Overview

Clooscape the Poet recomposes stories about Koluskap, the most familiar and renowned figure in the Wabanaki oral tradition. He becomes the original storyteller in a canon of traditional tales and legends about him: retold time and time again in a myriad of ways and presenting him in a multiplicity of roles. The stories originate in Clooscape's mind as memories, observations, visions, fantasies, dreams, and delusions. He is the author of himself, amazed and enamored with his Wabanaki homeland.

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9781963908862

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Reviews

Charles Cantalupo in his book length poem, Clooscape the Poet, retells and reimagines the traditional stories of the Wabanaki spirit and legendary figure ""Clooscape"" at a time when there is renewed interest and increasing awareness of the Wabanaki people. This includes their longstanding and continued presence within their homelands of what is now northern New England and the neighboring Atlantic Provinces. Drawing deeply on a wide range of earlier writings and research, Cantalupo deftly creates and weaves his own retelling of ""Clooscape"" to provide us with a vivid sense of the very real presence of this Wabanaki spirit and legendary figure within the Wabanaki people, their culture, their traditions, and their place. As someone who grew up in the coastal U.S./Canada border region of Passamaquoddy Bay and heard stories of ""Clooscape"" and his powers that turned animals into islands in this Bay, I find that Cantalupo gives us a vastly richer and better visceral understanding of the Wabanaki deep connection and relationship to their homelands and all that they contain including importantly ""Clooscape."" Hugh French, Director, Tides Institute & Museum of Art, Eastport, Maine The local, regional, and expansive tradition of Wabanaki storytelling, oral and written, connects history and prehistory, space and time, and people of all cultures at the heart of where they live. Clooscape the Poet lets more of us know that with pleasure. Kassahun Checole, Founder & Publisher, Africa World Press & The Red Sea Press, Inc.

Author Information

Writing on the bellum omnium contra omnes or the Woodstock Nation, Charles Cantalupo's literary trajectory ranges far: from poems published in religious journals in the 1980s to experimental British and American literary journals in the 90s. Yet the year 2000 marked a new development for Cantalupo with his co-authoring the historic Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures. Writing poetry and literary criticism about Africa and translating poets from Eritrea, he reached a much wider audience than before. This led to his memoir, Joining Africa (2012) and returned Cantalupo as a poet to his own American experience. The subtitle, ""Further Steps,"" of one of his subsequent books of poetry could apply to all of his writing. Clooscape the Poet takes further steps. Charles Cantalupo is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English, Comparative Literature, and African Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. He lives in Eastport, Maine.

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