Reviewed by Shannon Page Lor Gislason, Inside Out (Darklit Press, 2022), 112 pp., $19. Inspired by classic horror movies like Chuck Russell’s 1988 remake of The Blob, Lor Gislason’s debut novella Inside Out is gross and visceral. The story opens in a remote mining camp in British Columbia, as a...
Are you passionate about queer and trans literature in Canada? Do you want to support the growth and development of Plenitude Magazine? Plenitude Publishing Society is seeking volunteers to bring unique skills and experiences to its Board of Directors, and we want to hear from you. Our Mandate:...
Reviewed by seeley quest Trynne Delaney, the half-drowned (Metatron Press, 2022), 144 pp., $18. Near the end of Trynne Delaney’s first book, the half-drowned, comes a thematic question: What reality might hit after the end of belonging? The speculative fiction novella is set in a liminal future...
Reviewed by Melinda Roy Brian Francis, Missed Connections: A Memoir in Letters Never Sent (McClelland & Stewart, 2021), 240 pp., $24.95. I am a late bloomer. I came out as queer at 32 and was diagnosed with ADHD two years later. There were signs of both, which I can see when I look back; my...
Reviewed by Namitha Rathinappillai Manahil Bandukwala, Monument (Brick Books, 2022), 96 pp., $22.95. In her debut poetry collection Monument, Manahil Bandukwala immortalizes the historical Mumtaz Mahal, empress consort of the Mughal Empire, who is most often known as the woman for whose burial...
Reviewed by Vange Holtz Schramek Hannah McGregor, A Sentimental Education (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2022), 176 pp., $24.99. The full-scale uptake of social media since the rise of mega platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have led to many critiques of Millennials and Generation...
Reviewed by Leah Bobet Isaac Fellman, Dead Collections (Penguin Random House, 2022), 256 pp., $17 US. If Dead Collections was a space, it would be an archive, or perhaps a human heart: rich, moody, and funny, built with infinite care. This literary supernatural novel takes on the carefully...
Plenitude Magazine is increasing payment to its writers! Paying LGBTQ2S+ writers an industry-standard fee for their work is important to us. Thanks to a generous grant from Canadian Heritage’s Canada Periodical Fund, we are able to increase payment to writers as per the following: Poetry: from $35...
Reviewed by Michaela Stephen Natalie Wee, Beast at Every Threshold (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), 104 pp., $17.95. In her sophomore poetry collection Beast at Every Threshold (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), Natalie Wee offers an exploration of desire, grief, and history with evocative, sensual, and...
Reviewed by Anuja Varghese Helen Chau Bradley, Personal Attention Roleplay (Metonymy Press, 2021), 216 pp., $18.95. Helen Chau Bradley’s fiction debut Personal Attention Roleplay opens with the line, “I first fell in love with a girl to the theme song of Top Gun.” The story, titled “Maverick,” is...
We are excited to announce that Chris Slater has joined the Plenitude team as our second Associate Prose Editor! Chris will work alongside L’Amour Lisik to discover and publish exciting new prose from queer and trans writers around the world. Chris Slater is a former reporter turned writer living...
Reviewed by James K. Moran Adam McOmber, The Ghost Finders (JournalStone, 2021), 238 pp., $20.95 US. Adam McOmber’s third novel, The Ghost Finders, is entertaining, spooky gothic fare steeped in gas-lit (in the traditional sense) Edwardian London with a queer, character-driven story arc. His...
Reviewed by Manahil Bandukwala Isabella Wang, Pebble Swing (Harbour Publishing, 2021), 112 pp., $18.95. In her debut collection Pebble Swing, Isabella Wang writes with remarkable and lyrical skill that echoes the influences of literary forebearers such as Li Bai and Phyllis Webb. The poems span...
Reviewed by Khashayar Mohammadi Anahita Jamali Rad, still (Talonbooks, 2021), 112 pp., $16.95. “It is true, poetry still cannot stop tanks,” Ma Yan writes in I Name Him Me, “but that poetry attempts to stop tanks is its reach.” It is perhaps pessimistic to begin at the limits of poetry; it may seem...
We are excited to announce that Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin has joined the Plenitude team as our second Associate Poetry Editor! Rhiannon will work alongside David Ishaya Osu to discover and publish exciting new poetry from queer and trans writers around the world. Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin (she/her) is a...
Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic Kate Cayley, Householders (Biblioasis, 2021), 235 pp., $22.95. An exceptional volume of stories, Householders warrants applause—and readers, of course. Following How You Were Born (2014), Toronto’s Kate Cayley showcases virtuosic writing and captivating settings...
Reviewed by Lucian Childs William di Canzio, Alec (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021), 352 pp., $27.00 US. I’m a sucker for gay love stories. They’re a sensuous, sugary hit of pure emotion. William di Canzio’s Alec is not without problems—like its source material, E. M. Forster’s posthumously...
Reviewed by Namitha Rathinappillai Nisha Patel, Coconut (NeWest Press, 2021), 108 pp., $19.95. Nisha Patel’s poetry debut, Coconut, reflects on the multifaceted experiences of queerness, race, womanhood, fatphobia, and familial relationships. The collection contains moments of both introspection...
Reviewed by Annick MacAskill Arleen Paré, Earle Street (Talon Books, 2020), 96 pp., $16.95. Arleen Paré’s recent poetry collection, Earle Street, offers an affectionate yet unsentimental portrait of a neighbourhood in all its minute complexities. Surprisingly expansive in its consideration of...
Reviewed by Namitha Rathinappillai jaye simpson, it was never going to be okay (Nightwood Editions, 2020), 112 pp., $18.95. Shortlisted for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers, and the Indigenous Voices Award (2021). In jaye simpson’s debut book, it was never going to be...
Reviewed by Kegan McFadden Billeh Nickerson, Duct-Taped Roses (Book*hug Press, 2021), 96 pp., $20.00. Billeh Nickerson’s new poetry collection Duct-Taped Roses begins with the lines: “When we wrap our legs / around one another’s / I’m not sure.” This first poem, “Mermen,” is situated just...
Reviewed by Amy LeBlanc Jillian Christmas, The Gospel of Breaking (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020), 80 pp., $14.95. The opening line of Jillian Christmas’ new collection The Gospel of Breaking reads: “tell me what is a body.” This line can be read a few ways—I read it as a question or a plea. The next...
Reviewed by Noah Cain Annick MacAskill, Murmurations (Gaspereau Press, 2020), 96 pp., $21.95. Annick MacAskill’s second poetry collection, Murmurations, explores what it means to live inside a body. Driven by hunger, thirst and love, MacAskill captures powerfully instinctual feelings of longing and...
Reviewed by Jane Shi Kimiko Tobimatsu, illustrated by Keet Geniza, Kimiko Does Cancer (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020), 96 pp., $19.95. Kimiko Does Cancer, a graphic medicine memoir written by Kimiko Tobimatsu and illustrated by Keet Geniza, is a tender offering that critiques mainstream breast cancer...
As part of the Victoria Arts Council’s Poetry in Public project, Tharuna Abbu’s poem, “Emergency Measures,” has been published into five different languages! This poem first appeared in Plenitude in July 2020 as part of our Queer Isolation in a Pandemic series. Here is the full excerpt from UNTIL...
We are excited to announce that Cara Nelissen has joined the Plenitude team as our new Book Reviews Editor! Cara comes with a wealth of experience in the Canadian literary sphere, particularly as previous reviews editor for PRISM international. Cara will be taking over from Alison Dowsett, outgoing...
Reviewed by James K. Moran Adam McOmber, Jesus and John: A Novel (Lethe Press, 2020), 236 pp., $15 USD. Adam McOmber’s novel Jesus and John is a rare matryoshka doll of a horror novel. It is a queer love story inside a historical recreation of Jesus fraternizing with the Apostle John inside a...
We are excited to announce that Dominik Parisien has joined the Plenitude team as our second Associate Prose Editor! David will work alongside L’Amour Lisik to discover and publish exciting new stories from queer writers around the world. Dominik Parisien is an editor, writer, and poet. His poetry...
Reviewed by Eve Morton Amber Dawn, My Art Is Killing Me and Other Poems (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020), 128 pp., $17.95. My Art Is Killing Me is a poetry collection that feels like a wound. Amber Dawn’s latest collection of mostly free verse poetry from Arsenal Pulp Press weaves her lines with issues...
Plenitude Magazine is currently seeking a permanent, part-time book reviews editor to start January 2021. The candidate will work to oversee the regular online publication of book reviews from prominent and up-and-coming LGBTQ2s+ authors. Plenitude publishes one review per month all year round on...
Reviewed by Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch Tommy Pico, Feed (Tin House Books, 2019), 88pp., $15.95 “Me and Leo yakkity yak yak’d / about writer’s / block / and the starchy long stroke of quote unquote God on the Meadow Walk and he didn’t know I was fully head over banana peels I mean in Kiehl’s I...
We are excited to announce that David Ishaya Osu has joined the Plenitude team as our second Associate Poetry Editor! David will work alongside Rebecca Salazar to discover and publish exciting new poetry from queer writers around the world. David Ishaya Osu is a poet, memoirist, street photographer...
Reviewed by Eve Morton Amber Dawn & Justin Ducharme, ed., Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers’ Poetry (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019), 192 pp., $19.95. The poetry collection Hustling Verse, edited by Amber Dawn and Justin Ducharme, is a book I want to judge by its cover. The artwork is...
Reviewed by Jane Shi Kai Cheng Thom, I Hope We Choose Love (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019), 144 pp., $17.95. My dear trans kindred—weird sisters, brothers grim and gay, siblings-in arms: What kind of world do you want to live in? –Kai Cheng Thom, “How Neoliberalism Is Stealing Trans Liberation” Kai...
Plenitude Magazine mourns the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, and all others whose lives have been stolen by police violence. We condemn the murders of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC), and especially of trans BIPOC at the hands of white supremacist...
Reviewed by Emilia Nielsen Bahar Orang, Where Things Touch: A Meditation on Beauty (Book*hug Press, 2020), 114 pp., $20. I was first introduced to Bahar Orang’s work at Creating Space IX, the Canadian Association for Health Humanities annual conference last year in Hamilton, Ontario. Such a...
Reviewed by Amy LeBlanc Tess Liem, Obits. (Coach House Books, 2018), 88 pp., $19.95. Winner of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award in 2019 Obit: the announcement of a death. “It sinks like a stone, this attention to the lives of others.” Obits. opens with the above epigraph from American poet Wendy...
This call for submissions will end on June 30, 2020 All around the world, people are being asked to stay home to stop the spread of COVID-19. Self-isolate. Practice social distancing. Don’t spend time with anyone outside of your household. But how is this affecting members of the Canadian LGBTQ2S+...
Reviewed by Julia Peterson Barrie Jean Borich, Apocalypse, Darling (Mad Creek Books / The Ohio State University Press, 2018), 120 pp., $18.95. Nominated for a 2018 Lambda Literary Award (Lesbian Memoir/Biography category) I remember learning, a few years ago, that Sappho’s poetry wasn’t written...
Reviewed by Katherine Connell Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House (Strange Light, 2019), 264 pp., $24.95. Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House is a hybrid memoir that combines the author’s personal experience of queer domestic abuse with reflections on genre, literature, film, and...
