I'm on an extended holiday from this platform but I'm briefly back to tell you that @mitchnobis.bsky.social's debut poetry collection deserves your attention. In my review of the book, just published in #PlumePoetry, I explain why. plumepoetry.com/mitchell-nob...

Mitchell Nobis's 'The Size of the Horizon, Or, I Explained Everything to the Trees' reviewed by P.W. Bridgman - Plume

Mitchell Nobis, The Size of the Horizon, Or, I Explained Everything to the Trees. Match Factory Editions Ltd., 2025. Reviewed by P.W. Bridgman   American poet Mitchell Nobis informs his readers, early...

plumepoetry.com

More about #RomanOleksiv. In his father, Yaroslav's, words: "It's important to talk about it. You can't just be silent. We frequently go to Mom's cemetery, practically every other day. He comes, lights a candle, we sit for a while and go home. That is our life." www.rferl.org/a/children-w...

A Burned Boy's Recovery And The 'Unimaginable Suffering' Of Ukrainian Children

In 2022, a Russian missile killed Roman Oleksiv’s mother and left the seven-year-old boy with massive burns across his face and body. Three years and more than 30 surgeries later, he’s making friends ...

rferl.org

P.W. Bridgman, Writer@pwbwriter1.bsky.social · 9mo ago

What heart will not be stirred by Roman's searing testimony & his translator's response to it? When strength & compassion are conjoined in this way, we are reminded of the human goodness that must prevail in Putin's contemptible war against Ukraine This is, or should be, Ukraine's #AlanKurdi moment

What heart will not be stirred by Roman's searing testimony & his translator's response to it? When strength & compassion are conjoined in this way, we are reminded of the human goodness that must prevail in Putin's contemptible war against Ukraine This is, or should be, Ukraine's #AlanKurdi moment

The Ukrainian Review@theukrainianreview.bsky.social · 9mo ago

💔 A European Parliament interpreter could not hold back tears during the speech of 11-year-old Roman Oleksiv from Lviv. The boy survived a missile strike on Vinnytsia on July 14, 2022, which killed his mother - it was the last time he saw her alive.

This may be the strongest case I have ever seen ever made--unwittingly of course--against AI. It runs slightly ahead of the promotion of those odious robots that increasingly are being developed to provide companionship for seniors in care homes to save governments and private operators money.

More Perfect Union@moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?" Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."

Now, how can I print a copy of this post and leave it lying around somewhere in the house without looking obvious?

UCD Press@ucdpress.bsky.social · 9mo ago

⭐️ 20% off our Poet’s Chair series ⭐️ Searching for the perfect gift for the poetry lover in your life? From now until 25 December, all of our Poet’s Chair series is available for a discount. 🎁 Happy gifting!

I am delighted to be on the Gordon Burn longlist because number one, I am a Gordon Burn nut, and number two the books I have already read on this list are brilliant. Thank you so much.

Tsawassen and its environs! Please join @catwrites604.bsky.social and me for a reading tomorrow at 7pm, Nov 11th, at Albany books!

"...always aware of the human alchemy of writing and reading, how you let creativity flow in yourself and how the results land in the reader." Read the insightful @ruthpadel.bsky.social's tender paean to S. Heaney & the new Collected, out now from @faberbooks.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/d562...

Seamus Heaney: a new glimpse of his life and poetry

With previously uncollected or unpublished works, a definitive edition deepens our understanding of the Nobel laureate’s creative process

ft.com

Perhaps the presence of a ghost qualifies a poem as "spooky" & worthy of posting on a rainy Hallowe'en? "You Have a Visitor, Sir" features Philip Larkin, a talking parrot called "Lickspittle," an undertaker called "Mr. Bottle"... Something for everyone.

"...My father removed The pope’s blessing and replaced it With his own. That might work Better for you, he said." From "Garnets," a spellbinding new poem by @tricialockwood.bsky.social in the latest issue of the @lrb.co.uk. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Patricia Lockwood · Poem: ‘Garnets’

lrb.co.uk

In time, Heaney confronted the Troubles with the full weight of his talent. (See esp., Station Island, section VIII). Other NI poets ably navigated the Odyssean challenges O'Toole notes--none better than Ciaran Carson in "Belfast Confetti" (here in his own voice). www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEI9...

Belfast Confetti read by Ciaran Carson (AQA Conflict Anthology)

YouTube video by Literature Today - and Yesterday...

youtube.com

P.W. Bridgman, Writer@pwbwriter1.bsky.social · 10mo ago

@fotoole.bsky.social on Heaney's initial reluctance to engage with the Troubles in his poems. "He resisted gut instincts that could not be transmuted into art, steering clear, like Odysseus, of both the whirlpool of propaganda and the monster of indifference." observer.co.uk/culture/book...

@fotoole.bsky.social on Heaney's initial reluctance to engage with the Troubles in his poems. "He resisted gut instincts that could not be transmuted into art, steering clear, like Odysseus, of both the whirlpool of propaganda and the monster of indifference." observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Seamus Heaney’s poems for a darkening age | The Observer

Collected in a landmark new edition, the late Irish writer’s work is attuned to wonder, replete with humanity and rooted in the tragedies of history

observer.co.uk

Coming in November. Don't Speak To Strangers. Our next series of Online Poetry Pamphlets. Featuring Moyra Donaldson, Scott McKendry, Alicia Byrne Keane, David Nash, and Lianne O'Hara. @artscouncilireland.bsky.social @poetryireland.bsky.social

'I have my own poet’s preoccupations that come back to me more or less uncontrollably, which I then have to turn into something basically legible that someone else might be interested in.' Joint winners Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie in conversation: thelondonmagazine.org/interview-fo...

Interview | Forward Prize for Best Collection: Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie - The London Magazine

Joint winners of the Forward Prize for Best Collection, Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie discuss each other's collections.

thelondonmagazine.org

Nothing less than recovering from the knee-replacement surgery I underwent ten days ago could keep me away from seeing Dan Bejar and Destroyer perform at the Vogue in Vancouver tomorrow night. Break a leg, Dan. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWg...

Destroyer - Painter In Your Pocket

YouTube video by chudslayerr

youtube.com

Pulpfiction Books@pfbvan.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Thinkin' about tomorrow

Is there anyone who could read this poem aloud & not have his or her voice catch? Finding work like this sets me on an obsessive search for more writing by the poet. It's plain to me now. Gregory Orr deserves more of my attention than he has received. So the search begins. Thank you, Phillip.

phillip crymble@phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Gregory Orr

"No world, no meeting..." This poem, from Moon Crossing Bridge, perfectly transmutes a shimmering, crystalline Zen moment into language. My favourite Tess Gallagher poem. Nicely chosen, Phillip!

phillip crymble@phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Tess Gallagher

A new collection by @annajswan.bsky.social, entitled The Garbage Poems, has been released by Brick Books. This is big CanLit news! Anna's about to begin a cross-Canada reading tour. See the events page on Anna's website for dates & times. Vancouverites: 29 Oct, 6:30, Iron Dog Books annaswanson.ca

Very much looking forward to this, Theresa. Your publisher (undoubtedly with guidance from you) has made very sound and aesthetically pleasing design choices. Your book will be a wonder, inside and out. Congratulations.

Theresa Kishkan@fishgottaswim.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Before making duck with chanterelles for our Thanksgiving dinner, I am spending time with the proofs of my forthcoming book: thornapplepress.ca/books/the-ar... I love the page design! I love the cover! So much to be thankful for...

I’m scheduled for knee-replacement surgery no. 2 on Oct 15 so I’ll only be making rare appearances here for a while. The procedure last Nov was surprisingly disruptive (although the outcome was excellent). Hoping for less of that & a return to better writing productivity. See you on the other side!

"...Sleep softly spirit of earth as the days and nights join hands when everything becomes one thing..." -- Al Purdy, "The Dead Poet" Made a pilgrimage yesterday to the Al Purdy sculpture in Toronto's Queen's Park--truly one of CanLit's secular stations of the cross. RIP AWP

"...'you're not in Ireland now.'" Such deep feeling in Martina Evans' reading of Eavan Boland's poignant childhood memoir, beautifully framed and filmed, as always, by @brinkerhoffpoetry.bsky.social. brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/an-iri...

A year ago, Ars Notoria published my story, "The Assignment." It concerns capital punishment. The barbaric #deathpenalty persists in some jurisdictions because their citizens can look away. There's nowhere to hide here. Meet Jesse Nazaire & his executioner, Mr Bell. arsnotoria.com/2024/09/23/t...

On the ineffable joy of being loved. @janezwart.bsky.social knows it and transmutes it into words worthy of their subject. Again.

Jane Zwart (she/her)@janezwart.bsky.social · 11mo ago

A ridiculous little run of luck on the poetry front this week. Thank you, Jamie Poissant, for several benisons: giving this poem a spot in Aquifer & for nominating it for the Best of Net anthology. And thank you, Dean Ward, for letting me borrow this sweet corn & pet moth.

"Swanson’s poems articulate such lovely bricolage, stitching narratives as a collage of subject, accumulation & language, stitching narratives from found materials into reason, logic, story." From @robmclennan.bsky.social's review of @annajswan.bsky.social's latest. the-wood-lot.ca/2025/09/25/a...

Anna Swanson, The Garbage Poems (Brick Books, Fall 2025)

lovingly reviewed by rob mclennan In Which We ReplaceGarbage With LoveThis place is famous for love, all brands& standards. We who come here know loveis a verb, & we love with open hands.On…

the-wood-lot.ca

21st anniv. dinner with my beloved Lydia at L'Express--our fav. Montréal restaurant. The most authentic Parisian bistro outside Paris did not disappoint. We're off to Toronto on Sunday to prowl bookstores & see friends. This is the last hurrah before knee-replacement surgery no. 2, sched for 15 Oct.

"I pick up my pencil. I wish I could call the place it comes to rest, the small and grooved knob on my fourth finger, a cradle but it is a callus..." Oh joy! @janezwart.bsky.social's pencil, sure & true, has wrought something for which we have all been waiting www.orisonbooks.com/product-page...

Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Best, poems by Jane Zwart | Orison Books

Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Bestpoems by Jane Zwart *available for pre-order* Orison Bookspaper / 74 pp. / $18.00ISBN: 978-1-949039-68-9Publication Date: February 3, 2026 ABOUT THE BOO...

orisonbooks.com

Such a deserving winner of the 2025 Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize for a First Collection: Amelia Loulli for "Slip" (Cape Poetry, 2024). The poem Jan has chosen to feature in her post below (Epilogue for My Daughters) well shows why the accolade is so apposite. It is tender and fierce in equal measures.

Jan Carson@jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · last yr.

Huge congratulations to Amelia Loulli, winner of the Heaney Prize for First collections for Slip and to all the shortlisted poets who read so powerfully this evening.

Every one Paula Meehan plants flowers just this way. Little wonder then that this poem was chosen to meander all over London in subterranean tunnels, illuminating & brightening as it went, "../bless[ing] the power of sun / its conspiracy with the [U]nderground...".

Irish Literary Times@irishlittimes.bsky.social · last yr.

"Seed" by Paula Meehan "I step out into the garden from the gloom of a house where hope had died and tally the storm damage., to seek what may have survived"