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Poetry

John Barton: Gay Canlit Icon: A Review by KIRBY of John Barton's "We Are Not Avatars"

Posted on October 24, 2022

John Barton: Gay Canlit Icon

We Are Not Avatars, John Barton. Palimpsest Press, 2019.

When I told a friend I was about to write a review of We Are Not Avatars (Palimpsest Press, 2019), a collection of John Barton’s essays, memoirs, and manifestos, they looked at me quizzically and suggested I’d set myself on an unrealistic challenge, for how can anyone critique an icon? My friend gave me pause because I never considered John Barton to be one.

Poets as Observers of Space and Absence: A Review by Manahil Bandukwala of Gillian Sze's "Quiet Night Think"

Posted on October 11, 2022

Poets as Observers of Space and Absence

Quiet Night Think, Gillian Sze. ECW Press, 2022.

I first came to Gillian Sze’s work through her chapbook, Fricatives. Fricatives has lingered in the back of my mind for years, and Sze’s latest collection of poems and essays, Quiet Night Think, will no doubt do the same. Comprised of six personal essays interspersed with poems, Quiet Night Think meditates on poetry and motherhood. Where do these intersect, and where do they diverge?

Tanis MacDonald’s Reading Recommendations

Posted on October 5, 2022

Tanis MacDonald is the author of six books, including the forthcoming Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female (Wolsak & Wynn). She has been awarded the Open Seasons Awards for Nonfiction and the Bliss Carman Prize for Poetry, and has had work appear recently in Atlantis, FreeFall, and Grain. Her essay "Ricochet: An Arcade" was featured in the all-creative nonfiction issue of The Fiddlehead. 

Pre-Order the Autumn Issue Now!

Posted on September 27, 2022

The forthcoming Autumn 2022 issue of The Fiddlehead is now available for pre-order! 

The issue will feature the winning essay from The Fiddlehead's 2022 Creative Nonfiction Contest, as well as work from award-winning authors such as Tolu Oloruntoba, Corinna Chong and many more.

Pre-orders will be in the mail by the end of October. Don't miss your chance to reserve a copy today! 

Canadian Addresses

Ed Taylor's Reading Recommendations

Posted on July 28, 2022

Ed Taylor is the author of the novel Theo, the poetry collection Idiogest, and 3 chapbooks. His prose and poetry appear in a variety of U.S. and U.K. periodicals, and his occasional work in other media includes the 2020 1-act play “Black Nikes." His essay "Combover" was published in the Summer Creative Nonfiction issue of The Fiddlehead. His Instagram is @toothlessmurgatroyd.  

Marco Melfi’s Reading Recommendation

Posted on June 13, 2022

Marco Melfi is a graduate of Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio. His poems have appeared in The Antigonish Review, The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire, The Arc Award of Awesomeness, Funicular, and FreeFall. His chapbook, In between trains, was published in 2014 and his poem "The Faulty Porch Light" won The Fiddlehead's 2021 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Contest. He lives in Edmonton on Treaty 6 Territory. 

John Barton's Reading Recommendation

Posted on June 10, 2022

John Barton’s books include Polari, We Are Not Avatars: Essays, Memoirs, Manifestos, and The Essential Douglas LePan, which won a 2020 eLit Award. Lost Family, his twelfth book of poetry, was nominated for the 2021 Derek Walcott Prize. His poetry was most recently featured in The Fiddlehead in the Spring 2022 issue. He lives in Victoria, where he is the city’s fifth poet laureate. 

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