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Poet Interview: Arthur Nolan

Arthur Nolan is a fairly fresh poet, only considering poetry as a full-time creative outlet recently. He tries to write in a range of tones and genres, from surrealism to comedy, and despite an emerging style, considers his room for growth far from done. Arthur’s work can be read in our latest Quarterly Anthology ‘Depression is What Really Killed the Dinosaurs.’ You can read more of his work on his Instagram.

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Book Review: Lord of the butterflies by Andrea Gibson

When you write, it either comes from the deepest depths of your soul or you write because you imagine. Both are amazing ways to write. Andrea Gibson writes what they have lived. Their words come from a burning heart but also, it is a burst of soft love. There is a terrible honesty in these pages and to read this collection, one must put down their rose colored glasses.

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Rebecca RijsdijkComment
What does literary success look like?

When you release a book into the great, vast sea of literature, you have high hopes. You dream of lush reviews full of praise, glossy interviews that show how profound an author you are, release parties where you pop the champagne… It all sounds grand. However, these lofty expectations might leave you gravely disappointed.

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Poet Interview: August Hawley

August Hawley is a high school senior from Michigan who’s been writing poetry since around age 13. Most of his writing focuses on grief, recovery, and his experiences as a transgender person in the 21st century. He hopes to continue his writing through college and develop a career in the publishing industry. August is also a staff writer for Sunday Mornings at the River.

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Poet Interview: Chloe Hanks on 'I Call Upon the Witches'

Chloe Hanks is an emerging poet from Worcestershire. With the desire to absolve female villains from the patriarchal lens, her writing destabilizes stereotypes and reinvents what is familiar. Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies, including the recent debut from Fawn Press, and she was the winner of the V Press Prize for Poetry in 2020. She is currently studying an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham.

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Indie Presses: Boa Editions

BOA Editions, Ltd., a not-for-profit publisher of poetry and other literary works, fosters readership and appreciation of contemporary literature. By identifying, cultivating, and publishing both new and established poets and selecting authors of unique literary talent, BOA brings high quality literature to the public. Support for this effort comes from the sale of its publications, grant funding, and private donations. We spoke with Peter Connors, Publisher & Executive Director of BOA Editions.

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Book Review: 'Pneuma' by Faye Alexandra Rose

I am beyond excited to write today about a very favourite poet of mine (and this I don’t easily say,) a good friend and a kindred spirit, whose outspokenness and support has come to mean a lot to me as a young writer and poet. I met Faye through my prompt poetry work for Small Leaf Press, and I came to know her more through our honest conversations about the struggles of writing and sticking to a routine to get your work out there. Today, I’ll be critiquing her first chapbook, published by Sunday Mornings at the River—Pneuma—which, truth be told, is an exemplar of contemporary poetry, a gem of originality and poetic sensitivity that deeply resonated with me.

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Poet Interview: Kate Gough on 'Cottage in a Mirror.'

Kate Gough is a Canadian based poet and a member of the online poetry community. Her work modernizes romantic literary sensibilities and explores recovery to trauma and living with chronic illness. She has participated in a community poetry event “Escapril” three times, releasing poetry every day for a month. She has been published in several online journals, including the Latte Edit and Nightingale and Sparrow, as well as in her local community in Disability Pride Alberta, and in the YYC Portraits of People project. She lives a quiet life with her partner and cat, as she has always dreamed of.

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Book Review: ‘No Walk in the Park’ by Jemma Chawla

On a rainy January morning, I came across Jemma’s writing prompts on Instagram, and we instantly connected by a shared love for poetry that is honest, emotional and tackles heavily controversial social issues like depression, grief, and motherhood in crisis. Because of her, I have written one of my most favourite poems which Rebecca has chosen for the 2022 Autumn anthology too (you can ask me later, and I’ll tell you about it, but that’s not the point of this introduction, the point is to show you just how much respect and appreciation I have for Jemma’s bright mind and spirit.)

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Book Review: Conversation with Love by Tetyana Denford

We talk a lot ABOUT love. There are songs, poems, t-shirts, postcards, films, art, books, even cakes can sometimes end up with something about love scrawled across the top. Yes, we talk about it. We think we know all there is to know about love. It has a shape and a colour; red hearts are perhaps one of the first things we all learn to recognize when we’re young. The feeling seems universally the same, and most of those poems, songs and films seem to tell us what we already know. They show us a picture drawn long ago and set in the stone of a popular culture that likes to sell us things.

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Sarah Herrin on ‘On Thousand Good Answers.’

Sarah (she/her) is a queer poet based in Colorado. She graduated from the Savannah College of Art & Design with a BFA in Sequential Art, where she also studied Creative Writing in the South of France. She is the author of chapbooks The Oceanography of Her and Anti/Muse, and the digital zine I Can Make A Love Poem Out Of Anyone. As a survivor of sexual assault and PTSD, she runs Beyond The Veil Press, advocating for mental health awareness and art as therapy. She is also a long-distance runner, cat mom, and visual artist.

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How To Begin To Make Bad Art?

How do I begin? To put the brush to canvas, to mould the clay, to put the pen to ink, and to create.
The question you truly are asking is: How do I begin to trust myself?
As a writer, blockages are going to happen. You may be wondering how to get to a place of clarity.
Simply put, to get clear water, you must turn on the tap. Now, this may sound simplistic, but in practice, the only way to master your art, or even to make art at all, is to let go of the need to produce something good. Make bad art. Make the most atrocious art you can possibly fathom.

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