About the Author

Sandy Pool is a multidisciplinary artist and recently appointed Killam scholar. She holds a degree in Theatre Performance and English from the University of Toronto, as well as a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University Guelph. Currently, she is a doctoral student in Canadian Literature and Poetics at the University of Calgary, where she is the editor of Dandelion magazine. Sandy's first book, Exploding into Night, was nominated for the 2010 Governor General's Award for Poetry. She was most recently anthologized in The Best Canadian Poems in 2011. She is also a librettist and voice work artist.

Reviews

Despite the darkness of her subject, or perhaps becuase of it, Pool's language bursts forth brightly, indelible, refusing night.
--Jonathan Ball, Winnipeg Free Press

Pool's book offers more than a gorgeous sensory experience, or even a poetic monument to the silent lives of the Radium Girls. It's also a harrowing meditation on the darkness that can result when humanity attempts to lean away from the blackness of night and manufacture its own light.
--Julie Sedivy, Alberta Views Magazine

What I love most about Undark is that the poetry doubles as a performance score. The tradition of Poets' Theatre, which began in the 1950s (in New York, San Francisco, and Cambridge), is experiencing something of a revival these days. As such, Undark: An Oratorio is timely and thrilling--with so much potential for adaptation to the stage. In her biographical note, Pool describes herself as a "multi-disciplinary artist." Let's hope she's true to her word, and that the book publication of Undark is only the beginning for these Radium Women--after all, to quote Pool, "nothing ends."
--Alessandro Porco, Open Book Toronto

This book should be received as its subtitle suggests--as a performance work. Staged, with the appropriate John Adams-style music, it could be magnificent.
--George Elliott Clarke, The Chronicle Herald

Sandy Pool's Undark: An Oratorio is a smart, carefully wrought, brilliant book, and a significant contribution to contemporary poetry. A remarkably engaging volume, Undark is a pleasure to read, and a pleasure to delve into critically--this is a book that warrants and rewards serious scholarly attention.
--Helen Hajnoczky, ateacozyisasometimes.blogspot.ca