My poem “New” is in the latest issue of The Antigonish Review (#169).

I adore the cover image, a painted woodcut block titled “Pretty Crow” by Lisa Brawn. It’s probably my favourite cover from the last few years, and it’s an added bonus that my poem happened to be in this issue. Love it.

Behind this gorgeous cover is a ton of great fiction, poetry, and book reviews. You should definitely take a look next time you visit your local independent bookstore.

The adorable folks at Book City have already made me blush, so I won’t go on further, except to say that you can subscribe to The Antigonish Review here.

Enjoy.

Toronto’s often called a city of neighbourhoods. According to Wikipedia, there are more than 200 distinct neighbourhoods within its boundaries. One of my favourites is the Annex.

I love it for its concentration of bookstores, coffee shops, sushi bars and cheap martinis on Wednesdays.

My BFF and I started a little tradition (partly captured in “Au Natural“), where go book shopping at various place along Bloor, most notably Seekers, Book City and BMV, then end up at Hey Lucy’s, where martinis are half-off on Wednesdays.

Since we’ve started doing this, we’ve expanded our little circle, and now a few of us go off and on, roughly monthly. It’s a wonderful thing. Continue reading »