All the Animals on Earth update

We have a cover (see below) We have an ISBN (9781989496107). We have pages on Amazon (pre-order now!), Bookmanager, Worldcat, etc. We have a launch date (May 2020). I am beyond excited to bring this weird little book into the world.

Publication: FreeFall magazine

Is there a better kind of mail day than a mail day that delivers contributor's copies? Mine for FreeFall magazine, containing my poem, "Dracula, Count of Transylvania, Does an MFA in Creative Writing," which placed third in FreeFall's annual poetry contest, arrived yesterday. Here's what the judge, GG-winning poet Richard Harrison, had to say about the piece:

"Like all great comedies, it's playing with danger; in this case, the unsettling language of gender and genre, desire and fear, blindness and vision. It's frightening because Dracula always is, even when he's an object of ridicule: a creature who seems so much more powerful than us because he has given over completely to his needs but in the end one whom we cannot wait to puncture."

The issue also contains works by my fellow winners Bruce Meyer, Hadeel and Abdel-Nabi, plus many other fine and flourishing writers. Go check it out  - on better newsstands across the country. 

Amy Jones profile

So I'm back in the pages of Halifax magazine, this time profiling fellow author Amy Jones and her outstanding new novel, Every Little Piece of Me. This is both a book of our time - it's got social media trolls, Halifax pop music, reality TV - and a book that grapples brilliantly with the universal themes of friendship, family and identity. I cannot stress enough how entertaining and funny and heart-wrenching this book is. GO READ IT! You won't regret it.

Publication: Juniper - A Poetry Journal

And here it is, the Summer 2019 issue of Juniper - A Poetry Journal, which includes my poem, "Saudade." A big thank you to editor Lisa Young for accepting the piece and including me with such luminous other poets as Robyn Sarah, Susan Olding, Susie Petersiel Berg, and the late, great Adele Wiseman. Check it out, reads some poems, enrich your summer!

Acceptance: Juniper - A Poetry Journal

Ahem, and speaking of poetry: I got word this week that my poem, "Saudade", also from the new manuscript in progress, has been accepted for the upcoming summer issue of Juniper - A Poetry Journal. This new-ish online magazine has been rocking it lately, publishing works by such versifying luminaries as Lorna Crozier, Catherine Graham and Molly Peacock.

For those of you who don't know, "Saudade" is a Portuguese term for a rather hard-to-pin-down emotion, a state of melancholic nostalgia, a feeling of loss for something you never actually had; I basically think of it as "a longing for a longing." It was one of the ten-dollar words that didn't make it into my 2017 novel The Slip (a book that I am, Lord love me, tentatively referring to as the first Philip Sharpe novel -eep!) but I thought it would make an excellent basis for a poem. Juniper agreed and will be running it soon. I'll share more details about that when I have them.

Contest placement: FreeFall magazine

Well I woke up yesterday morning to some exciting news: my poem "Dracula, Count of Transylvania, Does an MFA in Creative Writing" has placed third in FreeFall magazine's annual poetry contest. 

This will mark my third poem to be published in the magazine and my second time placing in its annual poetry contest: I came in second back in 2011 with my poem, "On Choosing a Mattress," a slightly different version of which is collected in my poetry book, Weathervane (Palimpsest Press, 2016). I've been a fan of FreeFall for a long while and am very proud to have another poem forthcoming in its pages.

This new poem (which, as you can probably tell from its title, is written in a comic register) is slated to appear in the fall. It's part of a new poetry manuscript I've been working on for the last few years, one I'm hoping - fingers crossed - to finish in the next year or so. Every time I get another piece from it accepted by a literary journal, it helps me to feel like I'm on the right track.

Upcoming Event: The Draft Reading Series

Hey ho, Toronto: I have an upcoming event to tell you about: I'll be taking part in the Draft Reading Series on Sunday, May 26, with other draft alumni at an event that includes featured readers Doyali Islam and Leslie Shimotakahara. Provided I can find a tight, five-minute excerpt, this event will mark the WORLD DEBUT of my forthcoming novel, All the Animals on Earth, slated for release by Wolsak & Wynn in spring 2020. If you're free and in the area, please come on out! Here are the details:

What: The Draft Reading Series
Where: St. Matthew’s Clubhouse, 450 Broadview Ave., Toronto
When: Sunday, May 26, 2019
What time: 3 pm.
Fellow readers: Doyali Islam, Leslie Shimotakahara,Nasim Asgari, Ronna Bloom, Melinda Vandenbeld Giles, Amanda Hale, Mahak Jain, and Julia Zarankin.
See event website for more details.

My Quill and Quire review of Lands and Forests, by Andrew Forbes ..

... is now online on the Q&Q website. This collection is a mixed bag of stories, many of which deal with men grappling against their worst impulses. As I mention in the review, the best pieces in the book - "Graceland" and "Broadcasting" - really stand out and impressed me in multiple ways. When he gives himself the space, Forbes knows how to unwind a gripping tale with characters you get invested in and even come to care about. He remains a writer with tremendous potential.

M.

Interviewing Jamie Popowich

So I'm happy to announce that I'm back in the digital pages of Canadian Writers Abroad, this time conducting an interview with my pal Jamie Popowich about his wild and idiosyncratic new short story collection, Chrome Kisses. 

In our discussion, Jamie talks about how these stories came to be, the influences on his work, and the trials of publishing with a small Canadian press while living as an expat in England. As I say in my introduction, there are few Canadians writing stranger stuff than Jamie, and Chrome Kisses will be like any other book you've read before. So buckle up and check it out!

M. 

EVENT: The Tartan Turban Reading Series #15

I know it's been a while since I've had an event to add, or even posted to this blog, but I'm very excited to announce that I'm guest-curating the next edition of the Tartan Turban Reading Series, taking place on Thursday, March 14 here in Toronto.

This unique series, hosted at the offices of Barrett and Welsh, brings together an ensemble of readers from the GTA's deep, eclectic pool of authors. I read at the series back in 2017, and am very pleased that the organizers have asked me to come back, this time as a curator.

Our great lineup of authors include:

• Randy Boyagoda
• Pratap Reddy 
• Bänoo Zan.

Details, including a link to the Eventbrite page, are below. Come out if you can!

What: The Tartan Turban Reading Series.
Who: Mark Sampson, Randy Boyagoda, Pratap Reddy and Bänoo Zan.
Where: The offices of Barrett and Welsh, 577 Kingston Road, Suite 301, Toronto.
When: Thursday, March 14
What time: 7 pm.
Web: See the Eventbrite page to RSVP.