Review of Lisa Alward’s “Cocktail”
By Skylar Kay Cocktail by Lisa Alward Biblioasis (2023) The stories of Cocktail all revolve around ideas of family, finding belonging, and the pitfalls that come with love—either familial or…
Three Books on Poetics Reviewed by Catherine Owen
By Catherine Owen Imagining Imagining by Gary Barwin Wolsak and Wynn (2023) “I love the syncretic web of experience,” Gary Barwin states exuberantly in his essay “The Selected Walks,” from…
Review of Leilei Chen’s translation of “I Have Forsaken Heaven & Earth, but Never Forsaken You”
By Mary Vlooswyk I Have Forsaken Heaven & Earth, but Never Forsaken You by MA Hui, translated by Leilei Chen Frontenac House (2023) Have you ever played the telephone game?…
Review of Elana Wolff’s “Faithfully Seeking Franz”
By George Elliot Clarke Faithfully Seeking Franz by Elana Wolff Guernica Editions (2023) Elana Wolff is a cosmopolitan poet—with eight collections to her credit and English, German, and Hebrew at…
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 Julie Paul’s “Whiny Baby”
By Kim Fahner Whiny Baby by Julie Paul McGill-Queen’s University Press (2024) With a title that evokes childhood spats and quarrels, Julie Paul’s second book of poems, Whiny Baby, gets…
Review of Beatriz Hausner’s “She Who Lies Above”
By Giovanna Riccio She Who Lies Above by Beatriz Hausner Book*hug Press (2023) Hypatia of Alexandria—the 4th-century philosopher, astronomer, mathematician, teacher, and alchemist aptly embodied her name meaning “highest” or…
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…