P.W. Bridgman, Writer
@pwbwriter1.bsky.social
Vancouver writer of poetry, fiction, literary criticism & academic articles about the law. Lover of all things Italian & Irish. Most recent of five titles: The World You Now Own (2024); Idiolect (2021); & The Four-Faced Liar (2021).
www.pwbridgman.ca
www.pwbridgman.ca
Pinned
“…[I]mpeccably detailed realist dioramas, drawn from various stages of life… It’s a warm, welcoming volume, keenly demonstrating both tonal range and worldliness”
Grateful to poet @shotscarecrow.bsky.social for his insightful assessment of my latest in London Grip.
londongrip.co.uk/2025/03/lond...
Grateful to poet @shotscarecrow.bsky.social for his insightful assessment of my latest in London Grip.
londongrip.co.uk/2025/03/lond...
Reposted by P.W. Bridgman, Writer
Tsawassen and its environs! Please join @catwrites604.bsky.social and me for a reading tomorrow at 7pm, Nov 11th, at Albany books!
November 10, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Tsawassen and its environs! Please join @catwrites604.bsky.social and me for a reading tomorrow at 7pm, Nov 11th, at Albany books!
"...always aware of the human alchemy of writing and reading, how you let creativity flow in yourself and how the results land in the reader."
Read the insightful @ruthpadel.bsky.social's tender paean to S. Heaney & the new Collected, out now from @faberbooks.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/d562...
Read the insightful @ruthpadel.bsky.social's tender paean to S. Heaney & the new Collected, out now from @faberbooks.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/d562...
Seamus Heaney: a new glimpse of his life and poetry
With previously uncollected or unpublished works, a definitive edition deepens our understanding of the Nobel laureate’s creative process
www.ft.com
October 31, 2025 at 8:30 PM
"...always aware of the human alchemy of writing and reading, how you let creativity flow in yourself and how the results land in the reader."
Read the insightful @ruthpadel.bsky.social's tender paean to S. Heaney & the new Collected, out now from @faberbooks.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/d562...
Read the insightful @ruthpadel.bsky.social's tender paean to S. Heaney & the new Collected, out now from @faberbooks.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/d562...
Perhaps the presence of a ghost qualifies a poem as "spooky" & worthy of posting on a rainy Hallowe'en?
"You Have a Visitor, Sir" features Philip Larkin, a talking parrot called "Lickspittle," an undertaker called "Mr. Bottle"... Something for everyone.
"You Have a Visitor, Sir" features Philip Larkin, a talking parrot called "Lickspittle," an undertaker called "Mr. Bottle"... Something for everyone.
October 31, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Perhaps the presence of a ghost qualifies a poem as "spooky" & worthy of posting on a rainy Hallowe'en?
"You Have a Visitor, Sir" features Philip Larkin, a talking parrot called "Lickspittle," an undertaker called "Mr. Bottle"... Something for everyone.
"You Have a Visitor, Sir" features Philip Larkin, a talking parrot called "Lickspittle," an undertaker called "Mr. Bottle"... Something for everyone.
"...My father removed
The pope’s blessing and replaced it
With his own. That might work
Better for you, he said."
From "Garnets," a spellbinding new poem by @tricialockwood.bsky.social in the latest issue of the @lrb.co.uk.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
The pope’s blessing and replaced it
With his own. That might work
Better for you, he said."
From "Garnets," a spellbinding new poem by @tricialockwood.bsky.social in the latest issue of the @lrb.co.uk.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Patricia Lockwood · Poem: ‘Garnets’
www.lrb.co.uk
October 30, 2025 at 6:15 PM
"...My father removed
The pope’s blessing and replaced it
With his own. That might work
Better for you, he said."
From "Garnets," a spellbinding new poem by @tricialockwood.bsky.social in the latest issue of the @lrb.co.uk.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
The pope’s blessing and replaced it
With his own. That might work
Better for you, he said."
From "Garnets," a spellbinding new poem by @tricialockwood.bsky.social in the latest issue of the @lrb.co.uk.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
In time, Heaney confronted the Troubles with the full weight of his talent. (See esp., Station Island, section VIII).
Other NI poets ably navigated the Odyssean challenges O'Toole notes--none better than Ciaran Carson in "Belfast Confetti" (here in his own voice).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEI9...
Other NI poets ably navigated the Odyssean challenges O'Toole notes--none better than Ciaran Carson in "Belfast Confetti" (here in his own voice).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEI9...
October 28, 2025 at 7:11 PM
In time, Heaney confronted the Troubles with the full weight of his talent. (See esp., Station Island, section VIII).
Other NI poets ably navigated the Odyssean challenges O'Toole notes--none better than Ciaran Carson in "Belfast Confetti" (here in his own voice).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEI9...
Other NI poets ably navigated the Odyssean challenges O'Toole notes--none better than Ciaran Carson in "Belfast Confetti" (here in his own voice).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEI9...
@fotoole.bsky.social on Heaney's initial reluctance to engage with the Troubles in his poems.
"He resisted gut instincts that could not be transmuted into art, steering clear, like Odysseus, of both the whirlpool of propaganda and the monster of indifference."
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
"He resisted gut instincts that could not be transmuted into art, steering clear, like Odysseus, of both the whirlpool of propaganda and the monster of indifference."
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Seamus Heaney’s poems for a darkening age | The Observer
Collected in a landmark new edition, the late Irish writer’s work is attuned to wonder, replete with humanity and rooted in the tragedies of history
observer.co.uk
October 28, 2025 at 6:53 PM
@fotoole.bsky.social on Heaney's initial reluctance to engage with the Troubles in his poems.
"He resisted gut instincts that could not be transmuted into art, steering clear, like Odysseus, of both the whirlpool of propaganda and the monster of indifference."
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
"He resisted gut instincts that could not be transmuted into art, steering clear, like Odysseus, of both the whirlpool of propaganda and the monster of indifference."
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Reposted by P.W. Bridgman, Writer
Coming in November. Don't Speak To Strangers. Our next series of Online Poetry Pamphlets. Featuring Moyra Donaldson, Scott McKendry, Alicia Byrne Keane, David Nash, and Lianne O'Hara. @artscouncilireland.bsky.social @poetryireland.bsky.social
October 28, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Coming in November. Don't Speak To Strangers. Our next series of Online Poetry Pamphlets. Featuring Moyra Donaldson, Scott McKendry, Alicia Byrne Keane, David Nash, and Lianne O'Hara. @artscouncilireland.bsky.social @poetryireland.bsky.social
Reposted by P.W. Bridgman, Writer
'I have my own poet’s preoccupations that come back to me more or less uncontrollably, which I then have to turn into something basically legible that someone else might be interested in.'
Joint winners Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie in conversation: thelondonmagazine.org/interview-fo...
Joint winners Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie in conversation: thelondonmagazine.org/interview-fo...
Interview | Forward Prize for Best Collection: Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie - The London Magazine
Joint winners of the Forward Prize for Best Collection, Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie discuss each other's collections.
thelondonmagazine.org
October 27, 2025 at 12:34 PM
'I have my own poet’s preoccupations that come back to me more or less uncontrollably, which I then have to turn into something basically legible that someone else might be interested in.'
Joint winners Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie in conversation: thelondonmagazine.org/interview-fo...
Joint winners Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie in conversation: thelondonmagazine.org/interview-fo...
Nothing less than recovering from the knee-replacement surgery I underwent ten days ago could keep me away from seeing Dan Bejar and Destroyer perform at the Vogue in Vancouver tomorrow night.
Break a leg, Dan.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWg...
Break a leg, Dan.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWg...
October 25, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Nothing less than recovering from the knee-replacement surgery I underwent ten days ago could keep me away from seeing Dan Bejar and Destroyer perform at the Vogue in Vancouver tomorrow night.
Break a leg, Dan.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWg...
Break a leg, Dan.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWg...
Is there anyone who could read this poem aloud & not have his or her voice catch?
Finding work like this sets me on an obsessive search for more writing by the poet. It's plain to me now. Gregory Orr deserves more of my attention than he has received.
So the search begins.
Thank you, Phillip.
Finding work like this sets me on an obsessive search for more writing by the poet. It's plain to me now. Gregory Orr deserves more of my attention than he has received.
So the search begins.
Thank you, Phillip.
October 25, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Is there anyone who could read this poem aloud & not have his or her voice catch?
Finding work like this sets me on an obsessive search for more writing by the poet. It's plain to me now. Gregory Orr deserves more of my attention than he has received.
So the search begins.
Thank you, Phillip.
Finding work like this sets me on an obsessive search for more writing by the poet. It's plain to me now. Gregory Orr deserves more of my attention than he has received.
So the search begins.
Thank you, Phillip.
"No world, no meeting..."
This poem, from Moon Crossing Bridge, perfectly transmutes a shimmering, crystalline Zen moment into language.
My favourite Tess Gallagher poem. Nicely chosen, Phillip!
This poem, from Moon Crossing Bridge, perfectly transmutes a shimmering, crystalline Zen moment into language.
My favourite Tess Gallagher poem. Nicely chosen, Phillip!
October 19, 2025 at 11:23 PM
"No world, no meeting..."
This poem, from Moon Crossing Bridge, perfectly transmutes a shimmering, crystalline Zen moment into language.
My favourite Tess Gallagher poem. Nicely chosen, Phillip!
This poem, from Moon Crossing Bridge, perfectly transmutes a shimmering, crystalline Zen moment into language.
My favourite Tess Gallagher poem. Nicely chosen, Phillip!
A new collection by @annajswan.bsky.social, entitled The Garbage Poems, has been released by Brick Books. This is big CanLit news!
Anna's about to begin a cross-Canada reading tour. See the events page on Anna's website for dates & times. Vancouverites: 29 Oct, 6:30, Iron Dog Books
annaswanson.ca
Anna's about to begin a cross-Canada reading tour. See the events page on Anna's website for dates & times. Vancouverites: 29 Oct, 6:30, Iron Dog Books
annaswanson.ca
October 15, 2025 at 2:48 AM
A new collection by @annajswan.bsky.social, entitled The Garbage Poems, has been released by Brick Books. This is big CanLit news!
Anna's about to begin a cross-Canada reading tour. See the events page on Anna's website for dates & times. Vancouverites: 29 Oct, 6:30, Iron Dog Books
annaswanson.ca
Anna's about to begin a cross-Canada reading tour. See the events page on Anna's website for dates & times. Vancouverites: 29 Oct, 6:30, Iron Dog Books
annaswanson.ca
Very much looking forward to this, Theresa. Your publisher (undoubtedly with guidance from you) has made very sound and aesthetically pleasing design choices. Your book will be a wonder, inside and out. Congratulations.
Before making duck with chanterelles for our Thanksgiving dinner, I am spending time with the proofs of my forthcoming book: thornapplepress.ca/books/the-ar...
I love the page design! I love the cover! So much to be thankful for...
I love the page design! I love the cover! So much to be thankful for...
October 13, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Very much looking forward to this, Theresa. Your publisher (undoubtedly with guidance from you) has made very sound and aesthetically pleasing design choices. Your book will be a wonder, inside and out. Congratulations.
I’m scheduled for knee-replacement surgery no. 2 on Oct 15 so I’ll only be making rare appearances here for a while. The procedure last Nov was surprisingly disruptive (although the outcome was excellent). Hoping for less of that & a return to better writing productivity. See you on the other side!
October 10, 2025 at 12:26 AM
I’m scheduled for knee-replacement surgery no. 2 on Oct 15 so I’ll only be making rare appearances here for a while. The procedure last Nov was surprisingly disruptive (although the outcome was excellent). Hoping for less of that & a return to better writing productivity. See you on the other side!
"...Sleep softly spirit of earth
as the days and nights join hands
when everything becomes one thing..."
-- Al Purdy, "The Dead Poet"
Made a pilgrimage yesterday to the Al Purdy sculpture in Toronto's Queen's Park--truly one of CanLit's secular stations of the cross. RIP AWP
as the days and nights join hands
when everything becomes one thing..."
-- Al Purdy, "The Dead Poet"
Made a pilgrimage yesterday to the Al Purdy sculpture in Toronto's Queen's Park--truly one of CanLit's secular stations of the cross. RIP AWP
October 2, 2025 at 1:18 PM
"...Sleep softly spirit of earth
as the days and nights join hands
when everything becomes one thing..."
-- Al Purdy, "The Dead Poet"
Made a pilgrimage yesterday to the Al Purdy sculpture in Toronto's Queen's Park--truly one of CanLit's secular stations of the cross. RIP AWP
as the days and nights join hands
when everything becomes one thing..."
-- Al Purdy, "The Dead Poet"
Made a pilgrimage yesterday to the Al Purdy sculpture in Toronto's Queen's Park--truly one of CanLit's secular stations of the cross. RIP AWP
"...'you're not in Ireland now.'"
Such deep feeling in Martina Evans' reading of Eavan Boland's poignant childhood memoir, beautifully framed and filmed, as always, by @brinkerhoffpoetry.bsky.social.
brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/an-iri...
Such deep feeling in Martina Evans' reading of Eavan Boland's poignant childhood memoir, beautifully framed and filmed, as always, by @brinkerhoffpoetry.bsky.social.
brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/an-iri...
October 1, 2025 at 2:33 PM
"...'you're not in Ireland now.'"
Such deep feeling in Martina Evans' reading of Eavan Boland's poignant childhood memoir, beautifully framed and filmed, as always, by @brinkerhoffpoetry.bsky.social.
brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/an-iri...
Such deep feeling in Martina Evans' reading of Eavan Boland's poignant childhood memoir, beautifully framed and filmed, as always, by @brinkerhoffpoetry.bsky.social.
brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/an-iri...
A year ago, Ars Notoria published my story, "The Assignment." It concerns capital punishment. The barbaric #deathpenalty persists in some jurisdictions because their citizens can look away. There's nowhere to hide here.
Meet Jesse Nazaire & his executioner, Mr Bell.
arsnotoria.com/2024/09/23/t...
Meet Jesse Nazaire & his executioner, Mr Bell.
arsnotoria.com/2024/09/23/t...
September 30, 2025 at 2:32 PM
A year ago, Ars Notoria published my story, "The Assignment." It concerns capital punishment. The barbaric #deathpenalty persists in some jurisdictions because their citizens can look away. There's nowhere to hide here.
Meet Jesse Nazaire & his executioner, Mr Bell.
arsnotoria.com/2024/09/23/t...
Meet Jesse Nazaire & his executioner, Mr Bell.
arsnotoria.com/2024/09/23/t...
On the ineffable joy of being loved. @janezwart.bsky.social knows it and transmutes it into words worthy of their subject. Again.
A ridiculous little run of luck on the poetry front this week.
Thank you, Jamie Poissant, for several benisons: giving this poem a spot in Aquifer & for nominating it for the Best of Net anthology.
And thank you, Dean Ward, for letting me borrow this sweet corn & pet moth.
Thank you, Jamie Poissant, for several benisons: giving this poem a spot in Aquifer & for nominating it for the Best of Net anthology.
And thank you, Dean Ward, for letting me borrow this sweet corn & pet moth.
September 30, 2025 at 1:47 PM
On the ineffable joy of being loved. @janezwart.bsky.social knows it and transmutes it into words worthy of their subject. Again.
"Swanson’s poems articulate such lovely bricolage, stitching narratives as a collage of subject, accumulation & language, stitching narratives from found materials into reason, logic, story."
From @robmclennan.bsky.social's review of @annajswan.bsky.social's latest.
the-wood-lot.ca/2025/09/25/a...
From @robmclennan.bsky.social's review of @annajswan.bsky.social's latest.
the-wood-lot.ca/2025/09/25/a...
Anna Swanson, The Garbage Poems (Brick Books, Fall 2025)
lovingly reviewed by rob mclennan In Which We ReplaceGarbage With LoveThis place is famous for love, all brands& standards. We who come here know loveis a verb, & we love with open hands.On…
the-wood-lot.ca
September 30, 2025 at 1:40 PM
"Swanson’s poems articulate such lovely bricolage, stitching narratives as a collage of subject, accumulation & language, stitching narratives from found materials into reason, logic, story."
From @robmclennan.bsky.social's review of @annajswan.bsky.social's latest.
the-wood-lot.ca/2025/09/25/a...
From @robmclennan.bsky.social's review of @annajswan.bsky.social's latest.
the-wood-lot.ca/2025/09/25/a...
21st anniv. dinner with my beloved Lydia at L'Express--our fav. Montréal restaurant. The most authentic Parisian bistro outside Paris did not disappoint. We're off to Toronto on Sunday to prowl bookstores & see friends. This is the last hurrah before knee-replacement surgery no. 2, sched for 15 Oct.
September 26, 2025 at 4:57 PM
21st anniv. dinner with my beloved Lydia at L'Express--our fav. Montréal restaurant. The most authentic Parisian bistro outside Paris did not disappoint. We're off to Toronto on Sunday to prowl bookstores & see friends. This is the last hurrah before knee-replacement surgery no. 2, sched for 15 Oct.
"I pick up my pencil. I wish
I could call the place it comes to rest, the small
and grooved knob on my fourth finger, a cradle
but it is a callus..."
Oh joy!
@janezwart.bsky.social's pencil, sure & true, has wrought something for which we have all been waiting
www.orisonbooks.com/product-page...
I could call the place it comes to rest, the small
and grooved knob on my fourth finger, a cradle
but it is a callus..."
Oh joy!
@janezwart.bsky.social's pencil, sure & true, has wrought something for which we have all been waiting
www.orisonbooks.com/product-page...
Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Best, poems by Jane Zwart | Orison Books
Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Bestpoems by Jane Zwart *available for pre-order* Orison Bookspaper / 74 pp. / $18.00ISBN: 978-1-949039-68-9Publication Date: February 3, 2026 ABOUT THE BOO...
www.orisonbooks.com
September 16, 2025 at 4:13 PM
"I pick up my pencil. I wish
I could call the place it comes to rest, the small
and grooved knob on my fourth finger, a cradle
but it is a callus..."
Oh joy!
@janezwart.bsky.social's pencil, sure & true, has wrought something for which we have all been waiting
www.orisonbooks.com/product-page...
I could call the place it comes to rest, the small
and grooved knob on my fourth finger, a cradle
but it is a callus..."
Oh joy!
@janezwart.bsky.social's pencil, sure & true, has wrought something for which we have all been waiting
www.orisonbooks.com/product-page...
Such a deserving winner of the 2025 Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize for a First Collection: Amelia Loulli for "Slip" (Cape Poetry, 2024). The poem Jan has chosen to feature in her post below (Epilogue for My Daughters) well shows why the accolade is so apposite. It is tender and fierce in equal measures.
Huge congratulations to Amelia Loulli, winner of the Heaney Prize for First collections for Slip and to all the shortlisted poets who read so powerfully this evening.
June 24, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Such a deserving winner of the 2025 Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize for a First Collection: Amelia Loulli for "Slip" (Cape Poetry, 2024). The poem Jan has chosen to feature in her post below (Epilogue for My Daughters) well shows why the accolade is so apposite. It is tender and fierce in equal measures.
Every one Paula Meehan plants flowers just this way. Little wonder then that this poem was chosen to meander all over London in subterranean tunnels, illuminating & brightening as it went, "../bless[ing] the power of sun / its conspiracy with the [U]nderground...".
June 21, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Every one Paula Meehan plants flowers just this way. Little wonder then that this poem was chosen to meander all over London in subterranean tunnels, illuminating & brightening as it went, "../bless[ing] the power of sun / its conspiracy with the [U]nderground...".
Reposted by P.W. Bridgman, Writer
"Why can't you write the way people want?"
Frank Beckett, in a letter to his brother (The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1929–1940).
Frank Beckett, in a letter to his brother (The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1929–1940).
June 17, 2025 at 8:25 PM
"Why can't you write the way people want?"
Frank Beckett, in a letter to his brother (The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1929–1940).
Frank Beckett, in a letter to his brother (The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1929–1940).
Reposted by P.W. Bridgman, Writer
TLS Ackerley Prize evening, July 23rd. 7pm. QR Code below for details:
@littletollerbooks.bsky.social
@littletollerbooks.bsky.social
June 17, 2025 at 4:03 PM
TLS Ackerley Prize evening, July 23rd. 7pm. QR Code below for details:
@littletollerbooks.bsky.social
@littletollerbooks.bsky.social