Siteseeing
At Bay Press, 2023.
Culverts Beneath the Narrow Road
Thistledown Press, 2018.
"This is a skilled poet having good fun, and inviting us all to join the party." - Shelley A. Leedahl, SaskBooks Reviews. Read more.
"Employing a variety of forms and the culvert stories — who knew? — of numerous people, she digs beneath the obvious roads to find out what keeps the water — the subconscious, the unconscious — flowing smoothly, discovering a variety of things about herself, notably the everyday masks we wear and the aging process we won’t always admit to." - Bill Robertson, The Star Phoenix. Read more.
"For Schmidt is indeed a poet. Readers can expect to encounter many visual and acoustic delights along the way, from internal rhymes to arresting images." - Trevor Cook, The Antigonish Review #196.
Kalamalka Press, 2012.
"Whether describing thunder or the flight patterns of ptarmigan, Schmidt does so poetically with a great sense of timing and rhythm. She has the sort of narrative voice that makes sitting in the grass keeping an ear out for birds philosophical and lively – something worth listening to."
- Devin Pacholik, Global News Regina. Read more.
"Evoking the work of Don McKay, Trevor Herriot and Gerald Hill, Schmidt walks in some pretty big footsteps, and more than measures up. These essays colonize the middle ground between deep connection with place and concern for its ecological future, constantly questioning our troubled relationship with prairie process." - Judges' citation, Saskatchewan Book Award for Nonfiction nomination. Jurors: Barry Ferguson, Wayne Grady, Barry Grills.
GridHagios Press, 2012.
"In Grid..., Creighton's Brenda Schmidt turns a colder eye to the landscape than most other Canadian poets."
- Jonathan Ball, Winnipeg Free Press. Read more.
"Grid is a true celebration of life in the northern Prairies."
- Alexis Kienlen, Quill & Quire. Read more.
"You can just feel the stones rattling off your undercarriage on this Grid."
- Bill Robertson, The Star Phoenix. Read more.
"Like the Prairies, this is not a collection that gives itself away: the true beauty of this book lies in subtleties that may not be obvious at first glance."
- Emily McGiffin, The Malahat Review. Read more.
"In Grid, moments are approached in their apparent stability only to be swept away in song rife with interruption and fresh stimuli, lending a new perspective. It is as though the familiar ground is an eye glancing back and the reflection only a nodal-point, open to opportunity and play."
- Justin Dittrick, SPG Book Reviews. Read more.
"There is grit in these poems, so much that it seems unfair to think of them as nature poems; like the best nature writing, they undo our expectations of nature rather than uphold them."
- Tanis MacDonald, Arc Poetry Magazine. Read more.
"These supple, witty, and incisive poems delineate our relationship to grids and systems both visible and invisible, natural and political."
- Judges' citation, Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry nomination. Jurors: Shawna Lemay, Barbara Nickel, Sharon Thesen.
"In her fourth collection Grid, Schmidt’s wry humour transcends what we have watched heap up in Canada for more than a century—nature poems—balancing in canola fields between the beautiful lure of nature and our curious urge to separate ourselves from disappearing allotments of our own solace. We have wandered “off the grid” but fortunately Schmidt is an entertaining and insightful guide who can still find Li Po in a Dark-eyed Junco, if she has to."
- Garry Thomas Morse, Jacket 2. Read more.
Cantos from Wolverine Creek
Hagios Press, 2008.
More Than Three Feet of Ice
Thistledown Press, 2005.
A Haunting Sun
Thistledown Press, 2001.
Cantos from Wolverine CreekHagios Press, 2008.
"...terse, fiercely unsentimental observations of life as many people live it."
- Bill Robertson, The Star Phoenix.
- Bill Robertson, The Star Phoenix.
More Than Three Feet of Ice
Thistledown Press, 2005.
"Throughout More Than Three Feet of Ice, Schmidt reconfigures the commonplace elements of the North, what she knows, and what she doesn’t know to achieve startling nuances. In her hands the seemingly insignificant is imbued with meaning and becomes an extraordinary book."
- Lynda Grace Philippsen, Books in Canada.
- Lynda Grace Philippsen, Books in Canada.
A Haunting Sun Thistledown Press, 2001.
"...a lean style and elemental and evocative content"
- Steven Ross Smith, "Art: At the Heart of Society," Saskatchewan Arts Alliance.
- Steven Ross Smith, "Art: At the Heart of Society," Saskatchewan Arts Alliance.
