She Dreams in Red

She Dreams in Red is the story of journeys. Poems travel from China to Canada, to Indonesia, to Mongolia into the mysteries of the human heart and romantic relationships.

She Dreams in Red explores the author's unique cultural background and history, travels and encounters with love and loss. These poems attempt to make sense of the world, as the poet exposes herself to the world with simple images painted in clean brushstrokes.

What People Are Saying

She Dreams in Red is a steamy dish of hybridity, race, travel, and sexuality. Alexis Kienlen serves up a poetry stirred and mixed with the ingredients of a life in the “between” world, always looking both ways for the next possible thought or feeling, always acknowledging the silence alongside the word. The “mother” in these poems is a real phantom presence, right there on the page, tasting and listening to these morsels of memory, perception, and love.

-Fred Wah, Governor General award-winning poet & author of 17 books of poetry

Alexis Kienlen's She Dreams in Red is broken into geographic sections reflecting her travels - China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Tibet - and a section at the end called "Love/Lust," with poems about, well, love and lust. Kienlen's poetry is often simple, spare and elegant and deals with issues in a strong and straightforward style.

Kienlen explores diverse themes - being a foreigner in her home country and abroad, family histories and relationships, love and lust. The ubiquitous motif of red, which she uses to symbolize a variety of ideas, comes to a climax in the title poem, spewing forth a cascade of images and themes, passion and fire, blood and loss, love and secrets, fear and exhilaration, cherries, apples, roses, lipstick and fire engines.

While Kienlen writes about fiery issues, her poems have a detached quality. This is not to say she is not present in the collection, but rather that she is able to set herself slightly apart from her experiences and become a keen, insightful and eloquent observer, a quality that can be expected from someone with a journalistic background and one that contributes to the success of the collection.

-Aneka Rao, FFWD weekly, Calgary, AB

An enticing title for this collection of poetry will lead readers to peer through the eyes of Alexis Kienlen as she travels the world. Red, a complicated colour, is a telling leitmotif as she delves into love and loss, between her world and those of a lover, another culture, another generation.

-Claire Young, Calgary Herald, Calgary, AB

One-time Saskatoon resident Alexis Kienlen, on the other hand, ventures tentatively but bravely into her family past, her travels, and her awakening sexuality in her debut collection of poems, She Dreams in Red. No philosophical distractions for her; she gathers her courage and ploughs into print.

Kienlen comes from a mixed race past, Chinese and Caucasian, and writes knowingly of Chinese cafes, splendid meals, a barely acknowledged grandfather's wife left in China, and racism, of the words that "slapped my mother's face." These poems in her first section live in a world of secrets and legends and what she takes from that past. In Robbery she writes, "my mother has kidnapped my grandmother's skin,/ hands and the way she clicks her tongue.//i too will raise my daughter to be a thief."

Poems in the next sections explore Indonesia, Mongolia, Tibet, and the land of Love and Lust. Most of these poems have a very simple grace, an uncomplicated acknowledgement of wonder at being in all these magical states.

-Bill Robertson, Freelancer, "The Saskatoon Star Phoenix"

Book News

She Dreams in Red now available!

Order from any independent bookstore in Canada or by contacting Frontenac House at editor@frontenachouse.com