Penny L. Ferguson (1957- ) of Storeytown, New Brunswick, taught at schools throughout Nova Scotia after studying at the Nova Scotia Teachers College and Acadia University. Her poetry, short stories and artwork have appeared in many Canadian, American and British journals, and her work has been broadcast on television and radio. "SEEDS. A Poetry Anthology, 12 Canadian Poets" (1998) and "Clarity That Is Darkness: Selected & New Poems" (2003, Borealis) are among her books.

With honesty and imaginative breadth, Penny Ferguson rarely fails in engaging the reader in thoughtful examination of what we think as the ordinary. In her sometimes dark, sometimes tragic subjects, there is always a glimmer of hope. Penny could be accused of disturbing our comfortable stereotypes, demanding the reader´s moral intelligence, and challenging us to look beyond ourselves, to look beyond the limits of our own small lives.
   Lenora Steele, People´s Poetry Letter

The range of Penny L. Ferguson´s expression will shake you. There are the stark, pared-down, raw lines . . . nothing of the lyrical . . . , only the bleakness and the knife of truth, incising into the reader´s perception. But a lyrical beauty blazes through in fierce metaphors: "I run my hand over your life trying to unlock ciphers chiseled there. My fingers linger on lines, each surface irregularity."
   ("Monolith")
   Katherine L. Gordon, Hidden Book Press´s web site

I was deeply moved by "Zeus Decending": the family dynamics are so subtly evoked that I became envious. "Tableless Kitchen" draws an equally powerful tableau of family life . . . . Images also in "Glacial Silences" are crisp, fresh and powerful.
   Liliane Welch