I’m a poet with interests in books, music, and art. I have lived in Manitoba for twenty years now, but still think of myself as being from Saskatchewan. My first full-length poetry collection, Eigenheim (Turnstone Press), was published in 2015; my second, Cattail Skyline (Turnstone Press), in 2021.
Thinking about poetic influences again, I went back to the first two books of poetry I ever bought: questions I asked my mother (Turnstone Press, 1987) by Di Brandt, and Journey to Yalta (Turnstone Press, 1988) by Sarah Klassen. These collections came out at a time when Mennonite writers were getting a lot of attention, which happened … Continue reading Influences (2)
A recent question from a Facebook friend prompted me to think about the poets I first read many years ago, and the ways they influenced my own writing and how I think about poetry. So here are three who came immediately to mind. These are poets I read when I was just beginning to take … Continue reading Influences (1)
1. I like to think that I am generally good at keeping up routines, but apparently I’m not good at the routine of keeping up a blog. This is the least interesting of the three. 2. Sometimes, looking at the big picture doesn’t help. Writing was not going terribly well the last little while—and by … Continue reading Three things I’ve learned recently
Wonder-Work: Selected Sonnets of Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg received a silver medal in the 2024 Illumination Book Awards. These awards aim to “shine a light” on the best new titles written from a Christian worldview. See the award announcement on their web site here (scroll down to find the Poetry category).
Sally Ito, Sarah Klassen and I have collaborated on translating the poetry of Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg (1633-1694), an Austrian writer whose work really deserves a wider readership. Our new collection, Wonder-Work: Selected Sonnets of Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg, was just published by CMU Press, and will have its official launch on Friday, January 19 at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg. The event will also be streamed on YouTube.
My second book will get a second debut! Thanks to a new program initiated by the Manitoba Writers’ Guild to help its members launch their books, Cattail Skyline will have a live launch on Saturday, April 22, 2:00 p.m., in the Artspace Building, 100 Arthur St. in Winnipeg. This event is free and open to the public.
The shortlist for the 2022 Manitoba Book Awards is now out, and Cattail Skyline is on it! My book was nominated for the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry along with collections by Sarah Ens, Laurent Poliquin, Joel Robert Ferguson, and Tamar Rubin. Read the complete shortlist here, and check the MBA’s Facebook page to see the covers of all the shortlisted books.
The first two reviews of Cattail Skyline are out: by Kim Fahner at periodicities, and by Michael Edwards for the League of Canadian Poets. And I was very pleased to be interviewed for Rupert’s Land News, for their poetry-themed February issue.