go-go dancing for Elvis

$15.00

go-go dancing for Elvis by Leslie Greentree is the story of two sisters: the beautiful sister, who travels the United States as a dancer for an Elvis impersonator, and her more conventional sister, who stays home and renovates her house. It’s a story of love, jealousy, betrayal, and the people who used to have our phone numbers. Most of all it’s a story about Hawkey Pierce and power tools.

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Shortlisted for the Griffin Prize for Excellence in Poetry in 2004; the Griffin Prize is international in scope, and is the largest poetry prize in the world.

The Griffin Trust

Praise for go-go dancing for Elvis

“With incredible insight, Leslie Greentree explores the dance of human relationships, the nuances of communication, and the intricacies of daily life. go-go dancing for Elvis performs with skill, humour, and tenderness; but be warned: Greentree is a scorpion-poet and her words always deliver a sting.”

– Joan Crate

“Leslie Greentree is a conversational poet whose artful talk is not afraid to engage any subject head-on. Her unpretentious, sometimes comic, lower-case poems have an irresistible charm. They pull us into the funk and drama of her everyday experience and, further, into the center of her interior life.

– The Griffin Prize Jury, 2004

“What a read! Greentree’s poems crackle with humour, self-deprecation, celebration and woe. The book is a domestic extravaganza of being single and female; the fear of inadequacy, the sense that others are having a much better time, the loneliness of love gone wrong, the carnival of house renovations and lust. This book is like a best friend who invites you over for a glass of wine and a gab session. Say yes, I’ll be right over! Cancel everything, grab the car keys, and crack open this book.”

– Nancy Holmes

“Leslie Greentree’s highly readable go-go dancing for Elvis achieves immediate intimacy with a dishy, kitchen-chair voice… The book pleases honestly, in the way of a cotton dress that clings in all the right places.”

– Sonnet l’Abbe, The Globe and Mail

Credits

Professional dance organization Kompany created the theatrical show Blue Suede Shoes around poetry from go-go dancing for Elvis in 2006. The well-reviewed show had a two-week run in Red Deer, Alberta, starring the author and four professional dancers.

shades of Linda Lee (poem from go-go dancing for Elvis) appeared in Griffin Poetry Prize advertisements on the internet, in the New York Times Book Review and in the London Sunday Times, and was professionally produced by CBC Radio.

Many poems from go-go dancing for Elvis have been broadcast on a wide variety of CBC Radio programs from Alberta to Ontario. In 2005, CBC recorded and played Leslie’s reading of Anarchy (from go-go dancing for Elvis) at the South Country Fair, and then contracted to produce it professionally for a subsequent show.