Vivian Demuth

     Photo by Yvonne Gitzell   

   Vivian Demuth is an award-winning author of two novels, Bear War-den, and Eyes of the Forest, the poetry book Fire Watcher, and the poetry chapbook, Breathing Nose Mountain. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Aleph Review, Grain, Room, In the Company of Animals: Stories of Extraordinary Encounters, The Prairie Journal, The Canadian Alpine Journal, Other Voices, Writing the Land: Alberta through its Poets, Powwow: Short Fiction from Then to Now, Long Shot, La Revue Commune, Ciclo Literario, Political Affairs and Logos: A Journal of Modern Society, Poetics for the More-Than-Human World. Her radio interviews have aired on provincial and national CBC radio as well as Ottawa’s CKCU. She has also taught creative writing workshops.

Vivian can be contacted via email at: vdemuth45(at)aol(dot)com

AN INTERVIEW OF VIVIAN DEMUTH AT NOSE MOUNTAIN FIRE TOWER BY JIM MACQUARRIE FOR CBC CANADIAN NATIONAL RADIO CAN BE FOUND by clicking below :

 Interview

VIVIAN’S NOVEL BEAR WAR-DEN WAS LAUNCHED BY INANNA PUBLICATIONS IN APRIL 2015 IN TORONTO. PLEASE SEE BOOKS AND READINGS/EVENTS FOR MORE DETAILS AND FUTURE READINGS.

“A FASCINATING NEW NOVEL…” from https://www.facebook.com/miriamichireader

For a REVIEW of Bear War-den, please see The Miramichi Reader:
http://miramichireader.ca/2016/01/bear-warden-vivian-demuth/

VIVIAN’S POETRY BOOK, FIRE WATCHER, HAS BEEN PUBLISHED BY GUERNICA EDITIONS.    

“The Age of Extinction, one of many eco-poems published in Fire Watcher, was written in 2006.  In 2019, scientists are warning of massive global species extinctions.  

HERE IS VIVIAN’S POEM:

THE AGE OF EXTINCTION

A few nights ago, a bear danced around my garden carrots /and bowed to sniff the sow’s scat in the soil bed./ Last summer, a deer yanked my Tibetan prayer flags from fire-tower scaffolding/and paraded adorned antlers past trampled skulls in the broken forest. / I am a human animal walking a dirt trail of illusions/ tossing vegetable scraps a mile from cabin for the closest or quickest to snack./ In my first six years of alpine-solitude wrestling/ I saw a hungry caribou outrun/ a wild six-pack of dart-gun helicopters,/ heard ravens chuckle circling above loggers’/ orange flagging tape alit in forest flames,/ followed a scarred moose chase a fleeing Honda generator/ along another new mountain road,/and took photos of a wolf pack stealing the seismic camp’s/grilling steaks and biting off a page/from the First Handbook of Habitat Protection./ Over the next six years from mountain heights, I’ve watched/the wildlife thin and the oil drills strike back./ Is this the Age of Extinction in which only Fortune’s wheels /will roll on?/I pray that some drugged grizzly will wake up/ and flip the switch./Can a human ever gain the insight of a drugged bear?/In the meantime, I’ll sit in the petrified bedrock /with what looks like a young dinosaur/and write for the unwritten record.

VIDEO OF VIVIAN READING THE AGE OF EXTINCTION:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbuDcSR9RTU

MORE OF VIVIAN’S POEMS AT:

http://www.poetspath.com/exhibits/viviandemuth/index.html

DEER TAKING TIBETAN PRAYER FLAGS FROM A FIRELOOKOUT, a VIDEO

see www.youtube.com/viviandemuth

Vivian’s Ecovillage poems will be appearing in the Spring 2011 issue of the journal Lake.