Author: ALU Editor
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DiscoverVerse: Sadiqa de Meijer + The Outer Wards
Sadiqa de Meijer takes on the ALU DiscoverVerse today to discuss her book The Outer Wards (Véhicule Press), a collection about maternal love and duty and finding new frontiers of language to convey sense of powerlessness as a mother facing illness. Sadiqa shares more with us about knowing the boundaries of her work, of outer worlds,…
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DiscoverVerse: Margaret Christakos + charger
The poems in Margaret Christakos’s new collection charger (Talonbooks) consider how our technology delivers us to each other: what part does our digital world play between the private and social, between mortal and virtual? Below, Margaret delves deeper into these questions, and chats with us about walking as a place to consider her second-generation-Canadian body in history, her…
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DiscoverVerse: Wade Kearley + Narrow Cradle
Today we chat with Wade Kearley about his third poetry collection Narrow Cradle (Breakwater Books), a mid-life reckoning with mortality that through poetic form strives for freedom and personal rebirth. Below, Kearley shares more about learning his love for family, the planet and traditional forms of poetry through the writing of this collection and takes…
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DiscoverVerse: Irfan Ali + Accretion
Irfan Ali joins us for ALU DiscoverVerse to chat about his newly minted collection Accretion (Brick Books) — a debut inspired by the ancient Persian love story of Layla and Manjun — that considers the struggle of an immigrant family stuck between their cultural traditions and new life. Set in the crowded streets of Toronto, immersed in hip-hop…
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DiscoverVerse: Bertrand Bickersteth + The Response of Weeds
Bertrand Bickersteth kicks off a brand new week of ALU DiscoverVerse with The Response of Weeds(NeWest Press), a collection that explores what it means to be both black and Albertan. In today’s interview, Bickersteth offers more about the inherent strangeness of Alberta and how, through writing, he was able to come to a sincere understanding…
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In Review: The Week of April 13th
This week in quarantine: our NPM celebration rolled on with five more rad poets, CBC Books shared their spring reading list, cute comics were found, and more!
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DiscoverVerse: Daniela Elza + the broken boat
Today’s ALU DiscoverVerse poet is Daniela Elza whose new collection the broken boat (Mother Tongue Publishing) is about the undoing of a twenty-year marriage and what it means to sit with grief. Below Daniela talks to us about why grief is a good teacher, what it is to embody words, and where she draws inspiration from.…
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DiscoverVerse: Catherine Hunter + St. Boniface Elegies
Today in the ALU DiscoverVerse, we welcome poet Catherine Hunter, author of St. Boniface Elegies (Signature Editions), a collection that traces a poet’s relationships with her family and her community. Below, Catherine shares more about the grip that poetry has had, and continues to have upon her life, and how visual art and theatre energize her thinking. PLUS,…
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DiscoverVerse: Scott Nolan + Moon Was a Feather
Around his 40th birthday in 2015, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Scott Nolan set out to replace smoking cigarettes with walking ten kilometres a day—the catalyst that began his poetry writing. Below he tells us about his debut collection Moon Was a Feather (J. Gordon Shillingford) that evolved from those long walks through the Winnipeg streets. Read…
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DiscoverVerse: Kate Marshall Flaherty + Radiant
Kate Marshall Flaherty joins us for another ALU DiscoverVerse session to discuss her collection Radiant (Inanna Publications), about finding hope and healing through a journey with cancer. In our interview, Kate shares more about the therapeutic nature of writing, her willingness for adventure and offers up a free association writing prompt that’ll have you feeling…
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DiscoverVerse: A.B. Dillon + Matronalia
Kicking off our second week of ALU DiscoverVerse is prose poet A.B. Dillon whose collection Matronalia (Thistledown Press) looks at the underbelly of mothering and what often remains unsaid from mother to daughter. A.B. joins us to chat about her collection, writing inspiration, and three things she’d have with her if she were in her own…
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In Review: The Week of April 6th
This week the quarantine didn’t stop us: our National Poetry Month celebration ALU DiscoverVerse continued with five more poets, the 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist was announced, celebrity libraries were revealed, and more.
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DiscoverVerse: Thomas Leduc + Slagflower
In today’s ALU DiscoverVerse feature, we welcome Thomas Leduc to discuss his first book of poetry Slagflower (Latitude 46), the story of a fourth generation son of miners and his journey beyond the world underground. Leduc tells us more about how the collection came together by digging deep into his working history and experience within…
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DiscoverVerse: Kyeren Regehr + Cult Life
Today for ALU DiscoverVerse we highlight Kyeren Regehr’s collection Cult Life (Pedlar Press)—a CBC spring 2020 poetry book to watch for—which follows three years in the life of the poet as a twenty-something single mother whose spiritual devotion is juxtaposed with her search for worldly love. Below Kyeren tells us about spending five weeks in a hut in…
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DiscoverVerse: Cam Scott + ROMANS/SNOWMARE
Emerging out of his abandoned scraps of writing, Cam Scott’s ROMANS/SNOWMARE (ARP Books) exudes a love of language and experiment. Cam joins us in the All Lit Up DiscoverVerse today, sharing more about building a collection of words as a source of endless inspiration, being moved by sound and its various combinations, and more. Read on for the full…