


St. John’s poet laureate Agnes Walsh is also an actor, a playwright, and a storyteller. Appropriately for an author with such a background, her second collection is accompanied by a CD. The disc was not ... Read More »
July 13, 2007 | Filed under: Poetry

Making Bones Walk is the first full-length collection for Toronto poet Alex Boyd. It’s a promising debut, solid, trim, and occasionally arresting (especially “Twenty Three Minutes for Everything,” the one standout poem in the book), ... Read More »
July 13, 2007 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Poetry

Political proselytizing has been something of a vocation for Calgary-based writer and teacher Tom Wayman since the publication of his first book in 1973. In High Speed Through Shoaling Water, his 17th collection, Wayman cleaves ... Read More »
July 13, 2007 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Poetry

If Wayman is a verbal spendthrift, Toronto poet and professor Kenneth Sherman, in his 11th book, errs on the side of laconic sparseness. Black River is one long poem, a suite in 60 parts about ... Read More »
July 13, 2007 | Filed under: Poetry

Halifax poet laureate Lorri Neilsen Glenn’s second collection consists mostly of free-verse lyrics, prose poems, family memoirs, and occasional observations. Reading it, I couldn’t help but think of Canada Council director Robert Sirman’s recent plea ... Read More »
June 13, 2007 | Filed under: Poetry

UN, Dennis Lee’s previous collection of poetry for adults, represented a significant stylistic departure not only for Lee but for English Canadian poetry in general. Unlike the long, often prosy lines of Civil Elegies, a ... Read More »
April 4, 2007 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Poetry

Ragged Pen gathers together talks on poetry and memory given by Robert Finley, Patrick Friesen, Aislinn Hunter, Anne Simpson, and Jan Zwicky at the 2005 Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference and fleshes them ... Read More »
March 28, 2007 | Filed under: Poetry

Ottawa-based poet Shane Rhodes’ third collection is a difficult book to criticize in terms of its particulars. The writing is very polished and there are few glaring false steps. But a maxim from Longinus comes ... Read More »
March 28, 2007 | Filed under: Poetry

Poetry about robots has “disaster” written all over it. But surprisingly, the poetry in i-ROBOT is peppered with enough playfulness that the reader doesn’t feel compelled to hunt for deep meaning in the sci-fi verse.Instead, ... Read More »
February 27, 2007 | Filed under: Poetry