In the Plague Year: Poems by W.H. New Oakville, ON: Rock’s Mills Press, 2021 $20.00 / 9781772442366 Reviewed by Gary Geddes * Early on in the first year of the pandemic, I received a letter from my friend Mark Mordue in Australia, to say he’d written a sequence of poems, only available digitally, about the…
Read more 1377 Going viral: plague’s the thing
The new British Columbia Review by Richard Mackie * As of today, February 10th 2022, The Ormsby Review will be known as The British Columbia Review. This change comes with the strong endorsement of the two Boards that have guided The Ormsby Review through the last several years. Named after Margaret Anchoretta Ormsby (1909-1996), a…
Read more 1376 The new British Columbia Review
The Ventriloquist: Poems from the Womb of War by Gary Geddes Oakville, ON: Rock’s Mills Press, 2022 $22.00 / 9781772442403 Reviewed by Art (Sean Arthur) Joyce * The Ventriloquist Speaks: Making Meaning as an Act of Cultural Defiance In this post-everything era, for a writer to seek meaning is practically a revolutionary act. Poet Gary…
Read more 1373 The ventriloquist speaks
Pebble Swing by Isabella Wang Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2021 $18.95 / 9780889714069 Reviewed by Grace Lau * The dedication at the beginning of Pebble Swing contains a quote about love, and with every re-read, I still marvel at how love spills so generously from the pages. To be clear, the vessels are sometimes pain and…
Read more 1371 Winter in Gastown
Imagined Truths: Myths from a Draft-Dodging Poet by Richard Lemm New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2021 $21.95 / 9781990160066 Reviewed by Heidi Greco * Puzzled. That’s the feeling I occasionally had while reading this far-reaching memoir. It’s far-reaching not only in the years it covers — from the 1950s to today — but also in the…
Read more 1366 More than an essay on Canada
Finding Nothing: The Vangardes, 1959-1975 by Gregory Betts Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021 $85.00 / 9781487505318 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Vancouver Poetry Rocked in the 1960s. An Already Lively Poetry Scene Got a Jolt With the Arrival of the Americans I’m a poetry fan. Whitman, Neruda, Frost, Akhmatova, Shakespeare, Atwood. Yes, Margaret Atwood…
Read more 1354 Vancouver avant-garde poets
Best Canadian Poetry 2021 by Souvankham Thammavongsa (editor; series editor Anita Lahey) Windsor, ON: Biblioasis, 2021 $22.95 / 9781771964395 Reviewed by Heidi Greco * Year-end lists often have a way of dragging themselves into the new year. Witness the slowest of all these accolades, the Academy Awards, with their Oscars for best films. They’re not…
Read more 1347 Pandemic poets: year one
Bramah and the Beggar Boy by Renée Sarojini Saklikar Gibsons: Nightwood Editions (blewointment), 2021 $26.95 / 9780889714021 Reviewed by John Lent * Renée Sarojini Saklikar’s Bramah and the Beggar Boy is a stunning achievement, a magnificent piece of writing. Like Ursula K. Leguin’s EarthSea Trilogy or Haruki Murakami’s The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, or John…
Read more 1342 A wild and enclosed garden
INTERVIEW: Russell Thornton with The Ormsby Review In “Greek Fire,” one of the poems in Russell Thornton’s astonishing new collection, the central image is of fire burning through water: “water is a bridge / for a fire to come into the world.” This image also illuminates the driving force that animates the poems in Answer to Blue…
Read more 1335 Interview with Russell Thornton
Open Every Window: A Memoir by Jane Munro Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2021 $28.95 / 9781771622967 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * The positive image of opening windows infuses Jane Munro’s memoir even when life is fraught with what seems like insurmountable challenges. From an early age, it’s clear that Munro wanted to write, and…
Read more 1325 Home, yoga, dementia
Lost Family: A Memoir by John Barton Montréal: Véhicule Press (Signal Editions), 2020 $17.95 / 9781550655551 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson * Whatever one’s final judgment on John Barton’s latest book — and mine is overwhelmingly positive — one thing is clear: it raises a number of important critical issues. Is the medium of poetry suitable for something that…
Read more 1315 Sonnets & tantalizing snapshots
A writers’ tribute to Ron Hatch by Richard Mackie and Ronsdale authors * Editor’s note: a courteous elderly gentleman used to stop by my office at UBC when I was book reviews editor at BC Studies between 2011 and 2016. This was Ron Hatch, a retired professor of English at UBC and publisher of Ronsdale…
Read more 1312 A writers’ tribute to Ron Hatch
emerge 21: The Writer’s Studio Anthology by Emma Cleary, Raoul Fernandes, Dayna Mahannah, Christina Myers, and KT Wagner (editors), with a foreword by Renée Sarojini Saklikar Burnaby: Simon Fraser University, 2021 [price unknown] / 9781772870831 Reviewed by Michael Turner * For travellers who find reading and writing an essential service, I’m sure there is at…
Read more 1311 The land of reading and writing
First by Arleen Paré London, ON: Brick Books, 2021 $20.00 / 9781771315425 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * The latest book of poems by Governor-General’s Award winner Arleen Paré, First, delves into her first friendship and moves out into broader considerations of the role of memory and creation of personal worlds. Paré dedicated the book to…
Read more 1306 The value & force of friendship
The Endless Garment by Marguerite Pigeon Hamilton, ON: Wolsak & Wynn, 2021 $18.00 / 9781989496374 Reviewed by Heidi Greco * Admiration. That’s the feeling I get when I think of authors who are able to envision a big picture for their manuscript, who can write to a unified subject or theme. Poet Marguerite Pigeon is…
Read more 1299 Cut from a cloth of desire
A Sure Connection by W.M Herring Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2021 $19.95 / 9781989689288 Reviewed by Danny Peart * In A Sure Connection, a first collection of 69 poems on a number of themes, W.M. (Wendy) Herring shows that she is fully prepared to do the work of a poet. Born in Quebec, Herring…
Read more 1297 Here to celebrate the moon
Word Problems: Poems by Ian Williams Toronto: Coach House Press, 2020 $21.95 / 9781552454145 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * The title of Ian Williams’ latest poetry may be Word Problems, but it could just as easily have been World Problems. The poems tend to explore how language both prevents and allows communication and how difficult…
Read more 1292 Circling lines & opening spaces
INTERVIEW: Ellie Sawatzky with The Ormsby Review Ellie Sawatzky is a writer originally from Kenora, ON. A finalist for the 2019 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and the recipient of CV2’s 2017 Foster Poetry Prize, her work has been published widely in literary journals and anthologies such as Grain, The Fiddlehead, PRISM International, Best Canadian…
Read more 1291 Interview with Ellie Sawatzky
Mute Swan: Poems for Maria Queen of the World by Lesley-Anne Evans Toronto: The St. Thomas Poetry Series, 2021 $20.00 / 9781928095071 Reviewed by Cole Klassen * Mary and the swan: feminine symbols too often detached from reality 34 years ago, Lesley-Anne Evans was excommunicated from her fundamentalist evangelical church for being engaged to a…
Read more 1284 A voice for the mute swan
Answer to Blue by Russell Thornton Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2021 $18.95 / 9781550179675 Reviewed by Susan McCaslin * Russell Thornton’s Answer to Blue (Harbour Publishing, 2021) is a tour de force of finely crafted, thematically linked poems. Its evocative title is drawn from D.H. Lawrence’s poem, “Flowers and Men” where Lawrence concludes: “Tell me,…
Read more 1283 Talking a blue streak