LightNews — News, ranked by scholars

Qurat Dar

@quratdar.bsky.social

Jazzed to be part of a poetry panel next sunday at Eden Mills Writers' Festival!! 12:30-1:30pm at The Cottage:

edenmillswritersfestival.ca/festival-sun...

Festival Sunday Schedule

Time: 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Hosted by: Elizabeth Renzetti Author: Gillian Deacon Whether it’s the economy, climate change, the state of democracy, or the state of our own bodies, wallets and inboxes…

edenmillswritersfestival.ca

September 12, 2026 at 4:34 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

thetemzreview.bsky.social

@thetemzreview.bsky.social

An OG Temzer ❤️ And her work just keeps getting better and better! 👇

Qurat Dar @quratdar.bsky.social · Jul 2

The Temz Review was one of my first publications ever back in 2018, really special to have a poem in their latest issue!!

thetemzreview.bsky.social @thetemzreview.bsky.social · Jun 30

Read @quratdar.bsky.social's amazing poem "What's pest control gonna do? It's Anarkali" in Issue 35!

dancing in the walls/anklets breathless in their
downpour./Two heels becoming a thousand./...

www.thetemzreview.com/dar-35.html

July 3, 2026 at 3:32 AM

Qurat Dar

@quratdar.bsky.social

The Temz Review was one of my first publications ever back in 2018, really special to have a poem in their latest issue!!

thetemzreview.bsky.social @thetemzreview.bsky.social · Jun 30

Read @quratdar.bsky.social's amazing poem "What's pest control gonna do? It's Anarkali" in Issue 35!

dancing in the walls/anklets breathless in their
downpour./Two heels becoming a thousand./...

www.thetemzreview.com/dar-35.html

July 2, 2026 at 11:06 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

George Murray

@bookninja.bsky.social

There's NewPoetry today from Qurat Dar.

newpoetry.ca/2026/06/15/l...

Long-Distance Friend Group

Qurat Dar I don’t write love poems. Easier to sing to my suffering. I am clenched-fist selfish with my tenderness. But here we are, coaxing the moon down through the sunroof. Cords of jasmin…

newpoetry.ca

June 15, 2026 at 12:27 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

Joanne Merriam

@joannemerriam.bsky.social

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Moon as Salted Lemon by @clayrebenz.bsky.social, @driftwoodpress.bsky.social & Non-Prophet by @quratdar.bsky.social, @gooselane.bsky.social/icehouse poetry. See alt-text.

#DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #bookstodon #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for Moon as Salted Lemon by Clayre Benzadón (Driftwood Press): A debut collection of multilingual poetry of linguistic agility, compassion, wordplay, and intellect which queers language to inspire complicated truths. Shortlisted for Bisexual Poetry in the Lambda Literary Awards (winners announced June 12th): https://lambdaliterary.org/awards/current-finalists/. https://www.driftwoodpress.com/product-page/moon-as-salted-lemon

$Book cover for Non-Prophet by Qurat Dar (icehouse poetry/Goose Lane Editions): Shortlisted for LGBTQ+ Poetry in the Lambda Literary Awards (winners announced June 12th): https://lambdaliterary.org/awards/current-finalists/. Raw, reverent, and bursting with searing vulnerability, Non-Prophet canvases the electric tension between devotion and doubt to gods both personal and ubiquitous, and reflects on the natural and built worlds in their claims to the sacred. Winner of the inaugural Claire Harris Poetry Prize, Qurat Dar’s bold debut collection explores what it is to grapple with faith that’s “just another language you’re losing, or one you never learned to speak.” Weaving through the boundaries of language and form, Non-Prophet meditates on things “just mundane enough to be holy / just holy enough to be mundane” — the death of a bird, the cries of mid-nightmare prayers, the misplaced shame of what it is to bleed. Dar’s poems both rage and reconcile, holding gently the pieces of a fractured identity. https://gooselane.com/products/non-prophet$

June 1, 2026 at 4:08 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

rob mclennan

@robmclennan.bsky.social

newly posted at @periodicities.bsky.social : Qurat Dar : What makes a good poem / @quratdar.bsky.social @gooselane.bsky.social ;
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2026/06/qura...

Qurat Dar : What makes a good poem

How does a poem begin? How does a poem begin? I was going to say a poem really begins when the poet begins because every poe...

periodicityjournal.blogspot.com

June 1, 2026 at 1:20 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

periodicities : a journal of poetry and poetics

@periodicities.bsky.social

newly posted: Qurat Dar : What makes a good poem / @quratdar.bsky.social @gooselane.bsky.social @canadianpoets.bsky.social ;
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2026/06/qura...

Qurat Dar : What makes a good poem

How does a poem begin? How does a poem begin? I was going to say a poem really begins when the poet begins because every poe...

periodicityjournal.blogspot.com

June 1, 2026 at 1:19 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

All Lit Up

@alllitupcanada.bsky.social

"My mother tells me: / the greatest proof that God is a man /
is what He lets happen to women."

For #ALUPoetsResist @quratdar.bsky.social shares a poem from her collection NON-PROPHET (@gooselane.bsky.social), winner of the Claire Harris Poetry Prize.

Read it here: alllitup.ca/poets-resist...

April 15, 2026 at 2:33 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

Joanne Merriam

@joannemerriam.bsky.social

6/10 - #DSPBposts #SmallPress #books from @gooselane.bsky.social @quratdar.bsky.social @pottersfieldpress.bsky.social @sarahemsley.bsky.social @chriswkim.bsky.social @conundrumpress.bsky.social @leesadean.bsky.social @gaspereaupress.bsky.social 💙📚 #BookSky #DefendNSbooks #bookish #booklovers

Book cover for Interstitial by Leesa Dean (Gaspereau Press): The poems in Interstitial probe the porous nature of existence, examining the ways in which the world, the body, and the self are all liminal spaces. Writing in the interstitial time between the deaths of her parents, and using an array of forms and registers, Leesa Dean turns a clear eye on the difficulties of family secrets, grief that is solitary and grief that is shared, lost languages, and violence, recovery, and resilience. These poems move from injury to reconciliation, demonstrating that we are strongest when we allow our shared narratives to weave us into a greater constellation than our individual lives afford. https://gaspereaupress.com/books/interstitial/

Book cover for The Austens by Sarah Emsley (Pottersfield Press): With no money of her own and little hope of selling any of her unfinished manuscripts, Jane Austen accepts a marriage proposal from the heir to an estate in her beloved Hampshire, only to break her engagement the following day because she does not love him. She chooses to devote herself to writing fiction, even though she may always have to depend on her parents or brothers for money. When Fanny Palmer falls in love with Jane’s brother Charles Austen, a handsome captain in the Royal Navy, she sees herself as the heroine of a romantic story and chooses to accept his proposal of marriage even though he has very little money. She shares her husband’s desire for children and his confidence that he will soon increase his income by capturing naval prize ships, and she insists on travelling with him when the squadron sails to Nova Scotia, instead of staying at home in Bermuda. Exchanging letters across the Atlantic during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, Jane and Fanny become close friends. Like Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet and Colm Tóibín’s The Master, The Austens explores tensions and rivalries between a great writer and the people closest to them. https://nimbus.ca/store/the-austens.html

Book cover for Closing Act by Chris W. Kim (Conundrum Press): Lea walks her usual route through the city when a young man steals her bag. She chases him into an alley but quickly loses her bearings—each alley leads into yet another alley, the sounds of the city fade away, and the thief is nowhere to be seen. Hopelessly searching for an exit, she eventually encounters Dee, one of the alleyfolk who obsessively makes maps of his surroundings and is convinced that the alleys have been gradually narrowing over time. The more of these alleyfolk Lea gets to know, the more she sees that they agree: the labyrinth they inhabit is shifting, creating a state of deep uncertainty. When the presence of the thief becomes a subject of contention, Lea finds herself entangled in the affairs of a world fated to end soon. https://conundrumpress.com/product/closing-act/

$Book cover for Non-Prophet by Qurat Dar (Goose Lane Editions): Raw, reverent, and bursting with searing vulnerability, Non-Prophet canvases the electric tension between devotion and doubt to gods both personal and ubiquitous, and reflects on the natural and built worlds in their claims to the sacred. Winner of the inaugural Claire Harris Poetry Prize, Qurat Dar’s bold debut collection explores what it is to grapple with faith that’s “just another language you’re losing, or one you never learned to speak.” Weaving through the boundaries of language and form, Non-Prophet meditates on things “just mundane enough to be holy / just holy enough to be mundane” — the death of a bird, the cries of mid-nightmare prayers, the misplaced shame of what it is to bleed. Dar’s poems both rage and reconcile, holding gently the pieces of a fractured identity. https://gooselane.com/products/non-prophet$

March 24, 2026 at 1:08 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

Goose Lane Editions

@gooselane.bsky.social

Congratulations, @quratdar.bsky.social !!

Lambda Literary @lambdaliterary.org · Mar 18

The 2026 finalists in LGBTQ+ Poetry:
A Real Man Would Have a Gun: Poems by Stacey Waite. @unmpress.bsky.social
Non-Prophet by @quratdar.bsky.social @gooselane.bsky.social
#Lammys2026

Image of 5 book covers representing the 2026 finalists for the Lammy Award in LGBTQ+ Poetry.

March 20, 2026 at 12:37 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

Lambda Literary

@lambdaliterary.org

The 2026 finalists in LGBTQ+ Poetry:
A Real Man Would Have a Gun: Poems by Stacey Waite. @unmpress.bsky.social
Non-Prophet by @quratdar.bsky.social @gooselane.bsky.social
#Lammys2026

March 18, 2026 at 8:37 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

Joanne Merriam

@joannemerriam.bsky.social

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books - from #NovaScotia publishers: Non-Prophet (by @quratdar.bsky.social, @gooselane.bsky.social) & The Austens (by @sarahemsley.bsky.social, @pottersfieldpress.bsky.social). See alt-text.

#DSPBposts #NSarts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #bookstodon #booktok #booksta #bookstagram

$Book cover for Non-Prophet by Qurat Dar (Goose Lane Editions): Winner of the Claire Harris Poetry Prize. Raw, reverent, and bursting with searing vulnerability, Non-Prophet canvases the electric tension between devotion and doubt to gods both personal and ubiquitous, and reflects on the natural and built worlds in their claims to the sacred. Winner of the inaugural Claire Harris Poetry Prize, Qurat Dar’s bold debut collection explores what it is to grapple with faith that’s “just another language you’re losing, or one you never learned to speak.” Weaving through the boundaries of language and form, Non-Prophet meditates on things “just mundane enough to be holy / just holy enough to be mundane” — the death of a bird, the cries of mid-nightmare prayers, the misplaced shame of what it is to bleed. Dar’s poems both rage and reconcile, holding gently the pieces of a fractured identity. https://gooselane.com/products/non-prophet$

March 19, 2026 at 2:52 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

Vicki Ziegler

@bookgaga.bsky.social

"Mist in its slow procession. The forest in
its hover. Made a sketch by distance.
Believing this beauty would be too much."

#TodaysPoem #poetry
Dog Days by @quratdar.bsky.social (2025 Toronto Subway Ads) www.torontosubwayads.ca/2025/02/dog-...

Dog Days By Qurat Dar

Poems in Passage on TTC - Dog Days by Qurat Dar.

www.torontosubwayads.ca

March 4, 2026 at 3:54 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

All Lit Up

@alllitupcanada.bsky.social

Winner of the Claire Harris Poetry Prize, Qurat Dar’s debut collection NON-PROPHET (@gooselane.bsky.social) is our featured collection in today's Poetry in Motion.

Enjoy two poetry readings by @quratdar.bsky.social from her book right here: alllitup.ca/poetry-in-mo...

February 18, 2026 at 2:26 PM

Qurat Dar

@quratdar.bsky.social

rob mclennan @robmclennan.bsky.social · Jan 1

A ‘best of’ list of 2025 Canadian poetry books
dusie.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-be...

January 1, 2026 at 11:05 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

rob mclennan

@robmclennan.bsky.social

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Qurat Dar / @quratdar.bsky.social @gooselane.bsky.social ;
robmclennan.blogspot.com/2025/12/12-o...

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Qurat Dar

Qurat Dar is the author of Non-Prophet (icehouse poetry 2025) for which she received the inaugural Claire Harris Poetry Prize. She was the...

robmclennan.blogspot.com

December 19, 2025 at 1:37 PM

Qurat Dar

@quratdar.bsky.social

Jazzed to see Non-Prophet included in this recommended reading list by @robmclennan.bsky.social for @49thshelf.bsky.social!

49thshelf.com/Blog/2025/11...

A Wealth of Reading · Blog Post · 49th Shelf

49thshelf.com

November 25, 2025 at 11:45 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

Augur Society | Augur Issue 8.3 is NOW LIVE !

@augursociety.bsky.social

Looking for something to curl up with this fall? Check out our newly released Augur Issue 8.2! ✨

Also, you can find 2 FREE samples on our site! 📚💫

🔗 Link in bio!

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

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 .

November 14, 2025 at 9:41 PM

Qurat Dar

@quratdar.bsky.social

Excited for the Wild Writers Festival next week in Waterloo and to be leading a workshop on writing and performing spoken word! ✨

@thenewquarterly.bsky.social

(Yes it's 3 hours but there will be breaks and poetry games)

wildwriters.ca/product/spok...

Spoken Word 101 -

In this masterclass workshop, participants will explore how to bring their poetry to life by moving beyond the poetry reading to the poetry performance.

wildwriters.ca

November 1, 2025 at 4:13 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

lois l.k. chan

@loislkchan.bsky.social

SO lucky to have been an asst. editor for this dreamy and limina issue for @quratdar.bsky.social 's poem about everyone's favourite destroyer Godzilla 🦖🔥💞 go check it out along with many other amazing pieces ✨

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

🎊 Special thanks goes to our whole editorial team cont'd:

Editors: Nara Monteiro, @tiffmoris.bsky.social, Catherine Mwitta, @melisfluous.bsky.social
Asst. Editor: @loislkchan.bsky.social, @hramsaroop.bsky.social

augursociety.org/augur-issue-...

🧵

Augur Issue 8.2 Augur Magazine Issue 8.2 - Augur Literary Society

Augur Magazine Issue 8.2 asks you to exist in the in-between, in the cycles where yes, all things grow and die–but all things also live, vibrantly, exquisitely, and unapologetically–in revolutions whe...

augursociety.org

October 31, 2025 at 5:24 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

Augur Society | Augur Issue 8.3 is NOW LIVE !

@augursociety.bsky.social

Issue 8.2 features...

✒️ “The Thunder Boy” by Cathy Smith
✒️ “What’s Mine” by Lulu Kadhim
✒️ “Of Seagrass Fins and Slippery Fingers” by @ajvanbelle.bsky.social
✒️ “For Godzilla” by @quratdar.bsky.social

augursociety.org/augur-issue-...

🧵

Augur Issue 8.2 Augur Magazine Issue 8.2 - Augur Literary Society

Augur Magazine Issue 8.2 asks you to exist in the in-between, in the cycles where yes, all things grow and die–but all things also live, vibrantly, exquisitely, and unapologetically–in revolutions whe...

augursociety.org

October 30, 2025 at 10:28 PM

Reposted by Qurat Dar

Augur Society | Augur Issue 8.3 is NOW LIVE !

@augursociety.bsky.social

We've got TWO samples available right now!

✒️ “Four Elements of the Affair” by Britt Gillman, a betrayal told through the natural world
✒️ “Mother Tongue” by @poojajoshi.bsky.social, about two tongues across generations

READ NOW 👉 augursociety.org/augur-issue-...

🧵

October 30, 2025 at 10:23 PM

Qurat Dar

@quratdar.bsky.social

Stoked to have a poem in the latest issue of Augur!! 🦖

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

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-...

🧵

October 31, 2025 at 12:30 AM