April is Poetry Month | The Miramichi Reader

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Excerpt: Realia by Michael Trussler

April 26, 2024April 22, 2024 by Emma Rhodes

Ars Poetica

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Warp and Weft by Carla Stein

April 26, 2024April 18, 2024 by Bill Arnott

I was delighted to receive Carla’s latest, Warp and Weft, a beautifully stitched chapbook of poems and paintings.

An image of a large river moving around a corner, with thick greenery on either side. The top two thirds of the cover is white, and the title and author's name are on that white background.

A Beautiful Rebellion: poems by Rita Bouvier

April 16, 2024 by Pearl Pirie

There’s a gentle humility in persisting and insisting in the poem to build a better world.

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Us from Nothing by Geoff Bouvier

April 26, 2024April 14, 2024 by James Dunnigan

Geoff Bouvier has produced a kind of long poem we haven’t seen for a long time in North America. Us from Nothing is an experiment in the epic that isn’t either doggerel or primarily parody.

A white cover with a black banner at the top with "Frog Pond Review." There is an image of an old tv with a white screen with the words "The Poetry Game" on it.

“The Poetry Game” Yields Intriguing Results: Frog Pond Review Issue 4, Edited by Misha Solomon

April 13, 2024 by Lisa Timpf

This brief collection offers some captivating images.

A blue, black, and copper cover resembling the solar system filled with stars. There are two white lines moving from the top of the image to the bottom, on an angle. The title is left aligned in small white letters. The author's name is in the bottom right hand corner.

Deviant by Patrick Grace

April 13, 2024April 13, 2024 by Nicholas Selig

Deviant as a poetry collection not only challenges accepted standards, but excavates beauty from social derision. Grace is surefooted and defiant, torquing queer love and male hostility into language that lulls and then lashes.

Drawn green hills with a blue sky. The title is in the top right hand corner of the image and the author's name is in the bottom left corner.

Stranger in a Strange Land: I Imagine My Brother as an Island by Morris Bailey

April 8, 2024April 7, 2024 by Steven Mayoff

A shimmer of vulnerability permeates the poems in Montreal poet Morris Bailey’s debut chapbook I Imagine My Brother as an Island.

An orange and purple abstract painted cover. The title and author's name are at the top of the image.

Michael and Me by Merle Nudelman

April 7, 2024 by Bryn Robinson

Stitched together in Merle Nudelman’s new book of poetry, Michael and Me, are the “buried heartbeat of rectangles”: a memory quilt of 39 patches of a mother’s love for her son, and the son’s own legacy of love through his family

A light beige cover with a sketch-style painting of a fox wrapped in something black. The title and author's name are in the bottom right corner.

Ethics, Aesthetics, Woolf Waves, Foxtrots: Wrong Norma by Anne Carson

April 7, 2024 by Michael Greenstein

From its striking, foxy cover to print layout and coloured illustrations, Anne Carson’s miscellany, Wrong Norma, is a beautiful book that reflects its aesthetics on every page.

The Fredericton Walking Bridge lit up at night, seen through some dead winter trees.

Why I Wrote This Book: Issue #26

April 22, 2024April 6, 2024 by Emma Rhodes

Why do your favourite Canadian authors write the books they write? Let’s find out in this exclusive feature here at The Miramichi Reader.

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Coco Collins, Sorry About the Fire

April 1, 2024 by Michael Greenstein

Colleen Coco Collins features an alphabetical array in her debut collection of poetry: Sorry About the Fire, a singeing apologia of inventive sound and sensuousness.

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Ronna Bloom, A Possible Trust

April 1, 2024 by Susan Wismer

Ronna Bloom’s poems are each whole and complete on the page.

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Happy National Poetry Month!

March 31, 2024 by Emma Rhodes, Nicholas Selig, Carrie Stanton, Sue Slade and Alison Manley

April is National Poetry Month! What are you reading? If you’re looking for ideas, here are some excellent poetry collections to get you started!

A woman in a red dress stands on a stool at the front of the image, to the right side. Behind her is an old farm house, on a farm. The title is in white letters above the roof of the farm house. The author's name is at the bottom of the image, by the stool that the woman stands on. She is barefoot and has long brown hair. She looks to the left with a slight tilt to her head.

Finding New Rooms to Grow: Moving to Delilah by Catherine Owen

March 30, 2024 by Bryn Robinson

If one were to dissect a “home”, what would be found?

A beige cover with an axe laid on an angle, on its side. The head of the axe is on the left side of the image. There is a blurb just above the axe, the title is just below, and the author's name is at the bottom of the image.

The Blades of Wrath: Into the Continent by Emily McGiffin

March 26, 2024 by Michael Greenstein

Axe and rifle with bayonet: these two weapons form the inverted and reversed covers of Into the Continent, Emily McGiffin’s latest collection of poetry.