Nancy Jo Cullen is a Calgary-based writer.  She has published two books of poetry.  Her first collection, Science Fiction Saint was nominated for the Gerald Lampert award for best first book of poetry, the Writers Guild of Alberta’s Stephan G. Stephansson award for poetry and the Book Publishers Association of Alberta’s best trade book.  Her second book Pearl is a poetic exploration of the life of Calgary’s infamous madam, Pearl Miller.  In addition to poetry Cullen has written and produced five plays.

Selected Publications:

Science Fiction Saint
(Frontenac House, Calgary, 2002)

Pearl
(Frontenac House, Calgary, 2006)

Citrus 1

I was a surprised as anyone. And although I had made a toil of pleasure, those ladies on American Hill (hearts as hard and small as nuts), every bit as proud, every bit as haughty, leave me to ponder about the shape of each fall they took. We have all been an abomination

By mercy and truth I was purged. Sudden only to those who did not bear witness, for prison, unlike the army camp, is not filled with visitors waiting to call on a whore. Still, each day those soldiers of the Lord made their way to my cell if only to speak pleasantly of the weather and to leave a copy of the Good Book. It had been some time since I had had the leisure to read

Grace came in inches. Not from my jailors who knew little of common civility but once by the gift of an orange passed to me with fervent kindness by a clear-eyed girl who remained unflinching in my presence, and pure. She said, “Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” I wiped the juice from my chin

And she held my eyes until I smiled at her belief
My knees trembling under the burden of knowing