ESSAYS & ARTICLES





Sometimes You Need a Record of Your Life: Lisa Robertson and William Wordsworth. Arc Poetry Magazine 77: Summer 2015.

A Quotient of Eggs: The Empathetic Imagination of Elise Partridge. Arc Poetry Magazine 77: Summer 2015.

A Tale of Four Storytellers. All Lit Up blog, March 31, 2015.

Gained in Translation. Biblioasis International Translation Series Blog, July 2014

On Peter Van Toorn's "Mountain Leaf". Canadian Notes & Queries 89, Winter/Spring 2014.

The Mountain Came to Him: Situating Irving Layton in the Context of Black Mountain Poetics. Canadian Poetry 73, Fall/Winter 2013.

A Walking Shadow. The New Quarterly 25, Winter 2013.

The Moving Scene. Contemporary Poetry Review, October 2012.

Basic Training. "Word Power" column in Reader's Digest, September 2012.

A Bite out of "The Bight": Elizabeth Bishop's Diction as Depth. The Worcester Review, 32:1&2. 2011.

A Touch of Sham: Shamanism and Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus. UNB English Department Journal of Student Writing. 33. October 2011.

Paws to Read. Reader's Digest, October 2011.

Ellipses and Interstices: on the Poetry of Richard Outram. Richard Outram: Essays on His Works. Guernica Editions, 2011.

Wonder Workers ("That's Outrageous" column). Reader's Digest, September 2011.

Docteur Igloo. Sˇlections, February 2011. (Translation of story originally published in Reader's Digest.)

Blog posts for Best Canadian Poetry on Virtuosity, Originality, Subjectivity and Elizabeth Bishop. January-February 2011.

Doctor Igloo. Reader's Digest, October 2010.

Reviewing with Andre. Canadian Notes & Queries (online, July 2010).

Peeing Unrepentantly into Infinity: John Smith's Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. Canadian Notes & Queries 78 (Winter 2009/10). Revised and expanded version of essay originally published by Maisonneuve.

Correspondences Everywhere: On Robyn Sarah's "Echoes in November." Arc 63 (Winter 2010). Honourable Mention, National Magazine Awards.

A Muddled, Duller Place: Facts and Speculations About the Origins of "Achromatope."
Approaches to Poetry: The Pre-Poem Moment, Frog Hollow Press, October 2009.

The Other Outram. Arc Poetry Annual 2010 (Summer 2009).

Trower Jarring the Ballad. Arc Poetry Annual 2010 (Summer 2009).

Eskimo Nell: Anon North of 60 (and below the belt). Arc 61 (Winter 2009).

How Poems Work: A.G. Bailey's "Elm.". Arc (July 2008).

Masks and Alterities, Responsibilities and Obligations: On the Poetry and
Prose of Peter Sanger. Canadian Notes & Queries 71, June 2007.

Sunken Ships and Salvage: on the Poetry of Kenneth Leslie. Arc 58, Summer 2007.

Out of the Garrison and into the Garret. Northern Poetry Review, May 2007.

Jabbed With Plenty: Peter Van Toorn and the Canadian Condition. Language Acts,
Vehicule Press, March 2007. (Reprinted from Canadian Notes & Queries).

Cornucopious: Canada's Poetry Publishing Bonanza. Arts News Canada (March 2007).

How Poems Work: Richard Outram's "Barbed Wire.". Arc (October 2006).

Wake Up and Smell the Harbour. Maisonneuve 21 (Fall 2006).

How Poems Work: Peter Van Toorn's "Mountain Leaf.". Arc (September 2006).

Jabbed With Plenty: Peter Van Toorn and the Canadian Condition. Canadian
Notes & Queries 69 (Spring/Summer 2006).

How Poems Work: James McIntyre's "Ode on the Mammoth Cheese.". Arc (August 2006).

Faulty Lines: The Poetry and Poetics of Don McKay. PoetryReviews.ca (May 2006).

Getting into Nelligan. Contemporary Verse 2 28:2 (Autumn 2005).

Eyes on the Prize. Bookninja (March 2005).

The Creativity of Dictators. Maisonneuve 14 (April/May 2005).

Workshop Lessons. Quill & Quire (January 2005).

Lost in Translation. The Review (Fall 2004), reprinted from The Zed Factor.

May I See Your Poetic Licence, Sir? Bookninja (June 2004).

How Poems Work: P.K. Page's "The Mole." Arc February 2004.

How Poems Work: Peter Trower's "Industrial Poem." Arc January 2004.

How Poems Work: R.G. Everson's "He Loved in All Directions." Arc December 2003.

Strawman Dialectics (a response to Jan Zwicky's "The Ethics of a Negative Review")
. Books in Canada (February 2004) and online at Bookninja.

'My Animal Instincts are Always Right...': Benito Mussolini's approach to diplomatic
relations, 1922-1940. Pangaea (Dalhousie University, 1999).



INTERVIEWS

Interview with Nigel Beale:


Interview with Jacob Lee Bachinger. Humber Literary Review, Spring/Summer 2014 (1:1).

Interview with Micheline Maylor. FreeFall, Spring/Summer 2012 (22:2).

Questionless Book Interview with George Murray. Open Book Toronto, March 2012.

Interview with Kathryn Mockler. The Rusty Toque, September 2011.

Interview with Jesse Eckerlin. The Puritan, August 2011.

Interview with Maurice Mierau. The Winnipeg Review, June 2011.

Interview with Micaela, a student at Malvern Collegiate Institute (Toronto), March 2011.

Interview with Steven Stewart, a student at Okanagan College, March 2011.

"One Question Interview" with Alex Boyd, January 10, 2011.

Interview with Anita Lahey, on the subject of Joshua Trotter's All This Could Be Yours in Arc 65, Winter 2011.

Interview with Ian Letourneau on the subject of publishing a second book, June 19, 2010.

Interview with Susanne Cockrell and Ted Purves for The Meadow Network, June 2010.

Interview with Holly Gordon in The Coast, April 15, 2010. Also interviewed are Anna Quon and Ryan Turner.

"8-Ball" interview with Jonathan Ball, January 8, 2010.

Interview with Alessandro Porco, Maisonneuve, November, 2009.

"12 or 20 Questions" interview with Rob McLennan, June 24, 2009.

Interview with Mark Medley at The National Post, April 3, 2009.

Interview with Don Denton at Literary Photographer, July 7, 2008.

Interview with Nathan Whitlock about Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets
at Open Book Toronto, June 11, 2008.

Interview with Finn Harvor at Conversations in the Book Trade, January 2008.

Interview with John Mutford, about Unsettled and other sundries at
The Book Mine Set, December 2007.

Interview with Linda Besner, focusing on my poem "The Exterminator's Song to the
Silverfish," on CITR radio, March 2007.

Interview with Dani Couture about the Unsettled Tour at Northern
Poetry Review, April 2006.



REVIEWS

Elena Johnson, Field Notes for the Alpine Tundra, Arc Poetry Magazine, May 5, 2016.

Garth Martens, Prologue for the Age of Consequence, Arc Poetry Magazine, April 15, 2015.

Ricardo Sternberg, Some Dance, Vallum 11:2, October 2014. Reprinted in FreeFall 25:1, Winter 2015.

Adam Sol, Complicity, The Telegraph Journal, April 12, 2014.

Goran Simic (tr. Amela Simic), From Sarajevo, with Sorrow, Biblioasis International Translation Blog, April 2014. (Excerpt of Career Limiting Moves)

Suzanne Buffam, Past Imperfect, & Pino Coluccio, First Comes Love, Lemon Hound, March 2014. (Excerpt of Career Limiting Moves)

Dan O'Brien, War Reporter, Arc 73, winter 2014.

Carmelita McGrath, Escape Velocity, Arc, February 2014.

David O'Meara, A Pretty Sight, Arc, January 2014.

Mark Callanan & James Langer, The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry, Arc, August 2013.

Walid Bitar, Divide & Rule, Arc, March 2013.

Bruce Taylor, No End in Strangeness: Poems Selected and New, Arc 68, summer 2012. Winner of the 2013 Critic's Desk Prize.

Evan Jones & Todd Swift, Modern Canadian Poets: An Anthology, Canadian Notes & Queries 84, spring 2012. Co-published in Contemporary Poetry Review, April 2012.

Julie Bruck, Monkey Ranch, Quill & Quire, April 2012.

D.G. Jones, The Stream Exposed with all its Stones: Collected Poems, Arc 67, winter 2012.

Peter Norman, At the Gates of the Theme Park and Michael Harris, Circus, Fiddlehead 249, autumn 2011.

Jim Johnstone, Patternicity, Arc 65, winter 2011.

Jeff Latosik, Tiny, Frantic, Stronger, Arc 65, winter 2011.

Charles Bruce, The Mulgrave Road, Canadian Notes & Queries 80, summer/fall 2010.

Beth Bachmann, Temper, Arc 64, summer 2010.

Damian Rogers, Paper Radio, Arc 64, summer 2010.

David Zieroth, The Fly in Autumn, Arc 64, summer 2010.

Alice Major, Memory's Daughter, Quill & Quire, June 2010.

Steve McOrmond, The Good News About Armaggedon, Quill & Quire, June 2010.

Camille Martin, Sonnets, Quill & Quire, May 2010.

Suzanne Hancock, Cast from Bells, Quill & Quire, May 2010.

Steven Heighton, Patient Frame, Quill & Quire, April 2010.

Suzanne Buffam, The Irrationalist, Quill & Quire, April 2010.

Joe Denham, Windstorm, Quill & Quire, Jan.-Feb. 2010.

Stephen Rowe, Never More There, Quill & Quire, Jan.-Feb. 2010.

George Whipple, Swim Class and Other Poems, Arc 63, Winter 2010.

Craig Poile, True Concessions, Arc 63, Winter 2010.

Catherine Graham, The Red Element, Arc 63, Winter 2010.

Robert Bringhurst, Selected Poems, Arc 63, Winter 2010.

Margaret Avison, I Am Here and Not Not-There, Quill & Quire, December 2009.

Soraya Peerbaye, Poems for the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names,
Quill & Quire, November 2009.

John Barton, Hymn, Quill & Quire, October 2009.

Lorna Crozier, Small Beneath the Sky, Quill & Quire, September 2009.

Serge Patrice Thibodeau; Jo-Anne Elder, trans., One, Quill & Quire, July/August 2009.

Souvankham Thammavongsa, Found, Arc 62, Summer 2009.

Walid Bitar, The Empire's Missing Links, Arc 62, Summer 2009.

Lisa Robertson, Lisa Robertson's Magenta Soul Whip, Quill & Quire,
May 2009.

Karen Solie, Pigeon, Quill & Quire, May 2009.

Margaret Avison, Listening, Quill & Quire, April 2009.

James Langer, Gun Dogs, Quill & Quire, April 2009.

Suzanne Buffam, Past Imperfect and Pino Coluccio, First Comes Marriage,
Canadian Notes & Queries 75, Winter 2009.

Tim Bowling: The Book Collector, Quill & Quire, January/February 2009.

Don Domanski: Earthly Pages: The Poetry of Don Domanski, ed. Brian Bartlett,
Arc 61, Winter 2009. Winner of the Critic's Desk Award.

Matt Rader: Living Things, Arc 61, Winter 2009.

Margaret Christakos: What Stirs, Quill & Quire, December 2008.

David O'Meara: Noble Gas, Penny Black; Adam Sol: Jeremiah, Ohio;
Shannon Stewart: Penny Dreadful, Quill & Quire, November 2008.

Jeanette Lynes: It's Hard Being Queen: The Dusty Springfield Poems,
Quill & Quire, October 2008.

Karen Houle: During, Quill & Quire, August 2008.

John Newlove: A Long Continual Argument: Selected Poems, Arc 60, Summer 2008.

Richard Outram: South of North, Arc 60, Summer 2008.

Eric Miller: The Day in Moss, Quill & Quire, June 2008.

Colin Browne: The Shovel, Quill & Quire, May 2008.

Domenico Capilongo: I Thought Elvis Was Italian, Quill & Quire, May 2008.

Kevin Connolly: Revolver, Quill & Quire, Apr. 2008.

Tim Lilburn: Orphic Politics, Quill & Quire, Mar. 2008.

Randall Maggs: Night Work: The Terry Sawchuck Poems, Quill & Quire, Mar. 2008.

Tim Bowling: The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture,
Vancouver Review 16, Winter 2008.

Earle Birney: One Muddy Hand: Selected Poems, Arc 59, Winter 2008.

J.D. Black: Black Velvet Elvis, Arc 59, Winter 2008.

Fraser Sutherland: The Matuschka Case: Selected Poems, Arc 59, Winter 2008.

Robert Bringhurst, Everywhere Being is Dancing, Quill & Quire, Dec. 2007.

George Ellenbogen, Morning Gothic: New and Selected Poems; Monica Kidd,
Actualities; Sarah Lang, The Work of Days; Stephen Brockwell,
The Real Made Up, Quill & Quire, Dec. 2007.

Margaret Atwood, The Door, Quill & Quire, Sept. 2007.

Barbara Nickel, Domain, Quill & Quire, July/Aug. 2007.

Agnes Walsh, Going Around with Bachelors; Alex Boyd, Making Bones
Walk; Tom Wayman, High Speed Through Shoaling Water; & Kenneth Sherman,
Black River, Quill & Quire, June 2007.

Thomas Heise, Horror Vacui, Vallum 4:2/5:1, Spring 2007.

Lorri Neilsen Glenn, Combustion, Quill & Quire, May 2007.

Dennis Lee, Yesno, Quill & Quire, April 2007.

Shane Rhodes, The Bindery, Quill & Quire, March 2007.

Robert Finley, ed., A Ragged Pen & K.I. Press, Types of Canadian Women, Volume II, Quill & Quire, January/February 2007.

Mark Abley, The Silver Palace Restaurant, Arc 57, Winter 2006.

Mary Dalton, Red Ledger, Quill & Quire, December 2006.

Robert Allen, The Encantadas, Quill & Quire, November 2006.

Anne Szumigalski, When Earth Leaps Up, Quill & Quire, October 2006.

Brian Bartlett, Wanting the Day: Selected Poems, Canadian Notes & Queries, August 2006.

Eric Miller, In the Scaffolding, Arc 56, Summer 2006.

Christopher Wiseman, In John Updike's Room, Arc 56, Summer 2006.

Patrick Warner, There, There, Arc 56, Summer 2006.

Steven Price, An Anatomy of Keys, Quill & Quire, June 2006.

Peter Sanger, Aiken Drum, Quill & Quire, May 2006.

George Elliott Clarke, Black, Quill & Quire, April 2006. [NB: This review reflects my reading of an early draft manuscript mistakenly submitted to Q&Q by the publisher instead of page proofs. The finished book is much better than this review might lead one to believe.]

Lynn Crosbie, Liar, Quill & Quire, April 2006.

Amanda Lamarche, The Clichˇist, Quill & Quire, January 2006.

Jen Currin, The Sleep of Four Cities, Quill & Quire, January 2006.

Stephen Brockwell and Peter Norman, Wild Clover Honey and The Beehive: 28 Sonnets on the Sonnet, Arc 55, Winter 2005.

Brenda Schmidt, More than Three Feet of Ice, Arc 55, Winter 2005.

Steven Laird, Charlatan, Arc 55, Winter 2005.

David Seymour, Inter Alia, Quill & Quire, December 2005.

Shawna Lemay, Blue Feast, Quill & Quire, December 2005.

Don McKay, Deactivated West 100, Quill & Quire, November 2005.

Karen Solie, Modern and Normal, Quill & Quire, November 2005.

Goran Simic, From Sarajevo, with Sorrow, Books in Canada 34:7, October 2005.

Michael deBeyer, Change in a Razor-backed Season, Quill & Quire, October 2005.

George Sipos, Anything but the Moon, Quill & Quire, October 2005.

Frank Davey, Back to the War, The Vancouver Rain Review of Books, August-October 2005.

Lazar Sarna, He Claims He Is the Direct Heir, Quill & Quire, September 2005.

Brian Joseph Davis, Portable Altamont, Quill & Quire, September 2005.

Barry Dempster, The Burning Alphabet, Quill & Quire, August 2005.

Lyle Neff, Bizarre Winery Tragedy, Quill & Quire, August 2005.

Jennifer LoveGrove, I Should Never Have Fired the Sentinel, Quill & Quire, July 2005.

Matt Rader, Miraculous Hours, Quill & Quire, July 2005.

Al Purdy, Yours Al: The Collected Letters of Al Purdy & Breathing Fire II:
Canada's New Poets, Canadian Notes & Queries, Summer 2005.

Harold Rhenisch, Free Will. Arc 54, Summer 2005. Winner of Arc's Critic's Desk Award.

Todd Swift, Rue du Regard. Arc 54, Summer 2005.

Jan Zwicky, 37 Small Songs and 13 Silences. Quill & Quire, June 2005.

Michael Kenyon, The Sutler. Quill & Quire, June 2005.

Alessandro Porco, The Jill Kelly Poems. The Danforth Review, May 2005.

Alice Burdick, Simple Master. Dialogue review with Chris Jennings on Bookninja, April 2005.

Shannon Bramer, The Refrigerator Memory. Quill & Quire, May 2005.

Erin Mourˇ, Little Theatres. Quill & Quire, May 2005.

Kevin Connolly, Drift. Quill & Quire, April 2005.

Carmine Starnino, A Lover's Quarrel: Essays and Reviews. The Danforth Review, March 2005.

Peter Trower, Haunted Hills & Hanging Valleys: Selected Poems 1969-2004.
The Danforth Review, March 2005 and The Vancouver Rain Review of Books,
May-August 2005.

Lorna Crozier, Whetstone. Quill & Quire, March 2005.

Walid Bitar, Bastardi Puri. Quill & Quire, February 2005.

Shane Neilson, The Beaten-Down Elegies. Arc 53, Winter 2004.

David Solway, Franklin's Passage. Arc 53, Winter 2004.

Roo Borson, Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida; Tim Bowling The Memory Orchard;
David Manicom, The Burning Eaves; John Terpstra, Disarmament,
Jan Zwicky, Robinson's Crossing. Trialogue review with Alex Good
and Steven Laird at Goodreports. December 2004.

Gil Adamson, Ashland; Tim Bowling, The Witness Ghost; Noah Leznoff,
Outside Magic. Canadian Literature.

Triny Finlay, Splitting Off. Books in Canada, November 2004.

Irving Layton, A Wild Peculiar Joy; Anne Wilkinson, Heresies; Peter Van Toorn, Mountain Tea; Paulette Jiles, Celestial Navigation. Books in Canada, October 2004.

Katrine Marie Guldager, Crash, trans. Anne Mette Lundtofte. The Review, Fall 2004.

Michael deBeyer, Rural Night Catalogue. The Fiddlehead 220, Summer 2004.

The Backyards of Heaven & New British Poetry. The Danforth Review, June 2004.

Russell Thornton, House Built of Rain. Arc 52, Summer 2004.

Stuart Ross, Hey Crumbling Balcony! Poems Selected and New. Arc 52, Summer 2004. Winner of the Critic's Desk Award.

Tom Henihan, A Further Exile; Evan Jones; Nothing Fell Today but Rain; Sharon Nelson, This Flesh, These Words. The Danforth Review, June 2004.

Barry Dempster, The Words Wanting Out. The Rain Review of Books, 2:3, May/June 2004.

Mark Callanan, Scarecrow & Robert Moore, So Rarely in Our Skins. Books in Canada, May 2004.

Marius Kociejowski, So Dance the Lords of Language. The Danforth Review, May 2004.

Peter Van Toorn, Mountain Tea. Dialogue review with George Murray on
Bookninja, March 2004.

Mary Dalton, Merrybegot. Trialogue review, with Steven Laird & John MacKenzie, on
Bookninja, December 2003.



THE ZED FACTOR

My column on Maisonneuve's website in 2004. (Links have expired, unfortunately.)

IÕll Scratch Your Back: On Jurisimprudence and the GGs Go Leaving Strange: Just Go (The poems of Patrick Lane) Killing Trees and Sawing Logs: On the Harvesting of Young Canadian Poets The Journey of the Angry Young Poet-Critics into the Valley of Fredericton (S)elective Reading: Reconciling Reviewing's Dark Side (Reprinted as a Letter to the Editor in Books in Canada 34:1 (January/February 2005)) Lost in Translation John Smith: Pissing Unrepentantly into Infinity Ball Hockey on a Short Street MakinÕ It Work: Appreciating Canada's Blue-Collar Poets The Redress of Poetry Awards: New Plumes for the Griffin The Griffin Prize for Stuff Vaguely Resembling Poetry Verse Versus Verse