The Poet’s Cookbook, edited by André Narbonne
Reviewed by Pearl Pirie
Newest on the counter is The Poet’s Cookbook, edited by André Narbonne, illustrated by John Fraser (Conspiracy Press, 2026). It’s fairly slim at 104 pages and B&W and $28.
This is billed as both cookbook and memoir, with twenty-one accomplished authors focusing on their experiences, memories, and stories. The authors included are: Lorna Crozier, Joyce Carol Oates, Dan MacDonald, Gord Grisenthwaite, Collette Broeders, Molly Peacock, Brother Paul Quenon, Marty Gervais, Lesley Choyce, Phil Hall, Tom Wayman, Rosemary Sullivan, Moisés Palmeros (head chef for the Canadiens), Natalie Meisner, Conrad Dippel, Rosemary Sullivan, Peter Hrastovec, Klara Du Plessis, Natalie Meisner, Robert Hilles, Conrad Dippel, Kathy Mac, Renée D. Bondy, and George Elliott Clarke.
By structure, it is more than instruction, and readable, as a memoir slice, or Q&A prefacing the recipe(s) of each. It isn’t organized by courses, which would be complicated since some writers submitted both main course and dessert. There is no index or flag for vegan or vegetarian, or how many hot pepper spicy, but the table of contents does list the recipe titles. Presumably you bookmark or foodmark the ones you will make again.
The priority is on the writers more than the meals. You see a snippet of unguarded character of each writer in how they pick up the challenge. There’s an intimacy in seeing someone at the stove, whether Molly Peacock retrieving his history with pancakes, or Phil Hall describing why this lemon loaf is meaningful to him. Dan MacDonald meditates on how food changes over a lifetime from taken for granted to being a sensory link to nostalgia. His grandmother’s “chow chow” is close to my aunt’s “Indian Relish”, with his Maritime recipe adding cabbage.
From Lorna Crozier’s gingersnaps to Peter Hrastovec’s Croation recipe for sataraš, a kind of side dish ratatouille there’s a wide range of food ideas.
A perk of the publication is a behind-the-scenes knowledge that under Conspiracy Press’ guidance, it was made by English students in their graduating year at University of Windsor’s Editing & Publishing Practicum. They contribute to the editing, design, marketing, and production of a nationally distributed book.
Foodies and poetry fans, probably have an overlap among general hedonists. Combine the two and you have a memoir that’s cooking.
Invisible Books made an author cookbook, Dinner Party: A Community Cookbook (Invisible, 2018). There’s also the Canadian Literary Fare blog, or Susan Musgrave’s cookbook, A Taste of Haida Gwaii. Cookbooks (https://www.culinaryhistorians.ca/wordpress/canadian-cookbooks-online/) aren’t about the cooking so much as the connecting and dreaming.
If you enjoyed it, a second in the series is coming out this summer.
About the Author
André Narbonne is a scholar, writer, and the publisher of Conspiracy Press, based in Windsor, Ontario. His short fiction has been anthologized in Best Canadian Stories, won the FreeFall Literary Contest, the David Adams Richards Prize, and the Atlantic Writing Contest. A first collection, Twelve Miles to Midnight, was shortlisted for the 2017 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. His first novel, Lucien & Olivia, was longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
About the Illustrator
John Fraser is an animator and illustrator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He has animated for Sesame Street, The Nature of Things and The National. He co-illustrated Scary Poems for Rotten Kids which was published by Black Moss Press.
About the Reviewer
Pearl Pirie is in Hills’ Almanach des Collines, an anthology of Gatineau Hills spec fiction 2026, and in The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, 2025 and a forthcoming issues of The Fiddlehead and Kingfisher. She is an English book reviews co-editor of Haiku Canada Review. Recently in chapbooks: Heat Lamp (above/ground press, 2025), We Astronauts (Pinhole Poetry, 2025), and edited for phafours press: Crime and Ornament by Tamsyn Farr (Nov 2025). www.pearlpirie.com
Book Details
Publisher : Conspiracy Press
Publication date : April 3 2026
Language : English
Print length : 96 pages
ISBN-10 : 106957130X
ISBN-13 : 978-1069571304
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