“The most interesting part of architecture is the non-functioning,” writes Cassidy McFadzean in “Pier Evil,” one of the poems in her third collection. In a later poem, McFadzean clarifies this observation: “Fluting’s the only feature ... Read More »
Dallas Hunt’s Teeth is a stirring follow-up to Creeland, his first book of poetry. In “Cree Dictionary,” from his debut collection, Hunt begins with a witty redefinition of terms: “the translation for joy / in ... Read More »
April 10, 2024 | Filed under: Indigenous Peoples, Poetry, Reviews
Faith Arkorful’s debut book, The Seventh Town of Ghosts, is a collection of lyric poems suffused with a heart-centred intelligence. These poems move through grief, memory, and joy with the insight of “a black girl ... Read More »
The Lantern and the Night Moths is an exceptional book of translations and literary criticism by poet-translator Yilin Wang. Wang’s original translations of five Chinese poets and her accompanying essays (one per poet) make for ... Read More »
Michael Ondaatje’s latest collection is impossibly good. It is the work of a mature poet at the zenith of his talent. T. S. Eliot wrote, “The mature poet, in the operations of his mind, works ... Read More »
Canadian literature is a multilingual territory, and I will admit that my first introduction to the work and life of French-Canadian poet Marie Uguay comes with the recent publication of her journals in translation. As ... Read More »
February 7, 2024 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Poetry, Reviews
Jamaica’s former poet laureate and Queen’s Gold Medal recipient Lorna Goodison is a deeply established writer who has published 15 poetry collections, a number of short story collections, and a memoir. Redemption Ground, a collection ... Read More »
June 7, 2023 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays, Memoir & Biography, Poetry, Reviews
Delving into his Métis heritage, Conor Kerr explores the collision of the natural and human-made worlds in his second book of poetry, Old Gods. The overall tone of the collection is anger, softened slightly by ... Read More »
April 26, 2023 | Filed under: Indigenous Peoples, Poetry, Reviews
If It Gets Quiet Later On, I Will Make a Display, the wonderfully odd new collection from Fredericton writer, editor, and poet Nick Thran, is ostensibly rooted in the world of bookstores and booksellers, but ... Read More »
April 26, 2023 | Filed under: Anthologies, Criticism & Essays, Fiction: Short, Memoir & Biography, Poetry, Reviews