To kiss the hybrid future à travers un voile
Entre Rive and Shore, Dominique Bernier-Cormier. icehouse poetry, 2023.
Tout d’abord: wow. These were the first words that came to mind en mijotant sur how and where to begin a review of Dominique Bernier-Cormier’s multigenre, multi-temporal and dimensional, highly allusive, bilingual+ Entre Rive and Shore...
Simple Power: Representation and Resilience in Denison Avenue
Denison Avenue, Christina Wong and Daniel Innes. ECW Press, 2023.
“Lay mang mang, ah See Heeei,” Mrs. Wong’s voice rang out. (Take your time.)
Love and Demons thom vernon's review of Pervatory by RM Vaughan. Coach House Books, 2023.
In Pervatory, the posthumously published last novel by the spectacularly talented RM Vaughan (Richard Murray Vaughan), the iconic queer multi-hyphenate (think novelist, poet, filmmaker, critic, essayist, playwright, and visual artist — squirrel saloons made of pizza...
Love as a Driving Force by Manahil Bandukwala
A Dream Wants Waking, Lydia Kwa. Wolsak & Wynn, 2023
Lydia Kwa’s A Dream Wants Waking promises a dreamlike narrative through its title and cover, and the short novel certainly delivers. The book opens with a list of characters from the past timeline in Tang China from 644-904 CE and the present timeline of Luoyang in 2219 CE. Told through short chapters that switch back and forth at a rapid pace, Kwa immediately immerses the reader into both timelines of the story.
Nestle In Words Like An Animal: The Poetic G/Rasp of Tongue, Throat, and Mouth in G by Kirby
G, Klara du Plessis & Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi. Palimpsest Press, 2023.
First, let’s talk about the design/packaging of this book.
It’s exquisite. The colour palette, fonts, printed endpapers, on signature Coach House zephyr, readable text on the page. A book you want to pick up, hold, caress with the eyes and the touch. Congrats to in-house designer Ellie Hastings, editor Jim Johnstone, and publisher Aimee Parent Dunn. Finery.
Lyrical Authenticity by Klara du Plessis
The King of Terrors, Jim Johnstone. Coach House Books, 2023.
Cautious Praise by Lynn Davies
Lent, Kate Cayley, Book*hug Press, 2023.
In Lent, Kate Cayley’s voice is driven by doubt and occasional bouts of confidence. In “Falling,” she says matter-of-factly,
I can’t find time to repair.
“Junkyard Apocalypse”: Uneasy Ecopoems, Unhomely Homes by David Huebert
Kill Your Starlings, Tom Cull. Gaspereau Press, 2023.
Editorial assistant Tommy Duggan reviews Back to the Land of the Living by Eva Crocker (Anansi, 2023)
Eva Crocker’s Back to the Land of the Living begins with our protagonist Marcy Pike moving to pre-COVID Montreal from St. John’s on a journey of self-discovery and newfound independence.
In A knife so sharp its edge cannot be seen, Erin Noteboom merges her background as a particle physicist with poetry. She excavates intangible and indescribable moments from scientific experiments to blur lines between worlds that otherwise seem separate.
