Jacob McArthur Mooney, Kim Fahner, Claire Caldwell, Monty Reid + Curtis Emery : virtual reading series #9

a series of video recordings of contemporary poets reading from their work, prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cancellations, shut-downs and isolations; a reading series you can enjoy in the safety of your own protected space,

Jacob McArthur Mooney : “I Will Find You in the Bank Run”

Jacob McArthur Mooney's last books were Don't Be Interesting (2016) and, as Guest Editor, Best Canadian Poetry in English, 2015.

Kim Fahner : “Backward Glance,” “Forward Movement”

Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario. She was poet laureate in Sudbury from 2016-18, and was the first woman appointed to the role. Kim's latest book of poems is These Wings (Pedlar Press, 2019). She's a member of the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers' Union of Canada, and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Kim blogs fairly regularly at kimfahner.wordpress.com and can be reached via her author website at www.kimfahner.com

Claire Caldwell : “Backcountry Almanac,” “Homestead Rescue,” “Dear Space Boyfriend”

Claire Caldwell is a writer, a children’s book editor at Annick Press, and a kids’ writing workshop facilitator. Her debut poetry collection, Invasive Species (Wolsak and Wynn), was named one of The National Post’s top five poetry books of 2014. Claire was a 2016 writer in residence at the Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon, and the 2013 winner of The Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize. She has an MFA from the University of Guelph. Gold Rush is her second poetry collection (Invisible Publishing). Claire lives in Toronto.

Monty Reid : “Scars” and “A Little Song”

Monty Reid is an Ottawa poet and musician. He is the (currently underemployed) Director of VerseFest, Ottawa's international poetry festival.

Curtis Emery : “SPACE MAGICK,” “MORNING THOUGHTS #1,” “MORNING THOUGHTS #3”

Curtis Emery is a queer poet from Massachusetts. His work is published in, among others, Conjunctions, Reality Beach, ELDERLY, Pamenar Press, Infinite Scroll, pastsimple, and is translated into German with the Berlin publication, Kathedrale19. His work also appears in DEVOURING THE GREEN: fear of a human planet: a cyborg / eco poetry anthology [Jaded Ibis Press 2015]. Curtis received his M.F.A. from Sierra Nevada College; Manages Social Media for The Operating System; and is an Assistant Poetry Editor at Narrative Magazine.

Razielle Aigen, Fred Schmalz, Chris Nealon, Matthew Rohrer + Noelle Kocot (read by Matthew Rohrer) : virtual reading series #8

a series of video recordings of contemporary poets reading from their work, prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cancellations, shut-downs and isolations; a reading series you can enjoy in the safety of your own protected space,

Razielle Aigen : “A Cabin in the Woods,” “From the Outside,” “Hello, World!,” from Light Waves The Leaves (above/ground 2020)

Razielle Aigen is a Montreal-born poet. Her fist chapbook, Light Waves The Leaves was published by above/ground press 2020. Her poems appear in Entropy, Deluge, Contemporary Verse 2, Ghost City Press, Train, Half A Grapefruit, Bad Dog Review, The Anti-Languorous Project, Cypress(forthcoming), and elsewhere. Razielle holds a B.A. in History and Contemporary Studies from Dalhousie/King’s University, and is an alumna of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University.

Fred Schmalz : “Volery” from Action in the Orchards, “Foraging in the woods” and “The price of bread”(which both appear in the new issue of Conduit)

Fred Schmalz is the author of Action in the Orchards (Nightboat Books 2019), which uses encounters with contemporary art to examine intimacy and loss. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry, Oversound, Conduit, and elsewhere. He makes art with Susy Bielak in the collaborative Balas & Wax. They are currently in residence at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California. He lives in Chicago.

Chris Nealon : from “Last Glimpse” from The Shore

Chris Nealon is Professor of English at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of The Shore (Wave Books, forthcoming 2020) as well as two books of literary criticism, Foundlings: Lesbian and Gay Historical Emotion before Stonewall (Duke, 2001) and The Matter of Capital: Poetry and Crisis in The American Century (Harvard, 2011), as well as three earlier books of poetry: The Joyous Age (Black Square Editions, 2004), Plummet (Edge Books, 2009), and Heteronomy (Edge, 2014). He lives in Washington, DC.

Matthew Rohrer : “Seahorses are Awesome,” “You Will Notice a Faithful Block of Cheese is Present,” from The Sky Contains the Plans

Matthew Rohrer is the author of The Sky Contains the Plans (Wave Books, forthcoming 2020), The Others (Wave Books, 2017), which was the winner of the 2017 Believer Book Award, Surrounded by Friends (Wave Books, 2015), Destroyer and Preserver (Wave Books, 2011), A Plate of Chicken (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009), Rise Up (Wave Books, 2007) and A Green Light (Verse Press, 2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (Verse Press, 2001), and co-author, with Joshua Beckman, of Nice Hat. Thanks. (Verse Press, 2002), and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered and The Next Big Thing. His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches at NYU.

Matthew Rohrer : the title poem from Noelle Kocot’s God’s Green Earth

Noelle Kocot is the author of many collections of poetry, including God's Green Earth (Wave Books, forthcoming 2020), Phantom Pains of Madness (Wave Books, May 2016), Soul in Space (Wave Books, 2013), The Bigger World (Wave Books, 2011), and a book of translations of some of the poems of Tristan Corbière, Poet by Default (Wave Books, 2011). Her previous works include the discography Damon's Room, (Wave Books Pamphlet Series, 2010), Sunny Wednesday (Wave Books, 2009) and Poem for the End of Time and Other Poems (Wave Books, 2006). She is also the author of 4 and The Raving Fortune (both from Four Way Books). Her poems have been anthologized in Best American Poetry in 2001, 2012, and 2013. She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, The Fund for Poetry, the American Poetry Review, and a residency fellowship from the Lannan Foundation, and she has taught at the University of Texas New Writers' Project and currently teaches part-time at the New School. She is the Poet Laureate of Pemberton Borough, New Jersey.

derek beaulieu, Orchid Tierney, Catriona Strang, Simon Brown + Laura K. McRae : virtual reading series #7

a series of video recordings of contemporary poets reading from their work, prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cancellations, shut-downs and isolations; a reading series you can enjoy in the safety of your own protected space,

derek beaulieu : bpnichol’s “The Long Weekend of Louis Riel” from NIGHTS ON PROSE MOUNTAIN (coach house books, 2018) on the side of the road in Banff, Alberta

derek beaulieu is the author/editor of over 20 volumes of poetry, prose and criticism, he can be found online at www.derekbeaulieu.wordpress.com

Orchid Tierney : three poems from a year of misreading the wildcats

Orchid Tierney is a Aotearoa-New Zealand poet and scholar, currently living in Gambier, Ohio, where she teaches at Kenyon College. She is the author of a year of misreading the wildcats (Operating System, 2019) and Earsay (TrollThread 2016), and chapbooks ocean plastic (BlazeVOX 2019), blue doors (Belladonna* Press), Gallipoli Diaries (GaussPDF 2017), the world in small parts (Dancing Girl Press, 2012), and Brachiaction (Gumtree, 2012). Other poems, reviews, and scholarship have appeared in Jacket2, Journal of Modern Literature, and Western Humanities Review, among others. She is a consulting editor for the Kenyon Review.

Catriona Strang : three sections from my work in progress, “Unfuckable Lardass”: “7, Yell, Danielle (for Danielle LaFrance),” “14,” and “28 (for Fred Wah)”

Catriona Strang is the author of Low Fancy, Corked, and Reveries of a Solitary Biker, and co-author with the late Nancy Shaw of Busted, Cold Trip, and Light Sweet Crude. She frequently collaborates with composer Jacqueline Leggatt. She lives in Vancouver on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories with her two grown kids. She is currently working on a new project, tentatively titled "Unfuckable Lardass."

Simon Brown : an untitled sequence from my recent chapbook with Frog Hollow, THIS MUD, A WORD (New Brunswick Chapbook Series #10).

Simon Brown (1979) is a self-taught poet and translator from the traditional territory of the Peskotomuhkati Nation, in southwestern New Brunswick, now based Abenaki traditional territory, in rural Québec. His texts have been presented in interdisciplinary artworks and collaborative performances, and via platforms such as Lemon Hound, Train, Estuaire, Vallum, Poetry Is Dead, Watts, and filling Station. As a translator, he has adapted texts by Erin Robinsong, Maude Pilon, Angela Carr, Huguette Gaulin and Nicole Raziya Fong, among others. His collections and artist’s books have been published by Le laps, Vanloo, squint, Moult, and Paper Pusher. THIS MUD, A WORD was recently released in Frog Hollow Press’s New Brunswick chapbook series. simonbrown.ca   

Laura K. McRae : “The Sun Casts No Shade,” “Evening in Toronto, August, 2013,” and “Twilight in New Orleans” from Were There Gazelle

Laura K. McRae is a teacher in Toronto, Ontario where she lives and writes. Her poems have appeared in numerous Canadian and U.S. journals, most recently in Grain Magazine, Sugared Water, and The Fiddlehead. Her chapbook, Distributaries, appeared in 2016 from Frog Hollow Press, and her first full-length collection, Were There Gazelle, is newly released from Pedlar Press in February 2020.