onward 2023

with gratitude for 2022

In 2022, I had a life-changing diagnosis of diabetes. Thanks to my well-behaved pancreas, I was able to manage my blood sugar levels through diet and exercise to the point where they are below diabetic level. I have changed my eating habits and amped up my physical activity, lost forty-seven pounds and counting. I have taken up meditation (through apps) and have learned to exercise the practice of gratitude through writing daily in a journal (Five-minute Journal). With the help of the Community Diabetes Education Program, and a FB group, Diabetes 101 for Beginners, along with Charles, I have learned a lot and been greatly supported. I have found that I feel better overall, stronger both physically and emotionally.  In 2023 I will add aquafit to my activities. I love splashing around to music.

In July I had another bowel obstruction that landed me in the Ottawa General, but I was there only for three days and things went smoothly with pain being taken care of and the obstruction removed as efficiently and effectively as possible.

My favourite activities have been spending time with Charles: making meals together—his omelets are delicious; taking walks—especially along the Upper Lorne--, playing in the pool, snoozing while watching romantic films, and working on the various projects we do together.

I have also loved the walks from home to my fitness class while listening to the podcast Between the Covers with David Naimon. I find I lose track of time when I’m walking and listening, especially to conversations with poets. My two favourite interviews of 2022 were his conversation with Ama Codjoe, whose poetry collection, Bluest Nude is excellent, and the episode with Hélène Cixous. Once my money situation has cleared up a bit more (after I’m off these expensive eczema meds) I will definitely become a patron of the show. He offers all kinds of supplementary materials. I feel like this is tuition for my writing. David is a well-prepared, insightful and engaging host. I also appreciate that there is a complete transcript to each episode.

I have had lovely conversations with dear friends in cafés over coffee at the Art House Café and intend to continue this in the new year.

I also had a great time taking photos for my Instagram #chairsofottawa series and many of you enjoyed it and posted some of your own #chairsof_yourarea too, which is one of the reasons i do the series, so that it will inspire others in some way.

I have had the fortune to have two spines and a chapbook published in 2022: Trouble (Hem Press), Genesis (Timglaset Editions) and The Before, an excerpt from Welcome to Upper Zygonia (above/ground press).

I worked on a few different manuscripts, and even tried my hand at the 3-Day Novel Contest in September. I also sent in a nonfiction pitch to 33 1/3 for a manuscript about Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Session.  I have also been editing Beast Body Epic, my long poem collection about my health crisis.

I received grants through the Ontario Arts Council for PURPLE, a hybrid work on suicide ideation.

2023 will mark my 60th year on the planet in October. To celebrate, I will be publishing Beast Body Epic through AngelHousePress. I will tell you more about this process as it goes on. I have one reading booked already in Montreal, but am having some trouble finding series to book me in Ottawa and Toronto. A dear friend will be reading with me in Toronto. More news soon!

Bywords.ca will also be celebrating an anniversary: its twentieth. When we began the site in 2003, we had no idea how rewarding and significant it would be for us and how we would end up making friends and being part of a community through our work with the site and magazine. It’s been an important part of our lives.

AngelHousePress will be conducting its crowd funding campaign again in February-March. We have a number of small presses who have kindly agreed to donate publications and merchandise. The generous donations of many members of the literary community throughout the world helped us to pay our contributors to NationalPoetryMonth.ca and Experiment-O in 2022. And we shall try again in 2023!

We launched the Caring Imagination site, which is a site that offers links to resources for creators and cultural workers to act with compassion. It’s an ever growing list of resources. I hope you’ll take a look, and maybe even send me links to other useful guides.

The Small Machine Talks wrapped up its final episode of 2022 with a talk with Charles on the poetics of photography. Listen here if you’d like to hear us chat about photos and poems.

In 2022, AngelHousePress held the inaugural Flovel, Flash-A-Ganza event in August. It was so much fun, I intend to do it again this August. I am so grateful that so many contributors decided to join in on the whimsy. We will continue the saga begun in 2022. And there will be more prizes!

Thank you, friends, for making this journey so worth-while and lovely. I know the world is a shite box, and I feel grateful for the compassion, generosity and friendship of so many of you, who help me cope and celebrate being alive. May 2023 be peaceful, productive and full of love and whimsy.