Parallel Lines reaches across vast distances in time and place, from 19th century industrial England to 21st century coastal BC, unfolding a memoir in poetry that explores the loss, discovery and longing that is the immigrant experience. Galloway summons her ancestors from their work and play. We meet them trudging along canal banks, assisting at a birth, joining a sing-song at the pub. Their memory persists, reaching forward to a schoolgirl’s skipping game shared across three centuries, their presence resounding through the landscape of the new world: forest, ocean and “the vast, lilac-washed and vibrant sky.” Galloway’s poems carry the steady pulse of loss, but also have the power to uplift with celebration and hope.

Born in northern England, Pam Galloway now lives in Vancouver, BC. Her poetry is published widely in Canadian and UK literary magazines and anthologies. Her collaboration with four other poets was published as Quintet: Themes and Variations, Ekstasis Editions, 1998. She also works as a speech and language therapist.