• Title: Hooked: seven poems
• Author: Carolyn Smart
• ISBN: 1894078691
• ISBN-13: 9781894078696
• Pages: 120
• Year: 2009
• Size: 6" × 8.75"
• Price: $19.00

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Listen to Poems from Hooked: seven poems

• Listen to a grouping of poems on YouTube

Longlisted for the 2010 ReLit Award

An elegant and sinister collection of dramatic monologues.

Hooked is a stunning new collection of seven poems about seven famous or infamous women: Myra Hindley, Unity Mitford, Zelda Fitzgerald, Dora Carrington, Carson McCullers, Jane Bowles, and Elizabeth Smart. Each of these women was hooked on, and her life contorted by, an addiction or obsession. Here we have seven variations on the insoluble conundrum of sexuality - each in a remarkably distinct, authentic voice. 

xiii

I am conversant with my position:
middle-aged, untrained, the graduate
of half a dozen homes for the insane
I walk correctly through a world I do not understand

where has my life gone to
beside the smell of paints and
the texture of the canvas in my rough and awkward hands?
a show of paper dolls and stories starring anguish
that's my artistic life

from "Rickety Rackety"

(Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald: July 24, 1900-March 10, 1948)

Carolyn Smart brilliantly recreates seven lives of great colour. These women, all born before the end of World War II, struggle to find - or escape - their roles in a society hostile to female intelligence and ambition. Here are the agonies of the half-lived life; talents and voices that are lost or go astray in seven different ways, at a time before the greater freedoms that Feminism brought to the Western World. Whether these women have artistic success or not they are, in these astonishing poems, devastatingly articulate about their difficult lives.

"...Hooked expresses the heart of darkness with an astonishing concision and acuity... [Smart] understands loneliness in all its forms, and writes with a clarity and compassion that is powerfully affecting. In [her], these women have found a deeply feeling and deeply attentive witness." - Anne Michaels

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The Gutter Series: Between Projects, Poetry Edition with Carolyn Smart (April 3, 2012)

NOW Review, August 5, 2011 - Nicky Guadagni portrays four women drawn from Carolyn Smart's book of poetic monologues: three writers (Elizabeth Smart, Jane Bowles and Carson McCullers) and, the wild card, Unity Valkyrie Mitford, an upper-class Brit who adored Hitler. Guadagni's arresting work defines each both vocally and physically, though a read of the program notes will give viewers a useful background on the quartet. A production to savour for its language and performance; Guadagni invites us to lean in and listen closely to what each woman has to share.

NNNN Jon Kaplan - Producer: Hookedinhouse Productions - Writer: by Carolyn Smart

Where: Theatre Passe Muraille, room: Backspace, 16 Ryerson, Toronto, M5T 2P3, 416-504-7529, summerworks.ca
Full Review

Carolyn Smart reads from the new book on YouTube - Carolyn Smart reads Written on the Flesh [Myra Hindley] at the 49th Parallel Reading, AWP Conference Chicago, February 14, 2009. 

Carolyn Smart reads Rickety Rackety from her book "HOOKED" at The Book Shop in Tamworth Ontario. Filmed by Barry Lovegrove..  July 27, 2009.   Part Two 

"Must Read Interview" - An Interview with Carolyn Smart - with Alessandro Porco - March 10, 2009 

Hooked in House is a dramatic presentation of Hooked, seven poems by Carolyn Smart -  Hooked in house - Wine and dine with seven unforgettable women.

One actress.. Seven formidable women. Seven dishes. All served up in a home. This is HOOKED IN HOUSE. Seven dramatic monologues by Carolyn Smart, performed by Nicky Guadagni alongside the exquisite food offerings of Sandy Balcovske.

Hooked by Carolyn Smart is a stunning new collection of seven poems about seven famous or infamous women: Myra Hindley, Unity Mitford, Zelda Fitzgerald, Dora Carrington, Carson McCullers, Jane Bowles, and Elizabeth Smart.

Interview with Carolyn Smart by Tracy Hamon, March 27, 2009 

"Love is love, and hard enough to find" - a response to Carolyn Smart's Hooked by Ruth Roach Pierson for Influency: A Poetry Salon

WHY I WROTE HOOKED: CAROLYN SMART EXPLAINS THE ORIGINS OF HER BOOK

From Page to Stage: The Hooked Journey with Author Carolyn Smart.  Angela Hibbs, writer in residence, interviews Carolyn Smart at Open Book Toronto.