Book Review
When the day is nearly done, a review of Timed Radiance, by Donna Langevin
Reviewed by Louise Carson Timed Radiance, by Donna Langevin (Aeolus House, 2022). There are many examples of fine language in this collection of poems that have (mostly) been written as a summation of one poet’s long life. So, I’ll be presenting a lot of quotes. The first one comes from the first poem ‘Even with…
Read MoreTrying to be the tree: a review of somewhere still in wind the tree is bending by Bob MacKenzie
Reviewed by Louise Carson somewhere still in wind the tree is bending Silver Bow Publishing, 201882 pages, $20.00ISBN: 9781927616758 The tree is on the front cover, a weathered and twisted bonsai-shaped thing, growing out of rock. The title slows me right down; is why I chose to review the book. And you know, at this…
Read MoreWelcome to my nightmare: A review of Hell-Box by Peter Taylor
Reviewed by Louise Carson Hell-BoxFrog Hollow Press, 202025 pagesISBN: 9781926948997 As the first note at the end of this chapbook explains, “A hell-box is a receptacle for damaged or discarded type.” As a title for anything, Hell-Box rocks. And it hints that the contents will be wildly assorted. They are. But the voice of Peter…
Read MoreSnapshots: Review of The Negation of Chronology: Imagining Geraldine Moodie, by Rebecca Luce-Kapler
Reviewed by Louise Carson The Negation of Chronology: Imagining Geraldine Moodie, Rebecca Luce-Kapler (Inanna, 2020). I knew after I’d read the forward, that I’d be interested in the material covered by Rebecca Luce-Kapler in The Negation of Chronology. I’d just finished reading Molly Peacock’s Flower Diary, a biography of American/Canadian painter Mary Hiester Reid…
Read MoreReview: Rags of Night in Our Mouths by Margo Wheaton
Reviewed by Michael Edwards Rags of Night in Our Mouths by Margo Wheaton (MQUP, 2022) I. Margo Wheaton’s second poetry collection, Rags of Night in Our Mouths, takes the form of a place-based memoir, presented in three ghazal sequences. In what the book’s jacket describes as a “Maritime gothic,” the work is set in areas…
Read MoreNutlike: a review of Arborophobia by Nancy Holmes
Reviewed by Dawn MacDonald Arborophobia by Nancy Holmes (University of Alberta Press, 2022) “Pray inwardly,” the 15th-century Christian mystic Julian of Norwich once advised, “even if you do not enjoy it. It does good, though you feel nothing.” “Read poetry,” one might respond, “even if you do not understand it. It does good, though you…
Read MoreReview: The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology 2021
Reviewed by Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews Poetry, azure coloured glass of a sunlit window, encases celestine light on the glossy cover of this book, softening the view of reality’s stark terrain. An aperture over a land mass in the middle of the deepest, dark ocean, soon shattered in the inset cover image, by the blow of…
Read MoreLoose Ends a Tightly Woven Collection: Review of Loose Ends by Ann Carson
Reviewed by Sean Arthur Joyce Loose Ends by Ann Carson (Aeolus House, 2022) Poet Ann Elizabeth Carson has released a book any poet would be proud of, at any age. That she has done it in her 90s only proves that creativity is the ever-living flame that can animate all of us, whatever the state…
Read MoreReview: the correct fury of your why is a mountain By kevin andrew heslop
Reviewed by Nancy Daoust the correct fury of your why is a mountain (Gordon Hill Press, 2021). By kevin andrew heslop On page seventy nine at the end of the book, kevin andrew heslop thanks his readers. I’d like to thank kevin andrew heslop, for the puzzles and delights I encountered in the correct fury…
Read MoreWords on the Wing: Review of Artful Flight by Susan Glickman
Reviewed by Patricia Keeney Susan Glickman, Artful Flight, Essays and Reviews. 1985-2019 (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2022) “Artful flight.” That’s critical writing at its best. And it’s creativity. It’s what Susan Glickman brings together in her collection of essays and reviews spanning decades of thinking, writing and being in the Canadian literary landscape and the wider world. …
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