ditch,

ditch, the poetry that matters

ditch, n., where you are when you are off the main road.

ditch, is a Canadian online poetry magazine celebrating the innovative, the non-conforming, the radical, the alternative, the surreal, the avant-garde, the non-linear, the abstract, the experimental.

(click on the highlighted poets' names to read their work) 

Special Feature:

Romanian Poetry in English Translation

A selection of prime, astute, innovative, clever, disjunctive, mesmerizing, mutable, egg-shaped, healthy, insoluble, watchful, authentic, sudden, legitimate, cortical Romanian poets…

Curated by Carmen Racovitza

Featuring:

Angela Hibbs has two collections of poetry, Passport and Wanton. She has read at Harbourfront and Mitzi's Sister in Toronto as well as at The Sparrow in Montreal for the Pilot reading series. She has recently been published in the online journal, the Puritan, as well as in the New Feminisms issue of Matrix.

Maxine Gadd is the author of numerous books of poetry, among them Lost Language (Coach House, 1982), Fire in the Cove (m(O)ther Tongue, 2001), and most recently, Backup to Babylon (New Star, 2006), which was a poetry finalist in the 2007 BC Book Prize. 

Serena McArter recently moved from Calgary to Toronto. She blogs at Sternum Might (sternum.blogspot.com).

Jeremy Stewart is the author of (flood basement (Caitlin Press), a poetic memoir of growing up in Prince George, BC, the manuscript of which was shortlisted for the 2008 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. His poems have appeared in online journals such as Treeline and stonestone, and in the Forestry Diversification Project anthology (UNBC Press). Stewart is a prolific producer of chapbooks and broadsides; he was the 2007 winner of the Barry McKinnon Chapbook Award. He is currently finishing his creative thesis MA project under the supervision of Rob Budde—a novelistic long poem entitled “In Singing, He Composed a Song”—at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Luke Mortenson is a writer, sometimes musician, and poetry editor for the ever so modest magazine Other:_____. Luke’s poetry has appeared in journals in Ontario as well as publications with By the skin of me teeth press. He currently resides in Vernon B.C.

Trisia Eddy is a writer, editor and publisher of red nettle press, based in Edmonton, Alberta.  Her work has appeared in a variety of literary journals, including CV2, ::stonestone::, Misunderstandings Magazine, and Wicked Alice.  Current obsessions include Victorian-era taxidermists, abandoned psychiatric hospitals, and printmaking.

Melissa Bull 's writing has appeared in such publications as Matrix, Headlight, Carte Blanche, Pistol, Swamp, Snafu and Maisonneuve. Her chapbook, Eating Out, was published last year by WithWords. She lives in Montreal, where she works as a magazine editor.

Marianne Perron is a graduate of the Concordia English Literature and Creative Writing program. She has published a collection of poetry with Montreal’s With Words Press. Her work has appeared numerous times in Soliloquies Anthology, and she has several poems slated to appear in upcoming issues of PRECIPICe, Crannog, and Headlight.
 
Marianne is the Editor-in-Chief of the Grasshopper Reads online book review, dedicated to contemporary Canadian literature. She has been known to review films, bars, and poetry, and has a column for the film website Sound on Sight in the works. Her screenplay, La Bonne Soeur, was a finalist in SODEC’s Cours Ecrit Ton Court, and her latest collaboration, Footsies, is scheduled for production in 2010.

Camille Martin, a Toronto poet, is the author of Sonnets (Shearsman Books, forthcoming in 2010) and Codes of Public Sleep (BookThug, 2007). Her work has been widely published in journals in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Her current work in progress is a collection of double sonnets. She is also engaged in a project funded by the Ontario Arts Council: a long poem (working title: “The Evangeline Papers”) based on her Cajun/Acadian heritage and her recent visit to Nova Scotia to participate in an archaeological dig at Beaubassin and to research Acadian and Mik’maq history and culture. She earned an MFA in Poetry at the University of New Orleans and a Ph.D. in English at Louisiana State University. Currently she teaches writing and literature at Ryerson University. Her website is http://www.camillemartin.ca and her blog is http://rogueembryo.wordpress.com

JC Bouchard is a writer of poetry and fiction residing in Sudbury, Ontario. His works have been featured or are forthcoming in magazines such as What If?, Haggard and Halloos, Breadcrumb Scabs, Thieves Jargon, and Right Hand Pointing. He has self-published one book of poetry, what remembering says not to, and is completing his first novel, buses.

Paulette C Turcotte has been involved with the arts community for more than 40 years as a painter and writer. In 1985, she cofounded a small publishing press, Split Quotation with Jorge Etcheverry in Ottawa.

Paulette’s work has appeared in a variety of Canadian magazines and periodicals such as Quarry, Anthos, Vox Feminarum, Room of One’s Own, Synchronicity, Waves and a Tree Anthology edited by Heather Ferguson, Ottawa, including her book of experimental prose poetry, The Book of Marecha. She has been assistant editor of Vox Feminarum and has been one of the organizers of the Pacific Festival of the Book since its inception. Paulette is the featured poet in the winter edition of The Tower Journal, 2009/10. Her long poem, The Mysterium of Godde will appear in Omega 8 in 2010.

Paulette has done numerous readings over the years including Salmon Arm Gallery, Tree and Orion in Ottawa and VAC and others in Victoria. In 2005-06, Paulette was “House Poet” for Serious Coffee House weekly open stage with James Kasper MC, Cadboro Bay Rd.

Paulette lives on Vancouver Island where she writes, paints, teaches dreamwork and spends time by the ocean.

Chris Turnbull lives in Kemptville, Ontario. This is a selection from continua, a book length series that interweaves voice and image as a combined visual text and multi-voice performance piece. Some of this current selection has been previously published in spud, and How2.

Maggie Clark was born in Toronto, Ontario, but her adult years have all been spent in Waterloo, where she recently completed a degree in Political Science and English Literature, and in Victoria, BC. Her poetry has appeared in RATTLE and The Pedestal; her fiction at The Danforth Review. In 2009 she won a 24-hour playwright competition with Pat the Dog Playwright Centre.

Jesse Patrick Ferguson ’s poems and reviews have been published in nine countries, in both print and online formats. Recently, his writing has appeared in Canadian Literature, The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire, Grain, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry and Harper’s. His work has also been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2009, edited by A.F. Moritz. Jesse is a poetry editor for The Fiddlehead, and in fall 2009 he published his first full-length poetry collection, Harmonics (Freehand Books). When he isn’t writing, he sings and plays several musical instruments.

M. Jay Smith is a Toronto-based but Canadian-hinterland-raised writer. After studying experimental poetry and aesthetic theory in graduate school (at the University of Alberta and York University), she has enjoyed a varied publishing history with work in various genres appearing in more than fifty different publications throughout North America, from the micro-runs of obscure literary journals (eg. Four Corners Feminist Review and Fait Accomplit, both based in Edmonton, the latter of which granted her several "best submission" prizes) to CanWest newspapers (especially the Edmonton Journal) as well as the Los Angeles Times (a creative non-fiction piece) and magazines like Alberta Views and Adbusters. M. Jay Smith has also worked as a columnist for both of Edmonton's arts weeklies and regularly reviews books. Presently, she is working on a novel, a book of poems, and trying to decide whether and how to hold down a day job.

to access the ditch, archive click here

Leigh Herrick is a poet, writer and collaborator whose poems, essays, music, and reviews have appeared in a variety of print and electronic journals, including, most recently, Jacket, The Jivin’ Ladybug, Unlikely Stories and OMEGA 7 (Howling Dog Publications).  Her spoken word CDs Just War (2004) and Monocle Man (2009) are available through CD Baby, and a collection of her poetry is slated to be published by Howling Dog Press in 2010.  She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Jeffrey Grunthaner was born in New Jersey, and currently lives in New York City. He works at various jobs: among them, freelance writer, art assistant, flyer-distributor, tutor, etc. His poetry has either appeared, or is forthcoming in Caper Journal and Vox Poetica.

Eric Beeny is the author of Snowing Fireflies (forthcoming 2010 from Folded Word Press) and The Dying Bloom (Pangur Ban Party). His work has recently or will appear in The Adirondack Review, Emprise Review, LITnIMAGE, Matchbook, Pear Noir!, and others. His blog is Dead End on Progressive Ave. (ericbeeny.blogspot.com). He lives in Buffalo, NY.

J. D. Nelson 's poems and experimental texts have appeared in many small press and underground publications, including Zygote in my Coffee, Otoliths, Starfish Poetry, Cherry Bleeds, Word Riot, Lit Chaos and The Dream People. Spiders in my Beard, his collection of 25 poems is included in the second volume of The Virtual Chemists series. (http://www.lulu.com/content/818354) Visit http://www.MadVerse.com for more information and links to his published work. Since 1990, Nelson's audio recordings, interviews, poetry readings, live performances and culture hacking experiments have been broadcast on several radio stations in the United States. His audio experiments (recorded under the name OWL BRAIN ATLAS) are online at http://www.OwlNoise.com. OWL NOISE 0, his album of experimental spoken word is available as a free download at http://www.mediafire.com/owlnoise. J. D. lives in Colorado, USA.

Glenn R. Frantz is a native of southeastern Pennsylvania (USA). His poems have appeared in publications such as Otoliths, BlazeVOX, Cricket, Arsenic Lobster, and Sawbuck. His e-chapbook We Are You is available from BeardOfBees.com.

Sayeeda Tahera Ahmad was born in Bangladesh, but grew up in the US, making pit stops in between. A graduate of the MA in English – Creative Writing program at the University of Northern Iowa, she’s a former winner of the Selina Terry Poetry Award, has won an honorable mention for the New Millenium Writings Awards, and was a finalist for the Atlanta Review Poetry Award. Her poetry has been published in Inner Weather. Now back in Bangladesh, she works at a daily newspaper as a subeditor.

Lynn Hoffman lives in Philadelphia and has worked as a merchant seaman, teacher, chef and cab driver. He has published two novels, The Bachelor's Cat and bang BANG. He has also written The New Short Course in Wine and The Short Course in Beer. Poetry has appeared in Angelic Dynamo, Melusine, Waterways, Abramelin, The Broad Street Review and Short, Fast and Deadly.

Arkava Das is from Kolkata, India and has completed his post-graduate work in marketing management. Work has been accepted by Leaf Garden.

Billy Cancel is a Brooklyn based poet/performer whose work has appeared in Fire, Neon Highway, Tremblestone, Iota, Rites ‘N’ Sites,The Text, Split 380, Lungfull, Mad Moth, Infinite Space, Fact-simile, 6x6 (Ugly Duckling) and aslongasittakes (sound poetry). A series of chapbooks have been publsihed through Hidden House Press.

Lucius Rofocale is a writer from the UK. Two of his poems recently appeared in 'Clinicality, Brutal: An Anthology of Writings with Guts'.

Emily Sullivan Sanford spent her formative years on Long Island and in Upstate New York. She now lives in Berlin where she works as an English teacher, writer, and translator.

Emily Sullivan Sanford's poetry has been published in Poetry Motel and Chantarelle’s Notebook. She is a contributing essayist to the book Surgically Shaping Children (2006, Johns Hopkins University Press).

Ryan Finnigan is from Sheffield, UK.

Gary Sloboda is a writer living in San Francisco.  His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from such publications as Rattle, Drunken Boat, Glitter Pony, Puppyflowers, Horse Less Review and Filling Station.  In 2008, he published a small collection of poems entitled "Pine" from Finishing Line Press.

Mark Cunningham lives in Missouri, in the US. He has three books out: Body Language from Tarpaulin Sky, 80 Beetles from Otoliths, and 71 Leaves, an ebook from BlazeVOX. A chapbook of sentences made from three phrases has been posted by Beard of Bees under the title Nachträglichkeit.

M.J. Golias has a BFA from Emerson College (Boston, Massachusetts) and an MFA in poetry from the University of Memphis, Tennessee.  After graduate school, she moved to New York City.  Recent work has appeared, or is forthcoming in journals, including The Aurorean, Colere, Rhythm, Fiddlehead, The Fieldstone Review, and in an anthology, Pomegranate Seeds: An Anthology of Greek-American Poetry.

Megan Boatright is from Northwest Florida, currently a PhD student in comparative literature at the University of Chicago. She was awarded honorable mention for the Academy of American Poets prize at Emory University. Her academic work is mostly in critical animal studies, with an emphasis on taxidermy.

Tim Keane is from The Bronx, NY, and currently lives in Manhattan. Poems from Tim's first book Alphabets of Elsewhere (Cinnamon Press, 2007), as well as poems for his next collection, tentatively titled Rockaway Flowers, have appeared in print and online magazines in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore, including such venues as the art magazine Modern Painters, the American journals Denver Quarterly, Evergreen Review, International Poetry Review, South Carolina Review and Shenandoah. His translations from French poetry are in Drunken Boat, Parthenon West Review, Silk Road, Cipher, Pusteblume, Interim and Cerise Press. www.timkeane.com

J. Michael Wahlgren is author of Credo coming from The Greying Ghost Press.

Special Feature

English Poems by Icelanders

curated by a.rawlings
poems were written during Impromptu Writing Workshops in Reykjavík, Iceland facilitated by a.rawlings

Featuring:
Ásgeir H Ingólfsson, Kristín Kamban, Hjörvar Pétursson, Silja Hrund Barkardóttir Hansen,
Jón Bjarki Magnússon, Jón Örn Loðmfjörð, Bragi Páll Sigurðarson, Bjargey Ólafsdóttir.   

Megan Kaminski is the author of the chapbook Across Soft Ruins (Scantily Clad Press, 2009). Her poetry has been published in Coconut, Denver Quarterly, Phoebe, 6x6, Third Coast, and other fine journals. She lives in Lawrence, KS, where she teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Kansas.  She spent much of her early life in Virginia, and lived in Casablanca, Los Angeles, Paris, and Portland, before moving to Kansas.

Janice D. Soderling is widely published in print and online with work at The Pedestal, Blue Unicorn, New Verse News, Soundzine, Concise Delight, Literary Mama, Left Hand Waving, Loch Raven Review, Lucid Rhythms, Unsplendid, Anon, Lyric Poetry Magazine, The Centrifugal Eye, Horizon Review, Borealis, The Flea, The Chimaera, and the recently released Best of Our Stories anthology. Her poetry was nominated by Shit Creek Review in 2009 for Dzanc Best of the Web, Sundance Best of the Net, and Pushcart. She lives in a small Swedish village.

James D. Autio is a visual artist and poet in Minneapolis, MN. James' writing has been accepted by Drunken Boat, North American Review, Venereal Kittens, Naugatuck River Review, Thieves Jargon, and other fine journals. James is the proud recipient of a Vermont Studio Center fellowship and numerous awards for his plays, poems and essays.

explore more Canadian and International poets in the ditch, archive

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