Alice Burdick
Alice Burdick lives and writes poetry in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia and co-owned the former Lexicon Books in Lunenburg. Alice moved to Halifax in 2002 from Toronto, Ontario, where she was born and raised. She has also lived in Espanola, Vancouver, and on the Sechelt Peninsula in BC.
Burdick has been involved with the small press community in Canada since the early 1990’s, when she was co-editor, with Victor Coleman, of The Eternal Network. This very small ongoing imprint produced chapbooks, including several of her own works, such as Signs Like This, Fun Venue, and Voice of Interpreter. Her work has been published by other small presses in Canada, including: Proper Tales Press (a Time, My Lump in the Bed: Love Poems for George W. Bush); Letters Press (Covered); and BookThug (The Human About Us). It also has appeared in various magazines, such as Hava LeHaba (from Tel Aviv, Israel), Event Magazine, Canadian Poetries, Two Serious Ladies (from the US), Dig, What!magazine, subTerrain, fhole, This Magazine, and Who Torched Rancho Diablo? From 1992-1995, Alice was assistant coordinator of the Toronto Small Press Fair. She has also done numerous readings over the years in many different venues, including the Ottawa International Writers Festival, The Scream in High Park in Toronto, and the Halifax Word on the Street.
Alice’s fourth collection of poetry, Book of Short Sentences, came out in the spring of 2016 from Mansfield Press. Her last book, Holler, was released in April 2012, following Flutter, which came out in Fall 2008 (both Mansfield Press). Two collaborative poems have shown up in Our Days In Vaudeville by Stuart Ross and 29 Collaborators (Mansfield Press, Fall 2013). Her poems have appeared in Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry (The Mercury Press, Fall 2005), Surreal Estate: 13 Canadian Poets Under the Influence, An Anthology of Surrealist Canadian Poetry (The Mercury Press, Fall 2004), and in Pissing Ice: An Anthology of ‘New’ Canadian Poets, (BookThug, 2004, as well as other anthologies. Her first perfect-bound book was Simple Master, published in 2002 by Pedlar Press.
”Deportment”, a book of selected poems from the early 1990s onward, was released by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in the autumn of 2018. Her essays have appeared in three recent anthologies: “Home” from MacIntyre Purcell, 2018, “Gush” from Frontenac House, 2018, and “Locations of Grief” from Wolsak & Wynn, 2020.
Her poem ”Terms and Conditions” was shortlisted for the first Lemon Hound Poetry Prize in 2014.
Read more about Alice Burdick in interviews conducted by Alex Porco on Open Book Toronto and on Lemon Hound and in gallery form here. You can watch and listen to Alice read some poems on a beach here.
PUBLICATIONS
Best East Coast Jams, Pickles, Preserves & Breads. Formac Publishing, 2021. ISBN 9781459506763
Grandma’s Cookies, Cakes, Pies and Sweets: The Best of Canada’s East Coast. Formac Publishing, 2020. ISBN 9781459506398
Deportment: The Poetry of Alice Burdick. Selected and introduced by Alessandro Porco. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2018. ISBN 9781771123808
Book of Short Sentences. Mansfield Press, 2016. ISBN 9781771261098
Holler. Mansfield Press, 2012. ISBN 9781894469708
Flutter. Mansfield Press, 2008. ISBN 9781894469418
Simple Master. Pedlar Press, 2002. ISBN 9780968652275
Anthologies:
Locations of Grief: an emotional geography. Wolsak & Wynn, 2020. ISBN 9781989496145
My Nova Scotia Home: Nova Scotia’s best writers riff on the place they call home. MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc., 2019. ISBN 9781772761115
Aubade: Poetry and Prose from Nova Scotian Writers. Boularderie Island Press, 2018. ISBN 9781926448268
GUSH: Menstrual Manifestos for Our Time. Frontenac House, 2018. ISBN 9781927823798
Our Days in Vaudeville, by Stuart Ross with 29 Collaborators. Mansfield Press, 2013. ISBN 9781771260244. Two poems in collaboration with Stuart Ross.
Rogue Stimulus: The Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology For A Pro-Rogued Parliament, Mansfield Press. 2011. ISBN 9781894469487
Shift and Switch: New Canadian Poetry. The Mercury Press, 2005. ISBN 9781551281162
To Find Us: words and images of Halifax. Halifax Regional Municipality Press, 2005. ISBN 9780968726235
Surreal Estate: 13 Canadian Poets Under the Influence. The Mercury Press, 2004. ISBN 9781551281094
Chapbooks, Broadsides, and Folios:
Poils d’ivresse. Translation of “Pleasure Bristles” collaborative book, by Éditions Vanloo of France, 2020.
A Holiday for Molecules. above/ground press, 2019.
Pleasure Bristles. Collaborative chapbook with poet Gary Barwin. above/ground press, 2018.
FLOOD. Poem in folio form in collaboration with artist Drew Klassen. Letterpress, drawing in ink, rubber stamps, 2018.
Chore Choir. Puddles of Sky Press Chapoem, 2016.
Minola Review. Print anthology from The Minola Review online journal, 2016.
BafterC Volume 6 Number 1, The Barlow Response Unit. Anthology, BookThug, 2013.
A Trip Around McFadden. Festschrift, for David W. McFadden’s 70th birthday. Coach House printing, 2010.
3 poems. Laurel Reed Press, 2007
Pissing Ice: An Anthology of ‘New’ Canadian Poets. BookThug, 2004
My Lump in the Bed: Love Poems for George W. Bush. Proper Tales Press, 2004
Moe-Town. Proper Tales Press Product, 2003
Psychic Rotunda. Oversion, 2003
Winter Walk. 1cent #359, 2003
Guessed Book. Anthology from Ottawa International Writers Festival, A Onion Printsmop, October 2002
The Human About Us. BookThug, 2002
A Letter to His Excellency Nicky Drumbolis. Anthology, 1997.
AB: a special issue of CB containing the work of Alice Burdick, CB #4 – poems & drawings, 1995
a Time. Proper Tales Press, 1995
Covered. twobitter 54, Letters Press, 1994
Fun Venue. The Eternal Network, 1994
Signs Like This. The Eternal Network, 1994
Big Tomatoes. PUSHYbroadside 5, 1993
Voice of Interpreter. The Eternal Network, 1993
A Discord of Flags: Canadian Poets Write About The Persian Gulf War. Anthology (1991; reissued 1992)
Journals and Magazines:
My poetry and prose has appeared, since 1992, in these publications, in print and/or online: Arts Atlantic, Canadian Poetries, CB Magazine, CKLN-FM Anniversary Literary Supplement, The Coast Magazine, EVENT Magazine, fhole, Dig, Hardscrabble, Hava LeHaba, Matrix Magazine, The Minola Review, Oversion, Push-Machinery, subTerrain, This Magazine, Tongue Tide, Two Serious Ladies, What!magazine, Who Torched Rancho Diablo?, Work Seen Magazine, Understorey Magazine.
