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...
on/meFrancine CunninghamCaitlin Press, 2019 Review by Kim Trainor Let’s start with the title: on/me. Every poem in the collection has two titles: a main title that suggests a general category (On Grief, On Love, On Identity, On Mental Health)...
DREAM FRAGMENTS (Cactus Press, 2020)Mirabel Review by Meggie Royer Mirabel’s DREAM FRAGMENTS reads like one extended descent into sleep––slipping through shadowy corridors and mirrors, grasping for something that may or may not be there. Throughout her pages, the reader...
Less Sweet Than Chocolate or Concrete by Aimee LouwFrog Hollow Press, 2020 Review by Neil Surkan “Crip Poetics is my thesis title / I don’t really know what poetics means.” So ends the penultimate poem in Aimee Louw’s new...
In the Vicinity of RichesChris Hutchinsonicehouse poetry, 2020 Review by Mark Grenon The title of Chris Hutchinson’s fourth book of poetry, In the Vicinity of Riches, suggests that, though the riches of late capitalism may seem to be within...
Divine AnimalBrandon WintWrite Bloody North, 2020 Review by Erin Kirsh Brandon Wint’s inaugural collection, Divine Animal from Write Bloody North, can be described in four words: heavy impact, gentle touch. I first heard Brandon Wint perform poetry at a...
Nothing You Can CarrySusan AlexanderThistledown Press, 2020 Review by Neil Surkan Comprising five suites that echo and amplify one another, Susan Alexander’s sophomore collection, Nothing You Can Carry, pushes us to the limit of hope. Alongside their imagistic flourishes,...