RABBIT MONTHS is out today!

Original Rabbit Woman by Jennifer Marie Thomas

Rabbit months; a timeline 

Rabbit months is my first chapbook. In September 2015, Marilyn Irwin approached me about publishing with her shreeking violet press. I had a few manuscripts to choose from, but they were partial statements. So I took ‘em apart. I cherry-picked, fused and fussed. There was some glee in that destruction, in knowing that Rabbit months would force me to start over, stay present. 

The initial draft I sent in January was all over the place. It featured selections from a tongue-in-cheek sequence called “Cannot transform myth”, which Marilyn promptly cut. After that editorial clearing, the material revealed a more intimate set of themes and I wrote new poems to occupy that space. The whole registered. I delivered a second draft at the end of February, uncharacteristically steadfast.

Marilyn sent a cap-locked thumbs-up. Artist and long-time friend Jennifer Marie Thomas designed the cover-art, revisiting her sketch “Rabbit Woman”. None of it felt real until this week, when I saw the prototype. And now it's out in the world!

Eternal thanks to Marilyn Irwin and shreeking violet press for the faith and experience. 

For perspectives, support or otherwise kismet energies, I thank Emily Pascoe, the Pratts, the Pascoes, rob mclennan, Jennifer Thomas, the city of Hamilton, Shane Murphy, Vishal Kassie, Amanda Earl, Nic Schulz, the city of Ottawa, Phoebe Wang, Kyle Bobby Dunn, Factory Reading Series, Lit Live Reading Series, the 2015 releases of Benoit Pioulard and Kurt Vile (for seeing me through that last week of edits) and, finally, Suzanne Quinn, who encouraged me to start writing "poetry" in the spring of 1999. To this day, it remains one of the only things I consider worthy of a damn. xo.