy through OCAD’s 2008-09 Off-Campus Florence Program. She currently resides in Winnipeg and works at Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art. Erin has exhibited work in Winnipeg, Gimli, Toronto, and Venice.
