Quill and Quire

Reviews

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

A Mingus Lullaby

By Dane Swan

“Genre doesn’t exist,” claims Dane Swan in a 2013 interview on the website Black Coffee Poet. “There are different ways you have to manipulate your work so that it fits a medium. Medium exists. For ... Read More »

March 9, 2016 | Filed under: Poetry

Glory Over Everything

By Kathleen Grissom

Glory Over Everything, the second novel by Saskatchewan-raised, Virginia-based Kathleen Grissom, is the sequel to the New York Times bestseller and book-club favourite The Kitchen House. Drawing its title from the words of abolitionist Harriet ... Read More »

February 29, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels