Don Gutteridge – p. 218

Wiz

My pal Wiz, whose mother insisted on calling him Dave, was the captain of our small cabal, and earned that sobriquet because there wasn’t a gizmo he couldn’t fizz or a gadget he couldn’t rachet into action, and his prize pony was a derby-racer, confected out of borrowed buggy wheels and abandoned boards, and lacquered as black as Satan’s ass, and we pushed him around town, like a royal in a rickshaw, from buffed boulevard to grassy patch – to the astonished applause of passers-by and jaw-dropping awe of denizens too dazzled to wave, and when that storied day wound down, I was pleased to have basked in the glory-reflected by do-it-all Dave.

Amanda Hale

Richard M. Grove / Tai

Richard M. Grove / Tai

Richard M. Grove / Tai

Richard M. Grove / Tai

Notes on Contributing Poets

Ted Amsden is a creative worker in the fields of photography and writing. Retired from photojournalism, his photography is focused on archival imaging of local change through the lens of landscape and domestic and commercial exterior objects. A former Poet Laureate of Cobourg, Ontario he continues to write poetry while moving several literary projects to completion.

April Bulmer lives in Cambridge, Ontario. Her most recent book is called Year of the Dog: A Poet’s Journal. April is currently at work on a manuscript called Feats of Weakness, short prose dealing with illness and spirituality. Her “portraits” in this anthology are excerpts from that project. See her accompanying videos at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ejiali0makl8u0c/AABC1FnQsejTblktpV0dLgSsa?dl=0

Mia Burrus explores the boundaries and spaces between urban and wild, spoken and silent, fleeting and timeless, free-formed and structured, known and unknowable, mindless and mindful, through poetry, photography and bricolage. www.miaburrus.com

John Di Leonardo is a Canadian visual artist/poet and a graduate of McMaster University. He has published two award-winning chapbooks, Book of Hours (2014), and Starry Nights (2015). He is a full member of The Canadian League of Poets. His debut collection of ekphrastic poetry, Conditions of Desire, was published by Hidden Brook Press, 2018. He writes and paints in Brooklin, Ontario. You can visit him at johndileonardo.ca

Lisa DiMenna is an educator, a wife and a mother. Her path to poetry is new as she has recently discovered that she truly enjoys writing. Poetry has helped her cope with the loss of her father. She writes about grief, power dynamics in relationships, love, nature’s ability to heal, and money’s influence on our mental well-being. It is her sincere wish to connect to people through her writing.

Alyda Faber has published two poetry collections, Poisonous If Eaten Raw (2021) and Dust or Fire (2016), with Goose Lane Editions/icehouse poetry. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she teaches Systematic Theology and Ethics at Atlantic School of Theology.

Joseph A Farina is a retired lawyer and award-winning poet living in Sarnia, Ontario. His poems have appeared in Philadelphia Poets, Tower Poetry, The Windsor Review, and Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century. He has two books of poetry published, The Cancer Chronicles and The Ghosts of Water Street.

Ian Fitzgerald’s professional background in advertising led to teaching at Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary, Alberta. He has trifled with poetry since his teenage years and is getting dangerously close to thinking he should take it seriously. His poetry has been published in We Are One – Poems from the Pandemic (2020) and Subterranean Blue Poetry.

Chris Gartland, born in St. Louis, MO, landed in Denver to attend Denver University, graduating with a degree in mathematics in 1978. He should have listened to his Lit professors. He has been sharing his writing on Facebook (Chris Gartland | Facebook) and he is now encouraged by friends to pursue publication.

Tea Gerbeza (she/her) is a queer disabled writer and multimedia artist creating in Treaty 4 territory (Regina, SK). Tea’s most recent work appears or is forthcoming in Literary Review of Canada, Contemporary Verse 2, Release All the Words Stuck Inside You III, and Room Magazine. Find out more on teagerbeza.com.

Beth Gobeil lives and works in Prince Albert, Sk. Retired from a career teaching pre-K, she now teaches creative workshops. She has one volume of poetry, Breathing Room (Radiant Press, 2015) which was short-listed for a Sask Book Award.

Richard Marvin Tiberius (Tai) Grove lives in Presqu’ile Provincial

Park, half way between Toronto and Kingston. He is the man of 7 Ps - Poet, Publisher, Photographer, Painter, President, Public Speaker, Person. He is the Poet Laureate of Brighton. Ontario. He runs Wet Ink Books and is the founding president of the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance.

Don Gutteridge is an award winning poet, born in Sarnia, raised in Point Edward, now living in London. He taught High School English for seven years, later becoming a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Western University, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He has published eighty books including twenty-two novels, fifty books of poetry, one of which, Coppermine, was shortlisted for the 1973 Governor-General's Award. He won the UWO President's Medal for the best periodical poem of that year, “Death at Quebec.”

Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández is the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance (CCLA) Ambassador in Gibara, Cuba. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Education with an English Major and has published stories and poems in Spanish and English with the CCLA. Jorge has edited three books of poetry and has publications in CCLA’s newsletter, The Envoy. He writes mostly about the sea, events in life and his family. He loves fishing and runs a homebased B&B.

Louisa Howerow writes from the traditional territory of the Attawandaron, Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, and Lunaapeewak peoples. Her poems have appeared in a number of anthologies, among them: Resistance: Righteous Rage in the Age of #MeToo (University of Regina), GUEST 19 (above/ground) and Leap (League of Canadian Poets).

Linda Hutsell-Manning’s poetry has been published in Grain, Quarry, lichen, Prairie Journal, Fish Quill Anthology, Nuwork Magazine, Balm Anthology and more. Other publications are That Summer in Franklin (Second Story Press), A Certain Singing Teacher, (Playwrights Canada Press), Fearless and Determined: Two Years Teaching in a One-Room School, (Blue Denim Press), and her short fiction appears in literary magazines.

Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias, author, reviewer, translator, editor. Member of the Mexican Association of Language and Literature, the Shakespeare Center and the Canadian Studies Department of Holguín University. Associate Professor with a Master’s degree in Pedagogical Sciences. Has published academic papers in Cuba, Mexico, Spain and Canada, as well as poetry, prose and lit reviews.

Keith Inman was declared a ‘people’s poet’ for his blue-collar style. His work has won a variety of small press awards, peer reviews, and grants from the Ontario Arts Council. His books can be found in major libraries. Keith lives in Thorold, Ontario.

Marvyne Jenoff was born in Winnipeg and began publishing poems as a student at the University of Manitoba in the 1960s. A long-time resident of Toronto, she has published three books of poetry and one of short fiction. Her poetry appears in anthologies and journals across Canada and internationally. www.marvynejenoff.org.

Tanya Adèle Koehnke is a member of The Ontario Poetry Society (T.O.P.S.) and the Scarborough Poetry Club. Tanya’s poems appear in The Ekphrastic Review; Big Art Book; Canadian Woman Studies; Foreplay: An Anthology of Word Sonnets; Tea-Ku: Poems About Tea; Grid Poems: A Guide and Workbook; and other publications.

Tanya Korigan works primarily in long form, multi-voiced, often interdisciplinary poems. Korigan has had her work displayed in galleries, libraries, and other spaces. Periodically online at @waking_juliet (IG), she is creating in the Robinson-Superior Treaty region of Ontario, Canada.

Donna Langevin’s fifth poetry collection, Brimming, was published by Piquant Press, 2019. She won first place in The Banister anthology competition (2019) and also in the Ontario Poetry Society Pandemic poem contest (2020). Winner of a second place Stella award, her play, Summer of Saints, will be produced in June 2022 by Act 2, Ryerson University.

John B. Lee author of 70 titles, is a three time Poet Laureate including the Poet Laureate of the CCLA, lives in a lake house overlooking Long Point Bay on the south coast of Lake Erie where he works as a full-time author.

Chuck MacInnis lives with his wife, Sally, in Merrickville, Ontario. He cofounded a poetry collective known as Rogue Poets, a group that has written and produced three poetry anthologies. His work has been accepted in several other publications. He believes poetry, like music, dance, silence or prayer, feeds the soul!

Dan MacIsaac’s poetry appeared in Stand, Prism, and Canadian Literature. Brick Books published his poetry collection, Cries from the Ark. His poetry received awards including the Foley Prize from America. His work was shortlisted for the Walrus Poetry Prize, The Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest, and the CBC Short Story Prize.

Bob MacKenzie’s poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada, the United States, Australia, India, Italy, and Greece, and has been translated into Greek and Persian. Bob’s published nine volumes of poetry and received numerous regional and international awards. In 2017, Bob attended the Summer Literary Seminars in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Mike Madill has been published across Canada, including in The Antigonish Review, The Fiddlehead and Event. After earning an Honourable Mention in the inaugural 2021 Don Gutteridge Poetry Award Contest, his debut book of poetry, The Better Part of Some Time, was published by Wet Ink Books in 2022.

Blaine Marchand’s writing has appeared across Canada, the US, Pakistan, India and New Zealand. His seventh collection of poetry, Becoming History, was published in August 2021 by Aeolus House. He is currently finalizing a new manuscript, Promenade. He lives in Ottawa.

Kathryn MacDonald’s poems have appeared in literary journals in Canada, the U.S., Ireland, and England, as well as anthologies. Her poem “Duty / Deon” won Arc Award of Awesomeness (January 2021, shayne avec i grec ,judge) and was published online. “Seduction” was shortlisted for the Freefall Annual Poetry Contest (Gary Barwin, judge) and was published in Freefall (Fall 2020). She is the author of A Breeze You Whisper: poems and Calla & Édourd, a novella, both with Hidden Brook Press.

Elizabeth McCallister resides in Brantford, Ontario. Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies including Hearthbeat: Poems of Family and Hometown, The World Around Us, Tamaracks: Canadian poetry for the 21st century and True Identity, Hidden Brook Press.

Tanya Standish McIntyre is a poet and visual artist, born and still living in the rural Eastern Townships of Quebec. Her first book, The House You Are Born In, to be published in McGill-Queens University Press’s Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series in 2022, tells the story of her early years growing up on an ancestral farm. An early review calls it “a stunning debut by a promising new poetic voice, haunting and uplifting in equal measure.” Visit her website at tanyastandishmcintyre.com.

Rhonda Melanson is a poet and teacher living in Sarnia, Ontario Canada. She has been published in several print and online publications. She co-edits the literary blog Uproar.

Michael Mirolla is the author of a clutch of novels, plays, film scripts and short story and poetry collections. His publications include three Bressani Prize winners: His novella, The Last News Vendor, won the 2020 Hamilton Literary Award for fiction. Born in Italy and raised in Montreal, Michael now lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Roger Nash is the inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Sudbury, and a past-President of the League of Canadian Poets. Literary awards include: Canadian Jewish Book Award for Poetry, PEN\O.Henry Prize Story, and publication in the Best Canadian Poetry Anthology (Biblioasis Press).

Arleen Paré is a Salish Sea writer with eight collections of poetry. She has been short-listed for the BC Dorothy Livesay BC Award for Poetry, and has won a Golden Crown Award for Lesbian Poetry, the Victoria Butler Book Prize, a CBC Bookie Award, and a Governor Generals’ Award for Poetry.

Danny Peart resides in Vancouver, B.C. In 2012, he published a slim volume of poems, cheerfully titled Ruined by Love. The collection was guided by Aislinn Hunter. In 2016, he published a collection of stories and poems titled Stark Naked in a Laundromat, edited by Zsuzsi Gartner. In 2018, he published a collection of poems titled Another Mountain to Climb, edited by Aislinn Hunter. In 2019, he was promoted to Ship’s Poet aboard the sailing ketch Seabird out of the Sunshine Coast’s port of Tillicum Bay. www.dannypeart.net

Robert Priest’s words have been debated in the legislature, posted on buses, quoted in the Farmer’s Almanac, and turned into a hit song. His book Reading the Bible Backwards peaked at number two on the Canadian poetry charts outsold only by Leonard Cohen. A new collection, If I Didn’t Love the River, is forthcoming from ECW Press. He lives in Toronto.

Samuel Salinas Ramos is a clinical bio-analyst by profession and an autodidact creative, his poetry born from the alchemy of joy and sadness hidden behind the tobacco and sugar cane curtain of his Cuban reality. He is currently working on a poetry collection exploring the convergence of verses and beats.

Felicity Sidnell Reid’s poetry, fiction and reviews have been published in anthologies, online journals and collections. Her novel, Alone: A Winter in the Woods (Hidden Brook Press) was published in 2015 and as an e-book in 2020. She is co-host and co-producer of Word on the Hills (wordonthehills.com), a literary series on local radio. Last year, Felicity published a chapbook entitled The Yellow Magnolia (Glentula Press).

Karen Sylvia Rockwell is a Windsor, Ontario lesbian poet whose poetry is inspired by her work as a counsellor and by her colourful, many-faceted, extended blended family. Karen’s poetry has received both recognition and awards. Karen considers colour home, chaos a friend, and words her salvation.

Basudhara Roy teaches English at Karim City College affiliated to Kolhan University, Chaibasa. Author of four books including three collections of poems, she writes and reviews from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India.

Kate Rogers’ poetry recently appeared in SubTerrain, Looking Back at Hong Kong (CUHK Press) and The Beauty of Being Elsewhere. (Hidden Brook Press) She calls Toronto, Northumberland County and the Algonquin highlands, home.

Jaydeep Sarangi is a widely anthologized poet with nine collections in English, his latest, Heart Raining the Light (2020). He is president of the Guild of Indian English Writers, Editors and Critics (GIEWEC) and vice president, EC, Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library, Kolkata. Sarangi is Principal of New Alipore College in Kolkata. He edits Teesta, a journal devoted to poetry and poetry criticism. His website is www.jaydeepsarangi.in.

Gwynn Scheltema’s poetry has been published in anthologies, journals and magazines in Canada, Europe and South Africa, online and in print. She is one of five featured poets in One Ticket Five Rides. (Whirling Dervish Press). Gwynn is inspired by the natural world, the sensory and sensual.

Sunil Sharma is a Toronto-based author with twenty-three books published, both solo and joint. He edits Setu journal.

Vanessa Shields is a poet, teacher, mother, wife, reader, laugher, walker, swimmer, cuddler living in Windsor, Ontario with her family. She owns Gertrude’s Writing Room, A Gathering Place for Writers. Thimbles (Palimpsest Press, 2021) is her most recent poetry collection. Visit her at www.vanessashields.com.

K.V. Skene’s work has appeared in Canada, U.K., U.S., Ireland, India, Australia, Austria and China. Skene’s latest collection, Unoriginal Sins, was published in 2018 by erbacce-press (UK). Her chapbook, The Love Life of Bus Shelters, appeared in 2019 courtesy of Cinnamon Press (UK).

Jill Solnicki is a writer and retired teacher living in Toronto. Her two published collections of poetry are This Mortal Coil and The Fabric of Skin. Her memoir about teaching at-risk students, The Real Me is Gonna be a Shock, was acquired by CBC Television. Jill’s poetry has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies.

Nathalie Sorensen has spent a lifetime reading poetry and now enjoys writing it. She is published in literary magazines and anthologies. She studied English literature and education and taught English at St. Lawrence College. She lives in Kingston, Ontario where she writes, gardens, takes photographs, and spends time at the family cottage on the Salmon River.

Glen Sorestad has been writing and publishing his poems for fifty years. Among his more than twenty-five books of his own poetry, his work has appeared in over seventy-five anthologies and texts. His most recent book of poetry is a bilingual English/Italian collection, Selected Poems, from Dancing Birches (2020) published in Italy.

JC Sulzenko’s poetry appears on Arc’s Poem of the Year shortlist, online, and in anthologies and journals either under her name or as A. Garnett Weiss. Aeolus House released Bricolage, A gathering of centos (July 2021.) South Shore Suite … POEMS came out in 2017. JC curates “Poetry Quarter” (Glebe Report) and selects for bywords.ca. www.jcsulzenko.com

John Tyndall lives in London, Ontario with his wife, storyteller Diane Halpin. His latest book is Listen to People (Hidden Brook, 2020). He has also appeared in the print anthology The Beauty of Being Elsewhere (Hidden Brook, 2021), and the online anthology Dénouement (Beliveau Books, 2021).

John Unruh is a Northumberland resident and writer concerned with the value of broken things and how communities come together to fix them. He is also a career technical writer and editor. You can reach him on Twitter @jtu_nwfrt or by email at jtu@cogeco.ca.

Raeesa Usmani is an academic, research scholar, translator, blogger, public speaker, poet and writer from the Western ghats of India who writes to unwind her troubled mind. Writing gives her space, liberty and ease to breathe. She has two books to her name Life: An Intriguing Roller Coaster (non-fiction, 2020) and (Her)Voice from Within (poetry, 2021).

Dianalee Velie is the Poet Laureate of Newbury, NH. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and has a Master of Arts in Writing from Manhattanville College. She is the author of six books of poetry, Glass House, First Edition, The Many Roads to Paradise, The Alchemy of Desire, Ever After, Italian Lesson and a collection of short stories, Soul Proprietorship: Women in Search of Their Souls. She is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, the New England Poetry Club, the International Woman Writers Guild, the New Hampshire Poetry Society and founder of the John Hay Poetry Society.

Elena Venables was born in Miramar, Cuba to a Cuban mother and Canadian father. The family left Cuba in 1960. She has lived in Buenos Aires, New York, Montreal, Ottawa and now Merrickville, Ontario. Member of the Rogue Poets of Merrickville, she is an avid flamenco guitar player and too oftentimes a daydreamer.

Terry Watada is a well-published poet living in Toronto. He has five poetry collections in print. The Four Sufferings (Mawenzi House, Toronto ON) was released in December 2020.

Bob Wood has penned about 200 stories and opinion pieces on municipal and provincial politics and other topics. His work has appeared in Forever Young Magazine, Canadian Dimension, Literature for the People and other publications. The Port Rowan, Ontario resident received Norfolk County’s Laureate award for fiction in 2021.

Donna Wootton is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers. Her book about her late father, Moon Remembered, is archived in the library at Trent University. Her poetry was published in the anthology, The Divinity of Blue (Hidden Brook Press). Her latest publication is the novel Isadora’s Dance from Blue Denim Press.

A short bio about our Poetry Editor:

Antony Di Nardo is the author of seven books of poetry. His most recent, Through Yonder Window Breaks, published by Wet Ink Books, was one of the winners of the Don Gutteridge Poetry Award. His forthcoming collection, Forget-Sadness-Grass (Ronsdale Press), will be released in Fall 2022. He divides his time between Sutton, Quebec and Cobourg, Ontario.

A short bio of our Photography Editor:

Wency Rosales (1972) Teacher of English as a second language, has worked in the Tourism Industry as Entertainer, Public Relation Asistant. He is currently a Tour Guide for Havanatur company in Cuba.

He is an award winning photographer, the photography editor for the Evoy, the newsletter of the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance and the CCLA magazine, Ambassador. For a private or group tour, you can reach him at: wency@nauta.cu or wencyrosalesrojas@gmail.com

His poetry has been published in different anthologies, published in Canada.

Cover Award Winner:

José Alberto Pérez lives in Holguín, Cuba born in 1994. He is an entrepreneur, tourguide , photographer and travel blogger on YouTube. You can find him at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ8kilIMXXioL4xg0TsKq7g/about For a true Cuban tour you can contact him at: viajeterapiacuba@gmail.com https://linktr.ee/ViajeTerapia

Richard M. Grove / Tai

Dedicated to my dear sister Adonay and brother Manuel. Geography, politics and covid have kept them apart for far too long. Divine Love has kept them together.

Tai