For Black History Month, I thought I'd share a Canadian poet whose lush, cadenced verse is like Nova Scotian blues. I'm talking about Whylah Falls by George Elliott Clarke. I read it studying Can lit with Professor Robert Lecker in my last semester at McGill and we had fascinating discussions in class. Some background: Whylah …
Tag: McGill
“Anticlimax”
My most recent poem to be published was printed in Read this Dammit!'s January edition: "Janus: God of the Gateways." You can pick up a copy on McGill campus in the news racks in the Leacock Building or at the MacLennan Library. I am quite happy that I was able to read it at the …
Top 10 Things I Learned While Studying English Literature at McGill University
Is it even possible to canonize all the things I have learned in my three and a half years studying literature at Canada's best university to 10 items? I believe my critics will be able to deconstruct the bejesus out of this list. They'd probably base their argument on how I privilege my subjectivity over …
Continue reading Top 10 Things I Learned While Studying English Literature at McGill University
“Ice Breaker”
Last Monday, the Fall edition of the McGill student literary journal STEPS was published, with my poem in it! . It's a reflection on arctic blizzards and hallucination--seeing things in randomness when there's no one else around to contradict you. . Bonus marks: Can you spot the allusions to Frankenstein and Don Quixote? If you …
Poetry Reading at Le Cagibi!
This Monday marked the occasion of my second ever poetry reading, where I recited "Ice Breaker" (which is this Friday's post), "St. Francis of the Amazon," "Seagull," and my final, uproarious poem "Anticlimax." The venue was in the backroom of Le Cagibi (pronounced KAH-jeh-bey, or "KGB" in phonetic Quebecois French), a hipster, student-populated restaurant on …
Vegetables of the Romantic Period
Here are simply a few humorous pictures I drew last semester for The Veg magazine, a McGill student literary magazine (not actually vegetable-themed, but that's kind of a running joke...) You will recognize that the vegetables are all based on Romantic poets. Worth a laugh, I think. Kinda fits too--weren't the Romantics nature poets? Now …
“What Walmart Smells Like”
Being forced through the automatic doors of a Walmart one evening last winter with my family, I decided to deconstruct the experience of the torture that is globalized shopping by paying close attention to the most potent, yet misunderstood of the five senses. I hope you enjoy this post, as a break from my usual …
Special Post: Honours thesis added to brightweavings.com
Today, I make a special announcement: my Honours thesis "Fantasies of History: Guy Gavriel Kay's Synthesis of the Historical Fantasy Novel" has been added to Kay's official website at brightweavings.com. This thesis is the fruit of over two years of thought, and one year of hard research, writing, and re-writing. It represents the summit of …
Continue reading Special Post: Honours thesis added to brightweavings.com
Cordially, A.M. Klein: Letter Writing in the Good Old Days: An Unofficial Review of A.M. Klein: The Letters
Some of the greatest works of English literature are not found in survey anthologies. They are never taught in courses, though if you consulted them, you could add depth to your understanding of a given author. They record the daily tribulations of the saints we call canonical writers. More useful than poems, but more lyrical …
“I See You Too”
After years of trying, I have finally published a decent poem in one of the McGill campus literary journals! And, this is my first poem ever published, perfectly suited (by coincidence, actually) for the Valentine's edition of Read this, Dammit!, the publication of the Paper's Edge creative writing group. I really lucked out on this …
Matthew Rettino 