Caught in the Trembling Net

Karen George takes us into the heart of three passionate, determined, brilliant, creative women, one from each nation in North America, and shows us her heart, her words, her work. These are imaginative, intimate, beautiful poems. A collection to treasure.

-Lorette C. Luzajic, founder and editor, The Ekphrastic Review

These ekphrastic poems, written to the paintings of three diverse artists, often culled from their own words, are exquisite. Karen George masterfully weaves Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Emily Carr into a seamless, feminist exploration that held me in thrall, first page to last. "I will heal better," the poet declares in the opening poem of this remarkable collection. She longs for a whole "new me" eager to dissolve into embryo, embrace life anew. Join her on this quest. You won't be disappointed.

-Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of Brazen and Triggered

Karen George's Caught in the Trembling Net is a delightful delving into the art and lives of Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Emily Carr. The collection includes so many lovely particulars, as when she writes about the shapes in O'Keeffe's "The Lawrence Tree": "ulnar, cervical, / radial, intercostal-a litany / to tickle the tongue." Yet more than that, George invites readers to see larger truths in these works. In "The Two Frida's," she asks, "Isn't everyone twinned, / split in two, bifurcated, / whittling ourselves / down to one true self?" Ultimately, in every poem, George urges us "to step into / that aisle of light, / whelm in that gleam" ("Forest Interior in Shafts of Light," Carr) of the art.

-Taunja Thomson, author of The Profusion and Plunge