The Queen of Peace Room

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Memories are like layers of your skin or layers of paint on a canvas. In The Queen of Peace Room, Magie Dominic peels away these layers as she explores her life, that of a Newfoundlander turned New Yorker, an artist and a writer -- and frees herself from the memories of her violent past.

On an eight-day retreat with Catholic nuns in a remote location safe from the outside world, she exposes, and captures, fifty years of violent memories and weaves them into a tapestry of unforgettable images. The room she inhabits while there is called The Queen of Peace Room; it becomes, for her, a room of sanctuary. She examines Newfoundland in the 1940s and 1950s and New York in the 1960s; her confrontations with violence, incest, and rape; the devastating loss of friends to AIDS; and the relationship between life and art. These memories she finds stored alongside memories of nature -- images of trees pulling themselves up from their roots and fleeing the forest; storms and ley lines, and skies bursting with star-like eyes. In The Queen of Peace Room, from a very personal perspective, Magie Dominic explores violence against women in the second half of the twentieth century, and in doing so unearths the memory of a generation. In eight days, she captures half a century.

SYNOPSIS

On an eight-day retreat with Catholic nuns in a remote location safe from the outside world, Magie Dominic exposes, and captures, fifty years of violent memories and weaves them into a tapestry of unforgettable images. The room she inhabits while there is called The Queen of Peace Room; it becomes, for her, a room of sanctuary. The book moves from Newfoundland in the 1940s and 1950s to New York in the 1960s, confronting her experiences with violence, incest and rape and the devastating loss of friends to AIDS. The Queen of Peace Room explores the relationship between life and art as the memories of her past are stored alongside memories of nature�images of trees pulling themselves up from their roots and fleeing the forest; storms and ley lines, and skies bursting with starlike eyes.

From a very personal perspective, Magie Dominic explores violence against women in the second half of the twentieth century, and in doing so unearths the memory of a generation. In eight days, she captures half a century.

About the Author

Magie Dominic, Newfoundland writer and artists, has long been active in the peace movement. Her essays and poetry have been published in over fifty anthologies and journals in Canada, the United States, Italy, and India. Her artwork has been exhibited in Toronto and New York including a presentation at the United Nations.

FROM THE CRITICS

Forst - editor-in-chief, The Village Voice