Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read an excerpt from Hannah Green’s collection Xanax Cowboy, shortlisted for the League’s Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. From Xanax Cowboy By Hannah Green I will kiss anybody who tells me they like my cowboy boots. In The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, Michael Ondaatje writes “In Boot Hill there are only two graves that belong to women and they are the only known suicides in that graveyard.” I am not afraid to die. I want you to be happy for me. I pace the aisles at Shoppers Drug Mart but there is no card for this occa ..read more

I’ve been thinking more than usual about a question that all lovers of literature could helpfully ask themselves: what can I do in service of book reviews? At least once a year, usually on social media, someone laments the death of the book review. Cited causes include: that few venues publish reviews at all; that fewer pay reviewers; that fewer still pay reviewers well; that prestigious venues are ever more disinterested in reporting on literature; that hardly anyone except for the reviews editor and the author read a given review; and, that there is a tacit and stifling moratorium on ‘cri ..read more

In the early days of 2023, probably around the New Year when we all scramble to set our intentions, I spoke mine out loud: I wanted poetry back in my life. After my debut collection, The Pit, was published with Nightwood Editions in 2021, I stopped writing poetry. The few attempts I made felt awkward. I would read over the polished poems in my book and think “How the heck did I do that?” I felt like I’d never be able to do it again. My focus shifted to fiction as I attempted to write a novel. But poetry was always at the back of my mind. I knew I wanted to return to it but finding my way i ..read more

Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “You Were Not One Time in Your Life” from T. Liem’s collection Slows: Twice, shortlisted for the League’s Raymond Souster Award. You Were Not One Time in Your Life By T. Liem When will you arrive? Do you want to be a large gross fruit? Were you trained to think of the choices you did not make? But do you think under everything like a rot? Were you a sun engorged by green? And how did time reason inside? Was it something particular in the world, a number or a vast gift that gave you vertigo? Was it very shiny, very told ..read more

Approaching writing as a form of friendship and connection also made it possible to continue writing poems and see the chapbooks through to publication at all. Creating art collaboratively is not a new process. Musicians are probably the best example of visible collaborative art as we see the music a band creates be drastically different from a musician’s solo project. Other artists have been collaborating and creating together for decades—even in poetry. An immediate example that comes to mind are Yoko’s Dogs (Jane Munro, Mary di Michele, Susan Gillis, and Jan Conn), as well as the many co ..read more

Toronto, April 23, 2024 – The League of Canadian Poets (League), in partnership with the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), is pleased to announce the creation of the Lillian Allen Prize and the Lillian Allen Emerging Artist Prize, which recognize and celebrate spoken word poetry artists working in English or French. Two prizes will be awarded annually: one to an established artist and one to an emerging artist, based on their respective bodies of work. Lillian Allen (Photo credit: Randell Edwards) The prize is named after Canadian poet, spoken word artist, educator and activist Lillian Allen. Lillia ..read more

Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “there’s no Children here” from Wanda John-Kehewin’s collection Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead: ᒪᒪᐦᑖᐃᐧᓯᐃᐧᐣ ᐸᑯᓭᔨᒧᐤ ᓂᑭᐦᒋ ᐋᓂᐢᑯᑖᐹᐣ mamahtâwisiwin, pakosêyimow, nikihci-âniskotâpân, shortlisted for the League’s Raymond Souster Award. Due to its formatting, this poem is only available as an image. Wanda John-Kehewin is a Cree writer who came to Vancouver, BC, on the Greyhound when she was nineteen, pregnant — carrying a bag of chips, a bottle of pop, thirty dollars, and hope. Wanda has been writing about the near deci ..read more

Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read an excerpt from “Twitchcraft” from Sandra Ridley’s collection Vixen, shortlisted for the League’s Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Excerpt from “Twitchcraft” by Sandra Ridley Unbidden, a spooklight, a nightmaker, he seems a nikin, a creature, a very soft creature— his underness, an unkanny prank of second sight. Yet a fake and a fetch. Riven with affliction, with ravenous crookedness. Hush, hush. And sudden, a hocus, a harum-scarum, we mark him as swithen. So musky and sleek. ✢ As if he would terrify, and he is somewhat te ..read more

Spoken Word Saturday is a showcase of the amazing Spoken Word Poetry talent that can be found from coast to coast. Today, Spoken Word Saturday celebrates LCP Spoken Word Award finalist Angelic Goldsky. Family is Chosen by Angelic Goldsky (Angelic Vers) Watch on Youtube Angelic Goldsky (they/them) is a queer trans-masculine slavic Jewitch poet working at the cross-roads of imaginations beyond diaspora, ancestral lineage repair, transgender spiritual justice, and queer mercy.  Angelic deep roots in spoken word poetry has propelled them to travel internationally performing for the past d ..read more

Poetry in Your Classroom: a lesson plan for grades 7-12 By Tanya Neumeyer; created with the support of the League of Canadian Poets and the Ontario Arts Council. Download the slide deck for this lesson plan. Overview One of the most effective ways to get students excited about poetry is to invite a spoken word artist into your classroom. It’s a great way to make poetry come alive. Much of what happens on a poetry stage is not recorded, but spoken word videos can give students a sense of what it can feel like to be in the room with a poet giving a live performance. You can use the lesson belo ..read more