Join authors Jim Johnstone, Manahil Bandukwala, Mahaila Smith, Margo LaPierre, Chris Johnson to celebrate the launch of the new poetry anthology, The Anstruther Reader.

Compiled to celebrate ten years worth of limited edition chapbooks and broadsides, The Anstruther Reader tracks the evolution of Anstruther Press, one of Canada’s most prominent micropresses. Featuring notable authors such as Klara du Plessis, Tolu Oloruntoba, David Ly, Rebecca Salazar, David Barrick, Fawn Parker, and T. Liem, The Anstruther Reader makes a case for the press’s reputation as a launching pad for emerging and established poets alike, and spotlights its mandate to publish poetry that both pushes against and expands the boundaries of Canadian literature.

Jim Johnstone is a Toronto-based poet, editor, and critic. He is the author of seven collections of poetry including The Chemical Life, which was shortlisted for the 2018 ReLit Award. Johnstone has also won several awards including the Bliss Carman Poetry Award, a CBC Literary Award, the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, the Robin Blaser Award, and Poetry’s Editors Prize for Book Reviewing. Currently, he curates the AnstrutherBooks imprint at Palimpsest Press, where he published The Next Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry.

Manahil Bandukwala is a writer and visual artist based in Mississauga and Ottawa, Ontario. She is the author of MONUMENT (Brick Books, 2022), which was shortlisted for the 2023 Gerald Lampert Award, and was selected as a Writer’s Trust of Canada Rising Star in 2023.

Ottawa-based writer Mahaila Smith’s poetry has been nominated and finalist for the Best of the Net Award, the Rhysling award and the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize. Their debut chapbook, Claw Machine, was published by Anstruther Press. Their second chapbook, Water-Kin, was published by Metatron Press. Their poems have been published in Room, Augur, Untethered Magazine and elsewhere.

Margo LaPierre is a Canadian poet and visual artist. She completed her BA in Philosophy at Ryerson University in Toronto, where she currently lives. Washing Off the Raccoon Eyes is her first collection of poems.

Chris Johnson is a poet from Scarborough currently living in Ottawa on unceded Algonquin Anishinabe territory. He has performed with the sound poetry ensemble Quatuor Gualuor, and he is a board member at the Ottawa Arts Council and a member of the creative collective VII.

This is a free event, however, RSVP are appreciated. Doors open 7:15pm, event begins at 7:30pm.