Online Exclusives
Finding the Form with Becky Blake
My essay “Scratch” actually began as two essays. One was about obsessing over cougar attacks while I was on a writing retreat in Banff. The other was about losing my apartment in Toronto and deciding to live without a home base for a while. I had written multiple drafts of each, but when I was […]
Ian Roy’s Writing Space
I’m an itinerant writer, insomuch that I move around the house from place to place, like a cat seeking those sunny spots on winter afternoons. Though what I’m seeking is a quiet, out-of-the-way place where I can work. In the spring and summer, I usually convert our uninsulated back porch into a writing space. I […]
Finding the Form with Heather Debling
“Count Your Blessings” started as most of my short stories do. After the initial flush of the idea and writing out the first few hurried, blurry pages, I stopped and focused on structure. I wrote down scene ideas, figured out the arc, tried to make sure it was a thing, a logical, solid, sound thing, […]
Journeys: What is Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt Reading?
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 Book […]
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
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 it’s […]
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 […]
