Boyd, Alex - On ABC of Reading
Neilson, Shane - Alden Nowlan's Universe
Neilson, Shane - Why Do It: An Essay on Book Reviewing
O'Meara, David - Dangerous Words: Don Domanski and Metaphor
Bowering, George - U.S. Sonnets
Cohen, Leonard - Book of Longing
Crozier, Lorna - The Blue Hour of the Day
Haddon, Mark - The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl...
Hoogland, Cornelia - Cuba Journal
Jackson, Meghan - Movements in Jars
Knox, Michael - Play Out the Match
McCabe, Steve - Hierarchy of Loss
McOrmond, Steve - Primer On The Hereafter
Price, Steven - Anatomy of Keys
Ross, Stuart - I Cut My Finger
Rosser, J. Allyn - Foiled Again
Sword, Robert - God Is In The Cracks: A Narrative In Voices
Terpstra, John - Two or Three Guitars
Various Authors - Frontenac Quartet
Vigier, Rachel - The Book of Skeletons
Wallin, Myna - A Thousand Profane Pieces
Alland, Sandra - By Dani Couture
Banks, Chris - By Paul Vermeersch
Hickey, David - By Ian Letourneau
Starnino, Carmine - By Dani Couture
Sutherland, Fraser - By Alex Boyd
Murray, George - By Dani Couture
Wallin, Myna - By Dani Couture
Wells, Zachariah - By Dani Couture
Whittall, Zoe - By Dani Couture
Bolster, Stephanie - Surviving Survival
Couture, Dani - NPR's List of Essential Poetry Books
Leckie, Ross - Nature Poetry in Canada Since Survival
Miller, Eric - History and Survival
Nickel, Barbara - Jailbreaks and Recreations
Canadians have an odd relationship to the U.S. We define ourselves against them, first of all. Many of us in urban centres find guns appalling, our history is closer to compromise than conflict, possibly born out of the need to accommodate both French and English, and the same need has introduced a greater love -- at least in theory -- of diversity, and a recognition diversity is a strength, not a weakness. There is a distinct Canadian identity that Canadians...continue reading
Your second collection of poems, The Cold Panes of Surfaces, is out now. Your first book, Bonfires, won the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Award in 2004. Did winning a national award for your first book bolster your artistic confidence while working on your second, or did you find it daunting, as though you had more to live up to than other poets working on a second collection?
I think it certainly gave me a boost of confidence and the permission I needed to do what I wanted to do artistically with the second book. I didn't feel any outside pressure because of winning the CAA award, or feel that I had any expectations to live up to. Winning the award was terrific, and it was good publicity, but it was also an education on how fleeting such praise can be, and how it leaves your writing life virtually...continue reading