A quick review of my shaky memory (and more steadfast social media calendars) helps me realize what a busy year it’s been for poetry in Nova Scotia, despite everything, as we love to say these days. Since January, I’ve done a number of readings, appearing alongside fellow Nova Scotian poets such as shalan joudry (at Virginia Konchan’s Eve of Poetry series on Zoom, January 22, 2022, where we read with American poets Christopher Salerno and Noah Warren); Matt Robinson, Sam Sternberg, and Anna Quon (in a Zoom event I coordinated and hosted on the evening of March 2, where all of us read from our most recent Gaspereau Press collections, after which we chatted long past the posted time, drifting into a meandering, appropriately Gaspereau-themed conversation about type); Anna Quon, Nanci Lee, and Tiffany Morris (at Anna’s impeccably curated night of ekphrastic poetry, hosted by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia the evening of April 14, where we all read new work composed in response to pieces in the AGNS collection); Nanci Lee, Nolan Natasha, Sam Sternberg, and Ben Gallagher (at the festive launch for Nanci Lee’s debut collection, Hsin, held June 23 at The Derby, where Nanci brought snacks from home, and where we read in a rotating order, one poem each at a time, responding to each other’s work); and Nolan Natasha, Nanci Lee, and Toronto poet brandy ryan (at Paging Pride, organized by brandy and hosted by Venus Envy on June 25, at the tail end of the Toronto Pride season and just before Halifax’s own Pride month).
Other highlights so far this year: workshopping new poems over email and the phone with my dear friend Jaime Forsythe; attending a Poetry Month tribute to Elizabeth Bishop at LaHave River Books, where writers Janet Barkhouse, Sandra Barry, Carole Langille, and Lisa McCabe read from a selection of Bishop’s poetry; lunching with Phoebe Wang when she came in from Fredericton, where she had been serving as the University of New Brunswick’s Writer-in-residence; attending the launch of Luke Hathaway’s The Affirmations, hosted at the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia; receiving my author copies of Shadow Blight, my third full-length collection; browsing the shelves in local indies Bookmark II, King’s Co-op Bookstore, and Venus Envy; buying and reading new books by Margo Wheaton, Katie Fewster-Yan, and Michael Goodfellow; and looking forward to forthcoming fall titles by Sylvia D. Hamilton, Sue Goyette, El Jones, Ben Gallagher, and Tiffany Morris. Editing. Working with dozens of mentees through Arc Poetry Magazine, where I am currently Poet-in-Residence. Reading submissions for Room Magazine and Goose Lane’s icehouse poetry board. Reviewing half a dozen or so poetry books. Writing a few new poems. Attending online readings where I’ve had the chance to hear French, Irish, American, and other poets from outside of my home province. Coveting gorgeous new chapbooks.
Thanks to endless Zoom meetings, I know I’ve missed things.
Authors and books referenced in this piece
shalan joudry, Waking Ground (Gaspereau Press, 2020)
Virginia Konchan, Hallelujah Time (Véhicule Press, 2021)
Matt Robinson, Tangled and Cleft (Gaspereau Press, 2021)
Samantha Sternberg, Listening Year (Gaspereau Press, 2022)
Anna Quon, Body Parts (Gaspereau Press, 2021)
Tiffany Morris, Elegies of Rotting Stars (Nictitating Books, 2022; forthcoming)
Ben Gallagher, A Grief Cave (Frontenac House, 2022; forthcoming)
Nolan Natasha, I Can Hear You, Can You Hear Me? (Invisible Publishing, 2019)
Nanci Lee, Hsin (Brick Books, 2022)
brandy ryan, After Pulse (with Kerry Manders) (knifeforkbook, 2019)
Jaime Forsythe, I Heard Something (Anvil Press, 2018)
Janet Barkhouse, Salt Fires (Pottersfield Press, 2018)
Sandra Barry, Elizabeth Bishop: Nova Scotia’s “Home-made” Poet (Nimbus Publishing, 2011)
Carole Langille, Your Turn (Mansfield Press, 2021)
Lisa McCabe
Luke Hathaway, The Affirmations (Biblioasis, 2022)
Margo Wheaton, Rags of Night in Our Mouths (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022)
Katie Fewster-Yan, Surrender & Resistance (Gaspereau Press, 2022)
Michael Goodfellow, Naturalism, An Annotated Bibliography (Gaspereau Press, 2022)
Sylvia D. Hamilton, Tender (Gaspereau Press, 2022; forthcoming)
Sue Goyette, Monoculture (Gaspereau Press, 2022; forthcoming)
El Jones, Abolitionist Intimacies (Fernwood Publishing, 2022; forthcoming)
I live in Kjipuktuk, a place we also now call Halifax, which is part of Mi’kma’ki, the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq. “Kjipuktuk” means “Great Harbour” in Mi’kmaw, the original language of this land. The territory I live in is covered by the Treaties of Peace and Friendship, which were a series of treaties signed over the course of the eighteenth century (starting in 1725) by the Mi’kmaq and the Maliseet (another Indigenous nation) with the settler British and French. These treaties never dealt with any transfer of land or resources, but instead set terms for what was intended to be an ongoing relationship among nations.
I am a settler of French and Scottish ancestry. I am very grateful to live and work here.
July 20, 2022
Photo credit: Anna Quon reading at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, April 14, 2022, next to Colleen Wolstenholme's sculpture, "Daisy" (photo by Annick MacAskill)
