Announcement of election to the Royal Society of Canada, Class of 2024

The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) and its Members have elected this year’s new Fellows and named the incoming class of the RSC College.  

One hundred four new Fellows have been elected by their peers for their outstanding scholarly achievements. This recognition by the RSC is the highest honour in the Arts, Social Sciences, Humanities, and Sciences. 

“The Royal Society of Canada is very proud to welcome today an imposing group of inspiring scholars, artists and creators whose peers have recognized their exceptional contributions to the world of science and culture and to the well-being of Canada. The impact of their work will continue to be felt in the development of public policies for years to come, while contributing to the well-being of our society,” said Alain-G. Gagnon, FRSC, President of the RSC.  

On Friday, November 8, 2024, the RSC will induct the 2024 Fellows and Members of the RSC College at a ceremony as part of the Celebration of Excellence and Engagement in Vancouver, British Columbia. Join us in celebrating this vibrant landscape of talent, imagination, discipline, and discovery. Register here! 

Click here to meet the newly elected Fellows and College Members.  

For media or communications requests, please contact Paige Beveridge at communications@rsc-src.ca.   

Review of FOOL in CALS (Circus Arts Life and Sciences)

There are at least three different audiences for this book. The first is made up of academics interested in literary theory, for whom I believe the idea of a “clown-like” reading of texts can offer some innovative insights. The second audience comprises those who are interested in, but unfamiliar with, the performance, practice and theory of clowns or fools. The third audience is made up of practitioners of clowning or fooling, who may be delighted by a self-described outsider recognizing the idea that there is more thought and nuance involved beyond “louder or softer.” Readers will come away with an enhanced understanding of the lines that all artists, makers and doers have to walk—that foolish tip-toeing balance of rehearsal and spontaneity, emotion and practicality, theory and practice.

Read the full review here.

Medium, Interview with Wanda Praamsma, The Toronto Star

The award-winning author’s fourth book of poetry, “Medium” explores the lives of numerous historical figures, all women, through short vidas(biographical texts originally used to introduce manuscripts of the troubadour poets) and a corresponding poem, lyrical in form. Skibsrud began the work in the early years of mothering, thinking a lot about the ways women have been “conduits of knowledge and intuition” throughout history.

See more…

Review of Medium, Winnipeg Free Press

By Melanie Brannagan Frederiksen, Winnipeg Free Press

In the introduction to Medium (Book*hug, 160 pages, $20), her latest collection of poems and vidas, Johanna Skibsrud imagines the voice as a “bridge between the known and the unknown, between subjective perspective and whatever the subject is not.” Skibsrud inhabits the voices of women from the ancient and mythological to the modern, exploring the oracular mode, where a subject’s voice both is and is not her own.

The vidas that accompany the poems are a play on a medieval form that dates from the troubadours and, in a collection of so many personnae, provide a welcome orientation. When, for example, Skibsrud writes of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna in Memory is a Blazing Thing, she uses the vida to introduce the doubt that the speaker is, in fact, that Anastasia.

The poem, rendered in two columns, plays on this question of identity. In the left-justified column, memory “doesn’t wish to/ preserve anything, but instead// to consume, even to/ extinguish itself.” In the centre-justified column, suggestions at memories and connections to the unknown past emerge. Here, the speaker seeks recognition from the memory of her uncle, asking “Does he see me/ coming?// Does he recognize/ me, now?”

In this poem, and throughout the collection, Skibsrud uses the relation between the vida and the accompanying poem to create inviting mysteries that propel the collection and emphasize the capaciousness of Skibsrud’s thought.

Review of Medium, from Holly Ghadery

"I devoured these poems with such gluttony and relish, it astonished me. And I’m not someone who can read poetry quickly, which isn’t to say that I read these poems with the perfunctory glee with which I’d tear through a smutty, slow-burn romance, but for me and the speed at which I read poetry, I read fast.

Medium is a sweeping and powerful exploration of the lives of women who have shaped history in their roles as mediums—and mediums has a broad meaning here. Mediums for life, knowledge, science, spirituality: a medium can be a conduit to a great many things but also, the medium is a thing itself—not merely a means to an end.

I love the way the book is structured: with a brief introduction to the woman—just a paragraph—and then the poem follows. The poems, which are elegant and fierce and precise—can stand alone. I wouldn’t say they need the explanation for the feeling they convey to resonate, even if you know nothing about, say, Lalleshwari—a mystic from the 14th century—but from a narrative perspective, the explanations do help inform.

“I can say only that the heart repeats itself,

chides endlessly:

How then, if you knew?

I can’t explain it. Can say only the mind

tilts, trying; but there’s nothing

to slide toward or lie against, nothing to

uphold.

This excerpt is from “I Can’t Explain It I Can Only Say”, a poem about Cassandra, the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, who was a favourite of Apollo and “promised the power of prophecy in return for complying with his desires.” But she didn’t comply after accepting the gift, and Apollo curses her, vowing that she will retain her gifts but no one will believe her. And no one does.

This excerpt is also an example of Skibsrub’s breathtaking, tripping, language: the way it skips along, halts, lilts, starts again—like a heartbeat or heartbreak, it depends.

Each poem in this collection reflects an exploration and excavation—the chest-compressing threat of confinement and a breathless flee-through-the-fields-at-dawn escape."