What Hurts Going Down

Nancy Lee's debut poetry collection covers familiar territory for the B.C. writer. Her book of stories, 2002’s Dead Girls, won accolades for its unflinching depictions of eroticism, violence against women, and the nature of innocence; ... Read More »

April 13, 2020 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

Burning Province

By Michael Prior

It takes a confident poet to include a mention of the climactic scene in Return of the Jedi in the context of an otherwise straightforward lyric poem. It takes a highly confident poet to metaphorize ... Read More »

April 9, 2020 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

★ Body Count

By Kyla Jamieson

Kyla Jamieson’s debut poetry collection traces the ways trauma manifests within and outside the body. In so doing, the book acts as a mirror onto a world some are unwilling to acknowledge. In “5 Parts ... Read More »

April 9, 2020 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

Radiant Shards: Hoda’s North End Poems

By Ruth Panofsky

Adele Wiseman’s classic 1974 novel, Crackpot, provides inspiration for this narrative poem by Wiseman scholar and Ryerson University English professor Ruth Panofsky. Here, Panofsky attempts a poetic rendering of the life of Crackpot’s saucy protagonist, ... Read More »

April 6, 2020 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

★ Misconduct of the Heart

By Cordelia Strube

Cordelia’s Strube’s 11th novel hurtles out of the gate and never lets up. Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant, especially a chain, will instantly recognize the barely managed chaos of the kitchen that ... Read More »

April 6, 2020 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

The Haunted Hand

By Louise Dupré; Donald Winkler (trans.)

Of all the contributions to literary criticism made by the French structuralist and linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, arguably the most enduring is his distinction between langue and parole. In Saussure’s conception, the latter refers to ... Read More »

April 2, 2020 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

Spawn

By Marie-Andrée Gill; Kristen Renee Miller (trans.)

April 2, 2020 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

★ As Far As You Know

By A.F. Moritz

Toronto poet laureate A.F. Moritz’s latest collection, As Far As You Know, is a symposium on mortality and meaning, and yet another opportunity to showcase the poet as master craftsman. Moritz’s poetry acts as transcendence ... Read More »

March 30, 2020 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews