Humanities and English Professor Patricia Keeney is the subject of a recently published major essay on her work in one of France’s top literary journals, Poésie Première.
Left: Patricia Keeney
Critic and translator Michèle Duclos praised Keeney's poetry for its metaphoric energy and the narrative drive of its images. Keeney was also lauded by the journal for her concrete archetypes that she uses to stretches the boundaries of the "conventional female condition". This issue of the journal, dedicated to femmes en poèsie, features an international lineup of contemporary poetry by female poets from destinations as diverse as Italy, Tunisia and Greece. Keeney represents Canada.
Over the past year, Keeney has participated in conferences and readings of her own work in Korea, Portugal and South Africa.
A widely published poet both in Canada and abroad, Keeney is the author of six books of poetry and picaresque novel, titled The Incredible Shrinking Wife. Keeney's Selected Poetry (1996) has been translated from English into a number of languages, including Chinese, Hindi and Bulgarian. Selected Poetry contains an introduction by the distinguished Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. In December 2001, she undertook the launch and tour of the Hindi version of Selected Poetry (Vagdevi Press) in Bombay and Jaipur.
As one of three Canadian writers sent to Mexico in 1995 under a North American Free Trade Agreement cultural exchange program, Keeney completed a series of conversations and poems on national and personal culture, titled You Bring Me Wings with the Mexican poet Ethel Krauze. She has also been published extensively as a literary and theatre critic.
Keeney is currently completing her third novel, "Emptiness and Angels". Her second novel, titled "One Man Dancing", is due for publication next year.