TSR Newsletter: Six Month Milestone!
October 1, 2024
“October 1st marks the 6 month anniversary of TSR? Has it really been only 6 months? TSR feels so much more established than that, and you have already accomplished so much.”
So said a friend in a recent email. Difficult to imagine, but The Seaboard Review is just six months old. Many have subscribed (over 150!) in that short period of time and a good percentage of those are those who chose a paid subscription, which I appreciate very much, for it allows me to give out some honorariums to our volunteer team of reviewers.
Upcoming Reviews at TSR
Speaking of our reviewers, we have some new faces here that I would like to announce. Meet Christina Barber, Heather Babcock, Pamela Sinclair and Laura Patterson. Their first reviews will be appearing soon!
Christina Barber is a Vancouver-based writer, dramaturge, artist, and educator. Her poetry has appeared in The Whimsical Poet, and she has contributed to the Vancouver City Poems Project.
Heather Babcock's debut novel Filthy Sugar was published by Inanna Publications in 2020. She has had short fiction and nonfiction essays published in many literary journals including Descant Magazine, The Humber Literary Review and The Toronto Quarterly. In 2015, her chapbook Of Being Underground and Moving Backwards was published by DevilHousePress. Babcock has experience as both a performer and an organizer of open mic and reading events. She is currently working on a novel tentatively titled The Memory of Crows.
Pamela Sinclair is a writer and lifelong reader. She enjoys reading multiple genres both fiction and non-fiction. She lives in Halifax, NS with her husband, daughter, and a grumpy grey cat named Ben. She is currently working on her first novel.
Laura Patterson is the Mother of twins, Wife of Nick, Reader of Books, Writer of Truths. “Reading is my passion and hopefully my reviews will guide you to your new favourite book.” You can find Laura’s Substack, The Fairweather Review here.
Upcoming Content
John Oughton: “Almost done reading and thinking about Donna Allard's new poetry collection, Libélua Dragonfly.”
Emily Wheedon: “For my upcoming work, I am so honoured to review Timothy Taylor's spellbinding The Rise and Fall of Magic Wolf, Dundurn Press.”
Micheal Greenstein: “Best Canadian Poetry 2025.”
Lisa Timpf: “One of the reviews I am working on is She Is Hope for Wildlife: The Story of Wildlife Rescuer Hope Swinimer, written by Wanda Baxter.”
Laura Patterson: “I'm reading The Second Season of Jonas MacPherson by Lesley Choyce.”
Ian Colford: “Brief Lives: Fictions by Keith Hazzard and Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery.”
James: “So many good things upcoming, like interviews with Shawn Lawlor (Boom Road) and Danila Botha (Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness), a review of Footprints in the Snow by Laura Churchill Duke, and an excerpt from White, the new novel from Aviva Rubin.”
a few surprise “guest” contributors, too!
The Single Most Popular Post at TSR is…
The most popular post at the time of writing is Michael Greenstein’s review of Anne Michaels’ Held a Booker Prize 2024 shortlist title. Here’s a link to it:
Photographic Memory in Anne Michaels’ Held
Ever since her early poem “Lake of Two Rivers,” Anne Michaels has navigated multiple rivers in her poetry and fiction, from the Humber River in Fugitive Pieces to the St. Lawrence in The Winter Vault. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that her third novel,
It’s Going to Be a Full Fall Schedule
There is so much going on after such a quiet summer! As a subscriber, you will get an advance notification of all new posts at TSR. I wish I could combine notifications into a single email, but Substack doesn’t have that feature, so you may get several emails per week as I try to keep things current at the site. Please don’t think I am spamming you! Have a great fall reading season!
James M Fisher, Editor-in-Chief
PS: I promise no more anniversaries until April 1st, 2025. It will be one year then!
Congrats! It's always fun to mark milestones.
Thanks, Bryn! Great to have you onboard at TSR.