Of all the journals that have honoured my work with publication, Joypuke has to be the winner for best name. A unicorn barfing up a rainbow? Yup. That’s what I think of too.
It’s an annual literary journal from Mt. Allison University and they accepted one of my favourite short poems, “We Fall”, to publish. You can e-mail their publisher, Underbridge Press, to purchase a copy at: underbridge@mta.ca. It’s 6 bucks (probably +shipping).
This announcement is a bit late, but I’m so proud to be making it! The second annual edition of Fearsome Fables (an anthology of spooky comics, stories, and poems for ages 10+) is available online in both digital ($10) and physical ($20) formats.
Once again, a bunch of my very talented friends are featured within its pages, so I definitely recommend that you grab a copy. You can also feel good about the purchase because net proceeds go to the charity Free the Children.
I’d like to thank Peter Chiykowski and Jay Paulin for inviting me back for another volume, but a HUGE thank you goes to Kala Hirtle, the devilishly talented illustrator of the comic I wrote: “Mistaken Identity”. You’re the best Kala! Also, check out Kelly Lynch’s work in the volume. She was the illustrator for the first charity anthology (What the Wild Things Read) that Jay’s Ink’d Well Comics produced. You can still get that anthology and the original Fearsome Fables too.
“The Celebration of Light. But don’t forget about the darkness. The darkness is where art is created.” This is a paraphrase of Mother Mother’s lead singer, Ryan Guldemond, at the Vancouver band’s free concert preceding the final night of fireworks at Vancouver’s annual Celebration of Light. It’s a three-country competition held in early August each year on a Sat-Wed-Sat schedule. This year, England, Canada, and Thailand each had a night to fire 25 minutes of -works set to music off a barge in English Bay.
I usually watch the show from farther away, but this time I was lured into the hoard of beach blankets and stumbling drunks to watch Mother Mother’s free show. I admit that it took me a while to get into this band. Not because of their sometimes dissonant lyrical delivery (that I have also learned to love), but because their name reminded me of I Mother Earth: a band that I will forever loathe because their song, “Summertime in the Void,” ruined one of the Big Shiny Tunes compilations of my youth. I forgave lead-singer Edwin because of his solo effort “Alive,” but bands with the word “mother” in them were still blacklisted.
Mother Mother’s “Wrecking Ball” changed that. I “gotta wanna be a battering ram” rang through my head at the most unrelated moments for the last few years.
And then came their latest album The Sticks.
If you read my review / literary analysis of Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, then you’re probably aware of my love of an album that has a driving theme throughout that makes it a complete work of art rather than a random collection of songs. The Sticks is such a concept album. Continue reading
Wisdom Crieth Without, Issue 10
I have another publication to announce! My villanelle about Adam leaving Eden has been published in Wisdom Crieth Without, Issue 10. It’s an online journal, which means that you can read the poem for free here!
Wisdom Crieth Without is a journal for traditional literary arts, so it’s a great venue for my villanelle. This is the poetic form of Dylan Thomas’ famous poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night.” It uses only two rhymes and two of the full lines repeat throughout the poem. I have tried to play with the punctuation of the repeated lines to make their meaning slightly different each time. I hope you enjoy it.
Please read the rest of the journal too and admire the fine artwork that accompanies each piece of fiction and poetry.
June 1st has been a good day thus far! My poem in Cordite came out yesterday (June 1st in Australia), and today my poem “A Dragon’s Love” was published in Spellbound! Spellbound is a fantasy e-zine for children, and it always has amazing themes. This time, it’s dragons! If you’re a teacher, you’ll also enjoy the lesson plan that Spellbound offers for free with each of its issues. Such a great concept! The ePub is $5 here.
write with lightning 