iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My book is here and it is, in my humble opinion, extremely beautiful!!!! It officially comes out in 1 week! Thank you x a million to designer Natalie Olson and to @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social xoxoxo I hope you enjoy my big book of grief and regret and love.

The lake-shaped excuse being held up in front of water.

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Thanks @manahil.bsky.social for including me in this folio for @periodicities.bsky.social about "cut" poems! This poem does appear in the lake-shaped excuse (@wolsakandwynn.bsky.social), which comes out in just a few weeks! bookstore.wolsakandwynn.ca/products/the...

Monday, September 21, 2026

Conyer Clayton: Scrapbook: Failing to find a line by Robert Creeley in a book by Frank Stanford

He had a heart I wish I had.
—Robert Creeley

I guess I placed two white
orchid flowers between

these pages but I forget
when. They didn’t exist

until today when they
crumbled onto my lap.

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Wolsak & Wynn @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Ottawa friends, we hope you can come out to this fabulous event!

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

In exactly 1 month, @sannawani.bsky.social and I are co-launching our books in Ottawa in conversation with bestie @manahil.bsky.social and we would love love love for you to be there! 🌼 Oct 15th, 8 pm, Club Saw, 67 Nicholas St, Ottawa 🌱 Presented by the Ottawa International Writers Festival

Dried salvia flowers and ginkgo on the edges of a poster that reads in handwritten calligraphy: "Oct 15 Book Launch Conyer Clayton + Sanna Wani, hosted by Manahil Bandukwala, Club Saw 67 Nicholas St 8 pm, presented by the Ottawa Writers Festival"

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Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · 14/09/2026

Can hardly begin to articulate how excited I am for Dominik's memoir about walking the Camino de Santiago with chronic pain. You can pre-order it now & I'm very comfortable saying you absolutely should because Dominik is a magnificent poet, meticulous & insightful editor, & my very dear friend.

penguinrandomhouse.ca

In the Ordinary Instant by Dominik Parisien | Penguin Random House Canada

A man with unpredictable chronic pain sets out to walk the Camino de Santiago alone, confronting the body—and belief system—that has shaped his life.

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I deeply appreciate book reviews and outlets, but frankly my first book review that went up this morning, rather than being an exciting thing, was rather tainted by the misgendering throughout. I really beg of editors (as one myself) to do a simple pronoun double check before publishing reviews.

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I'll be launching the lake-shaped excuse throughout the fall and early winter throughout Canada and the US, alongside so many incredible people I love and admire and I am stoked! Hope to see you there 🌅 OTTAWA - HALIFAX - HAMILTON - TORONTO - MONTREAL - LOUISVILLE - PHILADELPHIA - NEW YORK CITY 💛

The lake-shaeped excuse Fall/Winter US & Canada Tour

4 Oct 2026: OEM and Black Bough presents: Cloud Circuit, Conyer Clayton, and Mark Molnar - Avant Garde Bar, Ottawa, ON ($15 advance,

‍9 Oct 2026: Poetry Night at The Trident with Jaime Forsythe, Lisa Richter, and Conyer Clayton - The Trident, Halifax, NS - 7 pm

15 Oct 2026: Ottawa Writers Festival, Double Book Launch for Conyer Clayton and Sanna Wani, hosted by Manahil Bandukwala - Club Saw, Ottawa, ON, 8 pm

1 Nov 2026: LitLive d/deaf/hoh, disabled, mad, neuroatypical festival - Hamilton, ON - 7 pm

5 Nov 2026: Conyer Clayton Book Launch with ej kneifel, Natasha Ramoutar, and Cassidy McFadzean, hosted by Sanna Wani - Another Story Bookshop, Toronto, ON - 7 pm

10 Nov 2026: Conyer Clayton, Sanna Wani, and Jody Chan Triple Book Launch, hosted by Misha Solomon - Pulp Books, Montreal, QC - 7 pm

5 Jan 2027: Poetry Showcase with Conyer Clayton, Acie Clark, Parker Hobson, and Rebecca Gayle Howell, hosted by John James - Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville, KY (Frankfort Ave location) - 6:30 pm

6 Jan 2027: Double Book Launch with Conyer Clayton and Acie Clark - Giovanni's Room, Philidelphia, PA - 6:30 pm

7 Jan 2027: Double Book Launch with Conyer Clayton and Acie Clark - Hive Mind Books, New York City, NY - 7 pm

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chris johnson @ceeeejohnson.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

i’m excited to share news of my forthcoming chapbook from Paper Bill Press! this one's all “response poems” or poems that are slightly ripping off other poets. pre-orders are available for the entire first series of Paper Bill Press chapbooks, so better get 'em all! paperbillpress.ca/product/afte...

paperbillpress.ca

After — Chris Johnson

Poetry

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Brent van Staalduinen | Writer, Resister, Human. @brentvans.com · 18/08/2026

Hey, #Ottawa friends! In a month or so (Sept 19), I'll be launching my newest novel The Peace Thieves, with my special guest @conyerclayton.bsky.social, at the @thespanielstale.bsky.social. Books! Readings! Prizes! Refreshments! Hope to see you there! @thistledownpress.bsky.social #canlit #fiction

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I love Mikko Harvey's writing; this praise means a lot to me!! It is about 2 months until the release of my 3rd book, the lake-shaped excuse @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social! Pre-orders are immensely helpful for a book's success (links below), and US/Canada tour details coming soon! xo 🌅💛

“the lake-shaped excuse is brilliant and painful. Conyer Clayton takes us deep into grief’s interior, where a mother’s absence becomes a vital presence, carried not only in memory but in voice and body—'my head is her head and / her aura mine.’ Tender yet unflinching, these poems grapple with illness, addiction, violence, and regret. Yet they return, again and again, to the daily practice of loving—through acts of imagination, friendship, nature, and sobriety—because ultimately ‘connection / is the window / of wanting I want / to look through / the lake I want // to stand in.’”

—Mikko Harvey, author of Let the World Have You

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

The lake-shaped excuse, my third collection of poetry, is out Oct 6 2026. Pre-order available now! A conversation between mother and daughter beyond death; an elegy, a prayer, a regret “Brilliant and painful” —Mikko Harvey bookstore.wolsakandwynn.ca/products/the... @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social

The cover of the lake-shaped excuse by Conyer Clayton with the text “Oct 6 2026" and "Available for pre-order”

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

"My little sister asks me" from my forthcoming third poetry collection, the lake-shaped excuse (Buckrider Books, @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social), after @sannawani.bsky.social's "Lately I Am Trying." 💛 Pre-order now 🌅 Check out Wolsak and Wynn's full fall 2026 catalogue here: tinyurl.com/423tf48z

My little sister asks me

after Sanna Wani

if I remember when I realized I could die and I don’t, but I wish I did. Did I even think as a child? Do I even think now? So much of my world develops like a photograph, in the dark room way back and is fully formed before I realize it has been there floating in chemicals I assembly-line walk by. If I think in words, I don’t know them. If I knew I could die, I was okay with it. I tell my sister I feel like I have no memory sometimes – I spit shine my own eyes so they’ll see something. The snow I forgot was falling. The ice I walked on weeks too early. If I realized I could die, I don’t remember it. It’s not my death that worries me. It’s yours. If my lake isn’t solid, maybe yours is. Yours is. Yours is. No one else can die because the ice is just a photograph I took in high school. I made you sit on a pool noodle in the middle of the street while I crouched to get an artsy angle. Your skirt was striped and black and white. I think I need to go home.

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

How lucky am I to have this incredible blurb from @cassidymcfadzean.bsky.social 🌼 the lake-shaped excuse comes out with @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social in Oct! Pre-orders are available now in the US and Canada xo bookstore.wolsakandwynn.ca/products/the...

$In striking lines that repeat and mirror in fractals, these poems tease out memory like a prayer, capturing the pain and claustrophobia of sudden loss: “My mother’s name is mine and buried in my throat.” From the book’s meditative opening, Clayton beautifully voices an embodied experience of grief and its visceral pleading: “I already / have every memory of / you I ever will.” What a gift to encounter a book that recognizes how the death of a mother gnaws from within—and to be guided so tenderly through its testimony of love. —Cassidy McFadzean, author of Crying Dress$

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Want a signed / personalized copy of my forthcoming book, the lake-shaped excuse (@wolsakandwynn.bsky.social)? You can order it from the best indie bookstore in the universe, Perfect Books and they will ship to you anywhere in the US or Canada. 💛 shop.perfectbooks.ca/item/aemMz2r...

Text: "the lake-shaped excuse, Oct 6 2026. Pre-order a personalized copy from Perfect Books in Ottawa, ON and they will ship it direct to you after release day! 'Clayton is a poetic force to be reckoned with.' —Gap Riot Press". There is a photo of Conyer Clayton and the cover of the lake-shaped excuse.

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Today I am sharing this blurb for my forthcoming book from the generous and beautiful Chelsea Harlan. Please read her book Bright Shade! the lake-shaped excuse (@wolsakandwynn.bsky.social) is now available for pre-order in the US and Canada from your indie bookseller! Coming out Oct 6 2026. xo

Praise for the lake-shaped excuse by Conyer Clayton.

The hauntingly beautiful poems in Conyer Clayton’s the lake-shaped excuse are appropriately ripple-like in their transmutational, incantatory quality. Echoes of the speaker’s mother’s voice resound and are made new through the speaker’s own voice, resulting in a kind of blood harmony utterly unique to genetic passage. The mother and the speaker are not the same person, but in many ways, of course they are, such is “the terrible unity of wanting.” These poems want against absence, they reach for what is no longer there... but still they reach anyway. This body of work, like a body of water, refuses stagnation — this is a project born of an ever-expanding love that gives life to grief and asks, “What if / (another expanding tear) / But how,” in the same paradoxical breath. There is real music behind these quiet devotions, and we’re warmly, generously invited to listen closely. May we all learn to practice patience and grace in the face of grief, connection in the face of loss. May we trust in what lies beyond ourselves. “Pray. Then / start again.

—Chelsea Harlan, author of Bright Shade

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Lil' PSA bc as I anticipated, the description of my book using the words "mother" and "daughter" may make some cis folks confused; I am still not a woman. Still agender, still think of myself as my mother's daughter, still not a woman. Coolio!

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Yesterday at work, I thought I had a rock in my boot. I went into the bathroom to take my boot off and remove the rock. It was, in fact, a small ball of mozzarella.

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This Magazine @thismagazine.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

When @conyerclayton.bsky.social stopped drinking, they went in search of a new, sober community for connection and support. But it's not easy to find the right fit—and they're still looking. this.org/2023/12/14/a...

this.org

A sober thought

The last time I drank I was surrounded by family. I’d just returned from a solo trip to Scotland where I drank heavily every day for several weeks. When I got home I put my foot down. Okay, only on sp...

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Aurora last night over Ottawa. First time seeing them 🤩 Visible with the naked eye too! Truly incredible.

Green and red streaked auroras in the sky above a red oak tree.

Red aurora in the sky above a residential street.

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Sharing this essay on my blog about my relationship to technology and grief on the eve of the 15th anniversary of my mom's death. My mommy was the best mommy in the whole wide world. conyers-newsletter.beehiiv.com/p/on-missed-...

conyers-newsletter.beehiiv.com

On Missed Calls, Technology, and 15 Years of Grieving My Mother

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

conyers-newsletter.beehiiv.com

On Missed Calls, Technology, and 15 Years of Grieving My Mother

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Augur Society | Augur Issue 8.3 is NOW LIVE ! @augursociety.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Augur Issue 8.2 is NOW LIVE! 🎊 & you can find 2 FREE pieces on our site! Discover... 🔥 an elemental aftermath of an affair 🦖 a monstrous hymn of awe and destruction 🍯 devastation dripped in honey and rain & so much more! 🔗 Starting reading here: augursociety.org/augur-issue-... 🧵

An illustration of a field on a sunny day and here’s a clothing line with yellow and red sheets flowing in the wind, and behind them are two people, one with purple wings touching hands. with a blue overlay. At the top of the image reads: “Read it Now” in a yellow banner and underneath reads: “Augur Issue 8.2.” Bellow is the link to the website: http://www.augursociety.org. In the middle of the image is a book with the cover art of Issue 8.1. There are 6 arrows around the book pointing to blurbs from some of the pieces that read: elemental aftermath of an affair, toxic love festers through shed skin & wet sheets, young love, rusted metal, & shattered sunlight, monstrous hymn of awe & destruction, old age drama between two languages, and devastation dripped in honey and rain .

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Would you like to read a story about divorce and also a bear? 🐻🎨 ex-puritan.ca/the-painting... (Thanks @sannawani.bsky.social for including my surrealist flash fiction in the Animalia issue of The Ex-Puritan!)

A promo poster for The Ex-Puritan, with a black and white image of a black bear climbing a tree in the background, and text that reads, "This is where something both begins and ends." Conyer Clayton, "The Painting and the Bear."

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Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

Gonna say something liberals really won’t like and it’s that you’re going to have to find it in your heart to feel compassion for and attempt to help ppl in crisis whose politics you may not agree with or else you’re gonna become the very thing you claim to hate

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Augur Society | Augur Issue 8.3 is NOW LIVE ! @augursociety.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

HUGE NEWS: Augur has the honour of being a nominee in THREE categories for the 2025 Aurora Awards! 🎊 📌 FYI... -Voting is NOW OPEN to all CSFFA members & membership is just $10! -Deadline to vote: July 19th @ 11:59 EDT. 🔗 Link to sign up & vote: www.csffa.ca Scroll down to see what's nommed! ⬇️

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Kerry C. Byrne @kercoby.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Putting on my Publisher hat, I have an announcement: Augur Press will be open to submissions of Novellas & Novelettes from both agented and unagented writers starting THIS WEEK! It’s not open yet. But while we wait… AMA about publishing with this fledgling small press.

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

I often avoid nonfiction "grief books" because for me they can be too prescriptive and didactic—attempt to be too broad and sweeping. But this book avoids these things, and it really moved me. Highly recommend. “‘How will he know you loved him,’ she asks, ‘unless you try to destroy yourself.’”

A hand holding up Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley. The edge of a deck and woods and blue sky are visible in the background.

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

My first suit; it is green, and I am obsessed.

Conyer taking a mirror selfie wearing a light green suit and a black t-shirt.

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Me doing structural edits on my novel rn. (The Librarian by Guiseppe Arcimboldo)

The Librarian by Guiseppe Arcimboldo, a painting of a man made of various books and papers.

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Sanna Wani @sannawani.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

PLEASE SHARE! I am raising funds for a dear friend and member of the literary as well as arts communities. $5 and $10 goes a long way! Reshares even further! We are just $800 from our goal and my hope is bluesky can take us the rest of the way. 💛💛💛 chuffed.org/project/1299...

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Riverboatjack @riverboatjack.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

new gender neutral greeting just dropped

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Terese Mason Pierre @teresempierre.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Poetry friends and poetry lovers! ✨️ I have two "Myth" launches next week with some super cool writers! 🌴🧜🏾‍♀️👽🌙🌺 May 6 at Perfect Books in Ottawa May 8 at Pulp Books in Montreal I'd love to see you there! 😘

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

I have always been really put off by celebrity, even the notion of "genius". As a writer and also a bookseller and events coordinator specifically, working in often quite large events and literary festivals, I have become even more put off by the cult of celebrity around writers in particular.

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Charlotte Moore-Lambert @charlottereads.com · 22/03/2025

being an indie bookseller in the helltimes has felt both very stable and very stabilizing, and part of me wishes everyone could be on my side of the counter for a little while, because I think it would help some of you be a little less cynical and doomy right now. so here is my VERY anecdotal data:

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Sometimes you get really good news and are riding super high and then 2 days later you get extremely sick for 6 days (like chest xray sick) and that is what we call being brought back down to earth babyyyyyy

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it took an hour, maevey a day @maeveynot.online · 08/03/2025

happy birthday to women

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ACLU @aclu.org · 07/03/2025

BREAKING: In response to our lawsuit, the National Endowment for the Arts will no longer force grant applicants to certify that they won't promote "gender ideology." This is a big step toward defeating the NEA's unconstitutional censorship.

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wooby @ruby.gay · 02/03/2025

i believe in sufjan stevens. i think he can finish the 50 states project

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Thus concludes my enjoyment affirmations into the void.

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I am enjoying my lack of gender and no one can stop me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I am enjoying eating and no one can stop me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Conyer Clayton @conyerclayton.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I am enjoying writing and no one can stop me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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