Introducing You Break It You Buy It and Canadian Poet Lynn Tait

“Don’t judge a poet by her age or her eye-liner.” – Lynn Tait*

If I had to give Canadian poet Lynn Tait a nickname, I would call her the “cliché crusher”.

Back in June in a small Perth County, Ontario town called Mitchell, Tait walked on the stage and provided a sneak peek of her debut poetry collection You Break It You Buy It. Not only did she hold the audience’s attention with her wordplay and witty zingers, but she made people laugh.

Officially launching this September 2023 – You Break It You Buy It (Guernica Editions, 2023) by Lynn Tait

This autumn, more readers will get a chance to hear Tait read as she begins her official book tour with readings already scheduled for Whitby, Sarnia, Toronto, and London. (Scroll down this blog post for times and locations or check out the event section of my blog for future updates.)

According to Tait’s prestigious publisher Guernica Editions, “You Break It, You Buy It features poems about disconnection, misconnections: the loss of friendships and identity, our voice, our purpose. At its core, it is a collection of elegies railing against and dealing with toxic relationships, from fair-weather friends, controlling mothers to narcissists. These poems invite the reader into personal experiences, public observations, and the price we pay, positive and negative for our interactions with the media, our global and local conflicts, environmental challenges, the pandemic, the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements. She writes about the dark underside of our lives with a sense of danger, humour and of hope for reconnection in the future with our community and our world.”

From Sarnia-Lambton – A Sampling of New Non-Fiction Books

Welcome to Sarnia-Lambton, the home of several new independently published non-fiction books.

This month I gathered a list of new books* that were published during the last three to four (Covid-19 pandemic) years and the Sarnia-Lambton authors behind them. The list was so long that I divided the list into three sections: “From the Fiction Writers”, “From the Poets” and “From the Non-Fiction Writers”. Today I’m sharing work from the local non-fiction writers. Please note that some books published in 2020 were omitted as they were featured in an earlier blog post here.

FROM THE NON-FICTION WRITERS:

Surviving Siberia – One Polish Family’s Story WWII (Published 2020) by Bronislaw (Bruno) Ziokowski and Carmen Laurenza Ziolkowski (compiled by Anne Mason)

From the back cover: “Surviving Siberia is a book about one remarkable Polish family. World War II was barely underway when the Russian army invaded Poland. Within 20 minutes, the Ziolkowski family lost their home, their land, and their way of life.” These are the memories that remain.

Over 260 pages of memories including a Ziolkowski Family Album!

Carmen Ziolkowski was a well-known Sarnia writer who often wrote about her husband’s and mother-in-law’s experiences. This posthumous book was compiled and published to preserve some of those memories. A blog post about Ziolkowski’s Celebration of Life appears here.

Carmen’s husband Bruno Zioklowski also contributed to the book, sharing some of his experiences as well as those of his family.

From Sarnia-Lambton – A Poetic Sampling of New Books

Welcome to Sarnia-Lambton, the home of many award-winning poets.

This month I gathered a list of new books* that were published during the last three to four (Covid-19 pandemic) years and the Sarnia-Lambton authors behind them. The list was so long that I divided the list into three sections: “From the Fiction Writers”, “From the Poets” and “From the Non-Fiction Writers”. Today I’m sharing work from the local poets. Please note that some books published in 2020 were omitted as they were featured in an earlier blog post here.

FROM THE POETS:

Check out new work by award-winning poets Sharon Berg (a Sarnia resident when her book was published) and James Deahl. Lynn Tait will launch her debut book this September.

Stars in the Junkyard (Cyberwit, 2020) by Sharon Berg

 A powerful and impressive collection! Stars in the Junkyard by Canadian poet Sharon Berg showcases the work of a talented writer. In her poem “Difficult” she writes, “I speak to my own experience//Allow me my voice” (p. 16) And speak she does!

Most of the work, in this 55-poem collection, is told in the first-person point of view. So raw, so emotional and truthful, so personal and exposed like reading the intimate secrets of a diary left open for all to see. Berg may write about her junkyard of experiences but tucked in the corners of the sky are stars. As she pens “We emerge from darkness/in a glowing flame of love/for the world/and all its people.” (p. 113). A full review appears on Goodreads.

From Sarnia-Lambton – A Sampling of New Novels

“We stopped on the side of the gravel road and stared for a full five minutes before my father slowly eased the car into the property that was our new home.”* – Diana Koch

Welcome to Sarnia-Lambton, a southwestern Ontario community known for its pristine beaches along Lake Huron and the famous Bluewater Bridge crossing the St. Clair River into the United States.

Did you know that this area was the home to several top literary award winners?

Governor-General Award winner Marion Engel (who lived in Sarnia for part of her life) was a founding member of The Writers Union of Canada and the author of the controversial 1976 novel Bear.

Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Bonnie Burnard (who was born in Petrolia and lived in Forest during her childhood) was the author of the 1999 novel A Good House.

Other notable authors include Brian Francis, author of Fruit (2004), a CBC Radio One Canada Reads runner up) and the young adult novel Break in Case of Emergency (2019), a finalist in the Governor General Literary Awards in the Young People Literature – Text category; Mary Lawson, author of several books including The Other Side of the Bridge (2006) and A Town Called Solace (2021) both longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction; and most recently Canadian astronaut turned musician/author Chris Hadfield with his five books, including The Defector (2023) to be launched later this year

Save the date: Local indie bookstore The Book Keeper will welcome Chris Hadfield to Sarnia, October 28, 2023 at DeGroot’s Nurseries.

This month I gathered a list of new books** that were published during the last three to four (Covid-19 pandemic) years and the Sarnia-Lambton authors behind them. The list was so long that I divided the titles into three sections: “From the Fiction Writers”, “From the Poets” and “From the Non-Fiction Writers”. Today I’m sharing work from the local fiction writers. Please note that some books published in 2020 were omitted as they were featured in an earlier blog post here.

 FROM THE FICTION WRITERS:  

Coming Soon to London, ON – Black Mallard Poetry Series

Let’s dust off the microphones and bring out the sign-up sheets! Live poetry events are back!

If you love poetry and reside in or within driving distance to London, Ontario, Canada, mark your calendar for the first Wednesday of every month. There’s a new “live” poetry series being planned for this city and I’m expecting it to draw a crowd especially from those poets who have been patiently waiting for more literary events to return on a regular basis.

This new monthly series will spotlight two featured poets, followed by an open mic in which anyone can sign-up and share some work.

Black Mallard Poetry Series will spotlight two featured poets, followed by an open mic at Mykonos Restaurant, in their popular patio location on 572 Adelaide Street North. The event will run from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Admission is free. 

This week, I chatted with Black Mallard Poetry Series curator Andreas Gripp about some of his personal goals and his plans for this new series.

Andreas, I’m so glad that poetry events are returning to Mykonos Restaurant and that established and emerging poets will have a home to share their work in a welcoming environment. You’ve planned several literary events in the past, including the Mykonos Open Mic Poetry Series in 2019, the Red Lion Reading Series in Stratford in 2021, and more recently special event readings with other poets in the London area. Where did the idea for the new series come from, why did you decide to organize it, and where did the name Black Mallard come from? 

I thought there was a need for a locally-focused reading series here in London. There are so many talented poets in this area and as you may know, it’s not always easy getting invites to do a featured presentation. I originally thought of going with just one featured poet every month, then began thinking how many bards there are in this vicinity and decided to go with two a month, as well as have an open mic, which Mykonos, of course, was known for. Since the pandemic put a close to the last incarnation of the restaurant’s monthly series, I thought the timing to try another one was good, with all of us emerging from our covid cocoons. 

Several poets from London, who were first noticed reading at the Mykonos open mic, graduated to doing a featured spot, then had chapbooks and debut full-lengths published within a few years. I’m always excited to hear and read the work of a new poet I might not be familiar with yet—and this series will be a platform for that to continue. 

Introducing Luminescence and Canadian Poet Jeevan Bhagwat

“You held me in your arms/when the night wept jewelled stars;/and the wind wailed like/a banshee.” – Jeevan Bhagwat* 

How many times during the last three years, have you wanted to run from the howling pandemic grief storm into the warm embrace of family and friends? When social distancing was enforced, many readers resorted to the comforting arms of a book. I know I did but some writing spoke to me more than others.

Canadian Poet Jeevan Bhagwat’s 2020 collection Luminescence proved to be one of those serendipitous selections that enlightened and surprised me.

Call it dazzling…the way his poetry shines! Luminescence by Jeevan Bhagwat was published in 2020 by IN Publications. Photo Credit – Tobias Bjorkli

Released at the beginning of the pandemic, the book escaped my radar until a stranger sent me a lovely note to recommend it for reviewing. I declined at the time due to other commitments, but several years later, I became curious and purchased a copy. I’m glad I did!

Call it dazzling, the way this 104-page collection of 58 poems shines. Divided into two sections: Daylight and Twilight, the book spotlights the themes of love, loss, hope, and dreams, using mainly free verse and a few rhyming forms to illuminate the relationships between humanity and the planet.

Back on the Literary Road Less Travelled

Hello? Is anyone out there in this vast digital world of #readers and #literary bloggers?  

It’s been a while, my absence from #writing.

The pandemic shut down many creative minds and places.

When I checked, it was over a year since I’ve sat in my office chair and written a blog post. Let’s say all the COVID restrictions, lockdowns, and negative news finally wore me down like the flattened lead in an old chewed-up pencil. 

Was anyone even listening or reading my posts anymore or were they just AI bots phishing for what? Ways to sell me products that I didn’t need.

Like a wilted dandelion, I aged and watched my grey roots take over until people no longer recognized me when I ventured outside my home. Oh, how I cheered when former CTV News Anchor Lisa LaFlamme stood firm in her decision to keep her grey locks. She paved the way for more women to embrace their age without succumbing to society’s obsession with youthful appearances.

And what a crazy journey, each of us were faced with in the last three years. So many stories of unexpected illnesses and deaths – family, friends, co-workers, and neighbours. Faced with mortality, grief, and the loss of community, some people wrote and wrote and wrote. Others, like me, lost their voices and pursued new creative outlets based on their long and once forgotten bucket lists.  

Goodbye computer screens. Hello sketch books.

I cleaned closets and downsized, found bags of wool and knitted hats and scarves for the homeless, made homemade cards, sketched, and coloured in my daughter’s old colouring books. 

Remembering Canadian Poet Robert Billings 1949-1987

I never met Robert Billings. He escaped my poetic radar, but I was curious to read the posthumous book Before the Heart Went Down: Selected Poems by Robert Billings. This 138-page collection was selected by Sharon Berg and published by Cyberwit in 2020. Below is my recent review.

“There is a darkness/I try to tell you about–” (p. 14)

This first line in the first poem “Invocation” startled me. Was this summoning of a deity or the supernatural, an initial call for help?

Robert Billings’s Before the Heart Went Down: Selected Poems (Cyberwit 2020) is powerful and secret-revealing.  It’s even haunting like discovering a sunken treasure of cracked hearts entwined with legends, bird feathers, familial memories, autumn leaves, poetic petals, and urban/rural knick-knacks saved from the drowning depths of a river-muse.

Robert Billings 1949-1987

Not only was Billings’s corpse found in the Niagara River in the Spring 1987, but this gifted Canadian poet left the literary world with several chilling lines. For example, in his 1986 poem “Algoma Suite: Eight Ways of Listening to the Heart Catch its Breath”, he wrote “Some of my days have lived like cut flowers/in a jar.” (p. 74)

Introducing Maud and Me by Marianne Jones

Imagine gardening and having your favourite author not only rise from the dead but chat with you over a cup of tea.

That is exactly what happened to protagonist Nicole LeClair in the thought-provoking novel Maud and Me by Canadian author Marianne Jones. 

Maud and Me by Marianne Jones; Crossfield Publishing 2021; ISBN 13: 978-1-9991-779-73; 280 pages  

In her narrative, the main character divulged, “Maud first appeared last spring….I was puzzled by her old-fashioned attire and the sense of déjà-vu that enveloped me.” (p. 3)

As a reader, I loved the mystic and spiritual concept of this book. As the back cover stated, “Nicole and Maud are separated by decades and death, but find companionship through their similar circumstances – as minister’s wives, as artists, as feminists constrained by propriety and expectation.”

To better appreciate these parallel lives, I wanted to pause and dig deeper into the life of this spiritual Lucy Maud Montgomery and yet I had to remind myself that this was Nicole’s and not Maud’s story. I could read Montgomery another day!

Besides, there was more to this 280-page novel than just the surreal banter between the main character and her literary apparition.

Introducing Thimbles by Canadian Poet Vanessa Shields

“I saw the thimble on your finger but I didn’t know//you were our thimble.” – Vanessa Shields

I fell in love with Thimbles, the third and latest poetry collection by Canadian poet Vanessa Shields, while it was still an infant in PDF format.

Published by Palimpsest Press, Thimbles is the third and latest poetry collection by Canadian Poet Vanessa Shields.

Wow, such a raw and honest ravelling and unravelling of emotions. Such a heart-wrenching tribute to the late Maria Giuditta Merlo Bison, her loving, seamstress grandmother (or as the Italians would say Nonna).

As I slipped inside Shields’ imaginary sewing basket and learned more about her personal inter-generational love story, my appreciation for the book grew stronger!

Thumbs up!

In my opinion, it’s Shields’ best poetry collection to date. Even CBC Books recently listed it as one of the “55 Canadian poetry collections to check out in spring 2021”.

As I mentioned in my Goodreads review, her work not only explored a new maturity in subject matter but her use of the sewing and mountain themes and motifs beautifully stitched together the narrative thread of her 94 poems.