Having grown up in a Mennonite farming community in southern Ontario, Karen Enns often revisits her childhood memories of that time and place in her poetry. Her words resonate with the rural sensuousness of 'diesel fuel' and 'hot peaches' in her second book Ordinary Hours (Brick Books, 2014), which also explores the Mennonite exodus from Russia.

Her previous book, That Other Beauty (2010) covers subjects such as immigrants, furnace repairmen, grocers, dead cats, and a raven 'lifting into the clear, bright density of rain.' It was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award.

Enns' third collection, Cloud Physics (U of Regina Press, 2017) earned praise from the renowned Beat poet, Gary Snyder who described it as "personal and remote, cool and exacting, mysteriously exciting."

In her follow up, Dislocations (U of Regina Press, 2023), Enns' verses equate to a lyrical journey through the seasons and the weather -- all the while observing human and "otherly" lives.

Enns currently lives in Victoria where, for twenty years, she worked as a classical pianist and music teacher.

BOOKS

That Other Beauty (Brick Books, 2010) $19 9781894078801

Ordinary Hours (Brick Books, 2014) $20 9781926829906

Cloud Physics (U of Regina Press, 2017) $19.95 9780889774612

Dislocations (U of Regina Press, 2023) $19.95 9780889779303

[BCBW 2023]