UnderstanGavin BarrettMawenzi House, 2020 Review by Kate Rogers Gavin Barrett’s poetry collection Understan takes the reader on a beautiful kaleidoscopic journey from Goa, India, throughout the various places he has lived, including Toronto and environs. The poems sojourn with...
PhillisAlison ClarkeUniversity of Calgary Press, 2020 Review by Rachel Narvey In Alison Clarke’s latest publication, Phillis (2020), Clarke cracks open time and form to craft a paean for the beloved eighteenth century poet, Phillis Wheatley. As a child, Phillis...
TENDERLaiwan Talon Books, 2020 Review by Clayton Longstaff Laiwan’s poetry takes root in the most hostile of urban landscapes, and breathes deep. In breathing, it becomes a living force in the felled detritus of capitalistic and colonial wreckage. From...
Interview by Bevan Thomas In 2007, aspiring cartoonist Jeffrey Ellis decided to unite Vancouver’s comics artists, and Cloudscape Comics was born. Over a decade later, Cloudscape Comics has published numerous graphic novels and anthologies to showcase both veteran cartoonists...
The Towers of BabylonMichelle KaeserFreehand Books, 2019 Winter WillowDeborah-Anne TunneyEnfield and Wizenty, 2019 Review by Marcie McCauley Near the beginning of Michelle Kaeser’s debut novel The Towers of Babylon (Freehand Books, 2019) there’s talk of Venezuela’s Torre David and,...
Little BoyLawrence FerlinghettiDoubleday, 2019 Review by B.H. Lake In his latest book, Little Boy, Lawrence Ferlinghetti tells a story that took place in his teenage years. An older boy once held him down and refused to let him up...
Photo by Michele ComeauInterview by Chimedum Ohaegbu Zalika Reid-Benta’s collection, Frying Plantain (House of Anansi Press 2019), is her splash-making debut, already garnering a spot on the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. The collection consists of twelve linked stories about...
Photo by Brigitte LacombeInterview by Chimedum Ohaegbu Mona Awad’s highly anticipated second book, Bunny (Viking, 2019), is a campus novel dipped in malice and wonder. The novel follows lonely MFA student Samantha Heather Mackey, who desperately longs for the...
Illustration by Nadia Bormotova Get to know writer Senaa Ahmad, whose story “The Women, Before and After” closes our FIGURES issue. Ahmad activates familiar technology to weave generations of women’s voices—distinct, urgent, desirous, and alive—into the narrative. Be sure...