THE ZED FACTOR

My column on Maisonneuve's website in 2004. (Free access, but registration with the site is required, unfortunately.)

I’ll 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 Makin’ 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

ESSAYS

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 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

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 Clichéist, 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 for brief reviews.

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 Mouré, 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, forthcoming, TBA.

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 Arc's Critic's Desk Award for brief reviews.

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. Chair of trialogue review, with Steven Laird & John MacKenzie, on Bookninja, December 2003.