Review by Penn Kemp A Canadian artist muses on Malala Yousafzai in poetic dialogue Katerina Vaughan Fretwell, We Are Malala: poems and art. Inanna Press “We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.” —Malala Yousafzai On the day I read Katerina Vaughan Fretwell’s We Are Malala, a photo appears on my…

Reviewed by Marguerite Pigeon Dementia might seem like the anti-muse: not creative inspiration, but its sapping. Yet, in her new collection, Cold Metal Stairs, Su Croll follows dementia—her father’s—as it pulls her vicariously, clanging and spiralling downwards, through grief, fragmentation, and fear. The poems in this collection enact the repetitive, temporally confusing stretch during which…

Reviewed by Cynthia Coristine Poetry is the voice of the human soul, speaking across time and distance – Stephen Morrissey In A Poet’s Journey Montreal native Stephen Morrissey shares four decades of insight about what it means to be a poet and the process by which a poet can discover his “authentic voice”.  The book…

Reviewed by Cynthia Coristine Poetry is the voice of the human soul, speaking across time and distance – Stephen Morrissey  In A Poet’s Journey Montreal native Stephen Morrissey shares four decades of insight about what it means to be a poet and the process by which a poet can discover his “authentic voice”.  The book…

Reviewed by Bill Arnott The whole ekphrastic thing’s morphed somewhat since Greeks coined the term, describing art based on other art – adding creative layers, facilitating praise to enrich the overall experience. Like bacon. The addition simply makes things better. This artistic endeavour, however, represents life. Everything has a facet of ekphrasis to it. Reading…

Reviewed by Elana Wolff “A poem can hold more mysteries more easily than any factual timeline,” writes Naomi Shihab Nye — 2019-2020 Young People’s Poet Laureate of the Poetry Foundation of Chicago. Nye’s line aptly describes the holding-effect of Keith Garebian’s intricate documentary voice in Against Forgetting — a collection of twenty-eight poems comprising the…

Reviewed by Bill Arnott London Ontario’s my home. In part. Lived there two years. Important years. Growth years. It’s why I feel kinship, connection with the community and the meandering multi-named river that sews it together. I feel the same for the Laureate Emerita that truly calls this place her home, living in the house…

Reviewed by C.S. O’Cinneide Location. Location. Location. Joe Batt’s Arm and Other Islands follows the poet Shayne Coffin on a US-Canadian road trip where he uses destination as lyrical inspiration, be they as culturally significant as the house of Ralph Waldo Emerson in Massachusetts or as comically crass as a highway motel in Summerside, PEI. The…

Reviewed by Jennifer Wenn Local Heroes by Penn Kemp is an “eclectic collection” (from the introduction) of pieces celebrating a range of fascinating people from London, Ontario, and the wider Southwestern Ontario region (or Souwesto, a term popularized by James Reaney, one of those honoured in the Tributes section).  A key common thread, in addition…