Online Exclusives
What is Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt Reading?
Journeys I’m a picky reader. I read as much for character as for plot. I have a passion for narrative, but I read only literary novels and non-fiction. I love a finely crafted phrase where every word has earned its place. Geraldine Brooks gives me all these things. This fall, I’m reading People of the […]
Finding The Form with Jessica Block
When I first started working on Garden Man, I was trying hard not to write a story at all. I’d been going through a difficult period with my writing and had disconnected from the pleasure of the act itself. Each time I sat down to write Garden Man, I told myself this was not a […]
An Interview with Anne Swannell
Anne Swannell’s poem, “On Not Seeing Rocher Percé,” shared third prize in the 2020 Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest. The poem recounts three disappointing moments: a trip to the Gaspé peninsula to see the famous rock formation rising from the ocean, had it not been hidden by fog the one day they were there; a […]
Candour and Grace: An Interview with Mia Anderson
Mia Anderson’s poem “Rim” is the second place winner in this year’s Occasional Verse Contest. Her bio is as engaging as her poetry. Mia has published six books of poetry. She has been an actress, organic grower and market gardener, shepherd, priest, poet and translator. Several of these things she still is. And, Mia has […]
Words on the Road: An Interview with Pamela Mordecai
https://youtu.be/opQ1KBB1QZg Roderick Spence: What has occasional verse meant to you as a poet and as a reader of poetry? In which ways has that meaning possibly changed, appreciated or developed for you across your career? Pamela Mordecai: Occasional poetry is kind of a spectral category, isn’t it? In a way, all poems are occasional, so […]
An Interview with Anne Marie Todkill
Kim Jernigan in conversation with Anne Marie Todkill, whose poem “Afterbirth” was the hands-down winner of the 2020 Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest “Afterbirth” is a joyful, near-perfect poem occasioned by the birth of a grandchild whose “nuchal hand”—a hand held beside the cheek or neck—makes the delivery “a little dangerous.” The poem turns on […]
What is Kelsey Andrews Reading?
I’ve read many books lately that I’ve loved, but I’ll mention two here. One is the end of me by John Gould. A collection of very short fiction (“sudden stories” – great term!) each dealing in a different way with the question of mortality. It’s a funny and uplifting book despite the serious theme. There […]
What is John O’Neill Reading?
I always feel as though I’m not reading enough, particularly during this pandemic, during which I’ve found it (apparently not a unique phenomenon) difficult to concentrate. When I do pick up a book (I read mostly fiction these days) even that simple act is fraught – should I choose a new book, a new author, […]
Finding The Form with Sue Goldswain
“The Getaway” began as a chapter in my novel, White Lies, that I removed in one of the later drafts as it seemed like an indulgence, and not pertinent to the central story. Once I started working on it as short fiction, it developed a life of its own, with completely different characters and settings. […]
Finding the Form with Wendy Donawa
The window at my desk overlooks the blue slump of the Sooke hills; beyond, the Salish Sea surges around Vancouver Island’s south coast. I write my poems here, in a small condo angled toward sea and sky, on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen (Songhees and Esquimalt) peoples. “Eye of God” was finished and submitted […]