Quill and Quire

BOOK REVIEWS

the pet radish, shrunken

By Pearl Pirie

In her third poetry collection, Ottawa’s Pearl Pirie unleashes her deep curiosity about language. Writing on the BookThug blog, Pirie claims, “I like when the words in words are not the root word but are ... Read More »

April 6, 2015 | Filed under: Poetry

Sum

By Zachariah Wells

Zachariah Wells’s Sum opens with an epigraph from Fernando Pessoa that declares, “In the vast colony of our being there are many species of people, thinking and feeling differently.” At a glance, the formal eclecticism ... Read More »

April 6, 2015 | Filed under: Poetry

Tablature

By Bruce Whiteman

The two latest offerings from McGill-Queen’s University Press’s Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series are both formalist musings about love. Bruce Whiteman is a full-time author, rare book specialist, and book reviewer (including for Q&Q). His latest ... Read More »

April 6, 2015 | Filed under: Poetry

Trio

By Sarah Tolmie

The two latest offerings from McGill-Queen’s University Press’s Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series are both formalist musings about love. Bruce Whiteman is a full-time author, rare book specialist, and book reviewer (including for Q&Q). His latest ... Read More »

April 6, 2015 | Filed under: Poetry

My Shoes Are Killing Me

By Robyn Sarah

The title of Robyn Sarah’s My Shoes Are Killing Me speaks to the nostalgia that her poems explore: if “nostalgia” literally means “painful homecoming,” then the “shoes” – read as a metonymy for the past ... Read More »

April 6, 2015 | Filed under: Poetry

In Your Crib

By Austin Clarke

Multiculturalism is a myth Canadians like to console themselves with. Politically correct language and bromides about the cultural mosaic notwithstanding, the Great White North does not have a stellar history when it comes to its ... Read More »

April 6, 2015 | Filed under: Poetry