Hearts AmokKevin SpenstAnvil Press, 2020 Review by Robert Colman Kevin Spenst has been inextricably linked to Canada’s small press poetry world for the better part of the past decade. Prior to 2020’s Hearts Amok (Anvil Press) he’d published not...
Designated MournerCatherine OwenECW Press, 2014 Riven Catherine OwenECW Press, 2020 Review by Kim Trainor Last night I went down to the river, the Fraser slipping through Delta’s fingers, past Westham Island, mud-green flow of water tipped silver out to sea....
Mythical ManDavid LyPalimpsest Press, 2020 Review by Hasan Namir There, viper scalesframea smoky-eyed stare––you never know where the gazewill strike David Ly’s debut poetry collection, Mythical Man, opens with the title poem, “Mythical Man I.” The poem, shaped like...
Pots and Other Living Beingsannie rossTalonbooks, 2019 A Tent, A Lantern, An Empty BowlM. Travis LanePalimpsest Press, 2019 Review by Kim Trainor With the advent of SARS-CoV-2, for many of us there has been a contraction of the world...
Life Sentence,rob mclennanSpuyten Duyvil, 2019 Review by Margo LaPierre Life Sentence, (the unusual punctuation is deliberate, you’ll see) is a poetry collection that begins quietly, with much purpose, and picks up speed as it goes along like a river...
If a Carp Dreams of the Milky WayBy Jasmine Gui, with art by Brianna TosswillPenrose Press, 2019 Review by Manahil Bandukwala Published by Penrose Press, Jasmine Gui’s chapbook, If a Carp Dreams of the Milky Way explores mythology through...
UnmeaningableRoxanna BennettGordon Hill Press, 2019 A Cemetery for HolesTom Prime and Gary BarwinGordon Hill Press, 2019 Reviews by Robert Colman Starting a small press is a precarious, quixotic enterprise. It isn’t just the low (or zero) pay and long...
The Green Waves: Poems from Roblin LakeRob Taylor845 Press, 2019 Review by Andrew French Rob Taylor’s The Green Waves (845 Press, 2019) transports readers to Al Purdy’s A-frame cabin on Roblin Lake through an inquisitive uncertainty about that unique...
Crow GulchDouglas Walbourne-Goughicehouse poetry, 2019. Review by Kim Trainor In a CBC interview about his debut collection Crow Gulch, Douglas Walbourne-Gough observes, “I would really hope one of the things that the book speaks, back to me and everyone...