Real Estancy: “And then, when you think you can’t take anymore, the garage. OH…MY…SHARONA. This massive 2 car beauty is a quivering dream for anyone.”

Rooftop Raven, Midtown Toronto #GTA #Toronto #photo #photograph #photography #ravens

So for instance, how about a 20 grand prize or grant for book reviewers so they can actually make a living doing this important work for a period of time instead of getting $50-150 per review and most mags only "allowing" one to write one review A YEAR! Reviews are vital for writers, no?

Does this mean Toronto-area poets are going to attend the Griffin readings again?

Writers, a tempered pushback from the mathematicians against the AI revolution: "[Math's] most precious aspects, such as the collective quest to understand beautifully intricate ideas, and to explore the limits of the human imagination, cannot ever be automated." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/s...

my brother-in-gore Nick Cutter is clearing out his parents' basement. 100% of the proceeds from every autographed book will go to The Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre—whose mandate is to rescue, rehabilitate, and release turtles native to the Ontario region. we do love turtles. nickcutter.com

Agentic poet attends AI conference.

A “sadness / empty of sadness” is 😱… What a risky poem, what a payoff, @afmoritz.bsky.social .

There's NewPoetry today from Stuart Ross. newpoetry.ca/2026/03/23/d...

Beckett

Ace poem. “There are things that trying solves but this / is not one of them.” —Robert Wood Lynn

Some days you get your socks and underwear on then just say, fuck it, enough.

The sequence of these NYT answers from AI experts is hilarious. AI is more transformative than AGRICULTURE! Than SPECIATION! No, no, there's NO comparable! I'm on team steam engine. 🚂

A Transtromer night if there ever was one. “roof silence” is a good descriptor for the quiet out there.

“Nice going, genius”—

"Then, in 2023, she decided on a whim to write a poem instead. 'I wrote about how I had a month left until my twenties were over and I put it up online,' said Balka." INSTANT. NEW. YORK. TIMES. BESTSELLER. 😱 www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/arti...

My book also in the bucket of poetry for the “tetchy” people who think &tc. 😠

microsoft wants to use your linkedin data to train LLMs turn it off here: www.linkedin.com/mypreference...

Well, well. Karen Solie wins the 2025 Forward Prize for Wellwater. 🎉 forwardartsfoundation.org/forward-priz...

There's NewPoetry today from Adam Sol (@adamsol.bsky.social). newpoetry.ca/2025/10/06/c...

The You’re Still Doing This? award for poets aged 45-55

Lossless reviewed. "The prose poems are standouts: Tierney crafts what seem to become miniature films within the tight and witty narrative space of his works." ✒️ Caleb Edmondson, Mid-American Review, Bowling Green State U. Speaking of reviews...

Gorgeous poem by Geoffrey Nutter; for anyone who’s read to a little one…

The fine establishment where I’m about to eat has some toilet seat art framed by a toilet seat…natch.

😱: “I found myself dwelling on what creators face: producing work of deep value from shallow resources, and doing it in a society that treats their labour as disposable even as it consumes it constantly.”

Is there a word that has been more sapped of meaning than “thrilled”…

I'm reading next Thursday, May 22. Celebrating the Al Purdy Prize & foundation, including this year's winner, Al Moritz, with Molly Peacock. I have one Al Purdy anecdote that I may or may not share. If I don't, it'll be my great silent ballad.

Nils Frahm tonight at Massey Hall. 🤯 I mean, look at that gear. Writers just don’t have any gear.

It was the Dunning of tymes. It was the Kruger of tymes.

Really excited to have Karen Solie on Vic’s campus next year as the Shaftesbury Writer in Residence. www.vic.utoronto.ca/academic-pro...

I am asking Canadians for a strong, positive mandate to deal with President Trump and build a stronger economy here at home.

When Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet, died in 2013, his last words were sent by text: Noli timere. “Don’t be afraid.” I wrote about these words, why I stopped fighting cancer, and knowing a black bear for @theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/e51db13... #booksky #cancer #naturewriting

I'm a firm believer that writing can change lives. Do take the time to read this piece - it's an eye-opener. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

"and you can see that I am a sensitive man" 🌼

Hertz in G&M, sugarcoating: "Flight Risk is not so bad that it is good – it is simply so bad that it is really terribly awfully very very very bad, the kind of zero-effort exercise that will leave even the most bruised and battered action-movie junkie begging for the sweet release of death itself."

👀 Some welcome transparency here: On jury work: "Of the 118 books, I read 27 cover-to-cover (23%). I read less than 10% of 42 of the books (36%)... On winners: "70% of the finalists for the 2023 and 2024 Governor General’s Awards were first books; prizes too often treat writers like new cars" 👏👏

Today is a Kid-A Da-Y…

“you can’t write of discovery / without disco.” —Dancin’ Andy (Weaver)

cf. my 15,000 one-word texts to my wife: "[Leibniz] seemed to be constantly in touch with everyone: his literary remains include fifteen thousand letters written to some thirteen hundred people." www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Craig Davidson on Pyper: "When Andrew called me after returning from Italy knowing he had cancer, before he hung up he said: 'I love you.'" 💔 www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Still good.

NYT finds space for 3 poetry books in its top 100. The Globe and Mail? A big fat 🍩 In a year when Ondaatje has a new collection too--that's one low hanging donut. The selectors seem to know poetry exists; they describe a few novelists as poets, as if it's relevant. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Coolness.

Woof. No idea how the concept of this ad is supposed to play out but…I like it. I’m going with—hydrants rise up after years of being pissed on by 🐕.

Deactivated Twitter. Happy birthday to me. 🥴