Category: Poetry

“Judevine” Reviews

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There are just two weekends left of David Budbill’s Judevine at Montpelier, Vermont’s Lost Nation Theater. I expect these shows to sell out, so if you plan to attend, get your tickets in advance to guarantee yourself a seat.

With our opening weekend behind us, we’ve received thoughtful reviews from Montpelier’s Times Argus and Burlington’s Seven Days, which, if you’ve never seen the play, will give you some sense of what to expect. Seven Days‘ Alex Brown describes Judevine as “drama with the harmony of a choral work; poetry built of clothing, posture and accent; spectacle found in the jumble of a junk shop’s wares; tragedy bolted to poverty and comedy born of haplessness. It’s swearing, bitching and moaning, some of it aimed right at its Vermont setting. It’s the humor of petty gossip and a dozen daily battles against insensitivity that finally allow compassion to drive itself up like spring’s first crocus.”

Hope you’ll catch it while you can!
Tickets and showtimes here.

Poem of the Year Shortlist

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I’m very honoured to have two (two?!) poems on the 2017 shortlist for Poem of the Year by the editors of Arc Poetry Magazine. Arc is a consistently excellent, surprising, and diverse Canadian journal of poetry. I’m excited that these poems caught their eye, as well as to be in such stellar company.

You can read all of the shortlisted poems at Arc‘s website and even cast a vote there for the Readers’ Choice Award.

Writing from the Barracks

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gallery-opening_faa_2Last year I was honoured to be selected as an Artist-in-Residence by the Fredericton Arts Alliance, which hosts a group of local artists each summer in the historic Barracks District of downtown Fredericton. For the week-long residency, I was paired with visual artist Allison Green, who that week was painting on silk. The theme of the residency was “New Ground,” inspired by the arrival of thousands of Syrian refugees to the area in the previous months, and Allison and I thought and talked a lot about notions of place, home, and belonging as we worked and chatted with visitors to our little studio in the Barracks.

The work developed by us and the summer’s other Artists-in-Residence will be exhibited this spring at the Fredericton Public Library between March 3 and 30, with a special opening reception on Wednesday, March 8. I am contributing to the exhibit some new writing, including dialogue sketches and poems that grew out of the residency. I’m excited to be included in this exciting and diverse group of artists. Please come visit if you’re in the area.

Anthology of French-Heritage Women

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I’m honoured to be included in a new anthology of writings by women of French heritage called, Heliotrope: French-Heritage Women Create. Assembled by Franco-American scholar Rhea Coté Robbins, the volume is being published in recognition of the 20th anniversary of the Franco-American Women’s Institute (FAWI) and includes the voices of more than 100 women, including novelist Annie Proulx, fiddler Donna Hébert, Susan Poulin (aka Ida LeClair), and myself. The anthology is just part of FAWI’s ongoing mission promote the contributions of French heritage women, both by looking back to the brave accomplishments of previous generations and looking forward to capture North American French culture as present, vibrant, and continually evolving. It’s great to be included, and I can’t wait to learn from the other contributors through their work.

“From Away”: FAA Residency

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In July I’ll be participating in the Fredericton Arts Alliance Artist in Residence Program. This year’s residents have been asked to address the theme “New Ground,” to explore notions of place and home. These are frequent concerns in my work, but being new to Fredericton, this theme is especially resonant for me at the moment, and I look forward to concentrating on them during my residency.

I’ve decided to spend my residency exploring the phrase “come from away,” which is used by Maritimers to describe newcomers from other places — “newcomers” being a relative term; it may take generations to lose the “come from away” origin label. Being a “CFA” myself, I want to better understand what this phrase means: Where is the boundary between “here” and “away”? How long must one live in the Maritimes to be from “here”? Is there anything people who are “from away” have in common? What are the characteristics that separate Maritimers (or New Brunswickers, or Frederictonians) from we others? During my residency, I’ll invite visitors to teach me about their conceptions of place and home, and I’ll then use their input to develop new poems. I’m excited to learn and to work. (I’m also excited to share the residency space with New Brunswick textile artist and sculptor Allison Green!)

If you’ll be in Fredericton July 25-29, please come visit us at the Soldier’s Barracks, off Queen Street. If you’d like to contribute your ideas about what it means to be “from away,” feel free to visit my residency page and add your comments anytime.

New Poetry Reviews

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My reviews of a handful of new Canadian poetry titles are up now at the Montreal Review of Books. This issue’s poetry coverage includes new collections by Carmine Starnino, Joshua Trotter, Ilona Martonfi, Margo Wheaton, and Michael Prior.

My first goal in writing poetry reviews is always to encourage other people to read poetry. I would respectfully disagree with William Carlos Williams, who said, “It is difficult to get the news from poems”; I think there is plenty of news to be gotten from this crop of new titles.

Profile @ Open Book Ontario

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You can tell by the date of my last post (or I can, at least) that updating this site hasn’t been at the top of my list of priorities in recent months. But in the spirit of Patti Smith, I’ve been working: on new prose and poetry, some early sketches for a new play, my #hoems, and some very important and inspiring reading. I’ve also been parenting on a fairly full-time basis, which has defined the rhythm of my days absolutely. Other than a few book reviews here and there, I haven’t been sending my work out into the world on as regular a basis, unless you count fulfilling orders for the DVD of Piecework: When We Were French. I produced the DVD so that my solo show would outlive my ability to tour with it, and I’ve been happy to watch it do that, setting out one envelope at a time, destined for mailboxes back home in Vermont and in more exotic locales, like Paris and North Dakota.

With the start of a new year, it was a special pleasure to be the subject of a profile by Ottawa literary maven rob mcclennan in Open Book Ontario, and especially to answer rob’s questions about my work, past and present. It’s always clarifying to be asked a few clear and bracing questions. I can only hope I matched rob’s clarity with my answers. Talking about my work made me look forward to the year ahead. I hope to have more updates for you soon!

On Writing and Parenting

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I have been following admiringly the Ottawa Poetry Newsletter’s occasional series On Writing. Amanda Earl’s piece on using poetry to shepherd herself through a major health crisis lingered with me for weeks, and I identified with Faizel Deen’s thoughts on the writer’s isolation. Mostly, I have coveted the opportunity to contemplate why I write, too.

My young son makes most contemplation difficult these days. I started to write about writing in brief bursts, as thoughts occurred to me, trying to trace my writerly lineage and articulate where I came from as a writer. But always my son intruded, figuratively where not literally. And so I let him. I started from the present rather than the past, from his words rather than my own.

I’m proud to say that my essay on writing (and parenting) is #11 in the series, and is up now on the Ottawa Poetry Newsletter.

Interview with Open Book Ontario

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Today, in conjunction with the launch of my chapbook “Other Brief Discourses,” I’m featured on the website of Open Book Ontario. I recently participated in their new author interview series focusing on reading, which gave me the chance to talk about some books that I love.

Since my recent posts have focused on themes related to Piecework: When We Were French, it seems fitting to mention one of the books I’ve been reading lately. I highly recommend Jacques Cartier Errant / Jacques Cartier Discovers America, by Franco-American playwright, Gregoire Chabot. While it was written more than 30 years ago, and some of the themes do feel a bit dated, Chabot’s humour and insight are a pleasure. He writes in a French that will be recognizable to those who grew up speaking (or, like me, listening to) French in New England (although this volume also includes English translations by the author). What would Jacques Cartier think if he saw us today?

In lieu of a complete book report, I thought I would link to this beautiful open letter to Chabot, written by David Vermette. It addresses some of the questions about Franco-American identity shared by my generation, for whom language and culture are no longer as deeply interconnected as they were for our elders. We are, according to Vermette, a new beast: “The Anglophone Franco.”

Meanwhile, on the Piecework front, my Indiegogo fundraising campaign has passed the $5,000 mark, and we are approaching 75% of our overall fundraising goal. We have just 18 days left to fill the gap! If you haven’t donated yet, I hope you’ll consider pitching in today to support continuing the discussion in which Gregoire Chabot, David Vermette, my characters, and I are engaged. Click here to read more about it.