A couple of interesting links

Geographer Bob Maher continues to write interesting posts on his blog: The Ernest Blair Experiment. I have subscribed to this blog and just now received the most recent post. Bob is interested in Nova Scotia writer Ernest Buckler and is a member of the literary society formed some years ago to present events and activities about Buckler and, more generally, local and NS writers. Click here to see Bob's most recent post, which also mentions Elizabeth Bishop. We have been having an interesting exchange about Bishop. Bob wondered if Bishop was aware of Buckler and his work (the were almost exact contemporaries and they do share initials!). As far as I knew, Bishop was not aware of Buckler, but I asked Canadian literary critic and scholar David Staines, who knew Bishop at Harvard in the 1970s. Although he is a Buckler fan, he couldn't remember them talking about him during their conversations all those decades ago. Too bad.

Recently, writer Gabrielle Bellot wrote a lengthy piece about Bishop for The New York Review of Books, focused on an early prose piece Bishop wrote, "On Being Alone." Click here to read Bellot's thoughtful essay about the nature of solitude and loneliness.