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nycterosea.bsky.social
Jade Wallace (they/them)
@nycterosea.bsky.social
1.4K followers 530 following 170 posts
Poet, novelist, critic, leftist & co-founder of MA|DE. Poetry collection Love Is A Place But You Cannot Live There (Guernica 23), novel ANOMIA (Palimpsest 24), collaborative poetry collection ZZOO (Palimpsest 25). 🌈 https://jadewallace.a
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nycterosea.bsky.social
If you care about renters in Ontario may I recommend signing this petition or sending an email to your MPP ASAP? While some harmful provisions were removed from Bill 60 thanks to swift public pushback, several still remain that will weaken tenant rights.

Petition and letter here: stopbill60.ca
November 20, 2025 at 4:49 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
My very first time having poems in The Malahat Review!

Pictured here is "Desert Fauna," which features some horses and a rather oblique allegory. Not pictured is "Grape," which I wrote when I was thinking a lot about how I hate the way grapes are used on social media these days...
Desert Fauna Anybody stalking this dead end road wants something—it’s either your horses or you. Told me that before he left for good some five years past and I believed him. Abhor the gun but the pockets of my jeans never want for rocks. Morning cuts the sky open to show me a stranger. I stop twenty paces back to take stock. His chin is dropped on his folded arms resting atop my paddock gate. His back greets me, his gaze meets the animals’, who abandon their grazing only for a blink before returning. Their shining hides wink at us in the sunlight. My knuckles squeeze white against stone and I call out, Hello, though my meaning is elsewhere. We’re stock-still, quieter than the minute before a quick draw. My God, he says finally, eyes still caught by what’s before him. Aren’t they wonderful? I sidle to him slantwise, ‘til I can see him in profile. His cheeks, his leather boots, are cracking like this arid land, but his hands are too soft for rope. I ease my grip. I’m not afraid of dying, you understand, I’m just not made to be green-broke. This, however, is all right—him talking about the horses as if they don’t belong to me, don’t belong to anyone. Because they don’t—
November 5, 2025 at 5:43 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
✨Looking forward to being a panelist this coming Wednesday October 13, 2025 at 5:30 pm for Arts Council Windsor & Region's talk on careers in the arts, alongside Nadja Pelkey @telextelex.bsky.social and some guy I've seen around named Mark Laliberte @originobscure.bsky.social.
October 13, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
madeprojects.bsky.social
Thanks to Conor McDonnell for including ZZOO on a list of books that inspired his work for @49thshelf.bsky.social! And congrats to Conor on his latest poetry collection, What We Know So Far Is, out yesterday from @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social!

Read the full list here: 49thshelf.com/Lists/Member...
October 8, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
madeprojects.bsky.social
Feels very appropriate for our book of animal poetry to appear on HOWL - CIUT 89.5FM! MA|DE recently chatted with @hollay.bsky.social about: what makes a ZZOO different from a zoo; writing for depth rather than clarity; what it's like to work with an editor as a two-person collaborative ...
September 30, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
madeprojects.bsky.social
🐶🐼There's particular delight in print review & MA|DE was lucky enough to experience that this week thanks to reviewer Matt Boylan, writing for @theampersandreview.bsky.social. Boylan has many insightful & laudatory things to say about ZZOO @palimpsestpress.bsky.social, including:
September 21, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
madeprojects.bsky.social
It's a quintessential right of passage for small press poetry books to be reviewed by @robmclennan.bsky.social and we're ever so grateful to him for bringing MA|DE's debut collaborative collection into the fold. Rob calls ZZOO "layered, and sharp” and remarks on its “smart and engaged language."
September 19, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
madeprojects.bsky.social
🪲🐬🦩This Saturday September 13 at 2pm, we'll be reading at the Leamington branch of Essex County Library alongside Daniel Lockhart, Kathryn MacDonald, Carrie Lee Connel & Andreas Connel-Gripp. It’ll be our first time reading in Leamington & ZZOO’s first visit too. Hope to see you at this free event!
September 11, 2025 at 10:57 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
Looking forward to this book!
hollay.bsky.social Hollay Ghadery @hollay.bsky.social · Sep 11
The Unravelling of Ou (by me!) is forthcoming with Palimpsest Press, February 15, 2026, and is available for pre-order now. 🧦 📖

Here is the listing at one of my local bookstores!

tinyurl.com/5an25y7h

This book was made possible through the generous funding of Ontario Arts Council.

#canlit
September 11, 2025 at 8:05 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
Just in time for Labour Day, the anthology THE BOOK OF JOBS: Poems about Work is out and includes my poem "Word Problems." Sneak peek is in the photo below; the rest of the poem and anthology are available to read for free online: oneartpoetry.com/the-book-of-...
The Book of Jobs: Poems about Work (edited by Erin Murphy) Jade Wallace Word Problems 1. Suppose that worker I, who has $7 in their bank account, uses a combination of cash and credit to pay the $40 monthly phone bill. I then metes out their 10 gigabytes of data, app by app, until one bounces back a task that I completes in 19 minutes on the way to their temp job. For completing the task, I receives a $5.03 transfer of funds (after taxes and fees), of which $4.19 will eventually be used to pay for gas and the long-term maintenance of I’s car. I earns $32.00 (after taxes and deductions) for working 3 hours at the temp job, though will not receive that money for approximately 8 months, which is how long it will take for the labour ministry to investigate I’s 15 page claim and issue a 25 page order requiring wages to, in fact, be paid, as per section 22 of the Employees Are Not Volunteers Act.
September 4, 2025 at 10:13 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
Literally takes less than a minute & important if you care about things like the Canada Council for the Arts!!
themockler.bsky.social Kathryn Mockler @themockler.bsky.social · Aug 30
Carney plans to cut 15% to the arts. Here is a letter template to send to politicians to oppose this.

nwmd.social/s/copylink/4...
New/Mode | Make your voice impossible to ignore
nwmd.social
August 30, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
madeprojects.bsky.social
What a treat to talk to an interviewer like Hollay Ghadery @hollay.bsky.social of @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social (& elsewhere), who is equal parts enthusiastic & insightful about books. MA|DE had a great time chatting with Hollay about why we tried to treat each poetry reading on our ZZOO tour like...
August 15, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
thismagazine.bsky.social
thismagazine.bsky.social This Magazine @thismagazine.bsky.social · Aug 12
🚨Attention Editors🚨 This Magazine is looking for a News Editor! Do you have editing and news writing experience, connections to journalists, and a love of independent publishing? You might be the perfect fit! Full job description at the link below. Applications close Sept 5th!

this.org/contribute/
Contribute to This Magazine
This Magazine is hiring a News Editor! Applications are due Friday, September 5 at noon EST. Are you always on top of the Canadian news cycle? Are you well-versed on a wide variety of news topics? A...
this.org
August 14, 2025 at 5:48 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
The Ontario government continues to be embarrassing...

www.aptnnews.ca/national-new...
Alberta, Ontario don't want feds to reintroduce First Nations safe drinking water law
Environment ministers in Alberta and Ontario don't want the federal government to reintroduce the safe drinking water law for First Nations.
www.aptnnews.ca
August 13, 2025 at 2:13 AM
nycterosea.bsky.social
Great (critical) take on AI by Molly Cross-Blanchard in the latest issue of Write from The Writers' Union of Canada.
August 12, 2025 at 10:04 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
My review of Samantha Jones' @sjonespoet.bsky.social's wonderful debut poetry collection Attic Rain from @newestpress.bsky.social, which appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of @thismagazine.bsky.social.
Samantha Jones’ debut poetry collection, Attic Rain, is a nuanced articulation of the mindspace of Obsessive-compulsive disorder. Jones uses form—the brevity of haiku, the recurrences of villanelles, the queries of mondos—to make visceral OCD’s reiterative fixations and rituals. Such rituals are conveyed with insightful complexity; they are soothing, grounding, as natural as water moving over the same path repeatedly to make a river, even as the force that propels them is terror. Attic Rain achieves the impressive feat of both portraying and reenvisioning OCD: by drawing it as maps, organizing it into graphs, annotating it as music, and ultimately transforming it into poetry.
August 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
I'm late but I had a good reason this time! Anways here's my review of Deepa Rajagopalan's stunning debut short fiction collection Peacocks of Instagram from @houseofanansi.bsky.social, which appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of @thismagazine.bsky.social.
The title of Deepa Rajagopalan’s debut short story collection sounds like an exposé of social media celebrity, but it’s so much more. Peacocks of Instagram peels back surfaces to reveal surprising and satisfying depths. Influencer personas are counterpoints in multi-layered lives. There are mothers travelling to India for kidney transplants, spouses misleading each other in dances of infidelity. Rajagopalan throws and pulls problems ordinary as raw clay into 14 glossy, engrossing, interconnected narratives. Amid mundane indignities, her characters find fulfillment glimmering like fresh snow, and slices of righteous revenge as sweet as free cheesecake at a company party.
August 11, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
madeprojects.bsky.social
Earlier this week, we had a 15-minute chat scheduled with Jamie Tennant @jtennant.bsky.social for episode 455 of his GET LIT podcast, which quickly turned into a 30-minute interview. We discussed where collaboration begins, how two very serious people manage to make playful work ...
August 10, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
jtennant.bsky.social
Today on GET LIT: Jade Wallace and Mark Laliberte aka MA|DE. We discuss a bunch of things including their latest, ZZOO.

1230pm on 93.3 / cfmu.ca or anytime on pods and here: tinyurl.com/yc5u7bzj

@nycterosea.bsky.social @marklalib.bsky.social @madeprojects.bsky.social @palimpsestpress.bsky.social
August 7, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
madeprojects.bsky.social
If you happen to be a member of LCP @canadianpoets.bsky.social, you can get 15% off + free shipping on many new and forthcoming Canadian poetry collections, including MA|DE's ZZOO, if you order through @alllitupcanada.bsky.social anytime between now and Saturday August 9! 🐙🐍🦋 alllitup.ca/books/zzoo/
August 6, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
madeprojects.bsky.social
In the fog that consumed the entire month of March (thanks COVID), we totally lost track of this interview, the ACTUAL first written interview MA|DE ever did about 'ZZOO.' Our very belated thanks to the wonderful @alllitupcanada.bsky.social for chatting with us about how MA|DE came together ...
“A set of variant covers in a bookstore might be thrilling and mysterious”: An Interview with MA|DE For the past several years, MA|DE—Mark Laliberte and Jade Wallace—has been carving out a unique space in the literary landscape, embracing collaboration as both a practice and an ethos. Their work is a fusion of poetic experimentation, visual artistry, and deep engagement with the traditions of literary and artistic partnerships in Canada. In this interview, Mark and Jade take us through the origins of MA|DE and the journey of their full-length poetry collection ZZOO (Palimpsest Press), which included an ambitious approach to their cover design (there are five cool covers of ZZOO to choose from!). With a keen eye on the intersections of poetry, visual art, and literary publishing, MA|DE continues to push the boundaries of what a poetry collab can be. Mark Laliberte & Jade Wallace: To tell the story of MA|DE, we have to go back to 2018. That’s when we—Mark Laliberte & Jade Wallace—first began working together. In the beginning, our collaboration was single-celled, a free-form thing. We wrote together in a shared document, word upon word, line upon line, without much sense of where it would all end up. We wrote daily, and just began building poems. As we continued working together, day into month into year, the specific nature of our collaboration started to take shape, or reveal itself. We were writing and experimenting. We were also looking at the history of collaboration in Canada, both in the visual and literary arts scenes—and, to be honest, we felt more spiritually connected to long-term artistic collaborations like General Idea, Public Studio and FASTWÜRMS (who, incidentally, were Mark’s MFA advisors at the University of Guelph back in the early 2000s). We began calling ourselves MA|DE in reference to our shared projects—taking on the branded positionality of a contemporary pop group, adopting a “band name” of sorts. For us, this naming gesture is symbolic: it indicates that this collaboration has a life of its own, and hopefully a long one; it is not simply the brief nexus of two writers’ careers, as so many literary collaborations are. MA|DE is a kind of entity or spirit we manifest, our third mind.
August 1, 2025 at 9:49 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
Bet you didn't think I had MORE to say about book blurbs after my last 1,800-word article on them but here I am! Brockton Writers Series @brocktonwriters.bsky.social was kind enough to invite me to speak on the subject at their latest event, and to do a guest blog post about it.
July 25, 2025 at 1:24 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
Sarah Marie aka @literalnobody.bsky.social and TMR are among the true angels of the small press lit scene. Thank you to both of them for this interview.
madeprojects.bsky.social MA|DE @madeprojects.bsky.social · Jul 21
We're proud to present our very first WRITTEN interview about ZZOO! Sarah Marie @literalnobody.bsky.social, for The Miramichi Reader , asked us a range of surprising questions, covering topics from ZZOO's emotional landscapes to practical matters like touring a small press poetry collection.
SM: I can imagine that ZZOO was a difficult thing to capture when you were conceptualizing it. MA|DE: With our collaborative work, there’s a lot of things going on that sometimes one or both of us are not even always aware of. One of us will write a line, and the other looks at it after like, what did they even mean by that? You think they meant one thing, and actually they meant some other thing, and then the line ends up kind of meaning both things. We feel like there’s a lot of nuance in the work that one or both of us might sometimes not know about because of these layers. By contrast, when we’re working on solo work, there might be layers, but it’s much easier to be aware of them as you work on the piece. You’re putting them there, and it’s deliberate. With our collaborative work it’s a bit more of a mystery. One of the ways we grounded the poems in ZZOO was to organize them into four distinct sections within the book. Our idea was that we would start submerged in ‘Water,’ then go on to ‘Land,’ then up into the ‘Air’ and then out into the heavens / the afterlife / the unknown (the section is called ‘Elsewhere’). Some of the poems, especially in that section, get quite morbid. There’s also a poetic suite that travels inside of ZZOO, a kind of long poem that is quartered and distributed across the terrain of the book so that a part appears in each of the four sections; collectively, the poem explores the life cycle, transformations and migratory patterns of Danaus plexippus, the monarch butterfly. SM: I definitely felt like there was a full emotional landscape I had to navigate while reading ZZOO and I wondered if that was a guided thing, if that had something to do with the way you ordered the poems. To put something like this together, is it as intense of an experience for the creator as it is for the audience? MA|DE: With respect to emotional navigation, for us it helps that, with a few small exceptions in the book, most of these are not based on experiences that are personal to us. They’re things we read about, researched or encountered in passing. The poem “Psychopomp” was one of the few exceptions to that approach; it was actually written after our cat, Ari, died. Having said that, most of the poems in ZZOO are inspired by things that emotionally resonated with us when we came across them, and that’s why we wanted to write about or reference them. Still, they weren’t part of our actual lives so there was an amount of distance that was built-in. When we went to reference or work with them, it was a lot easier for us than it is for people who are grappling with things / traumas that are immediate to their experience. Some of the poems we attempted to actualize based on an initial point of insight didn’t always work or come alive, and we abandoned them. That does happen sometimes. But overall we were able to balance out the four sections of ZZOO topically and emotionally. We also used the endnotes section of the book, ‘Taxidermia,’ to reveal references that the reader might not readily get, and to acknowledge the real-world incidents that were the starting places for the poems. Poetry opens up all kinds of doorways into a subject but it doesn’t always provide a lot of grounding. It can be very extrapolative. We wanted to have that balance available in the book between art and fact, but not let the poems get mired too much in extremely concrete details. Endnotes let us strike that balance.
July 21, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Jade Wallace (they/them)
sarahclark.bsky.social
happy non-binary day and week, i edit an online micro mag specifically for non-binary, genderqueer, and two-spirit writers and artists!

our next issue is coming out on aug 20, and you can catch up here: www.beestungmag.com

you can also follow us on this website at @beestung.bsky.social
beestung – a quarterly micro-magazine of non-binary writers that’s sweet and stings
www.beestungmag.com
July 14, 2025 at 3:47 PM
nycterosea.bsky.social
It's been a minute (1.5 years) since I've had a poem out in a mag, and what a mag to be back with: @midnightsunmag.bsky.social has published "Villiform," a deconstructed villanelle whose central conceit is about disability as a kind of poetic constraint for living. www.midnightsunmag.ca/villiform/
Villiform Or: Refiguring Our Disabilities as Poetic Constraints Jade Wallace We are confined, the well and the unwell, by the cadenced demands our bodies make. Countable as the beats of a villanelle are the hours that pass until need will compel us to pause and cast for water to slake the thirst that con stricts us, both well and unwell. While we may delay, we cannot dis Header says "Midnight Sun" and beneath is an image of a sanderling (small sea bird) running across a beach.
July 13, 2025 at 2:57 PM