Showing posts with label Kim Fahner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kim Fahner. Show all posts

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Spotlight series #98 : Kim Fahner

The ninety-eighth in my monthly "spotlight" series, each featuring a different poet with a short statement and a new poem or two, is now online, featuring Sudbury poet, critic and fiction writer Kim Fahner.

The first eleven in the series were attached to the Drunken Boat blog, and the series has so far featured poets including Seattle, Washington poet Sarah Mangold, Colborne, Ontario poet Gil McElroy, Vancouver poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Ottawa poet Jason Christie, Montreal poet and performer Kaie Kellough, Ottawa poet Amanda Earl, American poet Elizabeth Robinson, American poet Jennifer Kronovet, Ottawa poet Michael Dennis, Vancouver poet Sonnet L’Abbé, Montreal writer Sarah Burgoyne, Fredericton poet Joe Blades, American poet Genève Chao, Northampton MA poet Brittany Billmeyer-Finn, Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer from Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1 territory) poet, critic and editor Joshua Whitehead, American expat/Barcelona poet, editor and publisher Edward Smallfield, Kentucky poet Amelia Martens, Ottawa poet Pearl Pirie, Burlington, Ontario poet Sacha Archer, Washington DC poet Buck Downs, Toronto poet Shannon Bramer, Vancouver poet and editor Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Vancouver poet Geoffrey Nilson, Oakland, California poets and editors Rusty Morrison and Jamie Townsend, Ottawa poet and editor Manahil Bandukwala, Toronto poet and editor Dani Spinosa, Kingston writer and editor Trish Salah, Calgary poet, editor and publisher Kyle Flemmer, Vancouver poet Adrienne Gruber, California poet and editor Susanne Dyckman, Brooklyn poet-filmmaker Stephanie Gray, Vernon, BC poet Kerry Gilbert, South Carolina poet and translator Lindsay Turner, Vancouver poet and editor Adèle Barclay, Thorold, Ontario poet Franco Cortese, Ottawa poet Conyer Clayton, Lawrence, Kansas poet Megan Kaminski, Ottawa poet and fiction writer Frances Boyle, Ithica, NY poet, editor and publisher Marty Cain, New York City poet Amanda Deutch, Iranian-born and Toronto-based writer/translator Khashayar Mohammadi, Mendocino County writer, librarian, and a visual artist Melissa Eleftherion, Ottawa poet and editor Sarah MacDonell, Montreal poet Simina Banu, Canadian-born UK-based artist, writer, and practice-led researcher J. R. Carpenter, Toronto poet MLA Chernoff, Boise, Idaho poet and critic Martin Corless-Smith, Canadian poet and fiction writer Erin Emily Ann Vance, Toronto poet, editor and publisher Kate Siklosi, Fredericton poet Matthew Gwathmey, Canadian poet Peter Jaeger, Birmingham, Alabama poet and editor Alina Stefanescu, Waterloo, Ontario poet Chris Banks, Chicago poet and editor Carrie Olivia Adams, Vancouver poet and editor Danielle Lafrance, Toronto-based poet and literary critic Dale Martin Smith, American poet, scholar and book-maker Genevieve Kaplan, Toronto-based poet, editor and critic ryan fitzpatrick, American poet and editor Carleen Tibbetts, British Columbia poet nathan dueck, Tiohtiá:ke-based sick slick, poet/critic em/ilie kneifel, writer, translator and lecturer Mark Tardi, New Mexico poet Kōan Anne Brink, Winnipeg poet, editor and critic Melanie Dennis Unrau, Vancouver poet, editor and critic Stephen Collis, poet and social justice coach Aja Couchois Duncan, Colorado poet Sara Renee Marshall, Toronto writer Bahar Orang, Ottawa writer Matthew Firth, Victoria poet Saba Pakdel, Winnipeg poet Julian Day, Ottawa poet, writer and performer nina jane drystek, Comox BC poet Jamie Sharpe, Canadian visual artist and poet Laura Kerr, Quebec City-area poet and translator Simon Brown, Ottawa poet Jennifer Baker, Rwandese Canadian Brooklyn-based writer Victoria Mbabazi, Nova Scotia-based poet and facilitator Nanci Lee, Irish-American poet Nathanael O'Reilly, Canadian poet Tom Prime, Regina-based poet and translator Jérôme Melançon, New York-based poet Emmalea Russo, Toronto-based poet, editor and critic Eric Schmaltz, San Francisco poet Maw Shein Win, Toronto-based writer, playwright and editor Daniel Sarah Karasik, Ottawa poet and editor Dessa Bayrock, Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia poet Alice Burdick, poet, writer and editor Jade Wallace, San Francisco-based poet Jennifer Hasegawa, California poet Kyla Houbolt, Toronto poet and editor Emma Rhodes, Canadian-in-Iowa writer Jon Cone, Edmonton/Sicily-based poet, educator, translator, researcher, editor and publisher Adriana Oniță, California-based poet, scholar and teacher Monica Mody and Ottawa poet and editor AJ Dolman.
 
The whole series can be found online here.

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

the book of smaller : some reviews, some interviews/podcasts, (oh, and ive some new chapbooks out,

I should have been mentioning, I suppose, some of the reviews coming in for the book of smaller (University of Calgary Press, 2022) (I still have copies for sale, don'chaknow). Kim Fahner, Margo LaPierre, and Jérôme Melançon collaboratively did a really stunning one, over at periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics. Jami Macarty did a really neat one over at Miramichi Review (although I should point out that my references to Sainte-Adèle were to the village in Quebec, and completely unrelated to Vancouver poet Adèle Barclay). Benjamin Niespodziany provided a short review via Neon Pajamas, which was pretty cool. And there are even some wee reviews over at the book's Goodreads page! What! I mean, even the CBC recommends you read this book, so what are you gonna do?

Susan Johnson interviewed me on the collection on her Friday Special Blend recently, so be sure to listen to the podcast of that. Andrew French also interviewed me for the same via his podcast, Page Fright: A Literary Podcast.

Amanda Earl also interviewed me recently for her podcast, The Small Machine Talks, on the recent 29th anniversary of above/ground press. Pearl Pirie conducted a brief interview with me around the new book, and I answered Colin Dardis' questions via his Fill Your Books! Oh, and I answered Michael Murray's questionnaire recently via his Galaxy Brain (I should probably point out that I post links to all of my interviews here as they appear, in case you ever wonder about those).

Also, did you see that Greg Bem provided a wee review via Goodreads of my chapbook, Autobiography (above/ground press, 2022)? Oh, and I've a new chapbook out now with paper view books, 4 poems on receiving the phizer covid-19 vaccine (second shot, (2022) (my first chapbook published in Portugal!), and another small item out with Kyle Flemmer's The Blasted Tree, Canadian Poem (2022). And I've a chapbook forthcoming with Rose Garden Press as well, sometime next month. There's probably other stuff I'm forgetting about right now, but these are some highlights. I mean, there is just so much going on! What!

Monday, March 30, 2020

Kim Fahner reviews my Mansfield Press poetry title, A halt, which is empty (2019) at Arc Poetry Magazine

I am incredibly grateful for Sudbury poet and critic Kim Fahner's attention this past week, after her review my Mansfield Press poetry title, A halt, which is empty (2019), was posted online over at Arc Poetry Magazine. Thanks so much! This is actually the fourth review of the book (which makes me feel even luckier, honestly), after Jessica Drake-Thomas reviewed it over at her site, Jonathan Ball reviewed it in the Winnipeg Free Press, and Mary Kasimor reviewed the same at Otoliths. You can see Fahner's original review here. There are options for you to order directly from the publisher, or through whichever of your local bookstores are doing delivery, I'm sure, but if you wish to pick up a signed copy directly from me, just let me know (I have a few copies kicking around).
A poetic love letter to Ottawa:
rob mclennan's A halt, which is empty
Toronto: Mansfield Press, 2019.


This beautiful book of poems is rooted in the history of Ottawa, but opens itself into so much more as you read through it. mclennan, a prolific writer, reviewer, and publisher of poetry, lives and works there. The epigraph to the first section, from Sarah Mangold’s “An Antenna Called the Body”, sets the tone, suggesting that we need to realize that we all should begin at a place of “not knowing.” From there, we can reconstruct our own meanings, histories, and personal stories.

One would be mistaken to think this is just a simple book of historical poems, though. It isn’t dusty and worn, but instead is so very vibrant and alive. Each piece is popping with poetic energy, something which is a hallmark of mclennan’s poetic work. In “Mother Firth,” the poet creates a cluster of twelve small poems that trace the beginnings of settlement in the Ottawa area. The ninth piece is artful, as they all are. In that numbered piece, mclennan writes of how “Empire, what Dominion, // cut from cedar boughs, birchbark, / maple.” He alludes to the colonization of First Nations lands by referring to the destruction of trees.

mclennan uses language and poetics with a keen sense of awareness. In “shadow-puppet, everything is moonlit,” he writes evocatively of “the cadence of the city,” of the river and canal, and of “the necklace of floating logs.” Anyone who has lived in Ottawa can see how you can trace its history through its urban planning and structure. What this poet also does, though, is sing a song of tribute to the way in which cities are envisioned, formed, brought into being, and quietly invite us to consider how we fit in. 

In “Quarters: Calgary,” there are four poems that are almost prismed, somewhat reminiscent of the old paper origami Fortune Tellers that kids used to make in elementary school. You get a good sense of mclennan’s skill when you read something like this in “Quadrant: two.” He writes:

     Urban planning doesn’t fence. Magpie. Birds track, patterns. Radar,
     fumes. Breath, my neck. Atop the lungs, a trail. This little sweetness.
     Wheel, reverse.

     Ship, adrift. They coin a term.

These are images that are artfully layered, stippled with light and shadow, so that you are called to enter into the work and consider what it means to live in a city, and what it means to live carefully, to be observant of what is around you, and to notice the way in which a city breathes.

Poems like “Dear Catherine,” “Corporation of Snow,” and “Love letter,” as well as the gathered poems found in the sections titled “site map: draft,” “The particular and busy lives of side streets,” and “Poem at Forty-two” are all beautiful and multi-faceted. Every one of the poems sings. You end up having finished reading mclennan’s A halt, which is empty knowing that you’ll return to it over and over again, glad for its well-crafted artistry.

 




Thursday, December 20, 2018

m a n y _ g e n d e r e d _ m o t h e r s : r e c e n t _ e s s a y s

many gendered mothers is a project on literary influence featuring short essays by writers (of any/all genders) on the women, femme, trans, and non-binary writers who have influenced them, as a direct or indirect literary forebear.

This project is directly inspired by the American website Literary Mothers, created by editor Nadxieli Nieto and managing editor Nina Puro. While we hope that Literary Mothers might eventually return to posting new pieces, our site was created as an extension and furthering of their project (in homage, if you will), and not meant as any kind of replacement.

We've nearly sixty essays posted! Our most recent include:

Amy Leblanc on Jeanette Winterson [pictured]

Arielle Burgdorf on Liz Worth

Eve Rachele Sanders on Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë

Michelle Butler Hallett on Flannery O’Connor

Michele Sharpe on Befriending Jane Austen’s Emma

Kim Fahner on Bronwen Wallace

Ronna Bloom on Rhea Tregebov

Drew Kiser on Sylvia Plath
Please check out our submissions page for more information (we are constantly seeking submissions! we even pay a small amount!). We've also a Facebook page!

We are also still accepting signed books for our upcoming fundraiser! and check out our Patreon page! All donations go directly to paying contributors.



Thursday, October 26, 2017

m a n y _ g e n d e r e d _ m o t h e r s : f o u r _ r e c e n t _ e s s a y s

many gendered mothers is a project on literary influence featuring short essays by writers (of any/all genders) on the women, femme, trans, and non-binary writers who have influenced them, as a direct or indirect literary forebear.

This project is directly inspired by the American website Literary Mothers, created by editor Nadxieli Nieto and managing editor Nina Puro. While we hope that Literary Mothers might eventually return to posting new pieces, our site was created as an extension and furthering of their project (in homage, if you will), and not meant as any kind of replacement.

We've now more than thirty essays posted! Our most recent include:
Michele Leavitt on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane and Emily Brontë’s Catherine

Christine Fischer Guy on Alice Munro and Jan Morris

Dominique Russell on Sylvia Plath

Kim Fahner on Gwendolyn MacEwen
Please check out our submissions page for more information (we are seeking submissions! we even pay a small amount!). We've also a Facebook page!

We are also still accepting signed books for our upcoming fundraiser! and check out our Patreon page! All donations go directly to paying contributors.

Wednesday, August 02, 2017

m a n y _ g e n d e r e d _ m o t h e r s : e i g h t _ r e c e n t _ e s s a y s

many gendered mothers is a project on literary influence featuring short essays by writers (of any/all genders) on the women, femme, trans, and non-binary writers who have influenced them, as a direct or indirect literary forebear.

This project is directly inspired by the American website Literary Mothers, created by editor Nadxieli Nieto and managing editor Nina Puro. While we hope that Literary Mothers might eventually return to posting new pieces, our site was created as an extension and furthering of their project (in homage, if you will), and not meant as any kind of replacement.

We've now thirty essays posted! Our most recent include:

t thilleman on jj hastain

Sylvester Green on Jeanette Winterson

Nicole Brewer on Anakana Schofield and Miriam Toews

Kim Fahner on Mary Oliver

Sarah Cook on Anne Sexton

Andrea Nicki on Elly Danica

Sue Rainsford on Helen Cixous, Eimear McBride, Bhanu Kapil and Lidia Yuknavitch

Lorin Medley on H.D.
Please check out our submissions page for more information (we are seeking submissions! we even pay a small amount!). We've also a Facebook page!

We are also still accepting signed books for our upcoming fundraiser! and check out our new Patreon page! All donations go directly to paying contributors.