What’s Robert Bowerman Reading?
These days I read a lot of poetry, short fiction and CNF from magazines like The New Yorker, Granta, and of course TNQ. I receive a daily poem from Rattle magazine and try to take time to listen to their weekly interviews with contemporary poets.
Currently I am reading the Palestinian American poet, Naomi Shihab Nye. I am touched by her humanity. She reaches across borders to build bridges, not walls. Three other poets I am currently rereading are Philip Levine, Seamus Heaney and Robert Hilles. Philip Levine reminds me of the importance of ‘honest’ stories taken from everyday life. I enjoy Seamus Heaney for his wit and lyricism. Finally, I studied under Robert Hilles. His poetry reminds me of the value of simplicity and ‘straight forwardness’.
Robert Bowerman is a retired teacher living on Vancouver Island. Among others, his work has been published in the White Wall Review, Sea and Cedar Magazine, Portal Magazine, Counterflow Magazine and The Van Island Poetry Collective. In 2022, he won the Island Review Short Fiction Contest and in 2023 the Van Isle Poetry Collective Poetry Contest.