Review of Mark Frutkin’s “The Walled Garden”
By George Elliott Clarke The Walled Garden: Essays by Mark Frutkin Guernica Editions (2023) The Latin, floral epithet for the chaste Beloved in the Canticum Canticorum—The Song of Songs (The…
Review of Juleta Severson-Baker’s “Antecedent”
By Katherine Matiko Antecedent by Juleta Severson-Baker Frontenac House (2023) Juleta Severson-Baker dedicates Antecedent to her ancestors, so it was no surprise to encounter a boy coming to terms with…
Review of Victoria Koops’ “Who We Are in Real Life”
By Kendall Bistretzan Who We Are in Real Life by Victoria Koops House of Anansi (2024) Who We Are in Real Life is a debut young adult novel by Saskatchewan…
Review of dee Hobsbawn-Smith’s “Among the Untamed”
By Mary Vlooswyk Among the Untamed by dee Hobsbawn-Smith Frontenac House Poetry (2023) Among the Untamed by dee Hobsbawn-Smith is an exploration of how to be a woman in today’s…
Review of Derek Beaulieu’s “Surface Tension” by Steven Ross Smith
By Steven Ross Smith Surface Tension by Derek Beaulieu Coach House Press (2022) Following on and expanding upon the appearance and evolution of concrete poetry, which exploded language’s visual and…
Review of Eva Tihanyi’s “Circle Tour” by Katherine Matiko
By Katherine Matiko Circle Tour by Eva Tihanyi Inanna Publications and Education Inc. (2023) Eva Tihanyi’s Circle Tour takes readers on a spiralling journey from hope to societal and personal…
Review of Jennifer Bowering Delisle’s “Deriving”
By Jennifer Cox Deriving by Jennifer Bowering Delisle University of Alberta Press (2021) While it is an unusual choice to open a poetry book with a Descartian theory on the…
Review of Keith Garebian’s “Pieces of My Self”
By David Bateman Pieces of My Self by Keith Garebian Guernica Editions (2023) From the mauve velvet of his mother’s most stylish evening gown, to the sights and sounds of…
Review of Paul Zits’ “I Wish I Could Be Peter Falk”
By Vincent Potter I Wish I Could Be Peter Falk by Paul Zits University of Calgary Press (2022) Paul Zits opens this collection with the perfect dedication: “for Me (&…
Review of Wendy Donawa’s “Our Bodies’ Unanswered Questions”
By Angeline Schellenberg Our Bodies’ Unanswered Questions by Wendy Donawa Frontenac House Poetry (2021) “Is it bravado or just cheap grace, / hoping anything can be borne / if sung…