In Volume Six: Chapter Twenty of the Program, we welcome Ontario-based Educator, Writer, Painter, Photographer, Author, and Poet Kathryn MacDonald. Our conversation explores the many ways creativity can intersect—through poetry, visual art, travel, and teaching—and how each discipline shapes the way an artist observes and responds to the world.

Kathryn discusses her reputation as an ekphrastic writer, explaining how her poetry often emerges from an emotional dialogue with visual art and the details she encounters in everyday life. We talk about the role observation plays in her work, her writing process, and how reading and creative community continue to shape her development as a writer.

We also explore her experiences as a sailor and traveler, how those journeys have influenced her imagination, and the relationship between her poetry, painting, and photography.

The conversation concludes with a discussion of her forthcoming poetry collection, The Blue Gate, a lyrical exploration of love, grief, and the shifting emotional landscapes that follow loss.

Contact Kathryn:
Website: kathrynmacdonald.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Jae Nichelle – Brown Skin Girl
Instagram: @croptopassassin Website: jaenichelle.com

Emi Mahmoud – Window Games
Instagram: @emibattuta Website: emi-mahmoud.com

Crystal Valentine – I am Black before Woman in February
Instagram: @crystalvalentine94 Website: iamcrystalvalentine.com

Natasha Ria: Shine
Website: natasharia.com Instagram: @natasharia

Javon Johnson: Building
Instagram: @javonism

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In Volume Six, Chapter Nineteen of the Program, we welcome Durango, Mexico-born, Toronto-based poet, author, curator, and writer Maria Giesbrecht. She is a graduate of the post-graduate Creative Writing program at Humber College and the winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize and the Lesley Strutt Poetry Prize. Her work has also been recognized as a finalist for the Narrative Poetry Prize, a Best of Net nominee, and the runner-up for the Eden Mills Poetry Contest.

She is the author of the poetry collection Peeling Oranges, and her forthcoming collection A Little Feral is scheduled for release May 8 and is currently available for pre-order.

In our conversation, Maria and I talk about how her love of language began early—reading a Nancy Drew book nightly as a kid—and how poetry first entered her life in eighth grade through a science teacher who introduced her to spoken word and rap.

We explore how writing became both refuge and release during difficult years growing up, and how persona poems help her navigate creative blocks.

Maria also reflects on her religious upbringing and the complicated relationship she has had with faith, doubt, obedience, and questioning—and how writing has helped her process that evolving spiritual conversation.

We discuss the early-morning creative state she relies on for drafting poems, and the turning point when she left a career in corporate accounting to pursue writing full-time.

Finally, we talk about her writing community Gather, the role it plays in supporting other writers, and the ideas behind both of her poetry collections.

Contact Maria:
Instagram: @theguelphpoet Website: mariagiesbrecht.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Marie Foolchand – I am the People, the Mob
Instagram: @laframbuessa

Dua Saleh – Fractions
Instagram: @doitlikedua Website: duasaleh.com

Gabriel Ramiez – On Realizing Im Black
Instagram: @poetramirez Website: ramirezpoet.com

Andrea Gibson: Nutritionist
Website: andreagibson.org Instagram: @andreagibson

Dani Cook: Recess
Instagram: @thedanicook Website: thisisdani.com

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In Volume Six: Chapter Eighteen we welcome Educator, Poet, Writer and Author David Martin.

He earned his BA in English from the University of Calgary and his MA in English from the University of Alberta. His work has been widely recognized across Canada’s literary landscape — including winning the CBC Poetry Prize, receiving the Silver Award for Poetry from the Alberta Magazine Awards, and being shortlisted for the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, the Banff Mountain Book Competition, and FreeFall Magazine’s poetry contest.

He is the author of two chapbooks and four full-length poetry collections, including his recently released book Night Stead.

In addition to his poetry, he is the frontman and primary songwriter for the multi-genre band The Fragments, whose eight-album catalog spans indie-pop, alternative, jazz-inspired textures, and most recently, country.

In our conversation, we explore the intersection of music and poetry — whether songwriting and verse come from the same creative space, and how genre shifts function in his artistic evolution.

We trace his creative history back to a pivotal, life-changing poetry reading by multidisciplinary artist Kirk Miles — a moment that reframed how he understood poetry and ultimately led to his involvement with Calgary’s long-running Single Onion Poetry Series, where he now serves as an organizer.

We also talk about his obsession with sound, his process of recording and listening back to drafts, and how grief — particularly the loss of his brother — reshaped both his writing practice and the emotional architecture of his work.

Finally, we dive into Night Stead — a formally inventive and deeply personal collection that challenges conventional reading structures while exploring vulnerability, memory, and interior life.

This is a conversation about discipline and experimentation, silence and return, structure and sound — and what it means to build a creative life across multiple mediums.

Contact David:
Instagram: @david_jamesmartin Website: davidjamesmartyin.ca

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Alyssa Michelle – The Mis-Education of the Introvert
Instagram: @poetress_michelle TikTok: @poetress_michelle

Khalil Saadiq – Somebody's Watching Me
Instagram: @khalil_saadiq

Shawn William – Tired
Instagram: @iamshawnwilliam

Kelsey Bigelow: A Grandfathers Hands
Instagram: @kelkaypoetry Website: kelkaypoetry.com

Anna Maria Morris: A Love Poem for Myself
Instagram: @annamariamorris Website: annamariamorris.com

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