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Alastair Morrison

@alasmorrison.bsky.social
942 followers 770 following 90 posts

Psychiatry resident, poet, tolerated parent. PhD English Lit, Columbia. MD McMaster. #medicalhumanities

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Reposted by Alastair Morrison
Andrew Longhurst 🇨🇦 🍉 @alonghurst.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The Ontario government is aggressively privatizing surgeries and medical imaging—core hospital services My new @policyalternatives.ca research study evaluates whether this policy direction reduces wait times and serves the public interest www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc... #onpoli
policyalternatives.ca
Not adding up: Surgical and diagnostic privatization in Ontario | CCPA
The Ontario government favours for-profit delivery of surgeries and medical imaging, but the evidence shows this isn't good health policy
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
My first ever chapbook of poems, “Frozen River,” is out now. Truly grateful to the marvelous people at Anstruther Press, and to everyone who’s read these little songs. Order a copy and we’ll be friends forever! Shares most welcome! www.anstrutherpress.com/new-products...
anstrutherpress.com
Frozen River by Alastair Morrison — Anstruther Press
Chapbook In Stock ISBN - 978-1-998774-90-6 Please allow 2 weeks for shipping
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rob mclennan @robmclennan.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Six Questions interview (via @chaudierebooks.bsky.social) #240 : Nadia Bozak / @ecwpress.bsky.social ; chaudierebooks.blogspot.com/2026/09/six-...
chaudierebooks.blogspot.com
Six Questions interview #240 : Nadia Bozak
Nadia Bozak lives in Ottawa and teaches at Carleton University. Her latest novel, Fret , has recently been published by ECW. Q: How long ...
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Ian LeTourneau @ianletourneau.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
My wife’s chapbook got a great review!
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Susan L. Leary @susanlleary.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
✨COVER REVEAL✨ for my new chap, SENTENCE, out with Nine Syllables Press on December 1st! If you love my brother poems, you will love these as well! PRE-ORDER at the link: www.ninesyllablespress.com/shop/p/sente... And learn more in the replies! Graphics: 9SP IG
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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Looking forward to hosting this virtual launch tomorrow. Don't forget to register. Hope to see you then!
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
My first ever chapbook of poems, “Frozen River,” is out now. Truly grateful to the marvelous people at Anstruther Press, and to everyone who’s read these little songs. Order a copy and we’ll be friends forever! Shares most welcome! www.anstrutherpress.com/new-products...
anstrutherpress.com
Frozen River by Alastair Morrison — Anstruther Press
Chapbook In Stock ISBN - 978-1-998774-90-6 Please allow 2 weeks for shipping
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Reposted by Alastair Morrison
John Hay @johnhay.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Thrilled to see my essay on Captain Ahab’s Evil Brother up at The Paris Review: www.theparisreview.org/blog/2026/09...
theparisreview.org
On “Derek,” Captain Ahab’s Evil Half Brother by John Hay
September 21, 2026 – “Your worst enemy ain’t Moby Dick, it’s your half brother, Derek.”
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A poet I admire greatly has a first chapbook coming out and I couldn't be more excited about it. Obviously it's me.
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Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Visiting fellowship for PhD students in medical humanities at Upsala www.uu.se/en/centre/me...
uu.se
Call for applications: Visiting PhD-student position in Medical Humanities, Uppsala University, spring semester 2027 – Centre for Medical Humanities (CMH) – Uppsala University
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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Donald Hall, born on this day in 1928
Where the poet stops, the poem
begins. The poem asks only
that the poet get out of the way.
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Justin Aoba @justinaoba.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Hello if you send your poetry to @identitytheory.bsky.social today I will sit here with my Diet Dr. Pepper and give you a reply today 🤲
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Scottish Poetry Library @byleaveswelive.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
It's 'Gies a Scots Poem Day 2026', in partnership @handsupfortrad.bsky.social @royalscottishacad.bsky.social We've commissioned 10 poets to respond to MacDiarmid’s 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle' for the poem's 100th birthday! www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/gies-a-scots... #Giesascotspoemsday
scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk
Gies a Scots Poem Day 2026
This year’s Gies a Scots Poem Day is something special. 2026 marks the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle — a foundational work for contemporary poetry in Scots, and a poe...
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
One and only cover girl moment in my life. Thanks @publisherswkly.bsky.social for this lovely review of THE STORY OF THE BODY, an anthology I edited gathering my favorite of poems of illness and resilience.
Cover image of Publishers Weekly featuring photo of Meghan ORourke and text saying the bestseller gathers poems about strength and sickness in The Story of the BodyStarred Review from Publishers Weekly calling the Story of the Body “excellent”
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Özge Lena @lenaozge.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My septet poem from the inaugural issue of Pressed Flower Review. #poetry #poetrysky Coming soon! 🩷
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KT Herr @ktherr.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Last fall, I taught a class for Inprint Houston. For one exercise, I used 3Elements Review's three-word prompt, & ended up with a poem of my own. I think it's healthy to practice sending really fresh work out into the world, even when it feels vulnerable & raw. www.3elementsreview.com
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Jared Beloff @readinstead.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
I am so excited to share this poem and join the many many other Icarus poets. Here is my speculative ekphrastic "Flooded Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" which imagines Breughel's landscape altered by climate change. Thank you @terrainorg.bsky.social! www.terrain.org/2025/poetry/...
terrain.org
One Poem by Jared Beloff - Terrain.org
New from Jared Beloff: "Flooded Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," a gorgeous, haunting poem.
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Fahmidan Group @fahmidangroup.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Literature thrives through diverse perspectives. Fahmidan Journal is excited to read your work. Submit now: fahmidanjournal.submittable.com/submit%E2%81...
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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Two weeks from tonight! Really looking forward to this Poetry Weekend event featuring the fabulous Kirby.
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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
So much joy in this wordplay masterclass by Thomas Lux
A SMALL TIN PARROT PIN

Next to the tiny bladeless windmill
of a saltshaker
on the black tablecloth
is my small tin parrot pin
bought from a bin,
75¢, cheap, but not pure tin--an alloy,
some plastic toy tin?
The actual pin, the pin that pins the pin,
will fall off soon,
and thus the parrot,
if I wear it, which I will,
on my lapel. I'll look down 
and it'll be gone.
Let it be found by a child,
or someone sad, eyes
on the sidewalk, or what a prize 
it would be for a packrat's nest.
My parrot's paint
is vivid: his head's red, bright yellow of breast
and belly, a stripe of green,
then purple, a soft
creamy purple, then bright--you know
the color--parrot-green
wing feathers. Tomorrow I think
I'll wear it on my blue shirt.
Tonight, someone whom I love
sleeps in the next room,
the room next to the room with the black tablecloth,
the saltshaker, the parrot pin.
She was very sleepy
and less impressed than I
with my parrot
with whom, with which
I am very pleased.

                  -- Thomas Lux
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chris johnson @ceeeejohnson.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
have I mentioned here that I will be launching my latest poetry chapbook IN ONE WEEK!? next Sunday, September 20, I'm gonna be in a little forested area near my apartment from 3-4pm reading from my chapbook (not the whole time), and if yer in Ottawa you can come too! www.facebook.com/events/23470...
a pile of the chapbook (small poetry pamphlets) "After" by Chris Johnson, published by Paper Bill Press.
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Ellen Chang-Richardson @ehjchang.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I’ll be hosting this chapbook launch and I am stoked about it. Come out Ottawa!
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Boris Dralyuk @bdralyuk.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Come one, come all!
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
My article, "Psych ward gothic: melodrama, hospitalisation anxiety and a case for the humanities in psychiatric research" is now in print from BMJ Medical Humanities! mh.bmj.com/content/52/3...
mh.bmj.com
Psych ward gothic: melodrama, hospitalisation anxiety and a case for the humanities in psychiatric research
This article offers a critical assessment of representations of psychiatric hospitalisation in modern Western societies, with the goal of informing clinicians’ approach to communication and reassuranc...
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Reposted by Alastair Morrison
The Fiddlehead @fiddlehd.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Our friends at Room Magazine are currently fundraising in order to keep the magazine going. The fund will support the production of the journal and pay contributors and staff. You can donate, or purchase or bid on fantastic auction items here: app.galabid.com/save-room-ma...
Graphic for the save Room magazine fundraiser. The graphic reads, keep Canada's oldest feminist literary magazine alive. Bid on these and more. The graphic also shows the items available for bidding: art and stickers, headshot sessions, tattoo tickets, workshops and consultations, spa vouchers, festival passes, and books and magazines.
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
My article, "Psych ward gothic: melodrama, hospitalisation anxiety and a case for the humanities in psychiatric research" is now in print from BMJ Medical Humanities! mh.bmj.com/content/52/3...
mh.bmj.com
Psych ward gothic: melodrama, hospitalisation anxiety and a case for the humanities in psychiatric research
This article offers a critical assessment of representations of psychiatric hospitalisation in modern Western societies, with the goal of informing clinicians’ approach to communication and reassuranc...
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Reposted by Alastair Morrison
phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Andrea Cohen
Alcatraz

How quickly one gets from A to Z, how
swiftly one says everything there
is to see: these bars, for instance,
and the flexible fencing of sharks,
and how impossibly far it is this
life from that.
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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
So proud of our new Disability: The Revolution issue. Really looking forward to hosting this in-person launch event. Hope to see you there!
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The Fiddlehead @fiddlehd.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Issue 308 (Summer 2026) Disability: The Revolution Special Issue is now on our website! For this special issue, readings of each piece available on the website for you to listen to now! thefiddlehead.ca/issue/308
The cover of Issue 308 which features the artwork "Self-portrait in Bed" by Stephanie Weirathmueller
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
From the Fiddlehead's essential new issue on disability, check out my review of Shane Neilson's strange and marvelous book "The Reign." thefiddlehead.ca/content/alas...
thefiddlehead.ca
Alastair Morrison Reviews The Reign by Shane Neilson | The Fiddlehead
Love, Death, Disability, and DeerThe Reign, Shane Neilson. icehouse poetry, 2025.
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Shantell Powell @shanmonster.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I'll be reading from "The Old Woman Who Became a Bear." Come celebrate with us!
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
From the Fiddlehead's essential new issue on disability, check out my review of Shane Neilson's strange and marvelous book "The Reign." thefiddlehead.ca/content/alas...
thefiddlehead.ca
Alastair Morrison Reviews The Reign by Shane Neilson | The Fiddlehead
Love, Death, Disability, and DeerThe Reign, Shane Neilson. icehouse poetry, 2025.
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Delighted to have a poem in this lovely new issue of The Antigonish Review!
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Delighted to have a poem in this lovely new issue of The Antigonish Review!
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The Beaverton @thebeaverton.com · 17/08/2026
U.S. “We demand Canada stop this alcohol boycott that isn’t working and also we don’t even care”
thebeaverton.com
U.S. “We demand Canada stop this alcohol boycott that isn’t working and also we don’t even care”
WASHINGTON D.C. - U.S. lawmakers are demanding several Canada provinces not only stock their spirits again, but also formally acknowledge that the anti-tariff boycott wasn't working at all and that th...
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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The opening passage of Charles Wright's Littlefoot (2007)
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It may not be written in any book, but it is written-
You can't go back,
you can't repeat the unrepeatable.
No matter how fast you drive, or how hard the slide show Of memory flicks and releases,
It's always some other place,
some other car in the driveway,
Someone unrecognizable about to open the door.
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rob mclennan @robmclennan.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] : FIFTIETH ISSUE, with new poems by David Miller, Jason Heroux, Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi, Laura Farina, Elena Zhang, Daphne Marlatt, Eve Luckring and Steven Ross Smith, / @ezhang77.bsky.social ; touchthedonkey.blogspot.com/2026/07/touc...
touchthedonkey.blogspot.com
Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] : FIFTIETH ISSUE,
The FIFTIETH ISSUE is now available, with new poems by David Miller, Jason Heroux, Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi, Laura Farina, Elena Zhang, Daphne...
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knife | fork | book @knifeforkbook.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
F/4 #4ertilefest #KFB10 #poetrywellserved #firstlook A series of online & live events to celebrate our 10th Anniversary of “Poetry. well-served.” beginning this Fall 2026. knifeforkbook.com/4ertile/
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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Sadiqa de Meijer, from the May 2026 issue of @thewalrus.ca
Wish You Were Here

BY SADIQA DE MEIJER

Where the seedling body,
wearing a smock or a backwards old
dress shirt, makes a map: two wells of colour in an egg carton,
glossed paper, thick-handled brush. Start with a burst
of solar egg, streak with sea. That clotted bloom of overlap, beheld
-duckweed, algae, moss-paint's a skin and then it's a sinking dream
for the gaze. Verdant island
blotting at the shores,
and the grass is nowhere greener, nowhere is it greener than this place.
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Tolu Oloruntoba @tolu.ca · 29/06/2026
Best Canadian Poetry 2027 will be published on November 17, 2026. It was the honour of a lifetime to serve as guest editor, working alongside the brilliant series editor, Anita Lahey.
Book Cover: Best Canadian Poetry 2027 Selected by Tolu Oloruntoba There is a small mustard-colored moose against a magenta background, which the text is also presented against.
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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Dean Gorman
Empire

DEAN GORMAN

The start was the end, of course, a dream of perfection. And finally the procession of average ghosts. But before all that I was young enough to change the players I was the center of. Looking back, I seem bound
for summer anguishes. And now my eyes sweep along, for metaphor,
for difficult models of empire.
Relief when I find none.
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Fahmidan Group @fahmidangroup.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Fahmidan Journal believes in making literary publishing more accessible through free submissions and timely responses. Submit now: fahmidanjournal.submittable.com/submit%E2%81...
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Astra’s point is well defended, but title really says it all. Mamdani admin is besieged by all varieties of entrenched power because if NYC flourishes the myth of social democratic naïveté evaporates. If humanist policies raise the standard of living, the Washington Consensus is truly cooked.
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Eric T. Racher @ericracher.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
I am terribly pleased to announce that my book of sonnets, Glosses and Ligatures, will be published by Sagging Meniscus Press in the autumn of 2027. @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social
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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Found this: bit.ly/3S4Pmvx
bit.ly
Doctors removed by police from New Orleans convention after handing out anti-Trump article
None of those who were removed were arrested, according to Louisiana State Police.
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
What the hell? www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
seattletimes.com
UW diabetes researcher removed from conference by police
Dr. Steven Kahn, director of the UW Diabetes Research Center, was removed by police from a national conference as he and others handed out copies of an editorial.
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Black Bough Poetry @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Get your tickets for SHORED FRAGMENTS - the launch of our Eliot-inspired anthology on Wed 10th June, 6:30pm. Contributors and audience, book here! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-lau... #eliot #modernism #tseliot
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Something I hope people will consider is that the reason there are so many enraging anti-education pieces coming out right now is that there's a full-court press from PR departments in tech & asset management. Nothing about the last year went according to script for their investments.
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Alastair Morrison @alasmorrison.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Genuine colossus. RIP www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...
cbc.ca
Jazz great Sonny Rollins dead at 95 | CBC News
Sonny Rollins, the tenor saxophonist and restless genius whose bold, distinctive tone and constant experimentation kept him on the cutting edge of jazz for more than 50 years, died Monday at age 95.
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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Craig Morgan Teicher
SON

I don't even know where my father lives. 
I know his number, and whenever 
I call he answers and gives
the usual update about getting together 
with the stepkids and their kids, 
about the latest minor crises
with his health, about what he did 
with Maryanne for their anniversary. 
He lives somewhere in Connecticut, 
near where he lived before.
It's been easy not to go there, but
I know I should—there won't always be more 
time. There will always be less.
I don't even know my father's address.

—Craig Morgan Teicher
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