BOOK REVIEWby LINZEY CORRIDON POETRYONTARIO REVIEWS CALIFORNIAA Brief History of Infidels HOW BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE AREa pothi by AYAZ PIRANI[Guelph: Gordon Hill Press, 2022, $20.00] “All my ancestors are stone-faced” responds the speaker to the question Where are you from?, the title of one of the entries in Ayaz Pirani’s third work of poetry. Stone-faced, rigid, … Continue reading Book Review: Linzey Corridon / Ayaz Pirani
BOOK REVIEWby ROBERT COLMAN POETRYNEWMARKET REVIEWS WINNIPEG TAMAR RUBIN’STablet Fragments[Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2020, $17.95] Most of my favourite lyric poetry involves poems that propose broad but endlessly relevant questions. E.g., What do we carry with us of our years of experience? How do we witness our lives and of those who touch us? And how … Continue reading Book Review: Robert Colman / Tamar Rubin
BOOK REVIEWS by TAMAR RUBINPORTRAITS:VEGETABLE, ANIMAL AND MUSICAL WINNIPEG REVIEWSFREDERICTON, CALGARY, & HALIFAX MATTHEW WALSH’SThese are not the potatoes of my youth[Fredericton: icehouse poetry – Goose Lane Editions, 2019. $19.95] JIM NASON’SRooster, Dog, Crow[Calgary: Frontenac House Poetry, 2018. $19.95] GEORGE ELLIOTT CLARKE’SPortia White: A Portrait in Words[Halifax: Nimbus Publishing House Poetry, 2019. $21.95] Mathew Walsh … Continue reading Book Reviews: Rubin / Walsh / Nason / Clarke
ART REVIEWby BART GAZZOLA Michael Snowat the Art Gallery of Hamilton There’s the story, then there’s the real story, then there’s the story of how the story came to be told. Then there’s what you leave out of the story. Which is part of the story too. [– Margaret Atwood, from MaddAddam] One does not … Continue reading Art Review: Bart Gazzola / Michael Snow
BOOK REVIEWby DANNY JACOBS CHTHONIC TRANSCENDENCENEW BRUNSWICK REVIEWS ONTARIO RICHARD GAVIN’SGrotesquerie[Pickering: Undertow Publications, 2020, $20.Cover Art: Mike Davis.] Descents In a recent interview, Richard Gavin discussed the importance of “katabasis” to his work – an ancient Greek concept that suggests a journey downward, often to the underworld. Grotesquerie, Gavin’s latest collection of dark fiction, draws … Continue reading Book Review: Danny Jacobs / Richard Gavin
BOOK REVIEW by RICHARD VAN HOLST SQUALL: POEMS IN THE VOICE OF MARY SHELLEY ANCASTER, ONTARIO REVIEWS TRURO, NOVA SCOTIA Squall: Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley by CHAD NORMAN [Hamilton: Guernica Editions, 2020, $20.00. Illustrations by judith S bauer.] Chad Norman, a Canadian poet from Truro, Nova Scotia, has been publishing poetry since … Continue reading Book Review: Richard Van Holst / Chad Norman
BOOK REVIEW by CARL WATTS POEMS WITHOUT ORGANS WUHAN REVIEWS TORONTO As Far as You Know by A.F. MORITZ [Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2020, $19.95] In his afterword to Editing Moritz: Correspondence between Shane Neilson and A.F. Moritz during the Editing of Now That You Revive (2007), Moritz compares his writing process with that … Continue reading Book Review: Carl Watts / A.F. Moritz
BOOK REVIEW by AIDAN CHAFE ROBERT COLMAN’S DEMOCRATICALLY APPLIED MACHINE BURNABY REVIEWS NEWMARKET Democratically Applied Machine by ROBERT COLMAN [Windsor: Palimpsest Press, 2020, SALE: $15.16] In his third collection of poems, Democratically Applied Machine, Robert Colman explores industrial and domestic landscapes, as well as his personal identity, amid his father’s onset of Alzheimer’s dementia. … Continue reading Book Review: Aidan Chafe / Robert Colman
BOOK REVIEWS by JOHN NYMAN ACROSS TIME, STYLE, AND GENRE, VIA VANCOUVER ALEX LESLIE’S Vancouver for Beginners [Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2019, $12.99 – $21.00] MATTHEW WALSH’S These are not the potatoes of my youth [Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions • icehouse poetry, 2019, $19.95] bill bissett’s breth / th treez uv lunaria: selektid rare n nu … Continue reading Book Reviews: Nyman / Leslie / Walsh / bissett
BOOK REVIEW by JIM NASON TORONTO REVIEWS VICTORIA QUEER POSITIONS, NAKED PROSE: THE VULNERABLE WE JOHN BARTON’S We Are Not Avatars: Essays, Memoirs, Manifestos [Windsor: Palimpsest Press, 2019, SALE: $15.96] In 2007, along with Billeh Nickerson, John Barton edited Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay Male Poets. At the time, standing with my … Continue reading Book Review: Jim Nason / John Barton
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