dusie : the tuesday poem

The Tuesday poem is more than thirteen years old, with new poems by nearly seven hundred different authors since April 9, 2013. For those unaware, I've been curating this weekly poem series over at the dusie blog, an offshoot of the online poetry journal Dusie (http://www.dusie.org/), edited/published by American poet and publisher Susana Gardner.

http://dusie.blogspot.ca/

The series aims to publish a mix of authors from the dusie kollektiv, as well as Canadian and international poets, ranging from emerging to the well established. Over the next few weeks and months, watch for new work by dusies and non-dusies alike, including Penn Kemp, Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose, Michael Russell, Anne F. Walker, Alexander Hollenberg, Janice Colman, Emily Shafer, Samuel Vriezen, Suzette Bishop, Noah Sparrow, Etienne Marsolet, Maleea Acker, David Herd, Dan Beachy-Quick, Zoé Mahfouz, Andy Butter and Joe Hill, among many others.

And submissions to this series remain open: send poem(s) and bio as .doc w photo to rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com with subject line: "tuesday poem submission"

A new poem will appear every Tuesday afternoon, Central European Summer Time, just after lunch (which is 8am in Central Canada terms).

If you wish to receive notices for poems as they appear, sign up here for the weekly email list.

So far, the Tuesday poem series has featured new writing by Elizabeth Robinson, Megan Kaminski, Marcus McCann, Hoa Nguyen, Stephen Collis, j/j hastain, David W. McFadden, Edward Smallfield, Erín Moure,Roland Prevost, Maria Damon, Rae Armantrout, Jenna Butler, Cameron Anstee, Sarah Rosenthal, Kathryn MacLeod, Camille Martin, Pattie McCarthy, Stephen Brockwell, Rosmarie Waldrop, Nicole Markotić, Deborah Poe, Ken Belford, Hugh Thomas, nathan dueck, Hailey Higdon, Stephanie Bolster, Jessica Smith,Mark Cochrane, Amanda Earl, Robert Swereda, Colin Smith, Sarah Mangold, Joe Blades, Maxine Chernoff,Peter Jaeger, Dennis Cooley, Louise Bak, Phil Hall, Fenn Stewart, derek beaulieu, Susan Briante, Adeena Karasick, Marthe Reed, Brecken Hancock, Lea Graham, D.G. Jones, Monty Reid, Karen Mac Cormack, Elizabeth Willis, Susan Elmslie, Paul Vermeersch, Susan M. Schultz, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, K.I. Press,Méira Cook, Rachel Moritz, Kemeny Babineau, Gil McElroy, Geoffrey Nutter, Lisa Samuels, Dan Thomas-Glass, Judith Copithorne, Deborah Meadows, Meredith Quartermain, William Allegrezza, nikki reimer,Hillary Gravendyck, Catherine Wagner,Stan Rogal, Sarah de Leeuw, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, Arielle Greenberg, lary timewell, Norma Cole, Paul Hoover, Emily Carr, Kate Schapira, Johanna Skibsrud, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Richard Froude, Marilyn Irwin, Carrie Olivia Adams, Aaron Tucker,Mercedes Eng, Jean Donnelly, Pearl Pirie, Valerie Coulton, Lesley Yalen, Andy Weaver, Christine Stewart,Susan Lewis, Kate Greenstreet, ryan fitzpatrick, Amish Trivedi, Lola Lemire Tostevin, Lina ramona Vitkauskas, Nikki Sheppy, N.W. Lea, Barbara Henning, Chus Pato (trans Erín Moure), Stephen Cain, Lucy Ives, William Hawkins, Jan Zwicky, Rusty Morrison, Jon Boisvert, Helen Hajnoczky, Steven Heighton,Jennifer Kronovet, Ray Hsu, Steve McOrmond, Lily Brown, Daniel Scott Tysdal, Beth Bachmann, Harold Abramowitz, Sarah Burgoyne, David James Brock, Elizabeth Treadwell, Shannon Maguire, Mary Austin Speaker, Victor Coleman, Charles Bernstein, Jennifer K Dick, Eric Schmaltz, Kayla Czaga, Paige Taggart,Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Lillian Necakov, Liz Howard, Jamie Reid, Jennifer Londry, Rachel Loden, a rawlings, Jenny Haysom, Jake Kennedy, Beverly Dahlen, Kristjana Gunnars, Eleni Zisimatos, Pete Smith,Julie Carr, Natalee Caple, Anne Boyer, Alice Burdick, Buck Downs, Phinder Dulai, Bronwen Tate, Ashley-Elizabeth Best, Nelson Ball, Laura Sims, Cassidy McFazdean, Paul Zits, Geoffrey Young, Michael Sikkema,Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Emily Izsak, Michael Ruby, Kemeny Babineau, Mairéad Byrne, Amy Bagwell, Jamie Sharpe, Dina Del Bucchia, Endi Bogue Hartigan, Claire Lacey, George Bowering, Muriel Leung,Michael Lithgow, Brynne Rebele-Henry, Kate Hargreaves, Carrie Hunter, Jennifer Baker, Rita Wong, Kristina Drake, Sonnet L’Abbé, Montana Ray, Farid Matuk, Michael Cavuto, Mark Truscott, Virginia Konchan, Christine Stewart and Ted Byrne, Chris Martin, Jason Christie, Marie Buck, George Stanley, Sean Braune, Natalie Lyalin, Donato Mancini, Shannon Bramer, Anne Cecelia Holmes, Kiki Petrosino, Emily Abendroth, Melissa Bull, Barbara Langhorst, Suzanne Zelazo, Aaron McCollough, Éireann Lorsung, Alexandra Oliver, Klara du Plessis, Daphne Marlatt, CAConrad, Sarah Dowling, Sara Renee Marshall, Sarah Fox, Nyla Matuk, Cody-Rose Clevidence, Brian Henderson, Adrienne Gruber, bp sutton, Laura Walker, Jessica Popeski,Collier Nogues, Mark Goldstein, Zach Savich, Jacqueline Valencia, Gerry Shikatani, Jennifer Stella, Matthew Henriksen, Sharon Thesen, Sarah Cook, Eryk Wenziak, 신선영 Sun Yung Shin, Ander Monson, Carrie Etter, Sarah Moses, Julia Polyck-O’Neill, Aimee Herman, Christine Stoddard, Aaron Boothby, John Barton, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Steve Venright, natalie hanna, Melissa Eleftherion, Adam Clay, Jennifer Zilm, Michelle Detorie, Kyle Flemmer, Biswamit Dwibedy, Rebecca Salazar, Ryan Eckes, Kate Siklosi, Lissa McLaughlin, Ashleigh Lambert, Shane Book, Anna Gurton-Wachter, James Meetze, Conor Mc Donnell, Jake Syersak, Domenica Martinello, Stephanie Grey, Christy Davids, Jay Ritchie, Katie Fowley, Emily Sanford, Geoffrey Nilson, Simina Banu, Marty Cain, Chelene Knight, Madhur Anand, Matthew Johnstone, Chia-Lun Chang, Andrew Wessels, Michael Martin Shea, Kimberly Quiogue Andrews and Sarah Blake, Lance La Rocque, Callie Garnet, Kerry Gilbert, Laura Theobald, Felicia Zamora, Eléna Rivera, Christian Schlegel, Janet Kaplan, Stuart Ross, Beth Ayer, Laressa Dickey, Beni Xiao, Annick MacAskill, Jenna Lyn Albert, John Phillips, MC Hyland, Di Brandt, Anthony Etherin, M.H. Vanstone, Sommer Browning, Melanie Dennis Unrau, Madeleine Stratford, Liz Countryman, Jamie Townsend, nina jane drystek, Nicole Steinberg, Lauren Haldeman, Catherine Cafferty, Cath Morris, Kristi Maxwell, Shira Dentz, Taryn Hubbard, Joan Naviyuk Kane, Joel Robert Ferguson, Jane Virginia Rohrer, Elisha May Rubacha, Noah Falck, Rebecca Rustin, Seth Landman, Marvyne Jenoff, Mikko Harvey, Erin Emily Ann Vance, Michael Turner, Heather Sweeney, Tanis MacDonald, Evan Gray, Conyer Clayton, Laynie Browne, Timothy Otte, Tim Atkins, Erin Bedford, Alex Manley, Jen Sookfong Lee, Kirby, Emma Bolden, Ruth Daniell, Lindsay Turner, Brenda Brooks, Rob Winger, Jordan Davis, Avonlea Fotheringham, Winston Le, Diana Arterian, Manahil Bandukwala, Samuel Ace, Zane Koss, J.I. Kleinberg, Luke Bradford, Sadie McCarney, Shelly Harder, Ariel Dawn, Arisa White, Ian Martin, Charles Rafferty, Andrew Cantrell, Terese Mason Pierre, Guy Birchard, Kimberly Campanello and Léonce Lupette, Franco Cortese, Dale Tracy, Lucy Dawkins, Shannon Quinn, Tom Snarsky, Aja Moore, Paul Perry, Erin Lyndal Martin, Alice Notley, katie o’brien, Chad Sweeney, Nicole Raziya Fong, Emily Lu, Henry Israeli, Jónína Kirton, MLA Chernoff, Wren Hanks, Catherine Graham, Geoffrey Olsen, Jami Macarty, David Groulx, Emmalea Russo, Kyle Kinaschuk, James Hawes, Anne Lesley Selcer, Amelia Does, Franklin Bruno, Matea Kulić, Breanna Ferguson, émilie kneifel, David Bradford, Trish Salah, Astra Papachristodoulou, Amy Parkes, K.B. Thors, JoAnna Novak, Jean Van Loon, Brandon Krieg, Jennifer Wortman, Kim Fahner, Cameron Gearen, Hamish Ballantyne, Diana S. Adams, Bill Carty, Khashayar Mohammadi, Allyson Paty, Mia Ayumi Malhotra, Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch, Ginny Threefoot, Mahaila Smith, Lloyd Wallace, Nicole McCarthy, Jérôme Melançon, Jessica Q. Stark, Jaime Forsythe, SJ Fowler, Emma Tilley, Jake Byrne, Kimberly Alidio, William Vallières, Cecilia Tanburri Stuart, Michael Edwards, Julia Drescher, James Lindsay, Edric Mesmer, Kat Cameron, Brandon Brown, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Courtney Bates-Hardy, Barry Schwabsky, Tom Prime, Jennifer Falkner, luna ray hall, Endre Farkas, Gregory Betts, Kate Angus, Ren Pike, Helen Robertson, Jack Jung, Nate Logan, Natalie Rice, Emily Brandt, Christina Shah, David Buuck, Ellen Chang-Richardson, Benjamin Niespodziany, Katie Jean Shinkle, Ken Norris, Howie Good, Lesle Lewis, Jaclyn Piudik, Alexander Joseph, Alina Pleskova, Christopher Patton, Nathanael O’Reilly, AM Ringwalt, Allison Pitinii Davis, Carla Harris, Adam O. Davis, Camille Guthrie, Paul Pearson, Andrew Dubois, Trevor Wilkes, Liam Siemens, Saba Pakdel, Moira Walsh, Natalie Jane Edson, Monica Mody, Grant Wilkins, Maw Shein Win, Jade Wallace, Wayne Miller, Meghan Kemp-Gee, Katie Naughton, Julian Day, Evan Nicholls, Therese Estacion, Jessica Laser, Matt Robinson, Ayaz Pirani, Elizabeth Clark Wessel, Sue Bracken, Gregory Crosby, Roxanna Bennett, Jessie Janeshek, Leah Sandals, Lindsey Webb, Robert Hogg, Daniel Owen, Kimberley Orton, Colin Martin, Michael Boughn, Kate Bolton Bonnici, Joey Yearous-Algozin, James Yeary, Ellie Sawatzky, Sharmila Cohen, df parizeau, Shane Kowalski, Rose Maloukis, Andrew Gorin, Vivian Vavassis, Micah Ballard, Angeline Schellenberg, Robbie Chesick, Douglas Piccinnini, Sue J. Levon, Olive Andrews, Matthew Hanick, Ben Jahn, Mary Rykov, Phillip Crymble, Chris Kerr, Sarah Feldman, Ben Meyerson, Jaeyun Yoo, Kirstin Allio, Heather Cadsby, Ori Fienberg, Isla McLaughlin, Nathan Anderson, Margo LaPierre, Chris Banks, Joseph Kidney, Anna Zumbahlen, Jay Stefanik, Clare Thiessen, Kōan Brink, Simon Brown, Dessa Bayrock, Tolu Oloruntoba, Réka Nyitrai, Brad Aaron Modlin, Miranda Mellis, Guy Elston, Jon Cone, Robyn Schelenz, Tara Borin, Emma Rhodes, Peter Myers, Adam Katz, Jessica Gigot, Kyla Houbolt, Michael Betancourt, Isaac Pickell, Emily Tristan Jones, Russell Carisse, Amanda Deutch, Matthew Owen Gwathmey, Lori Anderson Moseman, Caelan Ernest, Kate Spencer, Adriana Oniță, Alana Solin, Eric Weiskott, Lynn McClory, Jason Heroux, Terri Witek, Colin Dardis, Tricia Eddy Woods, Erin Robinsong, Jason Emde, Jerome Sala, Ian LeTourneau, Sandra Ridley, John Levy, Alina Stefanescu, Brandon Shimoda, Yoyo Comay, Lydia Unsworth, Constance Hansen, Barbara Tomash, Ron Silliman, Nicholas Molbert, J-T Kelly, Margaret Ronda, Catherine Rockwood, William Cirocco, Elana Wolff, Iordanis Papadopoulos, Bruce Whiteman, Sonia Saikaley, Summer Brenner, Robert van Vliet, Lock Baillie, Anna Reckin, Kyle McKillop, Mark Valentine, Nico Vassilakis, Isabel Sobral Campos, Maya Clubine, Henry Gould, Noah Berlatsky, Charlene Kwiatkowski, Ted Landrum, Sarah Alcaide-Escue, Ian Seed, Beatrice Szymkowiak, Nicholas Bradley, Megan Nichols, Adam Beardsworth, Concetta Principe, John Elizabeth Stintzi, Asher Ghaffar, Maggie Burton, George Shelton, Gabriel Ojeda-Sague, Karl Jirgens, Naomi Foyle, Joel Chace, Tracy Quan, Neil Surkan, John Stiles, Katie Ebbitt, Patrick Grace, Dawn Macdonald, Marilyn Bowering, Han VanderHart, Joseph Donato, David Harrison Horton, Hannah Siden, Jillian Clasky, Steven Ross Smith, Nikki Wallschlaeger, Mari-Lou Rowley, David Currie, Charlie Petch and Dag T. Straumsvåg, Catriona Strang, Maria Hardin, Beth Follett, Beatriz Hausner, Alison Stone, George Murray, c. a. r. refuse, Carlos A. Pittella, Ellen Boyette, David Martin, Cara Goodwin,  Dominic Dulin, Larkin M. Higgins, Siân Killingsworth, Sean Howard, Louise Akers, Lillian Nećakov and Gary Barwin, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Jennifer May Newhook, Jill Stengel, Lisa Pasold, Marc Perez, Mandy Sandhu, Susan Gevirtz, Paul Corman-Roberts, Lauren Peat, Michael Chang, R. Kolewe, Ashley D. Escobar, Colin Browne, Paul Ryudo Lampert, Diana Manole, arien wolf, Ronna Bloom, Babar Khan, Conal Smiley, Marita Dachsel, Kit-Xgwelemc Kennedy, Mark Laba, Chris Johnson, Nicole Mae, Brendan H. O'Connor, Eva Haas, Jamella Hagen, Ian Lockaby, Sunnylyn Ballard Thibodeaux, Holly Loveday, Lisa McCabe, Jessie Jones, Salma Hussain, Dani Spinosa, Tom Jenks, Ealhwine, Matthew Taylor Blais, Farah Ghafoor, Larry Sawyer, Nicholas Selig, Binoy Zuzarte, Christina Wells, Frances Cannon, Dana Teen Lomax, Susan Robertson, Micha Solomon, Emilie Lafleur, Gage Michael Wheatley, Robin Durnford, Madelaine Caritas Longman, Sarah Wolfson, Patrick O’Reilly, Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi, Amirah Al Wassif, Ben Berman Ghan, Dagne Forrest, Melanie Power, Lisa Fishman, Kristin Lueke, Mike Bagwell and Elena Zhang.

Christine Wu, familial hungers: poems

 

THE TASTE EQUIVALENT OF A GLIMPSE

Gustatory wink, olfactory flicker, food
flashback. A resuscitation
that rockets by, a blur that ignites
sleeping palates, lightning jolt
just out of reach and not quite enough
to awaken the full-flavour dream, leaving
behind a full-bodied craving. No words
for this brief animal possession. Fleeting
infuriating, unannounced, swift knock
on the door of nostalgia, ding-dong ditch
at the mouth of memory.

I’m only just now getting to the full-length poetry debut by Halifax-based Vancouver poet Christine Wu, her familial hungers: poems (Kingston ON: Brick Books, 2025), a collection that describes itself as a “lyric feast,” as the poems that make up the collection purposefully write through and around food, and into a foundation of family. “The only way my mother knows how to say hello: / a three-minute broth awaiting my prodigal return // at midnight, ” the poem “THREE-MINUTE LOVE LETTER” begins, “filling the space between hunger / and sustenance, waxen strands in a bath // of rehydrated crystals, silver foil sachet packed / with the myths of MSG that keeps white ghosts away.” Wu writes on family turmoil and childhood memories, and the collisions of language and culture, offering a way through food as both foundation, and a means through articulating the conflicts and the discomforts, the unspoken, and what should never have been. Wu writes food, whether preparation, shared meals or particular dishes, as a cultural and familial underpinning, impossible to distinguish from the rest of her upbringing. As the poem “WHY I STOPPED COMING HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS” begins: “Because I was scheduled to work. because flight costs / kept going up. Because I was embarrassed // by your accent. Because I hated Chinese / school. Because rice. Because teenage angst // never ends. Because he hit me when he was angry / and called it discipline. Because you did not stop him.”

Set in four titled groupings of first-person lyric narrative poems—“Residue of Hunger,” “Offerings at the Altar,” “Shadow Histories” and the title section, “Familial Hungers”—Wu’s poems provide a kind of landscape across the messiness of family, and family residue, and attempting to find where the narrator might themselves land, amid this background. It is through these poems that Wu attempts to reconcile not only her threads of history, but how she herself fits into the narrative of those threads, within it, from her research into various imperial and colonial occupations, articulated specifically through the poem “ANCESTRY.COM HAS NOTHING ON ME,” to exactly what she, in the end, might inherit. “Maybe this insatiable thirst is punishment // for my secret sham: those childhood nights / I stole away from the table,” she writes, near the end of the poem “WHEN ASKED WHY ALL MY POEMS ARE ABOUT SOUP,” “leaning into being // part of a family that’d stopped eating / together, crowded out by silence and hoarded // trauma.” This is a book about examining and reconciling large histories, both immediate and a few steps removed, and that natural impulse to not only discover who we are, but decide, as well, what of the past we might wish to still carry.

WHAT WE INHERIT

Metal tong wan molds.
The holy trinity: ginger, garlic, scallions.
A recipe for pork and watercress jiaozi.
The ability to sleep on a pull-out couch
and call it good. The ability to eat
steamed white rice and call it home.
History of the Great Leap Forward
and the forty-five million who starved. Midnight ramen.
Immigrant instinct to feed every last hungry ghost.

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Jane Bow

Jane Bow [photo credit: Grant Collins] grew up in Canada, the United States, Spain, England and Czechia. Three of her four novels have been award finalists in Canada, the U.S. and Britain. Jane has also written for literary journals, Chatelaine Magazine and CBC radio, and has presented her work internationally. She lives in Victoria, Canada.

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?

My first novel, Dead And Living, was based on the true story of a man who did not know, for 25 years, whether he was a murderer, and finally went to court to find out. I covered his trial in Thunder Bay, Ontario as a newspaper reporter but wanted to write his story as fiction in order to examine what lay behind the facts: how a man could not know whether he had killed someone, and the differences between truth and justice. Shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis award, Dead And Living lit a passion for fiction in me that has never died.

Thirty years later my use of language and elements of story in my fifth novel, The Angels’ Share, just published, are more accomplished. A romantic thriller about the nuclear power of love in sex, in climate-conscious winemaking and in my character’s and her 94-year old grandmother’s heist of a greedy Russian oligarch’s $2 million bottle of cognac, The Angels’ Share takes itself less seriously while also exploring female sexuality, climate connections and morality in a chaotic world. I am as thrilled to see it published as I was with my first book.

2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?

I have always been drawn to the power of story, perhaps because growing up in Canada, the U.S., fascist Spain, Communist Czechoslovakia and the U.K. introduced me to the twists and turns of human behaviour at an early age. I was seven when, driving through the Pyrenees Mountains in the 1950s, my parents smelled smoke under our new German Mercedes Benz for example. Someone had tied a rag to our exhaust pipe with the intention of setting us on fire. Much later as a journalist I soon discovered that human lives are messy and non-fiction serves only facts. Poetry crystallizes a profound moment or idea or image and I wanted entry into the full, colourful, musical panorama of life. Fiction gives me that.

3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?

All of the above. A spark of an idea takes time to evolve into a loose framework, which changes as I write. Some scenes fly out onto the page in nearly finished form, others take careful crafting. I take notes while researching my subjects and these immerse me in the feel of what I’m focussing on, then the words come through me onto the page.

4 - Where does a work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?

I’m always working on a book. I also write the occasional short piece of non-fiction, and sometimes poetry pops out of me, demanding attention, but these are usually tied, in some way, to my main book project.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

Writing is a private process for me but once a book has a publisher I enjoy sharing it through readings and I’ve been lucky to do so in Canada, England, the U.S. and India. My newest book, The Angels’ Share, will launch in Crete, where it is set, with a reading at a winery. I’m definitely looking forward to that!

6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?

A central theme in all of my books is the power of love, that deep-seated force of growth that lends strength to any human who experiences it, and how love plays out in a world wracked with greed and struggles for power. The current question has to be: will an evolution of human consciousness happen in time to prevent our extinction?

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?

A writer’s role varies with her/his/their prevailing culture. In Canada we can write relatively freely, and therefore have a responsibility to mirror how we see our world unfolding. We are also a small country, population-wise however, so it can be hard to find publishers who are not parochial or idealogically constrained.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?

Guidance and criticism from an editor are essential to me. I soon learned that if I want my work to shine, I need to park my ego outside my study, preferably down the street. So I can receive, and then assess clearly, the editor’s comments.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?

“You have to kill your darlings,” said author Stephen King, though writers have been advising this for generations. We tend to fall in love with some pieces of our prose. Excising them if they don’t serve the story requires putting your reader ahead of your pride and this can be hard. A mentor of mine put it another way: “What use is a sweater with three arms? Cut out the third one and use it as a tea cozy.”

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (novels to non-fiction history to plays and short stories)? What do you see as the appeal?

Writing plays has expanded my skills with dialogue and scene immediacy, and watching my work come to life for an audience was a career high point. Dealing with production conflicts was difficult however for a writer used to working alone. Several of my short stories have been published but I find this form confining. My non-fiction history book was fun to write, and an exercise in serving up research in story form, a skill essential also to novel writing.

11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?

I like to move straight from waking to some form of meditation to breakfast at my desk, where I will stay deeply focussed for several hours on a writing day.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

The still centre of myself is a place where possibilities beyond my consciousness exist. If I park my worries and ambitions there, at some point later solutions to my writing problems invariably present themselves.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?

The smell of the sea.

14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?

Living nature in all its forms is a reflection of what goes on in human beings’ psyches. For this reason books, music, visual art as well as scientific and systems thinking influence my work.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?

I love beautifully written fiction that offers a fresh perspective on some aspect of life. Classical writers who helped shape my writing are Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Stendhal, Dickens, Shakespeare. Recent writers include Amor Towles, Richard Powers, Barbara Kingsolver, Margaret Laurence.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

I’d like to read from my new novel, The Angels’ Share, at the winery in Crete where the story took shape.

17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?

If I could write songs and sing and dance while playing a guitar I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be writing novels.

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?

I never considered any other form of expression. Nobody wants to hear/see my singing, dancing, guitar playing, and splashing paint is something I do just for fun.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?

I still think about Richard Powers’ novel Playground. Great films are hard to find these days, though I recently enjoyed Song Sung Blue.

20 - What are you currently working on?

After The Angels’ Share publicity work finishes I’ll return to work on One Night With A Violin (working title,) a historical romantic thriller set in Cold War Prague.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

Canadian Poets Series : Peripety and/or Tronies

A while back, American writer Olivia Cronk invited me to participate in her Peripety and/or Tronies blog, a site that includes, as she offered via email, “established writers with whom i’m friendly & student writers & others who like to think in writing, etc. not fancy, no gate-keeping.” I was curious at the suggestion, a thread I could offer in-between all the other notices of readings, new publications, interviews and the like. In the end, I thought it would be interesting to offer Cronk’s students, already attempting to pay attention to writing and readings and new publications, a glimpse into some of the amazingness of Canadian poetry, especially during the current climate. The “Canadian Poets Series” offers short biographies on contemporary poets working in various corners across the country, each featuring a healthy-sized author biography with links to publications, and poems and interviews online. I like the idea of these posts as being introductory, able to catch a good sense of what each poet has done and is in the midst of, through these rather straightforward biographical posts. We should be celebrating ourselves, after all, with all the self-reliance, self-reflection and dignity our sovereignty provides.

The first thirty-one posts in this ongoing series have landed online since the beginning of March 2025—ryan fitzpatrick, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Kate Siklosi, Jake Byrne, Tolu Oloruntoba, Maggie Burton, Armand Garnet Ruffo, Ellen Chang-Richardson, Jen Currin, Mark Goldstein, Jessi MacEachern, Pete Smith, Farah Ghafoor, Dale Smith, Oana Avasilichioaei, Darby Minott Bradford, Melanie Dennis Unrau, Gregory Betts, Jérôme Melançon, Stephanie Bolster, Otoniya J Okot Bitek, J.R. Carpenter, Sheri-D Wilson, Conyer Clayton, Gillian Sze, Charlie Petch, Cameron Anstee, Cecily Nicholson, Britta B., Derek Beaulieu and Brandi Bird—with forthcoming posts featuring Alice Burdick, Chris Banks, Misha Solomon, Meredith Quartermain and Beatriz Hausner, among others. We are Canadian! And we are amazing.