Firewords, Part 3: Nicole Brossard

Through Nicole Brossard we enter an urban and mental landscape where women, no longer fragmented by patriarchy, are integrated, three-dimensional beings. "With feminism as with the hologram," Brossard explains, "we can re-create a complete woman starting with just one fragment of her true self." An avant-garde poet and leading figure of post-modern feminist writing in Québec, Brossard has "always intended to be disturbing" in her writing. Brossard has worked relentlessly to explode traditional forms of language and thought so that new images can emerge like photographic prints in a developing bath. She has pursued her ground-breaking explorations through thirteen books of poetry (two of which have won the Governor General's Award) and seven prose works.