Aislinn Hunter joins Andrew to talk about editing Best Canadian Poetry 2025. Four featured poets read their poems from the anthology. Andrew asks about the monumental task of editing BCP25 and poetry more generally. It’s a fun one!
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Aislinn Hunter is an award-winning novelist and poet and the author of eight highly acclaimed books including the novels ’The Certainties’ – a bestseller shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize – and ‘The World Before Us’ – a NYT Editor’s Choice book, a Guardian and NPR Book the Year, and winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Her work has been adapted into music, dance, art, and film forms ¬– including a feature film based on her novel ‘Stay’ which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Hunter’s three poetry collections (‘Into the Early Hours,’ ’The Possible Past,’ and ‘Linger, Still’) have been shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award, the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, and the ReLit Prize, and have won the Gerald Lampert Award and the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. Aislinn holds a BFA in Creative Writing and Art History, an MFA in Creative Writing, an MSC in Writing and Cultural Politics, and a PhD in English Literature. In 2018 she served as a Canadian War Artist working with Canadian and NATO forces at CFB Suffield. She teaches creative writing part-time and lives in Vancouver, BC on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Watuth peoples. In 2023 she was the Guest Editor of the Best Canadian Poetry anthology.
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Andrew French is a poet from North Vancouver, British Columbia. They have published three chapbooks, most recently Buoyhood (forthcoming with Alfred Gustav Press, 2025). Andrew holds a BA in English from Huron University College at Western University and an MA in English from UBC. They write poems, book reviews, and have hosted this very podcast since 2019.