In Volume Seven: Chapter Nine of the Podcast, we welcomed Clinton, Ontario-born and London, Ontario-based Educator, Writer, Author, and Poet Blair Trewartha. The author of three chapbooks and two full-length poetry collections, including the recently released Half-Earth, Blair joins me for his first appearance on the program to discuss a collection more than a decade in the making.

We begin by celebrating the release of Half-Earth, reflecting on the excitement surrounding its launch, the warm reception it has received, and what it means to finally share a new full-length collection twelve years after his Relit Award-shortlisted debut, Easy Fix. From there, Blair discusses how becoming a father fundamentally reshaped both his life and his writing, explaining how conversations with his two sons unexpectedly became some of the emotional foundations of the new book. Together, we explore how parenthood transformed his understanding of skepticism, compassion, mortality, and the uncertain future his children will inherit in a world shaped by climate anxiety and rapid technological change.

Our conversation then turns back to Blair's creative beginnings. Growing up on a farm outside Clinton, Ontario, he reflects on the rural landscape that continues to influence his imagination and the lasting impact of the nearby Goderich salt mine. He discusses how the stories shared by family members and friends who worked in the mine left a deep impression, leading us into a discussion about the importance of listening, oral storytelling, and the fascination with other people's stories, which evolved into a desire to tell his own through poetry.

Contact Blair:
Instagram @btrewart Purchase Half-Earth: Here

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Meccamorphosis – Penny Dreadfuls
Instagram: @meccamorphosis Website: meccamorphosis.com

Leah V – Yours
Instagram: @leahvspeaks Website: leahvspeaks.com

Mike Rosen – When God Happens
Instagram: @heymikerosen

Sonya Renee Taylor – My Body Is Not An Apology
Instagram: @sonyareneetaylor

Steven Willis – The Hustle Speaks
Instagram: @stevenwillispoetry Website: stevenwillispoetry.com

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In Volume Seven: Chapter Eight of the Program, we welcome Milwaukee, Wisconsin-born and based Writer, Poet, Storyteller, Author, Performance Poet, Teaching Artist, and Creative Change Agent Dasha Kelly. A former Milwaukee Poet Laureate and Wisconsin's first Black Poet Laureate, Dasha has spent decades building community through the power of story, imagination, and creative expression.

During our conversation, Dasha reflects on her early years as a self-described curious kid, arts-and-crafts enthusiast, and natural storyteller. We discuss the role her mother played in encouraging her creative pursuits, her early interest in fiction writing, and how a fascination with psychology and human behavior ultimately intersected with her lifelong love of storytelling.

Dasha shares her journey into poetry, including her initial resistance to the form before eventually embracing it as a powerful vehicle for exploration and connection. We talk about her creative process, how she determines whether an idea belongs in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, and the ways those forms often overlap in her work.

We also examine the evolution of Milwaukee's literary community through Dasha's eyes, comparing her reflections from the early 2000s to the thriving creative culture she helped cultivate over the years. She speaks candidly about community building, connection, and the profound impact of bringing together people from different backgrounds through shared artistic experiences.

Contact Dasha:
Website: dashakelly.com Instagram: @dasha_kelly

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Porsha O. – Trigger
Instagram: @porshaolayiwola Website: porshaolayiwola.com

Barbara Fant – Medicine
Instagram: @iambarbarafant Website: barbarafant.com

Black Chakra –I Spit Fire
Instagram: @blackchakra88

Ariana Brown – Supremacy
Instagram: @arianathepoet Website: arianabrown.com

Javon Johnson – Shotgun
Instagram: @javonism

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In Volume Seven: Chapter Seven of the podcast, we welcome Dunnville, Ontario-born and Toronto-based Writer, Author, and Poet Jennifer LoveGrove. Jennifer is the author of four full-length poetry collections and the novel Watch How We Walk, which was long-listed for the Giller Prize. Her poetry collection Beautiful Children with Pet Foxes was long-listed for the Raymond Souster Award, and her newest collection, The Tinder Sonnets, is available now via Bookhug Press.

In our conversation, we discuss Jennifer's creative history—from childhood creativity and growing up with a typewriter and lamp-chair writing setup, to the lasting influence of religion and the sense of outsiderhood that shaped both her worldview and artistic voice. We discuss her movement between fiction and poetry, whether those creative instincts originate from the same creative space, and the realities of maintaining a writing practice beyond romantic ideas of inspiration.

Jennifer speaks candidly about discipline, resistance, self-doubt, and the emotional terrain of writing—why first drafts can feel exhausting, what revision gives back, and whether satisfaction comes from the act of writing itself or from seeing something new brought into existence.

We also spend time discussing The Tinder Sonnets—a collection based on Jennifer’s experiences navigating dating apps and modern relationships in middle age. Our conversation touches on vulnerability, confession, female desire, misogyny in contemporary dating culture, and the expectations society places on women as they age. Jennifer reflects on writing openly about intimacy and emotional complexity, what it means to transform personal experience into poetry, and whether the collection brought clarity, confrontation, or simply another way of living alongside difficult truths

Contact Jennifer:
Purchase The Tinder Sonnets: bookhugpress.ca Instagram: @jenlg52

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Prentice Powell – True Love
Instagram: @prenticepowell1906 Website: prenticepowell.com

Asia Samson – Enough
Instagram: @theasiaproject Website: theasiaproject.com

Alysia Harris – Death Poem
Instagram: @poppyinthewheat Website: alysiaharris.com

Kyla Janee Lacey – I Pulled Out A Knife On Him
Instagram: @kylajlacey Website: thatswritekyla.com

Emi Mahmoud – Window Games
Instagram: @emibatuta Website: emi-mahmoud.com

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In Volume Seven: Chapter Six of The Program, we welcomed Boston-based Photographer, Poet, Writer, Philosopher, and Visual Artist, Steven Seidenberg.

We discuss Steven’s newest poetry collection, Coda, his ongoing photographic work, including his exhibition at the John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art and the forthcoming photographic project Kanazawa Vacancy. In our conversation, Steven reflects on what it means to see his work displayed publicly and discusses his fascination with photographing empty landscapes, abandoned structures, and unstable environments—images that ask viewers not simply to look, but to reconsider what they’ve been seeing all along.

We discuss Steven’s early creative and intellectual history. He talks about his youthful attraction to poetry and philosophy, describing a compulsive literary obsession that shaped his identity and ultimately led him to leave high school before finding his academic footing at Simon’s Rock and later Bard College. We discuss the influence of reading on writing, the role philosophical literature played in his development, and how his interest in photography emerged alongside his early writing life, including memories of developing black-and-white photographs in his uncle’s darkroom.

Our conversation also explores family influences, Steven’s path through philosophy and academia, and his eventual transition away from teaching and copy editing toward a full-time creative life. Along the way, we unpack his remarkably patient artistic process, with projects often taking a decade or more to complete.

This was a thoughtful and reflective conversation about observation, artistic patience, intellectual curiosity, and the lifelong pursuit of meaning through multiple creative forms.

Contact Steven:
Website: stevenseidenberg.com Instagram: @steven.seidenberg

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Brittany Barker – The Classroom Before the Revolution
Instagram: @iambrittanybarker

Joshua Bennett – 16 Bars For Kendrick Lamar
Instagram: @sirjoshuabennett Website: drjoshuabennett.com

Gina Loring – Freedom To Learn
Instagram: @ginastarlight Website: ginaloring.com

Steven Willis – Instead Of A Suicide Note, I Wrote This
Instagram: @stevenwillispoetry Website: stevenwillispoetry.com

Alexis Green – He Used To Send Me Flowers
Instagram: @poetalexisgreen Website: poetalexsisgreen.com

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In Volume Seven: Chapter Five, Brenda Cárdenas joins the Program for a wide-ranging conversation about creativity, language, culture, visual art, and the experiences that shaped her voice as a writer and poet. A Milwaukee, Wisconsin born and based educator, essayist, and author, Brenda earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, her teaching certification from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. She is the author of the award-winning poetry collection Trace, which received the 2024 Society of Midland Authors Poetry Award and was the Silver Award winner of the 2023 Foreword INDIES Poetry Awards. She is also the author of three chapbooks, served as Milwaukee Poet Laureate from 2010–2012, and in 2025 was named Wisconsin Poet Laureate.

Throughout the conversation, Brenda reflects on growing up surrounded by creativity in many forms—from family members who painted, crafted furniture, made saddles, and told stories—to discovering poetry as the medium that allowed her to fully explore culture, memory, and identity. We discuss her early love of visual art, arts and crafts with her aunt, and the impact storytelling had on her imagination as a child. Brenda also talks about beginning to write stories around the age of eight, being encouraged by teachers early on, and eventually discovering poetry in high school through an American Authors course.

Our conversation explores the importance of representation in literature and how discovering Latin poetry and bilingual writing during undergrad changed her understanding of what poetry could do. Brenda speaks candidly about how encountering poets who reflected her own culture and experiences gave her permission to more openly write about identity, language, and heritage.

The conversation also touches on what it is like sharing life with fellow poet and former Milwaukee Poet Laureate Roberto Harrison, the ways visual art continues to influence her writing process, and what it meant to receive the call informing her that she had been selected as Wisconsin’s Poet Laureate in 2025.

Contact Brenda:
Website: brendacardenas.net Instagram: @brenda.cardenas.754

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Ephraim Nehemiah – Inheritance of a Broken Home
Instagram: @ephariamnehemiah

Khalil Saadiq – Somebody's Watching Me
Instagram: @khalil_saadiq

Alexandria Bennett – Color Blind
Instagram: @caffeinatedliving

Denice Frohman – Accents
Instagram: @denicefrohman Website: denicefrohman.com

Lionheart – Pretty Hurts
Instagram: @lionheartfelt Website: lionheartfeltonline.com

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In Volume Seven: Chapter Three of the program, we welcome Bronx-born, New York City-based Writer, Performance Poet, Curator, and star of the one-woman show "The Long Way Home", Leah V.

In our conversation, we trace her creative history—from writing poetry at seven, to studying musical theater, to finding her footing in New York’s spoken word scene. We touch on her recent marriage and what it’s like balancing something deeply personal with a public life rooted in performance. We revisit "Virtual Voices", the virtual open mic space that introduced me to her work back in 2020, and her "partner in Creative crime" and co-host JRose.

We spend time on a pivotal chapter—losing her father, the silence that followed, and what brought her back to writing during COVID. That return to the page becomes a turning point, not just creatively, but personally.

At the center of the conversation is her one-woman show, The Long Way Home: A Spoken Word Journey—a piece built around her late father’s poems and journal entries. We talk about what it means to carry someone’s voice forward, what she discovered about him in the process, and how grief evolves when you’re forced to sit with it, shape it, and share it.

We also get into the New York poetry community, the importance of creative spaces, her experience performing at the Apollo Theater, and how she thinks about the stage—as a place of discovery or revelation.

Contact Leah V:
Website: leahvspeaks.com Instagram: @leahvspeaks

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Just Ace – What If I Was Him
Instagram: @iam_justace

Arantza Garcia – Recipe Book
Instagram: @arantza.cgf

Kennie Sings – Like A Lady
Instagram: @kennie_sings

Leah V – 3am
Leah V - Yours
Instagram: @leahvspeaks Website: leahvspeaks.com

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In Volume Seven: Chapter Three of the program, we welcomed Writer, Author, and Poet Irina Moga. Her work has been nominated for the SFPA Rhysling Award and Best of the Net, and her collection Variations Without Palace was the 2022 winner of the Dina Sahyouni International Literary Prize. She’s the author of six collections, including her latest, Quantum, and is an active member of several literary organizations across Canada.

In our conversation, Irina discusses her early creative beginnings—starting with a poetry group in high school that, in her words, “mercilessly” tore apart each other’s work. What could have discouraged a young writer instead became foundational, shaping her approach to revision, experimentation, and resilience. We talk about what it means to have your work challenged early, and how that kind of environment can either push you out—or pull you deeper in.

We also spend time on one of the more fascinating parts of her journey: the transition from writing in Romanian to writing in English after immigrating to Canada. Rather than simply carrying over her voice, Irina made the intentional decision to rebuild it. We get into what that process looked like in real time—the frustrations, the disconnects, and what it took to stay committed to that evolution instead of retreating to what was familiar.

Throughout the conversation, Irina shares how writing lives for her today—not just as a craft, but as a space. A space of silence, concentration, and layering, where language, culture, and personal experience intersect. We talk about poetry as both deconstruction and reconstruction—how it allows us to break reality apart and reassemble it into something that feels more true, more honest, and sometimes more bearable.

Contact Irina:
Website: irinamoga.com Instagram: @pictopoems

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Taalam Acey – Affirmation for Black Men
Instagram: @taalamacey Website: taalamacey.com

Brandon Alexander Williams – Black Woman Studies
Instagram: @brandonalexanderwilliams

Anita D. – Colors
Instagram: @anitadpoetry

Alyesha Wise – Cannibal
Instagram: @alyeshawise Website: alyeshawise.com

Ciara Chantelle – Empty Cups
Instagram: @ciarachantelle

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In Volume Seven: Chapter Two of the podcast, we welcomed Vancouver-born, Quebec-based Educator, Writer, Poet, and Author of the poetry collection Long Exposure, Stephanie Bolster.

Stephanie is Professor of Creative Writing at Concordia University, earned her BFA and MFA from the University of British Columbia, and is the author of five poetry collections.

In our conversation we discuss her creative beginnings—starting with early storytelling, a childhood desire to become an author, and the writers who helped define her path. She speaks on discovering poetry through Emily Dickinson, and later finding something deeper and more urgent in the work of Sylvia Plath—an influence that helped shift poetry from something she enjoyed to something she needed.

We also spend time unpacking identity—what it meant to call herself a poet early on, before expectations and career entered the picture, and how that relationship to the word “poet” has evolved over time. That idea opens into a broader conversation about imagination, the role poetry plays in making sense of the world, and whether those two instincts—creation and understanding—work together or pull in different directions.

We discuss Long Exposure, a project more than a decade in the making, and what it means to finally bring that work into the world. Stephanie reflects on her relationship with the collection, the time it took to come together, and how living with a manuscript for that long shapes both the work and the writer behind it.

We close on process and balance: her writing routine, the importance of physical space and environment, and the ongoing challenge of making room for writing within the realities of teaching, family, and life. It’s a transparent look at the tension between knowing writing is essential and still having to negotiate time for it.

Contact Stephanie:
Website: stephaniebolster.com Instagram: @stephaniebolster0110

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Shanelle Gabriel – Vanity
Instagram: @shanellegabriel Website: shanellegabriel.com

Matt Capone – Learned with Love
Instagram: @matt__capone

Gigi Bella – Slut
Instagram: @ggbellag Website: gigibellapoetry.com

Anyrah Shaveh – We Must Not Die Young
Instagram: @iamshaveh Website: anyrahshaveh.com

Moody Black – Eight Letters
Instagram: @iammoodyblack Website: iammoodyblack.com

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