Melanie Janisse-Barlow
The first featured poet in our series in a multi-talented powerhouse whose work captures the spirit of the Canadian Poetry Landscape. We have selected a carefully curated series of Melanie's paintings of Canadian Women writers, featuring Minola Review Contributor Cassidy McFadzean, and Catherine Graham.
About Melanie
Melanie Janisse-Barlow is a poet and painter living in Windsor, Ontario. She is the author of Orioles in the Oranges (Guernica 2009) which was listed for the Relit Award. She has published poems and experimental essays throughout Canada and the US. Her short essay collection Detroit (Bayou 2013) was listed as a notable essay in the Best American essays for that year. Currently, she is working on the Poets Series - a practo-poetic portraiture series of contemporary poets.
About The Poet's Series:
The idea behind the Poets Series is to paint portraits of living poets and that this archive build itself. I began this work by crowd sourcing poets to begin each branch. I asked the poets who were picked if I could paint a portrait of them, and if they wouldn't mind selecting the next poet to add to the series. The response has been astounding. As the beginning poets included other poets, and the archive began to grow, branch by branch into an amazing narrative of contemporary poetry. The Poets Series is a celebration of the complex tangle of living poets that belong to a loose archive.
Sponsored by CSL Silicones
