17.3 | Autumn 2020
In this issue: 2-3
News f rom the League
4-5
Bill Arnott’s Beat
6-9
Poetry Parlour
11-14
Louise Carson’s review of Clavier, Paris, Alyssum by Sue Chenette
15-20
New League Members
21-27
Member News
28-32
Writing Opportunities
33-34
In Memoriam
News f rom the League LCP Chapbook Series: Voices of Quebec/Les voix du Québec The League is currently accepting submissions to the newest edition in our chapbook series. Poets in Quebec – we are looking for beautiful poetry in both English and French to add to this special chapbook. La Ligue accepte actuellement des propositions pour son nouveau recueil de poésie. Poètes québécois, n’hésitez pas à nous envoyer vos plus beaux poèmes, en français ou en anglais, pour contribuer à cette édition spéciale en deux langues. Find out more/Cliquez ici pour en savoir davantage Book Awards Submissions for Poetry Book Awards for books published in 2020 are now open! Deadline for submissions is November 13, 2020. To accommodate for the impact of COVID-19 on authors and publishers, the League has added some new options for book awards submission. Find out more Poets in the Schools The Poets in the Schools program, supported by the Ontario Arts Council, is now open for applications for virtual class visits! Find out more
Poem In Your Pocket Day Annual Postcard Contest Submit your poem to have your work nationally distributed on Poem in Your Pocket Day. New this year! Open to League members and nonmembers. Deadline is November 30, 2020. Find out more NEW! LCP’s Poetry Neighbourhood, a Facebook Group for members of the League Join us in this private Facebook Group to share your news, discuss poetry, connect with other poets and more! Join today! Volunteer with the League The League needs volunteers to run the many programs and services that we operate across Canada - and you can help! Please let us know what kind of volunteer work you are interested by filling out this form Call for Proposals – Webinar Facilitators The League of Canadian Poets will be hosting digital webinars and professional development opportunities for our members. If you have a skill that you can teach other poets, we would love to hear from you! Please let us know more
about your idea by filling out this form Tech support for online events We are looking for members or nonmembers who are comfortable with online platforms like Zoom to provide basic tech support for online poetry events. This is a paid opportunity for members or non-members. Submit your interest in providing tech support. Coming soon: From my Window: a collection of poetry from Atlantic Canada We will be opening orders for this special chapbook edited by Miriam Dunn and hand-sewn by Nic Brewer very soon! Stayed tuned to our webpage and social media for all the details. Book Reviews Are you interested in reviewing a book of poetry for the League? Have you published a title recently and would like it to be reviewed? We are happily accepting review submissions for recent books of poetry from Canadian poets. Find out more Member News The League has simplified the process to submit member news for St@nza and social media promotion. If you are a member and have news you would like shared, fill out this quick form.
Poetry Parlour We invite League Members to respond to three poetry-related questions each month: Check out Poetry Parlour (League member exclusive) Poetry Pause Poetry Pause is the League’s daily digital poetry dispatch program and it’s growing every day! We deliver a daily poem to over 1000 folks and we are always accepting submissions of published or unpublished poems! Poetry Pause is a great way to introduce new readers to your work. Tell your poets and poetry-loving friends! Subscribe to Poetry Pause Donate to the League Support poets and poetry in Canada. Please consider donating monthly to the League of Canadian Poets. Donate via Canada Helps An update for Access Copyright members Please review this update from Access Copyright for details about changes in advocacy, innovation, COVID-19, and Legal matters.
Bill Arnott’s Beat An Emerita in New West
to print. The list of submissions is extensive, the majority of it excellent work from established authors.
I was reading author tips from Elmore Leonard who stated emphatically, “Don’t start a story with weather!” So I won’t. However, it may interest you to know it was a warm spring day, blossoms blushing the city like a haiku/tanka festival. I was meeting with Poet Laureate Emerita Candice James in the literary city of New Westminster, a Vancouver suburb and BC’s former capital. Silver Bow Press is the company she runs, having taken over a fourvolume-a-year publisher and grown annual production to twenty-plus titles of poetry and fiction. Next year she anticipates bringing thirty books
Crossing town for our visit I felt an odd sense of nostalgia. James and I both made an unlikely professional transition to the arts – writing and music, from a background in finance. I suspect there aren’t many of us. Having done that for twenty-five years I knew Greater Vancouver as well as anyone – certainly better than most cabbies, the result of countless house calls, office and coffee meetings everywhere in southwest BC. My father-in-law was a cartographer, designing and publishing street maps. And on multiple occasions relied on me to find new or missing addresses. This was before the google car with the pointy thing or CSIS and retailers knowing precisely where we are (and what we’re shopping for) at all times. But having cocooned for a few years in Vancouver proper, I’d become insulated by readings and performance gigs within walking distance of home. It felt good to break from the downtown chrysalis, remembering the vast veins of creative bullion beyond my trickling creek and personal prospector pan. There is indeed “gold in them there hills” or in this case, a well-treed town on the banks
of the Fraser River. Arriving at Silver Bow’s hub of operations I felt I was settling into the best bookstore/coffee shop ever – clean and bright, surrounded by stacks of crisp new volumes – a dizzying array of James’ own work, Silver Bow publications and signed copies of literary classics spanning forty years. It was as much a chance to catch up with Candice as anything, and to learn more about the New West lit scene, where she was Poet Laureate from 2010-2016, involved with and/or running Poetry New West, Royal City Literary Arts Society and Poetry in the Park. Poetic Justice, her successful reading series, continues to draw a wealth of talent. I returned (pre-distancing) for the weekly Sunday offering at a welcoming, beer-soaked resto-pub, where American spoken word artist-activist Francisco Escamillo performed
a feature set. The fact this LA-based pro, known as the Bus Stop Prophet, wanted to be a part of the New West event indicates the extent of this thriving hub’s exposure and growing influence. I felt fortunate to be part of it, proud for my artist friends and the literary city-within-a-city we can all call our own. Originally published by The Miramichi Reader and the Federation of BC Writers. Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, Dromomania, Allan’s Wishes, and Wonderful Magical Words. His Indie Folk CD is Studio 6. Bill’s work is published in literary journals, magazines and anthologies around the globe. He’s received songwriting and poetry prizes and is a Whistler Independent Book Awards Finalist with Gone Viking: A Travel Saga. Visit Bill @billarnott_aps and Gone Viking on Amazon here
Poetry Parlour See what Leaguers have to say about poetry, pandemic, and online events
Thank you to everyone who responded to the most recent Poetry Pause questions! Check out our new batch of questions.
How has the COVID-19 Pandemic affected or influenced your poetry? Claudia Radmore: Life has become more like a river, a small one like our Mississippi without swimmers, without the pressure to join in group activities, family gatherings, visits and visitors, all of which I like but did not miss too much. My mind can float undisturbed, slowing down to a time when it’s peaceful long enough to write or pick strawberries, the latter a little more difficult thing to do in a mask. Louise Carson: Not at all. Not yet, anyway. Merle Amodeo: I’ve written very little since the start of the pandemic, so it’s hard to fathom how my poetry has been affected. Maybe it’s because I seem to write more when I’m feeling light hearted and open and right now I’m down hearted and pensive. It’s what I like most about writing, the feeling that I’m creating, and I miss it terribly. Vladimir Nicolas: COVID-19 affect-
ed my poetry on a positive way. My regular work was closed as non-essential business. So, locked for two months at home while I went outside for essential shopping and daily walking, I got surabondant time to write more. That’ s why i have written three poetry book collections during my “poetic” retreat to the noise of the world. Carol MacKay: It put me in waiting mode. Instead of writing new material, I worked to revise, hone, re-work pieces I wrote pre-pandemic. I’m gradually coming out of that phase now. I needed to allow some distance from the overwhelming first days of COVID to begin to understand its impact. Isobel Cunningham: I write more about my neighborhood and my garden. Anne Burke: Since Joe Blade’s passing, I have turned to the elegy as my primary poetry form. I have gone inward (more so) and deep (much more) because a world-wide lockdown has reduced us to the spirit world to backyards and laneways. Neighbours pass by, with sudden detours but polite acknowledgements. Elana Wolff: I’ve avoided using the words COVID-19, corona, and pan-
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demic in poems, but the virus is in the white space of a number of my new pieces.
Have you attended any online poetry/literary events? Tell us about the event(s) and what you did or didn’t enjoy. Amanda Earl: i’ve attended three or four. one was a House Party Reading series in Ottawa, organized by Margo LaPierre and featuring Natalie Hanna, Frances Boyle, Manahil Bandukwala and Nina Jane Drystek. it was well-organized and each reader did a wonderful job. i didn’t like that seeing everyone and hearing the poets read made me miss seeing everyone in person. Anne Burke: I have enjoyed zoom meetings and google Hang Out but miss the hugs (still virtual) the breath and warmth of reading(s). Isobel Cunningham: Yes, I participated as a reader in a poetry event sponsored by la sala in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I observed another such event last weekend. I was interested in the rehearsal process which was quite long. I loved hearing poets from several countries. Kamal Parmar: I enjoy every online ZOOM event on poetry/literary. In fact one gets to connect with numerous poets from different regions. This is something which was not possible in in-person meetings as travelling from distances was not possible. it has strengthened our bonds and got us closer. A great learning experience! Vladimir Nicolas: Before the coro-
navirus, monthly, I attended poetry readings and other events. Right now, poetry readings did not come back. So, I am focusing on the launching of Coeur de plumes, my literary magazine welcoming emergent writers and debutant poets. Carol MacKay: I’ve attended writing workshops online, brainstorming sessions for competitions and other more business-y aspects of writing. I enjoyed the opportunity to see and hear other writers--I didn’t mind meeting this way at all. Elana Wolff: Many. If one wants to stay plugged in and active, virtual is the only way to go. Although I much prefer live events, I’ve had good online experiences. The writing group I’m part of--the Long Dash--has been meeting weekly and productively on Zoom since April, despite the occasional glitch. I featured on Zoom, along with Kate Marshall Flaherty, at Word Up, Barrie in May and very much enjoyed the experience--including the Q&A and the opportunity to see friends and colleagues from other parts of the country: people who wouldn’t have been able to attend a live event. I’ve also had good Zoom outings at Draft, curated graciously by Maria Meindl, and at ArtFest Kingston (prerecorded), generously organized by Bruce Kauffman and mounted online. I’ve attended several live Facebook events as well, most recently an excellent presentation by author/ poet/publisher Michael Mirolla. Claudia Radmore: Yes, and I particularly enjoyed the one for Copper Canyon Press with Arthur Sze, Ellen Bass and Jericho Brown. Each poet had enough time to read a fair selec-
tion, and to show who they were as people behind the words. Louise Carson: Many more events than I would normally attend as I live out in the country. It has been a bonus! I like presenting virtually, and when I’m not presenting, like to switch off the video and relax while listening.
What do you think poetry does for the world? Sonia Di Placido: Poetry allows for people to slow down and reflect, to use their brains and language uniquely and think more succinctly by way of the 5 senses and describe the sensations or experiences that pervade that human conversation within. This allows for people to communicate and dialogue with one another through poems from all countries and share the internal life/experience of other nationalities, other landscapes and other political engagements that include war and issues of identity in various remote areas of the world that can be accesssed by other people online and considered deeply while being read and felt. Vladimir Nicolas: Poetry carries quietness in our lives. We forget life routine and focus on the words. Poetry invites to diversity of opinion because all interpretations of poems are not the same, but equal. Poetry connect people, friends and strangers: the feeling to belong to the same community. Claudia Radmore: It’s like that fungus underground that unites and nourishes tree roots. Most people
don’t realize how impostant such hidden things are, yet the system nourishes our lives. Amanda Earl: poetry makes people take a closer look at the use of language. like other forms of art it can comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. right now, during a pandemic and political turmoil, it can serve to remind people that they are not alone, it can articulate experiences that people are feeling but not able to necessarily articulate or communicate themselves: grief, sadness, despair, hope and love. it can help to point out inequality and injustice and serve a function of activism and solidarity, amplifying voices that are often not heard. Elana Wolff: Poetry, like all art, invokes and enlivens the imagination, and by using our imagination, as Turkish author Orhan Pamuk writes in Other Colors, we can free ourselves from our own identities, expand and transform our given cultural horizons. Poetry has the capacity to be a liberating and liberalizing force. Louise Carson: Poetry examines the world. It is needed by non-poetry readers when someone dies and human mortality comes into view, something most people like to pretend won’t happen to them. But poets know...death stalks the bird, the flower. Merle Amodeo: It’s been observed that Poetry is the only art form where the receiver can replicate the form and reproduce it. So after reading The Merchant of Venice, I can speak the wisdom of Shakespeare
even alone in my room. I can’t do that with Van Gogh’s sunflowers. Also poetry allows the writer to express, preferably with as little artifice as possible, what it is like to be living in the world at this moment.
the universe has a quadrillion stars. Thomas Aquinas asked how many angels could fit on the head of a pin. There’s your answer.
Carol MacKay: Poetry is a connector. It reveals, in very few words, universal truths. Poets shine a light on human vulnerabilities and ideas often hidden or unexpressed in the world. At the very least, poems open up discussions, which can ultimately lead to better understanding.
Merle Amodeo: I started writing poetry in grade two where I was encouraged by a wonderful teacher. I continued to write in to my teens, but then I began to worry about one of my brothers (I had three) reading my work, so I stopped. That was a mistake! I got caught up in living and didn’t write much again until I retired. I think I’ve written about 100-200 poems.
Isobel Cunningham: It lets air in between the dense and sometimes heavy ideas that are in the world. It’s like the white in a painting. It gives rest and meaning. It defines shape. Anne Burke: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world” —Percy Bysshe Shelley Kamal Parmar: It heals the body, mind and the spirit. It is a most effective therapeutic tool , especially in these trying times
JUST FOR FUN: How many poems do you think you have written in your life? Isobel Cunningham: Oh, who’s counting! Amanda Earl: i have been writing long poems and poem series for the last 15 years or so, so that’s a hard one to answer. my long poems are often at least sixty pages long and i’ve written about ten of them. i began making poems as soon as i could speak. apparently
Louise Carson: Several thousand.
Anne Burke: 1000, 2000 Elana Wolff: I’ve never counted. Probably between four and five hundred. Claudia Radmore: Thousands, loosely. Sonia Di Placido: It really depends on what one defines as a poem. A poem can be just a word or a list. A poem can be a line, an observation, a quote. I’ve definitely written over 450 poems. Many have evolved into other longer poems or pieces.
New Poetry Parlour questions are now available! Click here to share your thoughts
Music, Art, Mortality – a review of Sue Chenette’s Clavier, Paris, Alyssum Reviewed by Louise Carson I was wrong. Whether the dog got antsy sooner because we’d slept in after staying up late to see the answer to the question: how long does it take conservatives to extract leadership ballots from torn envelopes? (A sentence I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to write considering how fraught even the simplest tasks have become in these times of Trump, crises of COVID.) Or was it because I got sucked in and slowed down by Chenette’s seductive poetry and spent more time reading each work. We’ll never know. The epigraph which fronts the Paris section should have warned me – the one about Paris being “loath to surrender itself to people who are in a hurry.” Tell it to my dog.
I must have been feeling a bit rebellious the morning I picked up Sue Chenette’s recent collection Clavier, Paris, Alyssum, and, reading out of order (shocking!), began with the central section: Paris. Mainly because I saw it was the shortest of the book’s three sections, a mere thirteen pages. Good, I thought, I’ll be able to check this out before the dog gets antsy for her walk.
Anyway, I read the first poem, ‘Charles-Louis Clérisseau Defends His Architectural Fantasy; and I Respond’ and thought ‘Oh, goody! History as well as geography’, with the poet’s brief gentle ending softening those two dryer subjects. With her, we get to witness great works of art. In ‘Lalique’s Poppies’ Chenette traces the construction of a brooch from the artist lying in a field of poppies to the final “Bur-
nishing / is not quite yet / relinquishing”. At the beginning of ‘Modigliani’s The Servant Girl, we aren’t quite sure whether it’s the poet viewing the painting, noting the floor’s “red clay tiles I could drag a mop over.” who’s speaking. Halfway through we understand it’s the servant girl herself, and so the poem becomes humble, not so much about great artistry but “about my hands, so large / and red against my black dress – / rough indeed from work.”
I liked the next poem ‘For John Kliphan’ very much, but at this point the sun came out and the patient dog lifted her head from the couch and gave me a look. So off we went. On our return, as I read the poem, the last lines resonated with me. (I love a good elegy and this one was clear and direct, could have been read as a eulogy.) “If there is / an afterworld, may the dark / you enter there be only // that which turns around / to light, as your words turn me, / here, this morning.” ‘The Terrace at Café Rouge’ returns to the choppy rhythms of ‘In the Métro’ with the addition of assonance in the use of the vowel ‘o.’ As the poet or someone orders a drink on the terrace – “a laughing order” – we are brought to the line “the float of vocables” and (shaped like a pot-bellied bottle) the words “round as orangina”. Then Chenette emphasizes her o-centred word play in the last line. “O & O & O”. Fun!
‘In the Métro’ is different. Broken phrases mimic the energy of a subway performer, his barking dog and an enthusiastic listener who dances along. “spate of throated bark and ache / stipple the strings flung / fingers shock a rhythm”. This poem begs to be spoken aloud. So I did.
Though short, this section of the book was deep and gave me a lot of pleasure. I’ll content myself with discussing two more of its poems. ‘at night’, two blocks of text sideways on the page, is well-constructed to be read in either of the two possible ways. The block on the left is an exterior scene; the one on the right interior. But the outside verse narrows to one person’s moment while eventually, the inside person looks out at the sky. Brilliant! In the same form is ‘In my suitcase, carried home from Paris’, but in this case (sorry!) I’m pretty sure we’re
meant to read down the left hand column which lists all the mundane physical objects we would expect, and finish with the right, where the poet remembers “untaken photos”, sounds and feelings. Reading Chenette’s biography, I knew she was a musician. So when in the first section of her book, Clavier, poems discussing things musical appeared, I was unsurprised. Here are images of the poet playing the practice keyboard, the clavier, evenings at her campsite, to the bemusement of passing fellow-campers; of listening to a clarinetist practicing (“Sound silky as / a cool ripe pear”; an elegy for a deceased music teacher; a ballad of love lost (“Chose / three sharp stones for remembrance.”); and others. I particularly enjoyed ‘The Music Books at the Back of the Cabinet’ for the musician’s heart breaking as she lifts old mouldering books “into a sturdy carton marked Goodwill / their voices just / barely audible / beneath the gently-fitted lid.” Yes: why am I still holding on to my original John Thompson piano method books from the 1960s? And I laughed at ‘Especially in Winter’, as the piano teacher, weary of “one child following another, the weight / of their progress or lack of progress carried / from half hour to half hour …coaxing …cajoling” – you get the idea – thankfully enters her cold car and departs on the drive home, presumably, radio not playing, in restful silence. Been there, done that. Many of the poems in Clavier are not related to music directly, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t musical.
Take ‘The Train on All Saints Day’. It’s as if the poet is listing all the things seen along the way, and asks the reader, if the real can be measured, “could you tell me / just where I am / along this mortal track / beneath a sweep of sky?” Perhaps on a similar voyage in ‘Ship Rex’, she reflects on how foolish we are in the face of disaster. How “all our shipwrecks, maybe each / a teacher king, Ship Rex, we’re meant / to bow and learn.” And perhaps Chenette is learning a lesson of letting go in ‘The Lifted Ship’ in which a beloved model ship, emblematic of a marriage, proves fragile and must be mended and re-glued over the years, before finally falling apart and going into the garbage. (Sigh.)
So, because I could, when I got to the third and longest section of the book – Alyssum – I headed straight to its title poem, wondering: if Clavier had been about music and Paris about, well, Paris, was Alyssum going to be about plants? And found in ‘Alyssum’ a discussion held by a brain with itself about the body it rides around in. Line one: “What if the body is a mute creature?” The alyssum comes in at the end of the poem and I inferred that the body,
like alyssum, an annual flower, offers itself for as long as it can. What a nice way to look at mortality! Then my brain, asserted its liking for order and returned me to the beginning of this last part of the book. Flowers certainly make an appearance in some of the subsequent poems, mainly as consolers. The planting of daffodil bulbs (‘Needed To Plant Daffodils. Weather Channel Predicting Frost.’), long postponed, offers the solace of kneeling in the garden when the task is finally addressed. In ‘Morning’, waking fearful, she notices: “Chocolate is useful. Also crimson zinnias.” Amen. In ‘Weeding, Late Summer’ when she is trying to repair relations with her mother by gardening together, it can’t be done without destroying what they have now. “Nothing for it // but to leave old stubble / and roots.” And then she brings in “late summer asters, purple fringe”, purple the colour of mourning. She shifts emphasis slightly by taking up the subject of sewing. But the plants are still there. Fabric, after all, is or was, mostly made from their fibres. ‘Holes’ presents the poet looking for darning wool in a craft shop and feeling “the weight of all that won’t be mended.” ‘Stitched into Muslin’ is about the company of women, reading together in winter, probably, as “the dormant huddled buds, stitched / into grey muslin” “define the sky”. There is rich imagery as she describes three voices. (It helps to know that Dufy refers to a painter. I had to look him up.) “one / a Dufy, opened, light / between the pines; one voice / slatestreaked, / one orange – from Creamsicle / to lanterns in a dried bouquet.”
And in ‘Requital’ the questions about mending clothing could be about the process of creating a new relationship – “Who will darn my torn cotton” – or new writing – “Will I bleach my stained muslin / in bitter herbs” – until, in the last verse, we find that the answer is no one and nothing is coming. “You will neither be requited / nor acquitted / only quieted / by the murmur of rain / falling to green lawn / its nap of weeds, bald shade.” I loved this poem. I loved this book. Clavier, Paris, Alyssum by Sue Chenette, Aeolus House (Fall 2020) Louise Carson has published eleven books, two in 2020: Dog Poems, Aeolus House; and her latest mystery The Cat Possessed, Signature Editions. Her previous poetry collection A Clearing was published by Signature in 2015. Louise also writes historical fiction. One such, the novel In Which, Broken Rules Press, 2018, was shortlisted for a Quebec Writers’ Federation prize. With her daughter and pets, Louise lives in the countryside outside Montreal.
New League Members Jeri Brown is an African American griotte (vocal artist, educator, vocalist, researcher, writer of praise and love songs of creative fiction and nonfiction, producer, composer activist of minority matters expressed in rights & ritual songs), wife, sister, aunt, parent, grandparent and a recluse. Brown is also internationally recognized vocal recording artist, arts journalist, and fine arts professor emeritus from Concordia University, [Department of Music, Theatre & Contemporary Dance]. She’s published two collections of poetry, Skin Folk, and Unnecessary Family. A daughter of a chef and business man and abstract artist, granddaughter of a railway porter, she is also a cook with a sixth sense, recipient of Martin Luther King Jr. Award in 2005, and an end of life doula. Jeri Brown grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her ongoing research on her concept of “improvisation within the vocal ecosystem” explores the role of the improvising vocal artist in the larger musical setting including the role of performance of vocalists with severe handicaps. She has several published papers and books. Sarah Burgoyne is an experimental poet. Her first collection Saint Twin (Mansfield: 2016) was a finalist for
the A.M. Klein Prize in Poetry (2016), awarded a prize from l’Académie de la vie littéraire (2017) and shortlisted for a Canadian ReLit Award. Other works have appeared in journals across Canada and the U.S., have been featured in scores by American composer J.P. Merz and have appeared within or alongside the visual art of Susanna Barlow, Jamie Macaulay and Joani Tremblay. Her second manuscript, BECAUSE THE SUN, is forthcoming with Coach House Books in 2021. Raul Da Gama Based in Milton, ON, Raul is a poet, musician and accomplished critic whose profound analysis is reinforced by his deep understanding of music, technically as well as historically. Julia Gibson is a multidisciplinary thinker, creator, and problem solver who aspires to connect people, perspectives, and ideas toward a more understanding and compassionate world. After studies in violin performance at Manhattan School of Music, she earned a BA in Cognitive Science from Brown University and an MSc in Mathematics from McMaster University. She currently works in aerospace engineering in Toronto. Her poetry explores topics such as
socioeconomic inequality, LGBTQ+ issues, cross-country cycling, technology, and womanhood in the twenty-first century. When neither tinkering nor writing, she can usually be found in the dance studio or climbing gym. Her personal website is at www.julia-gibson.com Exsanguine Hart is a spoken word poet, soundscape artist, arts organizer, and park naturalist based in Treaty 7 land, Calgary AB. Her work is rooted in wild, both outside and in. She is a passionate advocate for
mental health awareness, love, and care for the natural world through her work in education and poetry. Audrey Lane’s work embodies wild feminist rhetoric, political discontent, tender feels in a body that overheard it was broken, deep time, and river rhythm. She has competed and performed nationally and internationally, completed residencies in the Yukon and at Banff Centre for the Arts, and loves creating and performing in ways that stretch the edges of art. She is invested in exploring poetry, artistic fusion, community, learning,
healing, and transformation. David Haskins is published in over thirty literary journals, anthologies, and books, and has collected his earlier poems in the book Reclamation. He has won first prizes from the CBC Literary Competition, the Canadian Authors Association, and the Ontario Poetry Society. He lives in Grimsby, Ontario. Shakkoi Hibbert Shakkoi, also known as, “Need Some Koi”, has been writing poetry for over 10 years. In 2018 she self published a poetry book titled, The Poetic Transitions from a Hothead to a Conscious Queen. This book confronts anger in a way that allows one to reflect on their own emotions and appreciate the tribulations that they have been through. Shakkoi is a Self Expression Coach as she uses poetry and movement, through her Floetry Fitness workshops to allow participants to express themselves verbally and physically. She has facilitated Self Love workshops that evolve through poetry. With years of experience in the community as a speaker and spoken word poet under her belt, there is no doubt that everyone needs some Koi in their lives. Jessie Jones grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan, spent a decade on Vancouver Island and now lives in Toronto. Her work has been shortlisted for the Malahat Review’s Open Season Poetry Award, Arc’s Poem of the Year contest, and was the first runner-up in PRISM International’s 2015 Poetry Contest and has appeared in magazines
across Canada, the US and the UK. She is the co-founder of Literistic, a service for writers, and is currently working on her first manuscript. Martin Jones I’ve loved poetry since encountering “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” in grade 5. I began writing poetry in my last year in high school and continued on through university, winning a creative writing award. Unfortunately, I found little time to write during a long career, but began with a vengeance after retiring in 2017. That, and writing short stories, have become a main focus of my life. Samantha Jones (she/her) is a Calgary-based writer of mixed European settler and Black Canadian heritage. She is a literary magazine enthusiast with poetry most recently published in Blanket Sea, CV2, Grain Magazine, New Forum, and Room Magazine. Her work has also been anthologized in “March 2020: A COVID-19 Anthology” (The /temz/ Review & 845 Press) and “Tap, Press, Read” (Loft on EIGHTH). She is the founder and facilitator of the Diverse Voices Roundtable and Writing Circle for BIPOC writers offered at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society in Calgary. Samantha is currently a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of Calgary. Find her on Twitter: @jones_yyc Robyn Kaur Sidhu (she/he/they) is a Queer, mad, chronically ill, PunjabiCanadian spoken word poet. They are currently enrolled at McMaster University, where they pretend to know what they want to do with
their life. They have had feelings publicly, and has performed them on national and international stages in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. They are a director for the Voices of Today youth poetry festival, the creative director of Hot Damn it’s a Queer Slam, and is the Co-chair Communications of the SpeakNORTH. They are also a teacher of consent, race and 2SLGBTQ+ identity to youth across the Greater Toronto Area. They are a poetry educator and love seeing youth use writing as a tool for healing and growth. They are always trying to be gentle with themself. You can find Robyn in vintage cardigans or also on the internet if that’s your thing @ Robyn_Sidhu Nancy Lee Hailed by the Globe and Mail as “a masterwork of revelation and catharsis,” Nancy Lee’s first book, Dead Girls was the winner of the VanCity Book Prize, as well as a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the Pearson Readers’ Choice Award, and the Wordsworthy Award. The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and Vancouver Sun chose Dead Girls as one of the best books of the year, and Now Magazine named it Book of the Year. The Vancouver Sun described The Age, Lee’s second book, a novel about adolescence, sexual identity, and nuclear war, as “utterly transfixing.” Lee’s work has been published in the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. She has served as Visiting Canadian Fellow for the University of East Anglia, and as Writer-in-Residence for Historic Joy Kogawa House, the City of Richmond
and Ville de Vincennes, France. Lee holds the position of Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia and is co-creator of the popular EdX online education series, “How to Write a Novel.” Kathryn Mandell Christian McPherson is a poet, novelist and cartoonist. He was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1970. He is the author of ten books; three novels, two collections of short stories, and five books of poetry. He has a degree in philosophy from Carleton University and a computer programming diploma from Algonquin College. He is married to the beautiful Marty Carr. They have two kids, Molly and Henry. They all live together in Ottawa. Cassandra Myers (they/she) is a queer, trans, crip, mad, South Asian-Italian, from Toronto, Ontario. Cassandra has performed her award winning poetry across North America and has received the Best Poet Award at CUPSI. A Masters of Social Work Candidate at York University, Cassandra is an arts-educator, crisis intervention counsellor, and youth worker. A Pink Door fellow, her work can be found in Overheard Press, The Shortline Review, and ARC’s Magazine Poem of the Year Honourable Mention (2020) Dominic Parisien, is a disabled, bisexual French Canadian. He is the author of the poetry collection “Side Effects May Include Strangers” (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020) and the chapbook We, Old
Young Ones (Frog Hollow Press, 2019). His poetry has appeared in journals such as The Literary Review of Canada, PRISM International, This Magazine, EVENT, The Puritan, and Arc Poetry Magazine, and his creative nonfiction in Maisonneuve, PRISM International, Queen’s Quarterly, and Riddle Fence, among others. As an editor, he has won the Hugo, Shirley Jackson, British Fantasy, and Aurora Awards. Dominik lives in Toronto. Andre Prefontaine Calgary born and raised, Andre Prefontaine is an accomplished slam poet who lives and works in Toronto. He holds the coveted “triple-crown” – having won the Underground Slam Championships, Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW), and Canadian Individual Poetry Slam
(CIPS) championships – and was a finalist at the World Cup Poetry Slam in Paris, France in 2017. Listed in Metro News as one of Toronto’s top young poets, Andre is a graduate of Buddies in Bad Times’ Young Creators Unit 2015, where he developed his one man show “(mE)dith piaf,” which toured to Halifax in Canada. He is currently coach for the 2017 Toronto slam team, which recently took first place at the provincials slamtario in Guelph (October 2017) and won the national poetry slam at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Peterborough, Ontario (October 2017). Anna Quon is a Halifax poet, novelist, visual artist and filmmaker who likes to make paintings and short animated films of her original poetry. She is also a middle-aged, mixed race
Mad woman, a writing workshop facilitator, and maker of messes. Anna holds a BA in English literature From Dalhousie University and has worked contracts in the not for profit sector all her adult life, except for several years as a freelance writer. She has traveled as far as the Czech Republic and Russia to work on her writing, likes to swim and walk and and spends way too much time on social media for her own good. Anna’s motto is “Be kind, be careful, be curious, but above all be kind.”
Sarah Venart used to write under her initials, S.E., but screw that. Sarah’s writing has been published in Numero Cinq, Concrete and River, New Quarterly, Malahat Review, Fiddlehead, This Magazine, Prism International and on CBC Radio. She is the author two books: Neither Apple Nor Pear/Weder Apfel Noch Birne and Woodshedding. A new collection, I am the Big Heart, is coming out soon-ish. Sarah lives in Montreal and teaches at John Abbott College.
Nirmal Sarker was born in Bangladesh and currently lives in Toronto. He was a professor of Geography from 1988 to 2008 at Notre Dame College, Dhaka and presently employed by the Toronto District School Board. Throughout his career, Nirmal Sarker has written mostly prose, specializing in children’s and academic books as well as geographical research articles. He authored ten books and twelve research articles. He used to write (contributor) newspaper articles in Bengali here in Canada and Bangladesh , especially on Geography and Persons with special Needs.
Grant Wilkins is a printer, papermaker, small press publisher and occasional poet from Ottawa whose writing has appeared in ARC Poetry Magazine, Train: a poetry journal, and BafterC magazine, amongst other places. He recently published “Literary Type” with nOIR:Z visual poetry. He has degrees in History & Classical Civilization and in English, and he likes ink, metal, paper, letters, sounds and words, and combinations thereof.
Elizabet Stevens lives where she was born in Southern New Brunswick. Her work has appeared in literary magazines and received recognition in poetry competitions. She has taken part in readings as far away as Effat University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where she was an instructor. A former journalist, Elizabet worked for the CBC, and was a contributor to the Globe and Mail.
Member News Bill Arnott Rocky Mountain Books launches the new edition of Bill Arnott’s WIBA Finalist, Gone Viking: A Travel Saga. Some LCP friends may know my poetic work through my nonfiction travel memoirs. To my delight, as a result of my exploration writing Gone Viking: A Travel Saga (RMBooks) I’ve been granted a Fellowship in the Royal Geographical Society of London. Fellow fellows? Darwin, Shackleton, Livingstone and Palin. #TooFun Thanks RGS! Gone Viking: A Travel Saga (Whistler Independent Book Awards Finalist) has just been awarded Finalist at the American Book Fest International Book Awards. Thanks IBA! This travel memoir spawned some award-winning poetry at Scars Publications Best of 2019, Pandora’s Collective, and anthologized in a range of lit journals including Long Con Magazine / Collusion Books and our own LCP! Frances Boyle My second poetry collection, This White Nest, was published by Quattro Books late in 2019, and was well-launched in Ottawa and Toronto. Other scheduled readings, including ones in BC and Ontario, have been cancelled or postponed due to the virus. But the book has already received several reviews, including one by Kim Fahner in Prairie Fire ,
and another by Allie McFarland on The Anti-Languorous Project Di Brandt Poetry in Progress 3.0—ONLINE! with Di Brandt Do you long for accurate, empathetic, professionally informed, imaginative reader response for your poetryin-progress? This is the workshop for you! Led by internationally acclaimed, award-winning poet, editor and teacher Di Brandt, this workshop is a follow up to the popular Contemporary Poetries and Poetry-in-Progress workshops, but is suitable for all skill levels and can also be experienced on its own. Participants should send in a portfolio of previously written poetry to the first class for group discussion (3-5 pages in any style, on any subject and at any level, from “amateur” and “emerging” to “professional”). October 15, 22, 29, November 5 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. (CDT)
FROM THE BLOG
Literary Manuscript Masterclass— ONLINE! with Di Brandt This four-week Master Class is for emerging and professional writers with nearly finished booklength literary manuscripts in any genre. Here you may find expert editorial advice on your valuable work from multiple award-winning author and editor Di Brandt, in the
company of fun and supportive reader feedback from fellow Master Class participants. This final step in polishing up your work to its best shine before sending out to publishers can make the difference between getting published or not, and getting acclaim for your writing or not! November 12, 19, 26, December 3 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. (CDT) Neall Calvert has been chosen as a finalist in the Muriel’s Journey Poetry Prize, out of Vancouver, BC. The competition encompasses community involvement as well as writing (five poems submitted). Fern G. Z. Carr would like to thank the Federation of British Columbia Writers and editor Ursula Vaira for having published her article, “Unlocking the Door - Publishing Tips and Resources”, in the “Writing
and Publishing through the Pandemic” issue of WordWorks British Columbia’s Magazine for Writers. To read Fern’s article, please scroll to pages 12 and 13. Fern is delighted to present her new YouTube Poetry Channel. Video playlists include illustrated themed poetry readings, live poetry performances including some in Mandarin, plus practical poetry lesson plans and guides. Since Fern composes poetry in six languages, upcoming playlists will include even more bilingual foreign language readings. Feel free to click the following link to access these videos. If you enjoy them, please be sure to click the red “Subscribe” button - it is free of charge. Karin Cope “Look, trees are time travellers too.” As a part of “Text Type Light,” a project by Jonas Johansson and Victoria Albrecht,
this short poetic line was typed out beside a park in letters of light in the Stockholm night, to the accompaniment of music by Linn Elisabet. Sue Chenette’s documentary poem What We Said (Motes Books), based on her time as a social worker in Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, was launched at Toronto’s knife | fork | book a few weeks before the pandemic overtook our lives. What We Said juxtaposes memories with hypothetical reports of the type that case-workers were required to write, and with found poems, some touching on Appalachian history, some from other writers commenting on the War on Poverty. Watch Sue’s Virtual Art Bar reading from her poem here. The book is available from Barnes and Noble. Denis Cooley three new titles in 2020: “the bestiary” and “cold-press moon” at Turnstone Press; and “the muse sings” from At Bay Press. Louise Carson Tuesday Oct. 13 at 8 pm, poet Louise Carson will present as part of the Art Bar Virtual Poetry Reading Series. She will read from her latest collection Dog Poems, Aeolus House, 2020. In October, Louise’s fifth mystery The Cat Possessed, A Maples Mystery, will launch. It is available through the publisher Signature Editions and at the usual commercial outlets, including your local independent bookstore. Doris Fiszer’s first full-length poetry collection, Locked in Different Alphabets, was recently published by Silver Bow Publishing in Vancouver
in June 2020. Locked in Different Alphabets will appeal to readers who have contemplated their role in family, cared for a difficult parent, faced the loss of a loved one, experienced a problematic relationship with a sibling or parent and perhaps grew up in a home where one or both parents were war-time survivors. Because of the COVID pandemic, a fall launch will not be possible. The book will be launched in spring 2021 in Ottawa. The book is available through Silver Bow Publishing (silverbowpublishing.ca), Amazon and from the author at dorisfiszer@rogers.com. John Flood The Wade Hemsworth video animation directed by Allison Wolvers and produced by Penumbra Press was selected as the winner in the Animated Short category at the Toronto Independent Film Awards. The animation is about prohibition, and the “I’m Alone,” a contraband schooner out of Lunenburg, was attacked and sunk by the American coastguard in 1929. Wade is the singer/songwriter who also sang “The Blackfly Song” (an Oscar nominee in 1991 in the Animated Short category) and “The Log Driver’s Waltz,” both NFB animations. Rayanne Haines She, the River is a multicultural, multigenerational and multilingual poetry film, showcasing the voices of Edmonton’s celebrated female poets and storytellers. She, the River started as a theatre piece but due to COVID 19 was re-envisioned as a film featuring eight powerhouse Edmonton female poets of varying ages and cultural backgrounds. The film, through a form of braided poet-
ry, explores the poets’ upbringing, identity stories, and family journeys. Together, they share stories of what it means to be here, in this place. What it means to be a woman in this city. Says Rayanne Haines, Producer and Poet, “By entwining our journeys together in film, we invite you to embrace the story of our diverse histories and complexities as women.” Featured Performers are: Titilope Sonuga, Alice Major, Pierrette Requier, Medgine Mathurin, Laurie MacFayden, Naomi McIlwraith, Nisha Patel and Rayanne Haines. Produced by Rayanne Haines, this event is presented with thanks to the Edmonton Heritage Council, the Edmonton Arts Council, the Writers Guild of Alberta, Glass Bookshop and Lazy Kitten Productions. Donations to support The Terra Centre, I Human and The Come Up, will be gladly accepted in place of any viewing fees. Please join us on October 15th at 7pm for the world premiere of She, the River! Heather Haley Publication of Skookum Raven my third collection of verse by Ekstasis Editions in the fall. “There are some rough and wild birds around Howe Sound -- West Coast avians like the sharp-shinned hawk, the northern harrier, and the whiskey-jack. Heather Haley, an accomplished mapper of human migration, pair-bonding and predation, takes these feathered frenemies as her starting point in this assured third collection, Skookum Raven. Like her foremothers and contemporaries Gwendolyn MacEwen, Susan Musgrave and Karen Solie, Haley writes sophisticated free lyrics of a witchy feminist kind
-- but adds some proletarian ferocity with her bus-station grandpas and sketches of iffy guys like Ed the Fence. These are astute, austere poems which sometimes take flight into optimistic beauty -- this book is ‘pockmarked with luck.’ “ heatherhaley.com Susan Ioannou On July 14, I shared a recorded reading of poems from my book Looking for Light on Denis Stokes’s ZOOM Conspiracy of 3 Reading Series, based in North Bay, Ontario. Keith Inman had 19 print poems published so far this year, four were Honourable Mentions. Another 16 were published on-line. He was asked to write two cover blurbs for fellow writers launching new books. He did an introduction for an online journal, helped judge two teen poetry contests, co-ordinated an Ontario wide Anthology contest, and, had a new book published. The Way History Dries, a poetry/novel about walking the Camino-Frances, is scheduled for an October release from Black Moss Press. Keith is presently taking deep breaths and getting ready for various Poets and Painters and Poets and Photographers exercises to wrap up with zoomed launches and spaced out gatherings. D.A. Lockhart Two new full length collections are on their way. Tukhone: Where the River Narrows and the Shores Bend (Black Moss Press, 2020) is due out this fall. A collection of haiku and haibun exploring the Waawiiyaatanong (Windsor,ON-Detroit,MI) through music that made it famous and through the seasons as measured by the Lenape calen-
dar. Bearmen Descend Upon Gimli (Frontenac House, 2021) is a novel in poems that tells the story of a fictional epic curling bonspiel in the famous Manitoba town. Diana Manole Two poems from Claudiu Komartin’s Masters of a Dying Art (“Maeștrii unei arte muribunde.” Cartier 2017), translated by Diana Manole, have just been published in issue 8/ Spring 2020 of The Arkansas International of the University of Arkansas’s Program in Creative Writing & Translation: “twelve lines to drive fear away, twelve seconds to the light’s disappearance” and “Getting Ready for the Centennial of the October Revolution.”
Tanis MacDonald Mobile (Book*hug Press) Longlisted for the Toronto Book Awards Susan McCaslin has a new volume of poetry titled Heart Work forthcoming from Ekstasis Editions (Victoria, BC) by Jan. 2021. Her corona of sonnets,“Corona Corona,” was published on “Covid Tales Journal,” Apocryphile Press, Aug 11, 2020: “Persephone’s Nook” was first-place winner in the Write On contest sponsored by the Royal City Literary Arts Society, New Westminster, BC. The poem was published in the Society’s online publication Wordplay at Work in the Society’s September 2020 issue of the RCLAS Ezine
The poem “Hildegard of Bingen Considers the Migrant Farm Workers,” appeared in Desibuzz Canada: Canada’s Leading South Asian News Magazine, Surrey, BC, Aug. 26, 2020 An essay, “The Call: Nature & Nurture in the Shaping of a Vocation,” appeared in Sage-ing, The Okanagan Institute (Issue 34, Fall 2020), pp. 28-29. Susan is currently editing a forthcoming volume consisting of the last poems of Canadian poet E.D. Blodgett (1935-2018) to be published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (Vancouver). She will be reading in a zoom session (In/Verse series) organized by the Federation of BC Writers, Dec. 12, 2020, 2 pm Pacific time hosted by poet Fiona Lam: See Fed website later for link. Kamal Parmar: I have an upcoming poetry book titled STILL WATERS due to be published soon, by Silver Bow Publishing BC I am to do a ZOOM poetry reading from my book Fleeting Shadows for a local poetry organization Wordstorm, in Nanaimo, BC on Oct. 1st. I will be doing a ZOOM poetry reading as part of the online Author Connection program organized by the Federation of BC Writers. on Oct. 29th 2020. Stan Rogal I recently had a poetry chapbook come out with above/ ground press, titled: Alas & Alack. Also a seventh novel, The Comic, with Guernica Editions is hot off the press. It is supposed to launch in June, but given the present state of the world, this seems optimistic and unlikely. Frances Roberts-Reilly: New col-
lection Parramisha. What’s written about us by non-Roma is a stereotypical image that’s both romantic and vilified. In writing our own Parramisha-story we are obligated to deconstruct those prevailing narratives readily available in popular culture and that have unjustly treated us. Parramisha challenges the reader to reconstruct a new image as a life affirming narrative of our wholeness as a Romani identity. Rob Rolfe Co-authored a book/CD project of poems, songs and music entitled Late Nights on Irish Mountain (Ginger Press, 2019) with Owen Sound singer-songwriter Larry Jensen and illustrator Patti Waterfield. Cynthia Sharp Journey through ten books of astounding, heartfelt, meaningful poetry with poet and singer Jude Neale. Let her imagery and healing voice transport you through over a decade of crafted verse. We welcome you to celebrate her life’s work with two-three poems from each publication, followed by a Q & A on topics such as what haiku is and isn’t in the twenty-first century, with much gratitude to our generous sponsors, the League of Canadian Poets and The Federation of British Columbia Writers. Renée M. Sgroi I just published my debut poetry collection, life print, in points with erbacce-press in the UK. Eleonore Schönmaier’s Wavelengths of Your Song (McGill-Queen’s University Press) was published in German translation in August as Wellenlängen deines Liedes by Parasitenpresse, Cologne
(translator Knut Birkholz). She was invited to the European Literary Festival in Cologne in September (where in her absence her poetry was read live in an urban garden in German and English). She is also invited to the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. eleonoreschonmaier.com
“These poems flicker across the reader’s mind like sunlight and cloud-shadow on a windblown landscape, a reflection of the simultaneity of both pleasure and sorrow in all our daily, ordinary lives.” says Terry Burns, author of The Quality of Light. Watch the book trailer
Janet Vickers: My third book of poetry, Sleep With Me: Lullaby for an Anxious Planet is available at Ekstasis Editions. “These poems come forward in a tense time. The apocalypse appears to be upon us. Yet Janet’s serene poetic voice calls out to us as a mother to her child in the night, reassuring us that we can act against the forces for destruction, and that when we need respite from the intense struggle to maintain human decency, we may take it. And then persist once more – a wonderful accomplishment.” May Partridge, community organizer, retired post-secondary teacher of English and sociology. Liz Zetlin “PROMPTED BY HAPPINESS” Book Launch with Liz Zetlin & Friends Everyone is welcome to join Liz Zetlin, Owen Sound’s first poet laureate, for the Zoom launch of her 7th poetry collection, Prompted by Happiness, published by Black Moss Press, on Tuesday, October 27 at 7 pm EST. Zoom room opens at 6:45 PM Passcode: 579838 Liz will be joined by current poet laureate Richard-Yves Sitoski, former poet laureate Terry Burns, who will interview Liz, and singer-songwriter david sereda, followed by a Q&A.
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Writing Opportunities Calls for Submissions Perhappened Mag Issue: Lights Out. we want what you saw out of the corner of your eye. how the branches scrape your siding at night. a power outage without a flashlight. the owls. the howls. Deadline is October 9, 2020. Find out more Room Magazine invites unpublished writing on any theme for our open issue 44.2, edited by Isabella Wang, alongside Assistant Editor, Lue Boileau and Shadow Editor, Micah Killjoy. Issue 44.2 will feature new work by Yabome Gilpin-Jackson, author of Ancestries and Identities: A Short Story Collection, an interview with Alannah Johnson, as well as this year’s contest winners. Deadline is October 31, 2020. Find out more Freefall Magazine Poetry: Submit 2-5 poems, any style. Length of any individual poem cannot exceed 6 pages. Payment is $25.00 per poem and one copy of issue that your piece is published in. Deadline is November 30, 2020. Find out more Poetry in Place Anthology Deborah Bowen is putting together a
curated anthology of local poetry on the subject of “Poetry in Place.” She hopes to include a wide range of contemporary poets whose writing is ecologically-concerned and comes out of/refers to the area of southern Ontario bounded by the Grand River to the west and the tip of Lake Ontario to the east, and the land stretching from Guelph to St Catharines, including Hamilton, Kitchener/Waterloo, Brantford, and the Six Nations territories. She is keen to ensure a wide representation of poets, including but not limited to BIPOC poets and émigré-settlers whose experience of place in southern Ontario is informed by their varied backgrounds. The anthology will be arranged thematically around such topics as Land/Earth, Water, Trees, Birds, Wild Creatures, Plants and Flowers, Insects, Cultivation/Gardening, and Food. Each poet whose work is chosen for the collection will be invited to interview on their relationship to place, their spirituality or worldview, and their motivation in writing poetry; they will have some of their comments included in the final volume. If you are interested in being considered for this anthology, please send two or three relevant poems
to Deborah, at dcbowen@redeemer.ca, by December 1, 2020. Include your name, a brief bio, and an email address where you can be contacted. The selection process will be competitive, but all poems will be given careful consideration. Sad Girl Review is now accepting poetry and other writing submissions for ISSUE 6: MUSE, HEROINE, & FANGIRL This is a volume of tributes, odes, dedications, and fanart because every great work is influenced by the work that came before it. We are inspired by the spirit of the fangirl because she enchants and disturbs us with her obsessive study of a single topic. She compels us to praise and elevate the people and topics that were initially snubbed or overlooked. She is the harbinger of popular culture and she charts the stars to show us new constellations. Together we will construct our own canon of all figures and things deemed heroic, influential, and girly. So who has inspired you and what did you do about it? Deadline is December 5, 2020. Find out more
Current submissions are for the Spring volume (2021). Deadline is December 31, 2020. Find out more Existere is open to submissions for upcoming Spring/summer 2021 issue. Deadline is December 31, 2020. Find out more The New Quarterly reading period for poetry is now open. Deadline is February 28, 2021. Find out more Grain Magazine annual 8 month reading period is now open. Deadline is May 15, 2021. Find out more CV2 annual submission period is now open. Deadline is May 31, 2021. Find out more Another New Calligraphy seeks work exploring the human experience, our internal worlds, and life among others; these complex systems are often clearest in our slightest moments. No set deadline. Find out more
Arc is open to submissions for their annual reading period for the Summer 2021 issue. Deadline is December 31, 2020. Find out more.
Antigonish Review is now open to general submissions. The quality of the writing is the chief criterion. We also consider it our mandate to encourage Atlantic Canadians and Canadian writers - although excellent writing can come from anywhere. We also welcome new and young writers. No set deadline. Find out more
Cloud Lake Literary is accepting submissions for publication in our digital magazine from Canadian writers.
Damaged Goods Press is accepting chapbook length and fulllength manuscripts on a rolling
Bone & Ink Press is accepting chapbook-length submissions until December 31, 2020. Find out more
basis, and is currently reading for publication in late 2020 and beyond. a small press specializing in books by queer and trans people. No set deadline. Find out more Eudaimonia Press is accepting submissions for their online journal. No set deadline. Find out more F(r)icton accepts year-round submissions of poetry and other writing Experimental, nontraditional, and boundary-pushing literature is strongly encouraged. No set deadline. Find out more Gap Riot Press is accepting chapbook length submissions. No set deadline. Find out more Half a Grapefruit is accepting poetry submissions. No set deadline. Find out more Harper Collins Open Inbox BIPOC Writers in Canada can now submit their unagented, unpublished middle-grade manuscripts to HarperCollins Canada. No set deadline. Find out more The Malahat Review is accepting submissions on a rolling basis. Find out more Plenitude is currently accepting poetry submissions with no set deadline. Find out more Prism is accepting general submissions on a rolling basis. Find out more
Q/A Poetry Journal exists to amplify the voices of womxn and nonbinary poets, and to expand the subjects deemed “appropriate” for womxn to be writing about. Send us your poems on your postpartum body, spider veins, lip hair, your favorite liquid eyeliner, your anguish over glass ceilings, your sex work, your ode to stay-at-home tedium, your list of your most beautiful and unlikeable qualities. No set deadline. Find out more Queen’s Quarterly seeks submissions on any topic that presents a novel perspective and point of departure for thinking about our contemporary world. Whether fiction or non-fiction, a premium will be placed on singularity of voice, accessibility of ideas and relevance to issues of common concern. Honoraria are paid, editorial services are provided and the chance to kick-start a national conversation is on offer. No set deadline. Find out more Rejection Letters is open to poetry submissions. No set deadline. Find out more Terse is accepting poetry submissions on a rolling basis. No set deadline. Find out more Train: a poetry journal is accepting submissions on a rolling basis. Find out more. The Walrus is currently poetry submissions and other writing. No set
deadline. Find out more
Awards and Contests Malahat Review Open Season Contest. This year’s poetry judge is Rebecca Salazar. Poetry prize is $2,000 CAD. Deadline is November 1, 2020. Find out more. Anthology Magazine Poetry Prize Entries are now invited for the Anthology Magazine Poetry Prize. Established to recognise and encourage excellence in the craft of poetry writing and to provide a platform for publication, it is open to original and previously unpublished poems in the English language. Entries are invited from poets of all nationalities, living anywhere in the world. Poems submitted must be on the theme of ‘Expectations’ and should not exceed 40 lines. There is no limit to entries per person. Deadline is November 30, 2020. Find out more Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award. By entering the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award Contest you not only have a chance to win: $1,250 in cash, a one-week residency in the Leighton Artists’s Studios, which includes a private studio in the woods, a bedroom and a meal plan, a jeweller-cast replica of poet Bliss Carman’s ring, an invitation to THIN AIR (produced by the Winnipeg International Writers Festival), dinner with the staff of Prairie Fire, publication in Prairie Fire maga-
zine,and with your contest submission you’ll also receive a one-year subscription to Prairie Fire. Deadline is November 30, 2020. Find out more. Raven Chapbooks First Annual Poetry Chapbook Contest. Focused on new and emerging poets living in the CRD – Greater Victoria and the Southern Gulf Islands. The winning manuscript will be published Spring 2021. Judges for this year’s contest are Yvonne Blomer and Robert Hilles. Deadline is November 30, 2020. Find out more The Fiddlehead $2000 Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem! Judges are Jenna Lyn Albert, Canisia Lubrin and Adèle Barclay. Deadline is December 1, 2020. Find out more
Job and Volunteer Opportunities Executive Director: Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec The AELAQ is seeking an organized, dynamic Executive Director (ED) to carry out our mandate of supporting English-language book publishers in Quebec. Reporting to AELAQ’s board of directors, the ED establishes the organization’s priorities, and is the primary coordinator of its activities. This is a permanent part-time salaried position at 25 hours/week, located in Montreal, Quebec. Deadline is October 19, 2020. Find out more
Anomaly: Call for Blog and Feature Writers We’re looking for writers who are interested in contributing in an ongoing manner to the Anomaly Blog, either by proposing a column or series, or by joining a team of staff writers who both pitch and take on assigned pieces for the blog. We are particularly interested in writers to focus on reviews, interviews, and profiles of artists and writers; and in getting pitches for columns or series that focus specifically on a particular artistic or writing community within the purview of our expanded mission. If you are interested, please send an email to Features & Reviews Editor Sarah Clark with a paragraph about what you’re interested in writing about and your CV attached. No set deadline. Find out more
Residency & Fellowship Opportunities Ontario Arts Council — Arts Response Initiative: The $1.6M Arts Response Initiative is an investment in the diversity and vitality of the arts across Ontario. The one-time initiative supports individual artists, ad hoc groups and collectives, and arts organizations to carry out their activities in an environment of change. This initiative encourages exploration, adaptation, and the development of new ways of working that will increase the inclusiveness and resilience of Ontario’s arts sector, both now and into the future. Deadline for individual applications is October 20, 2020 and deadline for groups, organizations, and collectives is November 3, 2020. Find out more and apply
In Memoriam The League of Canadian Poets has a large community that has stood strong for over 50 years. Over these past few months, the League has lost members and friends from the poetry community. We’d like to take this chance to remember Daniel David Moses and Barbara Myers. Barbara Myers Barbara Myers grew up in Halifax’s North End, and worked at odd jobs to help put herself through school. She was a reporter for the Halifax Mail-Star and Chronicle-Herald and a writer-researcher for the Royal Commission on the Status of Women and the LeDain Inquiry into Non-Medical Drug Use, before settling into many years of communications consulting for the government in Toronto and Ottawa. Since the late 1990s, Myers had published widely in journals and anthologies, and had won literary prizes including Other Voices (first place, 2000) as well as Arc’s Poem of the Year (HM, in 2006). For six years, she worked as an associate editor at Arc, Canada’s National Poetry Magazine, to which
she continued to regularly contribute reviews and essays. She had published a number of chapbooks, both her own and collections compiled from the work of students in a poetry group she facilitated. A community activist, she lived in Ottawa, where she regularly volunteered for the Ottawa International Writers’ Festival. Barbara passed away on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2020 after a lengthy and heroic battle with cancer. She was art, love, passion, beauty and intelligence. Born a Roberts (Cashmore) of father Lawrence Ernest and Jean Muriel (Nickerson) in North Halifax, Nova Scotia, she earned scholarships, quickly excelled academically and began a professional and artistic career in communications. The art and beauty of the written word, created or consumed, was an integral part of Barbara’s identity and life journey. A journalist, teacher, philosopher, public servant, volunteer, editor and published poet were some of the mantels she wore, all tempered with her strong advocacy for justice, fairness, respect
and equity. As she stretched professionally, her love for, and dedication to her family remained at her core. Predeceased by her parents and sister Laurel Diane Roberts, Barbara is survived by her sister Judy Kane (Roberts), brother David (Darlene) Roberts, her children Craig (Kym Newhook) Myers, Rod (Janet) Myers, Lesley (Neil) Mather, and Melissa (Todd) Baseden, her grandchildren Jesse and Leah Kane, Phoebe Newhook, Julian Myers, Aaron and Evelyn Myers, Jordan and Rosheen King, Kyleigh Baseden, and the father of her children Brian Myers (Marilyn) and extended family.
education so that I could escape the hard work of farming,” Moses told Shelagh Rogers on The Next Chapter in 2013.
Daniel David Moses Playwright and poet Daniel David Moses, a groundbreaking voice for Indigenous writers in Canada, has died. Queen’s University, where Moses was a professor emeritus, confirmed this with CBC Books.
Over the course of more than 30 years, he would write more than a dozen plays and four poetry collections.
He died on Monday, July 13. He was 68 years old. Moses was born on Feb. 18, 1952. Moses, who was Delaware, grew up on a dairy farm on Six Nations of the Grand River in southern Ontario. Moses would get his undergraduate degree at York University and would go on to receive his MFA from the University of British Columbia. “My father joked that I only got an
He was curious about the world and about words from a young age. “My perceptions of the world are very formed by wanting to know how it all makes sense, this reality we live in. I was a kid who read a lot of science fiction, so I’m also very much formed by the knowledge that our culture has gained through science, that practice that doesn’t address the spiritual. There is still mystery.”
He published his first poem in 1974 and would go on to publish four collections throughout his career: Delicate Bodies, The White Line, Sixteen Jesuses and A Small Essay on the Largeness of Light and Other Poems. His poetry also appeared in journals and magazines like Exile, Prairie Fire, Impulse and the Fiddlehead. He also published an essay collection called Pursued by a Bear: Talks, Monologues and Tales.
