Monday at the D.B. Clarke Theatre in the Hall Building on Concordia University campus, Joseph Boyden talked about his identity and origins--both as a writer and a man of mixed Irish-Ojibwe blood. He was accompanied by renowned conversationalist Kate Sterns and Globe and Mail book reviewer Jared Bland, "Who are you?" opened Sterns, a direct …
Tag: poetry
5 Reasons Why Christopher Marlowe is an Elizabethan Hipster Poet
Elizabethan England's most celebrated poet and playwright, in underground kind of way, was Christopher Marlowe, although he was soon eclipsed by Mr. Will Shakespeare, whose popular plays would define the mainstream for centuries to come. It was the 90s. The 1590s to be precise. Marlowe was at the height of his powers, writing the politically …
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Elegant Eliminations
An elimination is a poetic form where you don't write the words. You erase them. Take any stanza or paragraph with a rich, evocative vocabulary. I for example chose a few pages from James Frazer's classic work of anthropology The Golden Bough. Any other kind of text can fit just as well as any other--the …
6 Similarities between Guy Gavriel Kay and Michael Ondaatje
Embedding myself in the novels and poetry of Michael Ondaatje this semester in an MA seminar taught by Prof. Robert Lecker, I could not help but notice the similarity between the thematic/artistic concerns of the author of The English Patient and Guy Gavriel Kay. Both are great writers and both are Canadian. Upon first glance, …
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“Gecko” : a poem for Michael Ondaatje
Two weeks ago, my seminar class on Michael Ondaatje got together to put on a fantastic presentation for Professor Robert Lecker. We were reading Ondaatje's poem "Tin Roof" and instead of writing a four-page essay response, which we are supposed to do every week, Prof. Lecker told us to go do something as a group. …
King of Egypt, King of Dreams by Gwendolyn MacEwen
Gwendolyn MacEwen's historical novel King of Egypt, King of Dreams was published in 1971 and as far as I know, it is out of print-except by online order from Insomniac Press. Nonetheless I am fascinated to review it, because it stands as a powerful testimony to the tragedy of those who own a unique, transcendent …
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Warrior Lore by Ian Cumpstey
Old Norse heroism seems to be in vogue these days, given the popularity of Thor and the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, which is steeped in Norse mythology. Furthermore, the classic literature of the North has been gaining academic readerships ever since the publication of the Penguin collection The Sagas of Icelanders in …
Poetry Launch Parties: The Veg and Scrivener
Last week's launches for Scrivener Creative Review at Kafein last Thursday and The Veg at Le Cagibi last Friday were a success. There were many talented readers at both launches. At Kafein for the Scrivener evening, speakers recited their poems like real hipsters in front of the electronic keyboard in the lounge area of the …
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For the Sun
Haiku is a simple form. It combines two like images to create a third. Ezra Pound's haiku was the result of several long, many-stanza drafts. It was about a station in the Paris metro. He paired his imagery down to three lines. This poem is "For the Sun." It will be published in The Veg. …
Gwendolyn MacEwen’s Mystical Vision of the Franklin Expedition in “Terror and Erebus”
Canada has been celebrating the discovery of Captain Sir John Franklin's ill-fated ship, the Erebus, since early September. Along with the Terror, captained by Francis Crozier, this ship carried Franklin and his crew on their fatal quest for the Northwest Passage, which lasted three years (1845-1848). For most of that time, Franklin was stranded, a …
Matthew Rettino 