PoetryTag
-
March 10, 2021
A "Book Behind Which No Part of Me Could Hide": Andrea Actis' Poetic Memoir of Grief & Loss is Stunning
Content warning: death in the family, grief. It's an unimaginable scene: returning home one night in 2007, Andrea Actis entered her Vancouver apartment to discover her father, lying dead. The aftermath ...
-
March 03, 2021
"I Find it a Kind of Magic" David Stones on the Gift that is Inspiration & Why Amanda Gorman and Leonard Cohen Give Him Hope
David Stones' sfumato: New and Selected Poems (Blue Moon Publishers) collects the most powerful poems from Stones' previous collections and adds engaging new pieces to create a reading experience that ...
-
February 04, 2021
Read an Excerpt from Parliamentary Poet Laureate Louise Bernice Halfe's Newly Re-Released, Iconic Collection Blue Marrow
Louise Bernice Halfe - Sky Dancer is an icon of Canadian poetry, so it was a celebratory moment when, earlier this week, she was announced as the ninth Parliamentary Poet Laureate, one of the country's ...
-
February 02, 2021
Why We Need to Question “Hobbies” in the Pandemic
On a rainy Thursday morning at the end of January 2021, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling for far too long... I couldn’t remember what I had done in 2020. I remember the past couple of years clearly: ...
-
November 12, 2020
Montreal's Matthew Hollett Wins CBC Poetry Prize for Pandemic Inspired Poem
Today, CBC Books announced Matthew Hollett of Montreal as the winner of the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize.His winning piece, "Tickling the Scar", was written during the early days of the pandemic, when Hollett, ...
-
November 05, 2020
Western Canada Dominates CBC Poetry Prize Shortlist
It's another good day for Western Canada with the announcement of the shortlist for the CBC Poetry Prize. With five finalists (four of whom count their homes in Alberta or farther west), it's an intriguing ...
-
November 04, 2020
"If Someone Feeds Me Wonder, They Have My Heart" Poet Sarah Venart on the Long Road to Her Powerful New Collection
Poet Sarah Venart dives deep into love, family, need, and grief in her powerful new collection I Am the Big Heart (Brick Books). But what is the big heart? In these poems, big-heartedness means being ...
-
October 29, 2020
"It Is Okay to Go Inside of Yourself Even if it Scares You" Poet Joseph A. Dandurand on Opening Doors
Perhaps Richard van Camp said it best about prolific and powerful poet Joseph A. Dandurand's writing when he commented "Good Lord—what a voice!" Dandurand's 13 collections of poetry have consistently ...
-
October 19, 2020
"It Means Going Back to Bronwen Wallace’s Work" RBC Bronwen Wallace Award Nominees on Writing, Genres, & Being Seen
The Writers' Trust's RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers is a closely-watched prize, with its knack for identifying interesting and innovative writers early in their careers. Founded by writer ...
-
October 16, 2020
Poets Becoming Novelists: On Trusting Leaps and Fragments
I finished the first draft of my novel in mid-March – in the first week of isolation. I hadn’t grasped the gravity of the pandemic then, so I was grateful for the sudden reprieve from the real world. ...