“This is why we pick up an anthology: it’s a flight of stories to be savoured, shared with a friend or two, and to find new voices and new eyes to explore.” With that said, the collection’s Toronto-centrism, tenuous cohesion, and puzzling focus raise some questions for our reviewer. —Alison Acheson reviews Women, Walking: Notes on Lives in Motion, edited by Zahra Ebrahim and Jane Farrow (Toronto: Coach House Press, 2026) $25.95 / 9781552455203
A book of “profound, playful work in two parts,” an allusive collection of prose poems 1) subverts “expectations with bold, delightful leaps of logic” and 2) communes with poets (past and present). —Jodi Lundgren reviews Dismantling, by Eve Joseph (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2026) $20.00 / 9781772142563
“We walk into his past of Rubik’s cubes, Pope John Paul, mullets, rotary phones, and record players and see a young man watching others emanating something he identifies with, but cannot put his finger on it, nor act on his desires at first.” Catherine McNeil reviews Soundtrack: A Lyric Memoir, by Michael V. Smith (Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781771669498
Beauty, hope, life, death, despair: a roving, eclectic collection of poems ponders “how people come together via the process of thinking things through” as it reflects “on very hard things like mental health, homelessness, and the sometimes invisible distinctions between life, death, and love.” —Harold Rhensisch reviews Existence In All Its Uncoverable Beauty, by Calvin White (Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2026) $19.95 / 9781989689981
“Neil Surkan tells The British Columbia Review this collection, Empties, ‘spans five years of writing, revising, and doubting…and growing.’ But also present in this collection is fatherhood, and being a father during a time of climate change and political upheaval.” Trevor Marc Hughes interviews current Poet Laureate of Nanaimo Neil Surkan.
Sophomore poetry collection reflects a “wryness of humour and breadth of understanding.” Here is “a fine collection of finely-wrought poems in a fresh and feminist voice that is a pleasure to read,” our reviewer reports. —gillian harding-russell reviews Perfect Weather, by Jamella Hagen (Sackville: Gaspereau Press, 2026) $24. 95 / 9781554472833
“Playfully serious, raucous and ribald, light-hearted and ‘heavy’ (in the ‘70s sense), Pearl is the final note in a symphony that rings out long after the applause has ended, and the musicians have packed up their instruments and left. Pearl is full of wisdom, full of beautiful gems, and so earns its title, but it also pays homage to Bowering’s mother, Pearl, in a poem appropriately placed at the centre of his book.” —Al Rempel reviews Pearl, by George Bowering (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2026) $19.95 / 9781772017137
Funny, poignant, and joyful, a poetry collection considers parenting and fatherhood. “Here is a book of wonder between a son, his father, his mother and between a father, his daughter, and her mother. A letter of charm, nuance, struggle, humour, love, and affection,” our reviewer writes. —Heather Simeney MacLeod reviews Dad Era, by Jordan Abel (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2026) $17.95 / 9781770569003
The third book of a series — and a hybrid of poetry, fantasy, and epic — is partly set on “the western shore of the continent formerly known as North America.” “It’s an opera,” our reviewer writes, “Opera is dramatic, fantastical, over-the-top, and told through appearance and surface given depth by music. A fusion in other words, an extension of lyrical song into narrative. I recommend reading this book with that structure in mind.” —Harold Rhenisch reviews Bramah’s Discovery, by Renée Sarojini Saklikar (Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2026) $26.95 / 9780889714946
“George is one of those raconteurs. The first half of Barefoot Gringo jumps from one zinger to another, all of them the kind of crowd pleaser recognizable around the social leveller of a table crowded with glasses and almost invisible through smoke.” Harold Rhenisch reviews Barefoot Gringo, by George Bowering (Vancouver: On Point Press, an imprint of UBC Press, 2026) $26.95 / 9780774890786
Whether “stuck in a forever summer” in the city or mentally revisiting a “home landscape of spruce and willow, rabbit and moose, blueberry and fireweed” (as well as “taps that don’t bring water”), a writer showcases a craving for comfort and certainty in a debut book of poems. —Joanna Streetly reviews Spruce to Cedar, by Lasänmą (Picton: Brick Books, 2026) $23.95 / 9781771316705
“Byers provides compelling vignettes of encounters with workers returning to work after injury; pre-emptive inspections of structures that could lead to repetitive strain injury; and at times antagonistic encounters with supervisors. These are stories of inspection, vigilance, witnessing, and recording.” Wendy Burton reviews Coming Home from the Candy Factory, by Jane Byers (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $24 / 9781773861746
Eclectic volume of poetry “will catch the eye of book lovers, retail workers, and tree huggers. That’s an eclectic group of people, and underlines the uniqueness of the author’s lived experience that manifests in her poems. Dickinson offers a debut that is confident in its voice and builds a world populated by bookshelves and sea urchins. If you’re a poet who works in customer service, this might be the book for you.” —Isabella Ranallo reviews Staff Picks for Invertebrates, by Zoe Dickinson (Gananoque: Guernica Editions, 2026) $22.95 / 9781778490286
“Tender, attentive to small moments of meaning within and beyond the places the poet once pushed or simply didn’t pay attention, this is poetry that, at its best, forces readers to reconsider their own histories.” —Carellin Brooks reviews Gold Star, by Emma McKenna (Toronto: Book*hug, 2026) $22.95 / 9781771669740
“[Untitled],” an excerpt from Dad Era, by Jordan Abel (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2026) $24.95 / 9781552455234
Verse-like fiction and/or novelistic lyrics, a seminal poet’s latest book dazzles our reviewer: “It’s a dream of touching people. Everyone. And the world. Which is a person, too. Even bill’s drawings are touch. His paintings are made out of gentle finger strokes on canvas. Through touch, bill makes a world.” —Harold Rhenisch reviews th book uv lost passwords 1, by bill bissett (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2025) $24.95 / 9781772016932
“Conrad Kain is a longer poem, much like David, but unlike the fictional David, Conrad Kain is biography turned into succinct and compact poetry. It is Birney at his alliterative and alluring best, and Kain is held high as the model and icon of the authentic Canadian mountain man.” Ron Dart takes a look back at the poem Conrad Kain, by Earle Birney.
Volume by “a poet in full command of her powers” examines past selves and current (middle-aged) self. And neither does it shy from irreverence: “Funny, sexy, bawdy writing like this is all too rare in Canadian poetry. Bachinsky’s work is a breath of fresh air, sure, but more importantly, her willingness to discuss such topics in no way diminishes the seriousness of her overall project.” —Carellin Brooks reviews Real Grownup, by Elizabeth Bachinsky (Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2026) $19.95 / 9780889714960
A quantum “world pushes in on an isolated self” in a batch of playful, meditative, performative, and surreal poetry. “This is hard stuff, looked at with a cold eye. It’s beautiful, fierce, profoundly defensive, smart as heck, and intrusive,” our reviewer remarks. Harold Rhenisch reviews Who Else in the Dark Headed There, by Garth Martens (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2026) $21.95 / 9781771967082
“If they are a choir, Genni Gunn, an Italo-Canadian poet and musician, translator of this volume, lifts it out of sea narrative to angel choir. Her sensibilities, like Maraini’s, bring harmony to the deliverance of a poetically nuanced story to universality.” Linda Rogers reviews The Ship for Kobe, by Dacia Maraini, translated by Genni Gunn (Hamilton: Guernica Editions, 2025) $22.95 / 9781778490019