A Fabulous Summer, Full of Pride

Summer 2024 was an amazing one, with fun readings (giving my own and going to those of other authors), a fabulous sidequest to visit Chicago for the first time, where I got to spend my birthday morning going through the archives and even sketching out a poem draft at the Chicago Poetry Foundation, and, finally, a great time at Capital Pride here in Ottawa. 

For the first time, this year, my partner, spectacular queer speculative fiction and horror author James K. Moran, and I sold our books at the Ottawa Pride street market, part of the Pride celebrations held in Canada's capital towards the end of August. We sold alongside fellow Ontario authors the brilliant dark urban fantasy and horror writer Christian Baines and the fantastic YA and spec fiction author 'Nathan Burgoine. All three writers' numerous books are stellar and engaging queer romps with varying levels of darkness and styled for different ages. I highly recommend them, but beware you won't be able to stop at just one book for any of them!

I was absolutely wowed to meet so many readers at the Pride market, and the books of all four authors practically flew off the table into people's hands. I had no idea what to expect going into this endeavour, but attendees were passionate about reading, and truly interested in buying and talking about queer books, including poetry! It was a delight. And, all the people who brought their pets (from cats to dogs to cobras) out to the street fair made the weekend even better. It's definitely something we will consider doing again.

Hope you had an interesting summer, too!

Photo: Left to right: Authors 'Nathan Burgoine, James K. Moran, AJ Dolman and Christian Baines.

Teaching and Learning

This Sunday, July 7, I'll be facilitating a short online session for The WriteTime Workshop, an English-language virtual workshop group run from Paris, France. It's the second workshop (both on new confessionalism) that I'm giving in a month. The first was Queering the Confessional, in Cobourg, to a brilliant group of poets, most of whom were part of the Cobourg Poetry Workshop community. 

If you'd asked me as a student if I ever thought I would want to teach, I would have laughed at the idea. And, though I now have a lot more respect for and understanding of facilitating and teaching, the hubris of believing I should be on the teaching end of the learning spectrum is still far beyond me. I have much too much to learn yet about almost everything to think of myself as an expert in anything most of the time. 

But I will say that teaching about things you care about is a great excuse not only to dive into some extra research. Moreover, seeing other people become excited about your topic is downright thrilling. Sparking curiosity, flipping that switch for someone and watching them light up? It does start to make me see why folks teach. For me, though, I still find that joy mostly from creating, from reading to people at events, and hearing from people who have connected with my work.

On that note, I'm going to finish here with this link to three connected poems of mine that Ottawa literary powerhouse rob mclennan recently posted on Periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics. These are confessional poems, and, holding to that tradition more than I usually do, are this time more about my dad than me. I'll warn you that it's hard subject matter, about war and survival and the changes in perspective that come with aging and being human. If you read them, I hope they are good to you. And I hope you keep creating, too.

Stonewall and Gratitude

My thanks to the poetic powerhouse who is rob mclennan for featuring me in his Spotlight series on Medium. Available for free if you click past the ads, my post in the series reflects on some of the things I am most grateful for in having my first full-length poetry collection out at a later age. 

The post also introduces one of my favourite poems I have written in the past couple of years, "Stonewall / Autonomy." Dedicated to Stonewall rioter Martin Boyce, it was inspired by his insightful retellings of the Stonewall riots and stories about the gay liberation movement of the time. I am deeply grateful for Martin's stories and, of course, the legacy and courage of all involved in the fight for freedom and 2SLGBTQIA+ rights. Then, and now.

Finally, my apologies for the links in the menu above not all working. I'm trying to figure out a solution with Blogger. In the meantime, the good news is that the Upcoming Events page is working fine, so you can still find where I'll be reading in the near future, online and throughout Ontario. If you're nearby, come and join me and my fellow readers for some poetry, fiction and conversation.

Crazy / Mad in the Media

I am tremendously grateful for the bits of media interest and promo Crazy / Mad has received so far, and am reveling in it all while it lasts! 

I was on CBC's All in a Day at the end of March, alongside absolutely brilliant writer, poet and literary organizer Amanda Earl, in advance of both our Ottawa VERSefest readings. Host Alan Neal was delightful, as ever, and asked compelling questions about trauma and writing about health and madness. The experience did remind me to always check the news before any interview, no matter how niche you think your topic is, as Alan's question about the Kate Middleton news of the day came as, well, news to me!

I also started April with the honour of being first out of the gate for All Lit Up's There's a Poem for That series for Poetry Month 2024, with my poem "Slippery slope thinking," and answers to some fascinating questions about poetry, writing and reading.

Next up for me are some readings, including at Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto Wednesday, May 8, at 6:30 p.m. for the Brockton Writers Series. This week, the Series also featured me on their blog, where I talked about the human connection factor in poetry (and why AI will never actually be a poet).

I am also unendingly grateful to the amazing American author and editor Jerry Wheeler for including Crazy / Mad in Out in Print's Spring Poetry Roundup. I love Jerry's work, and how much he promotes and supports other writers. I also hope some new readers find my own poems via the roundup. Either way, I encourage you to explore and follow Out in Print, as Jerry features great LGBTQIA+ work throughout the year.

Crazy / Mad Making Its Way to Poetry Readers

I am even more proud of my debut full-length poetry book, Crazy / Mad, now that it is in my hands, a tangible object that exists in the world. Author Michael V. Smith blurbed the book with, "Injecting their poems with great care and intimacy, Dolman concocts a wry irony as medicine for a troubled world."

And awe-inspiring poet Natalie Hanna wrote, "Dolman’s terrific Crazy/Mad tears through the geography of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, deconstructing its Malleus Malleficarum, puzzle-piece-approach to mental health and illuminating the in-between spaces no one discusses aloud. Poems pick-apart symptoms and diagnoses around 'madness' the way one carefully knifes apart a sumptuous Sunday brunch in a too-bright, formal room with others watching, while detritus rains from the rafters just outside."

I am grateful for their and others' kind words. 

I expected launching my first poetry book would be hectic, and it has been! Although Crazy / Mad only came out officially today (April 1, no joke), a box arrived to me just over a week ago.

Which meant my beautiful books (thank you so much to publisher Jeremy Luke Hill for the magnificent cover design) landed in Ottawa just barely in time for my March 24 reading at VERSefest. Thank you to everyone who came out for the packed event, hosted by the charming poet and translator Madeleine Stratford. I felt privileged to read alongside Nduka Otiono and Myriam Legault-Beauregard, and I couldn't have asked for a more welcoming crowd.

Visit this blog in the coming weeks and months for more info about my official launch and other events I'll be part of this spring and summer. In the meantime, please ask your local library to order Crazy / Mad, and get yourself a copy via Gordon Hill or your favourite local bookstore!

Crazy / Mad: my first poetry book, out spring 2024!

The start of a new year feels like the perfect time to announce my forthcoming poetry book, Crazy / Mad, will be available in spring 2024 from Gordon Hill Press, and is already available to pre-order. 

I am in love with the cover design and very proud of the contents. I hope you can buy, order, share, recommend or otherwise support the collection. But, above all, I hope you read and get something out of it. 

Huge thanks to my editor Shane Nielson and brilliant publisher and graphic artist Jeremy Luke Hill. I'll post more about launch and reading dates once information becomes available.

Interview with Trode Publications

My thanks to the fabulous Trode Publications for interviewing me at the start of this year. The interview was a lot of fun to do, and went some places I didn't expect. Visit their blog to find out about some of my current projects, forthcoming publications, and some of my inspirations (both good and less so)! 

The interview is part of a series Trode is releasing with selected genre and literary authors, so follow them to learn more about a variety of emerging and established writers.