“Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars — mere globs of gas atoms. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination — stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern — of which I am a part … What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it.”

RICHARD FEYNMAN


MARK LALIBERTE
Managing Editor

Issue 45 Editorial



Poetry Editor — Taylor Brown
Fiction Editor — Lauren Chang
Reviews Editor — Jade Wallace
Graphics + Website — Obscure Design

2020/21 Editorial Staff
Grace Bilger
Susane Dang
Gabriella Dritsas
Elisabeth Finkelzon
Eileen Hack
Samuel Peacock
Sarah Peters
Jessica Poole
Eva Zheng


Copyright © 2021 by the contributors. All rights reserved.


FEATURED ARTIST

AMY FRIEND
Portfolio


Photographic artworks exploring the relationship between visibility & absence — shimmering, ethereal images examining rivers, lakes and oceans from many poetic angles …


FICTION

THADDEUS RUTKOWSKI
Lampblack

ISABELLE TEO
Just Like Her


POETRY

COURTNEY BATES-HARDY
Malleus Maleficarum

GREGORY BETTS
FOUNDlings

KATE CAYLEY
2 Poems

NATASHA KESSLER + ADAM DAY
2 Poems

ANNICK MACASKILL
Weeping Rock

JESSI MACEACHERN
2 Poems

MICKEY MAHAN
3 Poems

CAROL HARVEY STESKI
Oyster Night

BRONWEN TATE
2 Poems

CARL WATTS
Jan and Dean


CHAIN: Response Poetry Project
Poems 5–8

WHAT IS THIS PROJECT ALL ABOUT?

Poems are often in conversation with other poems — from those that recreate or re-envision long-standing formal conventions, to those written “after” or “inspired by” poems that came before them. Here at CAROUSEL, we want to experiment with this tradition in a deliberate way, on a large scale, over time. We therefore bring you CHAIN, an ongoing, global series of response poems — each connected to the one that came before it but also different enough to stand on its own and lead somewhere new. It starts with one poem — one link in the chain — and it gets built, link by link, indefinitely … here are poems no. 5-8 in the series:

JEREMY COLANGELO
(Canada)
Chain 5

NATALIE WILKINSON
(USA)
Chain 6

GRAEME BEZANSON
(France)
Chain 7

CHRIS TOMPKINS
(Canada)
Chain 8

INSPIRED … WANT TO SUBMIT?

If you want to be the next link in this poetic chain, send us one poem that creatively responds to the latest poem in the chain — visit our Submittable for guidelines + deadlines!


CONVERSATIONS

ELEE KRALJII GARDINER
interviews Haruna Solomon

The first of a 6-part series of conversations with writers about the overlap between their work and their coffee-or-tea drinking rituals


USEREVIEW: 013–029

Last autumn we debuted our USEREVIEW project and began consistently publishing reviews for the first time in our magazine’s history. We started by posting two reviews per month on our blog — one experimental and one traditional — but we soon found that even this robust schedule was not enough to accommodate the many books that merit attention. Beginning in 2021, we switched to a weekly schedule, with a new review going up on our blog every Wednesday — a phenomenon we’ve christened with the catchy name/hashtag: #USEREVIEWEDNESDAY
 
No matter what form they take — traditional, experimental, or capsule — all of these reviews offer thoughtful, playful, sui generis engagements with contemporary books of poetry and fiction. To date, we’ve published nearly 50 reviews to our social media platforms; no. 013-029 are collected conveniently below as a part of our summer issue — if you haven’t been following along each week, here’s an easy way to play catch up!

CONYER CLAYTON
USEREVIEW 013: Tiny Ruins of Reality

A traditional review of Nicole Haldoupis’ flash fiction novella Tiny Ruins (Radiant Press, 2020)

JADE WALLACE
USEREVIEW 014: (Capsule)

Reviewing Nicole Haldoupis flash fiction novella, Tiny Ruins (Radiant Press, 2020)

JADE WALLACE
USEREVIEW 015: (Capsule)

Reviewing Faye Guenthers short fiction collection Swimmers in Winter (Invisible Publishing, 2020)

JESSICA BROMLEY BARTRAM
USEREVIEW 016: An Echo of Crows

A striking, illustrated experimental review of Karen McBride’s novel Crow Winter (HarperCollins Canada, 2019)

JADE WALLACE
USEREVIEW 017: (Capsule)

Reviewing David Lys poetry collection Mythical Man (Palimpsest Press, 2020)

MARK LALIBERTE
USEREVIEW 018: Dwelling in the Organic

A traditional review of Sacha Archer’s visual poetry collection Mother’s Milk (Timglaset Editions, 2020)

JULIE McISAAC
USEREVIEW 019: Playing with the Universe

A traditional review of Cornelia Hoogland and Ted Goodden’s ekphrastic poetry / art collaboration Cosmic Bowling (Guernica Editions, 2020)

JADE WALLACE
USEREVIEW 020: (Capsule)

Reviewing Cornelia Hoogland and Ted Gooddens ekphrastic poetry / art collaboration Cosmic Bowling (Guernica Editions, 2020)

KLARA du PLESSIS
USEREVIEW 021: Grammar Poetics

A sweeping, experimental, essay-review of 4 books of poetry

MELANIE POWER
USEREVIEW 022: Between the Body and the Mind

A traditional review of Emily Skov-Nielsen’s debut poetry collection The Knowing Animals (Brick Books, 2020)

JADE WALLACE
USEREVIEW 023: (Capsule)

Reviewing Emily Skov-Nielsens poetry collection The Knowing Animals (Brick Books, 2020)

JADE WALLACE
USEREVIEW 024: (Capsule)

Reviewing Lauren Turners poetry collection The Only Card in a Deck of Knives (Wolsak & Wynn, 2020)

KARL JIRGENS
USEREVIEW 025: Swivel Sights

An experimentally traditional review of Ken Babstocks poetry collection Swivel Mount (Coach House Books, 2020)

JADE WALLACE
USEREVIEW 026: (Capsule)

Reviewing Rasiqra Revulvas poetry collection Cephalopography 2.0 (Wolsak & Wynn, 2020)

LANNIE STABILE
USEREVIEW 027: Women Talking Absinthe

An experimental, interview-style review of Katherine E. Youngs poetry collection Woman Drinking Absinthe (Alan Squire Publishing, 2021)

JOHN NYMAN
USEREVIEW 028: Loss of Words

A traditional review of Ian Williams poetry collection Word Problems (Coach House Books, 2020)

KHASHAYAR MOHAMMADI
USEREVIEW 029: Me, You, Then Me Again

An experimental review in which Khashayar Mohammadi reviews his own debut poetry collection, Me, You, Then Snow (Gordon Hill Press, 2021)

Published semi-annually. We gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Central Students’ Association and the students of the University of Guelph.

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