We are pleased to share that Manahil Bandukwala's Heliotropia has been named the 2025 Archibald Lampman Award winner! This year's jury says, "With form and language that surprises and delights, Manahil Bandukwala has crafted a perfect set of love poems for our current moment." Congrats, Manahil!

Our expert columnist Manahil Bandukwala (@manahil.bsky.social) has some fantastic writing tips for all the poets out there who are looking for a home for their manuscript! #AmReading #WritingTips #Poetry #Books open-book.ca/Columnists/F...

49th Shelf's Spring Fiction Preview is here & we're thrilled that You Crushed It by Jean-Philippe Baril Guerard, tr. by Neil Smith, I Remember Lights by Ben Ladouceur, The Fun Times Brigade by Lindsay Zier-Vogel, & Iris and the Dead by Miranda Schreiber are included! 49thshelf.com/Blog/2025/02...

research for a story, fitting response to the overview panel

CBC Poetry Prize winner Natalie Lim’s debut collection, Elegy for Opportunity, is coming out this April 8, 2025 @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social—and we have review copies available now! (Yes, even hard copies!) Request a review copy: www.riverstreetwriting.com/join-river-s... More deets in comments!

My friends, I am so beyond thrilled to share the second installment in Love Letters: Reasons To Be Alive, written by none other than the absolutely legendary @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social

Trumpeting in @arcpoetry.bsky.social and thrilled about it. Thanks to the team for including me!

New chaotic book sorting system: by weight of book

So far I’ve seen two listings for Neil Gaiman books up on FB marketplace and I have no doubt I’ll be seeing more

I’m an acquiring poetry editor with Wolsak & Wynn and wanted to remind poets based in Canada that our submissions window is open now until March 31! I would love to see your work.✨ For more info, check out our submissions guidelines: www.wolsakandwynn.ca/submissions

At last, they solved soups biggest problem: Wet

THE Hatecopy is reading Heliotropia and thinks it’s a joy to read 🥺

Come hang out with me and @manahil.bsky.social on IG Live on January 21 at 7:30pmEST

New blog post! 📚💙 Today I shared a list of upcoming releases by Caribbean authors. Read it here: helenaramsaroop.com/2025/01/06/b...

The @sfpoetry.bsky.social’s Rhysling Awards are open! I have two poems eligible - wela’lioq for your kind consideration 💚 The first is from @uncannymagazine.bsky.social:

Just $48,500CAD until $2M CAD! We are running critically low on funds and the pace of spending is higher than donations at the moment! Please share and donate if you can <3 bit.ly/eSimsRUs #ConnectingGaza

This spring, on April 1st, @houseofanansi.bsky.social will publish my debut poetry collection, Myth! It's a little tropical, a little lyrical, a little speculative, something for everyone! 🌴🧜🏾‍♀️👽🌙 Preorders are open! Please share if you can! houseofanansi.com/products/myt...

It was a very good writing year for me, with my first fiction pub, the CBC prize longlist, etc. But I’m definitely most proud of Heliotropia, love poems intersecting with space and joy, a theme that feels the most “me”

Top books of 2024: - Relative to Wind by Phoebe Wang - Thyme Travellers, ed. @soniasulaiman.bsky.social - In Exile by Sadiya Ansari - An Astonishment of Stars by @beingkirti.bsky.social - The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - Rakesfall by @vajra.me

Excited & humbled to finally share Ksenija Spasić's first collection of poetry, "the beautiful the bearable"

Spent 2 hours undoing stitches on a crochet sweater that I’ve decided would be better as shorts

newsletter drop! open.substack.com/pub/melissar...

I love this game! I'm reading short story collections as I put the final touches on my manuscript, and have just finished @beingkirti.bsky.social incredible "An Astonishment of Stars." I tag @conyerclayton.bsky.social @teresempierre.bsky.social and @ehjchang.bsky.social

"Bandukwala is a poet whose guide is love." Beautiful review of Heliotropia in Quill & Quire by Shazia Hafiz Ramji quillandquire.com/review/helio...

“I would hold you in a world with no atmosphere” @manahil.bsky.social @londonlibrary.bsky.social #canlit #canadianpoetry #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #smallpress

Your holiday shopping post about Heliotropia, a collection of poems for lovers of poetry, love, science fiction, plants, and souls. If you're in Ottawa in particular, I'm happy to coordinate so you can ensure you have it in time for the holidays and aren't crossing any strike picket lines

Like, just look what I get to pick up on Tuesday from @londonlibrary.bsky.social ❤️ @manahil.bsky.social

Read this story this morning and that’s it that’s my day

I've updated the Read Palestinian Speculative Fiction Reading list! If you know of any other fantasy and science fiction works by Palestinian writers around the world, do let me know! soniasulaiman.com/readpalestin...

Had a fantastic time meeting my mentor, Angel Di Zhang & fellow mentee, Sarah Ariza-Verreault, as well as some amazing authors, including @sydhegele.bsky.social , @manahil.bsky.social , Chido Muchemwa & Holly Cassidy at the Angel Reading Series last night.

obligatory promo post for the #holidays: you should definitely buy BROUGHTUPSY for the right-leaning uncle in yr life who high key hates the gays. it absolutely won’t spark a WWE smackdown at the holiday table. nope, no chance of that at all: www.oblongbooks.com/christinacooke #BookSky #Christmas

It's a mystery: every three days for the past month, a new squash has appeared hidden inside your house. You've collected pumpkin, butternut, acorn, spaghetti, and several you can't identify. Today at last, you've figured it out. What is causing this glut of gourds? #TinyTalesTuesday #WritingPrompt

I have my first fiction publication in the @ex-puritan.bsky.social today, guest-edited by @puneetdutt.bsky.social. If you're interested in roommates and using duct tape to repair everything, this might be the story for you! ex-puritan.ca/duct-tape

The delightful Madeleine Stratford hosts opening night of our mini VERSeFest, with a strong first set by Alice Burdick @aliceburdick.bsky.social and Manahil Bandukwala @manahil.bsky.social (accompanied by her electric guitar partner, Liam Burke, #poetry #poetryfestival

three VERSeFest interviews: Alice Burdick, Manahil Bandukwala + Armand Garnet Ruffo, / @aliceburdick.bsky.social @manahil.bsky.social @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social @anvilpress.bsky.social ; robmclennan.blogspot.com/2024/11/thre...

don't forget that our three-day mini-VERSeFEST: Ottawa's International Poetry Festival begins TOMORROW NIGHT at RedBird! tickets still available! Ottawa's French Poet Laureate Véronique Sylvain! Stuart Ross! Alice Burdick! Manahil Bandukwala! www.verseottawa.ca/en/versefest

My latest story “The Garden” was just released in the Schism themed issue of The Ex-Puritan. It’s a neo-gothic, lightly speculative look at violence, release, and attempt at control over bodies in relationships, through the lens of a garden. Thanks for reading xo ex-puritan.ca/the-garden

the prison cop union gets a police escort while shaking noisemakers, throwing smoke bombs in walking paths, and shooting gun flares that stink up the area, while palestinian protestors get arrested for doing even less. ok.

short story google searches

Yes yes yes — very thrilled to have two brand new ekphrastic poems in the SCHISM issue of the Ex-Puritan. Read them here: ex-puritan.ca/ratchet-up-t... ❗️N.B.: the formatting of these poems is optimized for desktop viewing.

I have my first fiction publication in the @ex-puritan.bsky.social today, guest-edited by @puneetdutt.bsky.social. If you're interested in roommates and using duct tape to repair everything, this might be the story for you! ex-puritan.ca/duct-tape

Open Book piece by @manahil.bsky.social on preparing a poetry manuscript for submission. open-book.ca/Columnists/P...

Every new poem from @manahil.bsky.social is instant 😍 -- and this one came out today. "An AI takes in ten thousand cat videos". poets.ca/an-ai-takes-...

What an absolutely wonderful evening, reading with #AshleyElizabethBest and @manahil.bsky.social at Books & Company in Picton. Thank you #AssemblyPress for having us!

With the Writers Trust and Giller awards happening back-to-back there are some thoughts turning through my mind. One is that I’m seeing the WT get a lot of praise because a number of the authors spoke about the genocide in Gaza in their winning speeches (and the WT “let” them)

Often, I find myself back and forth between the white nonsense of CanLit and the white nonsense of SFF. This refusal to relinquish, or, sometimes, even acknowledge, power. Where to rest?

We’re all writers. We’re reading between the lines of what you’re not saying, what you’ve chosen not to say