Books
Anita’s latest poetry collection, While Supplies Last, was published by Véhicule Press in April 2023. Palimpsest Press released Fire Monster, her graphic novel-in-verse with Pauline Conley, in May 2023. Anita’s memoir, The Last Goldfish: a True Tale of Friendship (Biblioasis, 2020), was a 2021 Ottawa Book Award Finalist. Her previous books include The Mystery Shopping Cart: Essays on Poetry and Culture (Palimpsest Press, 2013) and two Véhicule Press poetry collections: Spinning Side Kick (2011) and Out to Dry in Cape Breton (2006). The latter was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and the Ottawa Book Award.
Anita is also the series editor of Biblioasis’ annual anthology, Best Canadian Poetry, a role she has held since 2018. For four years prior to this she worked with series editor Molly Peacock as assistant series editor of this popular and notable anthology, which was founded in 2008.
Journalism
Anita’s magazine journalism, essays, reviews, and poems have appeared in local and national publications including The Walrus, Maisonneuve, Cottage Life, Toronto Life, Canadian Geographic, Readers’ Digest, Chatelaine, Quill & Quire, University Affairs, Canadian Business, the Literary Review of Canada, the Ottawa Citizen, the Malahat Review, the New Quarterly, the Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, Canadian Notes & Queries, the Puritan, and the now-defunct but iconic Saturday Night, among others. As a journalist, Anita has earned several National Magazine Award honourable mentions, and has received the Award of Journalism Excellence in Engineering.
Poetry and literary editing
Anita is a past editor of the longstanding literary journal Arc Poetry Magazine. She held this post from 2004-2011, during which she spearheaded such initiatives as Arc‘s annual theme issue; Arc Poet-in-Residence; special issues on Lost and Forgotten Poets, How Poems Work, Art and Poetry (“Poet as Art Thief”); and a joint issue with the New Quarterly on literature and science (‘Quarc’). Her own poems have been shortlisted multiple times for the CBC Literary Award for Poetry and have won numerous awards, including the Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem and the Great Blue Heron Poetry contest.
Anthologies
Anita’s poetry and essays have appeared in several anthologies, including Sweet Water: Poems for Watersheds (2020), Refugium: Poems for the Pacific (2017), In Fine Form: A Contemporary Look at Canadian Form Poetry (2005 and 2016 eds.), Best Canadian Poetry in English (2009, 2012), Washing Lines: A Collection of Poems (2011), Best Canadian Essays (2009), Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets (2008), The New Canon: An Anthology of Canadian Poetry (2005), Breathing Fire II: Canada’s New Poets (2004), Word Carving: The Craft of Literary Journalism (2003).
Readings, festivals, literary event hosting
Anita has hosted readings, moderated panels, run workshops and performed her own work at bookstores, festivals and reading series across Canada, including the Toronto International Festival of Authors, Ottawa International Writers’ Festival, VerseFest (Ottawa), Vancouver Writers’ Festival, Victoria Festival of Authors, Wild Writers’ Literary Festival (Waterloo), Plan 99 (Ottawa,) Rowers’ Reading series (Toronto), Planet Earth Poetry (Victoria), Hamilton Poetry Centre, Poetry London, The Word Bookstore (Montreal), Drawn & Quarterly (Montreal), Another Story Bookshop (Toronto), Russell Books (Victoria), the Yellowknife Book Cellar, and many more.
Teaching and mentorship
Anita has taught writing courses and workshops in venues ranging from the National Gallery of Canada and Toronto’s High Park Nature Centre to Algoma University in northern Ontario, After Hours Arts at St. Mary’s Oak Bay in Victoria, B.C. and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, NB. Anita edits both fiction and poetry manuscripts and joyfully writes and edits content for museums and galleries.
Places
Anita grew up in Burlington, ON, studied at Toronto Metropolitan University (Ryerson), maintains fierce familial ties with Cape Breton Island on Canada’s East Coast, and has made her home in various Canadian locales, including Toronto, Montreal, Fredericton and Victoria. She lives in Ottawa with her family and their little black cat, Milli.