Lady Godiva and Me by Liam Guilar

Reviewed by Joanna M. Weston These poems are not about Lady Godiva’s ride, but rather about those who lived, or live, in Coventry. The poems are like the voices heard...

Penny Dreadful by Shannon Stewart

Reviewed by Michelle Miller Murder is horrifying. And the serial murders of a specific demographic of vulnerable people—like aboriginal women living in Canada’s poorest neighbourhood and making a living from...

One Stone by Barbara Pelman

One Stone by Barbara Pelman

By Skoopchap
Poetry Review by Jenna Butler. Barbara Pelman’s One Stone speaks quietly and eloquently of rebirth following the loss of a twenty-year marriage. At times wry, but never bitter, Pelman charts the circular course of love and loss using her family’s history as a touchstone. What thrills me about this book is its quietude: the manner in which it delves deep without trumpeting about the journey; the way in which its quiet words reach a common ground in every reader. Pelman does not wax romantic about the breakdown of her marriage; as she says in “Journey,” “never mind the goodbyes / Close the door and go” (15). The shattering of the marriage that grounds this collection is not an unexpected one.
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jackson

The Meaning of Michael Jackson

By Skoopchap
Call for writing about Michael Jackson: The Meaning of Michael Jackson MJ Tribute Anthology literary. thoughtful. intelligent. Deadline August 29, 2009 preferred Sept 4 absolute cut off Editor Lorette C. Luzajic Eulogies, poems, short stories, theories, thoughtful inquiries, what Michael Jackson meant to you, essays. No dead pedophile jokes. I don’t shy away from difficult subjects but I expect intelligent inquiry and reflection. Michael’s music, legend, symbolism, spirituality, cultural significance, psychology, history and more. Or even games inspired by him or featuring his music, just like Elk Studios’ slot machine games, anyone can find and play on many online casino sites. Be creative. Be emotional. Be smart. What does MJ’s fame say about our culture? Why was he the one? Why did society turn on him, and then turn right back at death? What does fame do to a person? How does celebrity serve us…
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Every Inadequate Name by Nick Thran

Every Inadequate Name by Nick Thran

By Skoopchap
Reviewed by Alessandro Porco In his debut collection of poetry, Every Inadequate Name, Nick Thran’s is at its best when his poem’s speaker’s emotional transparency is honest enough to admit complicity; he’s flawed and guilty, young and frivolous — that is to say, too human for living yet just perfect for poetry. Conversely, the collection is at its worst when the poem’s speaker participates only in his capacity as a moralizing spectator, resulting in off-putting poems quietly dictated from the sidelines. Perhaps these are the inevitable two faces of a romantic like Thran. Where one goes, the other follows. Surely, there are other poems that fall somewhere in between, but they are for some other review to take up and
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Unsettled by Zachariah Wells

Unsettled by Zachariah Wells

By Skoopchap
“Not since Al Purdy’s North of Summerhas a Canadian poet written so compellingly about life in the frozen arctic,” opens the back-cover blurb of Vancouver-via-Baffin Island-via-PEI poet Zachariah Wells’ first collection, Unsettled. The similarities between Purdy’s book and Wells’ — a collection of poems written during Wells’ time working as an airline freight handler on Baffin and Cornwallis Islands — are found both in their subject matter and styles. The poems in the two collections explore the authors’ sense of self as grounded in (and out of) place – writers utilizing a foreign land to unlock once-foreign parts of themselves. Likewise, stylistically, it would not take much to convince me that lines such as “Tirelessness, sleeplessness, endless darkness, endless / light, boxes,
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I Cut My Finger by Stuart Ross

I Cut My Finger by Stuart Ross

By Skoopchap
Review by Nick Thran The 2003 publication of Stuart Ross’ Hey, Crumbling Balcony! Poems New and Selected was met with the sort of mixed reception one would expect from such an alchemical poet. One had the sense that, while admiring his achievement, reviewers still refused to see him as more than a sort of eccentric uncle of the Can-Lit scene — a little too earnest for the staunchly avant-garde, a little too wacky for the more traditional camps. In the four years since Hey, Crumbling Balcony! and this year’s recently published I Cut My Finger, Stuart Ross’ influence has been felt more than ever. Younger poets in Canada publishing books of a decidedly surrealist nature (Kevin Connolly’s drift, Jason Heroux’s
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maria scala

Predicting the Next Big Advertising Breakthrough Using a Potentially Dangerous Method by Daniel Scott Tysdal

By Skoopchap
Review by Maria Scala. In reviewing Daniel Scott Tysdal’s Predicting the Next Big Advertising Breakthrough Using a Potentially Dangerous Method, many words come to mind, foremost of these are playful and innovative. Even before I read a single poem, the books slick red cover, the title emblazoned across the front in uppercase, its unusual trim size (8 1/2 x 11 ), and its page after page of carefully formatted text and images, promised not your average book of poetry. And not your average editor George Elliot Clarke worked on the book with Tysdal. Clarke was on the jury that awarded Tysdal the John V. Hicks Manuscript prize from the Saskatchewan Writers Guild in 2004. After publication in 2006, Tysdal went
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Before the First Word: The Poetry of Lorna Crozier edited by Catherine Hunter

By Skoopchap
Lorna Crozier is a knowledgeable poet and a worthy matriarch for Canadian poetry. Before the First Word: The Poetry of Lorna Crozier is a part of a new wise series of texts from Wilfrid Laurier University Press that strive to bring Canadian poets to a larger audience. Without pretence and with an eye to producing the effect of improvisation, these collections come selected and introduced by a critic with an afterword from the poet represented. This project is one of the most exciting, cooperative, communal and familial endeavours that I have seen coming out of the poetry establishment in the past few years and all of my praise goes out to Wilfrid Laurier Press for their efforts. The poems of Lorna Crozier
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Busy, busy, busy — and in need of reviewers

By Skoopchap
Sorry for the lack of updates recently. New reviews from Jason Rotstein, Maria Scala, Rob Taylor, and Shane Neilson will be posted shortly. In the mean time, I have 80+ books, chapbooks, and audio books sitting on my shelf waiting to be reviewed. If you’re interested in reviewing for the site and live in Canada, send a sample of your writing and a brief bio to ebarstad [at] gmail [dot] com.