Quill and Quire

Poetry

Let the Empire Down

By Alexandra Oliver

Ashley-Elizabeth Best’s debut collection, Slow States of Collapse, comprises mostly short, confessional, free-verse lyrics. The book is divided into five sections, some held more tightly together than others by a thematic or referential constant. The ... Read More »

April 13, 2016 | Filed under: Poetry

The Waking Comes Late

By Steven Heighton

Many Canadian fiction writers started out as poets. Rarer are people like Michael Crummey and Steven Heighton, who write poetry and prose in tandem. A grim warning: only a few of the greatest writers (Thomas ... Read More »

April 13, 2016 | Filed under: Poetry

★ Metanoia

By Sharon McCartney

The word “metanoia” means a change of heart resulting from a spiritual conversion. It’s an act of transformation through penitence. In Sharon McCartney’s latest volume of poetry, that transformation feels both reluctant and unharnessed. Written ... Read More »

April 4, 2016 | Filed under: Poetry

Model Disciple

By Michael Prior

“Discomfort / enthralls me,” writes Michael Prior, a poet who has published, seemingly, everywhere, and whose list of accolades is monumental. His first full-length collection, Model Disciple, concerns itself with the cycles of family history ... Read More »

March 29, 2016 | Filed under: Poetry

Slow States of Collapse

By Ashley-Elizabeth Best

Ashley-Elizabeth Best’s debut collection, Slow States of Collapse, comprises mostly short, confessional, free-verse lyrics. The book is divided into five sections, some held more tightly together than others by a thematic or referential constant. The ... Read More »

March 29, 2016 | Filed under: Poetry

Settler Education

By Laurie D. Graham

Laurie D. Graham’s second collection of poems requires a bit of mental pinball to follow its complicated construction of the past and present. Until I read the poems in conjunction with the endnotes and references, ... Read More »

March 28, 2016 | Filed under: Poetry

Songs of Exile

By Bänoo Zan

Bänoo Zan immigrated to Canada in 2010 from Iran, where she taught English literature. The poems in her debut collection are not overtly autobiographical, but nevertheless powerfully convey the immigrant experience. The language is spare, ... Read More »

March 21, 2016 | Filed under: Poetry