Murray, George 1971-

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MURRAY, George 1971-

PERSONAL: Born 1971, in Ontario, Canada; married Ailsa Craig (a writer and scholar).

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, McClelland & Stewart, 481 University Ave., Ste 900, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2E9, Canada.

CAREER: Poet. Editor, Maisonneuve Magazine.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

Carousel: A Book of Second Thoughts, Exile Editions (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

The Cottage Builder's Letter, McClelland & Stewart (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001.

The Hunter: Smoke Not Clouds, Sunset Not Flame, McClelland & Stewart (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals, including Descant, Iowa Reviews, Globe and Mail, Jacket, Mid-American Reviews, Nerve, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Slope.

SIDELIGHTS: Canadian-born author George Murray is the author of the poetry collections Carousel: A Book of Second Thoughts, The Cottage Builder's Letter, and The Hunter: Smoke Not Clouds, Sunset Not Flame. In Carousel Murray addresses the notions of death and rebirth by utilizing the obituaries of freakish characters to convey his message. The poems in his second collection, The Cottage Builder's Letter, take a different tone in their grounding in themes of heritage and family, and the poet's search for his rightful place within Canadian culture. Catherine Jenkins, writing in the Toronto Globe and Mail, commented that "Murray's poems are lyrical narratives, the language of which is shaded by the lilt of Irish rhythm. These poems are well crafted and observant, synthesizing literary images and ideas, biblical and classical characters, as well as a number of ancestral ones." "There is a fine balance in Murray that makes his poems deeply persuasive," added Derek Webster in a review of The Cottage Builder's Letter for Books in Canada.

The Hunter presents readers with as unsettling look at the end of the world, an end foreshadowed by a combination of prophecy and human history. Murray proposes that while the way in which the world will in fact come to an end is debatable, the notion that civilization will be held accountable for its actions is unavoidable and poignant. Murray's personal feelings as a resident of New York City following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks translate into a palpable tension and a focus on conflict in several of the poems included. As Heather Fitzgerald commented in Quill & Quire, "Though The Hunter is weighed down with bleak images, there is a beauty within the poetic language that belies the doom and gloom of [Murray's] post-Apocalyptic world."

In an interview with Jonathan Bennett of the Danforth Review online, Murray addressed his prolific output of poetry, explaining: "I guess I just write constantly and (I hope) consistently. I think that anyone who writes well, constantly, and consistently, will likely end up putting out a book every few years. I suppress the vast majority of what I write."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Books in Canada, August, 2001, Derek Webster, review of The Cottage Builder's Letter, pp. 20-21.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), July 29, 2000, Fraser Sutherland, review of Carousel: A Book of Second Thoughts, p. D7; April 21, 2001, Catherine Jenkins, "Three Types of Poetic Meaning."

Quill & Quire, April, 2003, Heather Fitzgerald, review of The Hunter, p. 44.