Two days into December and I've already been Whammed. I think this is a new record for me.

Great to see my dear friend @benjaminlefebvre.com's important critical work on L.M. Montgomery mentioned in this CBC article.

Dana Hansen at Hamilton Review of Books recommends SHELTER IN TEXT, edited by Myra Bloom and Kasia Van Schaik. So many good books on this list: check it out! https://bit.ly/3LJKSrf ##books #booklists #Literature #CanLit

Canadian author Omar El Akkad's debut nonfiction work wins U.S. National Book Award #CanLit www.cbc.ca/books/omar-e...

Libraries purchase books. When you see a book at the library, it isn’t “free” the library bought it. which in turn means that the community bought it. In other words, library books are not lost sales for authors and publishers; they’re positive sales. Active sales. Those are bought.

Sometimes I miss the fabulous vintage clothes I had in the 90s. A pair of amazing denim bellbottoms I bought for $10 off a rack on the street in Montreal that I stapled instead of hemmed. A purple velvet evening gown from the 50s. I miss the abundance of cheap treasures that were not "curated."

Heads up, fellow #TorontoCyclists

Congrats to all the longlisted poets!

I wrote a thing, and I'm quite proud of it, if I do say so myself. My thoughts on where a poem begins, randomness, surprising yourself in a poem, strangeness, and more. Thank you to @robmclennan.bsky.social for inviting me to contribute to this fantastic series on where (and how) a poem begins.

this weekend! above/ground press in toronto at the tifa small press fair + @meetthepresses.bsky.social indie lit market, new chapbooks by Chernoff, La Rocque, Nećakov, Siklosi, Saklikar, Heroux + a secret preview of a collaborative title by Fagan/Comay, abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2025/10/this...

Read my story about my Winx Club-inspired, eco-influencer idols!

I was today years old when I learned that the Brits call braiding "plaiting" and pronounce it "platting." #GBBO

AI is not sentient. It doesn't have a survival instinct. What's happened is that corporations have decided that we'll all obey capital if it can pretend to talk.

Ford's new proposed bill is a DISASTER for tenants in Ontario, effectively end rent control, and put housing security at risk for renters across the province. Please sign the petition, let's stop this!!! acorncanada.org/take_action/... #HousingIsAHumanRight #ONpoli

Guelph MFA alum @lisarichter.bsky.social will be participating in the #SpokenINK series this Sunday. This event coincides with the five-year anniversary of Lisa’s award-winning collection #NAUTILUSANDBONE (Frontenac House, 2020). To receive the Zoom link, email [email protected].

Thanks to poet Rob Macaisa Colgate on @davidnaimon.bsky.social's Between the Covers podcast, I now refer to my bed during the day as my "soft office." #freelancewritinglife

I've seen several people refer to AI-resisters as having their heads in the sand over the last few days. But resisting doesn't mean the same thing as ignoring something. On the contrary, resisting means engaging with research, parsing information, offering critique, and making informed choices.

Cover reveal for my third book of poetry, SUBLUNARY, forthcoming with @ualbertapress.bsky.social in Spring 2026! Cover art by the brilliant @runaikeda.bsky.social. The book is now available for pre-order through independent bookstores across North America.

RIP Fanny Howe, whose idea of bewilderment "as a poetics and an ethics" was transformational for me.

@aaronkreuter.bsky.social's new novel is going to be my treat to myself at the end of the month after my MFA thesis defence.

Such #poetry splendour and warmth radiated by @amandaearl.bsky.social, @margolapierre.bsky.social, @lisarichter.bsky.social and Chuqiao Yang - thank you thank you thank you! Ambling off into the rest of my afternoon happy and aglow ...!

Our April newsletter drops tomorrow! Make sure you're subscribed so it hits your inbox first:

Speakeasy Reading Series is back April 16th, the last of the school year! Featuring the amazing @phillipdwightmorgan @clairegeddesbailey @spondeee.bsky.social & Speakeasy’s very own Chi Leung Lee. Join in person or watch the live-stream on Zoom, 7:00 pm Eastern. ALL are welcome!

Fellow writers, what do you wish you had known at the start of your writing journey/career? I'm looking for advice to pass along to my students who are young emerging writers of multiple genres.

Part 3 of My Adventures in Book Publicity - Book Tours "Launching a book into the world is a mind fuck. It’s exciting but often devastating and can be humiliating."

Shame.

I'm trying to figure out how to curate my newsfeed; I want more Canadian poets and literary content, but all I seem to be seeing is news-related posts. Any suggestions?

A friend of mine just shared "Have you had water yet today?" as an alternative to "How are you," or way of checking in. It reminded me of something similar one of my Korean ESL students once told me, "Have you eaten yet?" as a casual way of asking how someone is. These seem so much more meaningful!

BIG NEWS! I am thrilled to announce that my third book of poetry will be coming out in Spring 2026 with @ualbertapress.bsky.social!!! Stay tuned for title announcement and more info about this strange, vulnerable, surrealist book that my heart has been invested in for the last five years.

The new Questlove doc "SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)" about Sly and the Family Stone is itself a feat of Black Genius (as was Summer of Soul, the incredible film that introduced me to Questlove). Highly recommended.

Essential info if you're in Ontario. Please get out and vote today.

Happy to have three poems in Speech Dries Here on the Tongue, an anthology of poetry by Canadian authors exploring the relationship between environmental collapse and mental health. Edited by Hollay Ghadery, Rasiqra Revulva, and Amanda Shankland.

There are so many questions I wish I'd asked my dad while he was still alive. Ditto for my grandparents. Now I ask my mom the questions that fill in the gaps in my childhood and questions about hers whenever I can. If there's anything you've ever wanted to ask your elders, now is the time.

Never not disgusted by the way educational institutions use the language of disability and accessibility to justify their increased use of predatory AI. Apparently, instructors have no right to guard their IP against companies like Amazon, our lectures used to train the tech that will replace us.

Autocorrect typo of the day: from "poetry jurors" to "poetry churros." Poetry churros sound delicious, I think my Gmail autocorrect may be onto something.

So grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts and the Writers Union of Canada for the Public Lending Rights program, which pays authors for having books in public libraries. Happy annual PLR Payment Time to all those who celebrate!

YOUR REMINDER THAT THE HANDMAID’S TALE DEPICTED ENTIRELY THINGS THAT WERE ALREADY DONE TO GLOBAL MAJORITY WOMEN The novelty was just that they were being done to white women please, it’s not some startling new ground being broken ok

RIP Tom Robbins, whose novels I devoured as a teenager and 20something. They were beautiful and meditative and hilarious and strange. I fell in love with his goofy, wise, rebellious characters with names like Bonanza Jellybean and Marx Marvellous. I hope he's partying in the afterlife somewhere.

It blows my mind that the same generation that can’t get pronouns also frequently took their kids to see Rocky Horror.

I have a new essay, a close reading of Catherine Barnett's shamelessly hopeful poem, "O Esperanza!", up on The Woodlot, @chrisbanks6625.bsky.social's excellent online journal of Canadian poetry reviews and essays. the-wood-lot.ca/2025/01/30/a...

Scrivener is accepting submissions to our return issue, no. 46. The call lasts till February 19. Send everything excellent. #callforsubmissions

So nice to see The Scrivener Creative Review @scrivener1980.bsky.social back in action! These lines from my elegy to George Harrison were from one of my earliest published poems, which appeared in a revised form in my first book many years later. Thanks, Scrivener!

I'm a bit late to the party, but I just watched the new Beetlejuice movie, and it was just as silly and campy as I needed it to be, pretty much peak Tim Burton. Coincidentally (?) after watching it, FB showed me an ad for Nine Inch Nails doing a show in Toronto? Now I have no idea what decade it is.

Around the time of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, I attended a ceremony where we wrote down and burned something we wanted to release, then set new intentions for the coming year. The intention I set was to be BRAVE AND FOCUSED. This week, this feels harder yet more important than ever.

Don't let Elon Musk interfere in our elections. Here is my letter to Elections Canada to protect our electoral process from interference by the X algorithm. www.charlieangus.ca/_files/ugd/5... If you are worried about Musk's extremism please send an email to: [email protected]

#SageHillWriting announced their 2025 Spring Poetry Colloquium with Métis poet Marilyn Dumont this year! I did this retreat in 2019 and it was a huge game-changer for me as a poet. Highly recommended! sagehillwriting.ca/writing-retr...

Having a hard time knowing what to say here (considering I rarely used Twitter), so maybe I'll try a different approach. What would you like to know about me? Or hear my thoughts on?

Hero.

Weird that we have to say this, but the government doesn’t get to decide what gender a person is.