Summer 2025

Welcome to Vol.48.1 of CV2, an issue that, at first glance, looks much like any other.

It’s yea long and yea wide, with a cover featuring Canadian artwork and a captivating layout designed by our longtime master of this craft, Ashley Au. You glance through and—yup—it’s full of poems. But you’ll also notice this issue is a bit thicker than usual. And if you flip to the
back cover, you’ll see that the list of contributors is a little longer, and features names of luminary Canadian poets, some of whom have passed away: names like bpNichol, Bronwen Wallace, and CV2’s own founder, Dorothy Livesay.

This issue is the result of a special project undertaken to celebrate CV2’s 50th anniversary. Longtime CV2 editor Clarise Foster rejoined our team to help select one poem from each of CV2’s first twenty-five years of operation, to republish alongside the new work that we share in all our issues. Beginning with our first year of operation, 1975, all the way up to the dawn of the new millennium, 1999, we received the kind permission of twenty-five CV2 poets past, their family members, and publishers, to share their work again.

As you move through the issue, you’ll read one archival CV2 poem, followed by the new work of a poet, and so on. You’ll find poems by Emily Riddle, Bob Hicok, and Frances Boyle sitting right snug up against poems by M. NourbeSe Philip, bill bissett, and Catherine Hunter. You’ll notice that poets in 1981 liked to write about the sea, and that poets in 2025 also like to write about the sea. You’ll note, without surprise, that poets will never stop writing about the moon. You’ll notice that we’ve given the poets past the first word, the poets present the last. But it’s not the end: our fall 2025 issue, the final issue of this special 50th anniversary year, will share another twenty-five archival poems, one each from the years 2000 to 2025. Stay tuned.

This issue is special in another way, too. It’s always given us huge pleasure to learn that a publication with CV2 will be a poet’s first ever, and with an aim to increase such instances of joy on both poet’s and publisher’s parts, we opened a submissions form exclusively for writers whose poetry has never been published in print. An inspiring flood of emerging poets submitted, and we’re thrilled to share here the work of five such poets in their print debuts: Princess Williams, Sui Wang, Brina Romanek, Nazlee Maghsoudi, and Andrea Green. We know you’ll help us welcome them with open arms, hungry minds, and eyes eager for future works.