Check out my latest blog Firebirds and Phoenix
a journal on surviving and recovering from a major health crisis.
  • Chasing the wild mulberry
    My surgeon, the doctor who is following my case now until I am back to 100% thought it would be a good idea for me to have a pneumonia shot. I had a particularly nasty bout of pneumonia, one that has led to the deaths of some people. So it made sense that he wanted [...]
  • hurray for normal
    last night was my first evening out.  the occasion was a fabulous reading by a bunch of my favourite literary folk organized by Max Middle of the a b series. the writers had to create something using the text from an art exhibit at the Ottawa Art Gallery, text that had been taken from an [...]
  • I’m Your Late Night Evening Prostitute – a story, sort of…
    The title? That’s just a Tom Waits song. I’m no hooker, except in my delusions. From the Versed, the stuff they gave me to make my lungs stop working so the respirator could breathe for me. Luckily I don’t remember a thing. The drug has amnesia effects. Wait’s song popped up on my IPOD just now. [...]
  • speaking of stuff you shouldn’t talk about…
    on Saturday, i was just waking up, rolled over and went to rise from the bed when i looked down and saw that my bag had come off its flange and was leaking all over me and the bed. ugh. eek. egad. i yelled out to Charles who removed the sheets and cleaned me up. [...]
  

Latest Publications

Magazine: Windsor Review Volume 42 Number 1the Mammoth Book of Erotic ConfessionsWelcome to Earth

I'm an Ottawa writer, amateur songwriter, singer and small press publisher, a polyamorous love anarchist and an ethical slut. This site acts as a central hub for my shenanigans. Each section contains further details.

I am indebted to friends, dynamos, mavens and agitators who act as muses, mentors, confidantes and agents provocateurs in my life, whether they are aware of the role they play or want to take on that kind of responsibility or not. There include but are not limited to Charles Earl, Emily Falvey, Mark McCawley, my poetry workshop group: Marcus McCann, Pearl Pirie, Roland Prevost (also musical impresario) and Sandy Ridley; Sean Moreland, Jamie Bradley, Christine McNair, Carmel Purkis, Warren Dean Fulton, John Lavery, John W. MacDonald, Steve Zytveld, jwcurry, Liam Taliesin, Matthew Firth, rob mclennan...

and wonderful initiatives and organizations that make Ottawa a great place to live, such as the Ottawa International Writers Festival, the Ottawa Folk Festival, the small press fair, In/Words, the Moose and Pussy, above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, Black Bile Press, Capital Xtra, the Dusty Owl Reading Series, the A B Series and all the other literary reading series in town, the Ottawa Public Library, the University of Ottawa Morisset Library, the many cafés and pubs where I spend too much money and time, but get a great return on investment in the form of both conversation with some of folks mentioned above and silence to work on my various machinations...

and outside of Ottawa, the renegades that risk so much for what must seem like little reward: John Goodman of Ditchpoetry.com, Jonathan Penton of unlikelystories.org, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Melissa Upfold of Variations Zine, Greensleeve Editions for Urban Graffiti, Book Thug and other small press publishers...

Highlights in the last year include

receiving a City of Ottawa Creation and Production Fund for Professional Artists grant to work on my Kiki of Montparnasse long poem.

being shortlisted for Snare Books' 2009 Robert Kroetsch Innovative Poetry Award for my manuscript "Sessions from the Dream House Aria;"

receiving a Writer's Reserve grant from the Ontario Arts Council to work on my Kiki of Montparnasse long poem;

having my long poem "Welcome to Earth: Poem for Alien(s) published by Toronto's Book Thug and giving a reading in Toronto as part of the Book Thug fall launch.