Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario. Her latest book, a novel, is The Donoghue Girl (Latitude 46 Publishing) and her next book of poetry, The Pollination Field, will be published by Turnstone Press in 2025. Kim was a finalist for the 2023 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, and she recently won first place in The Ampersand Review’s 2024 Essay Contest for her essay, “What You Carry.” Kim is the First Vice-Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada, a member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.
poet
Kim Fahner
Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario. Her latest book, a novel, is The Donoghue Girl (Latitude 46 Publishing) and her next book of poetry, The Pollination Field, will be published by Turnstone Press in 2025. Kim was a finalist for the 2023 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, and she recently won first place in The Ampersand Review’s 2024 Essay Contest for her essay, “What You Carry.” Kim is the First Vice-Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada, a member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.
Kate Rogers
Our guest this week is Kate Rogers. Her poem “False Spring” is forthcoming in the Caitlin Press anthology, Sublime: Poems for Vanishing Ice, Editor Yvonne Blomer. Kate won first prize in subTerrain Magazine’s Lush Triumphant Award for her five-poem suite, “My Mother’s House.” Her poem “The Giraffe-bone Knife Set” was shortlisted for ROOM Magazine’s Poem of the Year contest. Kate’s poetry and essays have appeared in numerous publications in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Asia. Kate lives in Cobourg where she can often be found walking the harbour. Frontenac House says of Baba Yaga and the Girl Who Ate the Rope that in this collection Kate Rogers reimagines family, folklore, and climate grief. Her muse: the Slavic witch “Baba Yaga, both matriarch and mirror.”
Kathryn Macdonald
Kathryn MacDonald’s poetry has been published in Room, FreeFall and other Canadian literary journals and anthologies, as well as internationally in the U.K., U.S., and other countries. Her new collection The Blue Gate, to be published by Frontenac House in the spring 2026, explores the surprise of love, the shock of loss, and challenges boundaries and liminal spaces. It probes into a love affair that defies conventions, capturing the narrator’s voice from the first lyrical poem. With the death of the belovèd, an invitation to fly to Kenya arrives; it’s accepted; and the long title poem ravels and unravels reality. Poems in the final section question the loss of intimacy, loneliness, change, and unattainable acceptance.
The collection seeks – what – understanding, consolation, release, or does it ask whether love enriches or leaves one lost?
Melissa Thorne
Melissa Thorne (she/her) lives on the traditional and treaty territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations (Cobourg, ON), with her husband, two sons, and Irish Wolfhound, Walter. She reluctantly serves as Walter’s social media manager after he inadvertently went “viral” online. Melissa was recently featured in The League of Canadian Poets’ Fresh Voices series. She is the author of two chapbooks, Augury, and What do we do with all this being? forthcoming in the spring and fall of 2026. Her poetry is also published/ forthcoming in ROOM magazine, The Fiddlehead, Pinhole Poetry and WEI Magazine. Follow her on Instagram @melissa_thorne_poetry
Antony Di Nardo
This week’s guest is Antony Di Nardo. The programme is an encore presentation from 2025. Antony Di Nardo has written nine books of poetry. His award-winning work appears widely in journals and anthologies across Canada and internationally, also translated into several languages. His long poem suite May June July was winner of the Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Prize for 2017 and was short-listed for a National Magazine Award. He is an active member of the League of Canadian Poets and the Cobourg Poetry Workshop. The winner of the inaugural Don Gutteridge Poetry Award, Through Yonder Window Breaks was published by Wet Ink Books. Antony’s present project is his collection Cloudspotting which he presented with his insights into the work of Antonio Damasio at the Accenti Festival of the Arts hosted by the University of PEI in Charlottetown last June.
April Potter
April Potter is a local poet, freelance writer, and artist in Port Hope. She graduated from York University with a literature degree and also studied philosophy. She has built a freelance copywriting and marketing business, Potter Creative, since moving to Northumberland County in 2014. Her poetry is published under the name Estlin Edwards. She has written for 102.1 The Edge in Toronto, Sunwing Travel, Kawartha Now, and more. Her first book of poetry will be out this year. You can find her art and postcards for sale at Purpose Thrift Shop in downtown Port Hope. She also writes local business features and theatre reviews at Featured In Northumberland, on Instagram and Facebook.
Ted Amsden
This week our guest is Ted Amsden. Ted went to university in Toronto graduating with an Honours BA in English Literature from Glendon College in 1972. During the early 80’s he became a writer for Gloucester Group at Maclaren Advertising producing TV, radio newspaper advertisements. But then he moved to Mexico with his wife Cynthia. For five years in San Miguel de Allende they ran a boutique manufacturing company, Ay Chihuahua, an aerobics studio called El Sweat. and at night in their kitchen Ted taught himself how to develop film and print photos. On returning to Canada with their two-year-old daughter, they settled in Cobourg enjoying small town life. Ted found a position at the Cobourg Star and for over 20 years covered all kind of events as a photo-journalist. In 2011, Ted became Cobourg’s 3rd poet Laureate and in 2012 he sat down to begin a new career as a novelist.
Mia Burrus
This week we welcome Mia Musée Mia Burrus Mia is a writer and artist who lives in a restored one-room schoolhouse in the country north of Cobourg. But her passion is using words, images and found objects to explore the boundaries and spaces between what is spoken and silent, solid and ephemeral, known and unknowable, crafting poems, essays, and multi-dimensional, mixed-media artworks. Mia’s latest book, a memoir entitled As If Through a Window, was published in September 2025. This book, in a mix of genres, tells the intertwined tales of her father, and the cattle ranch that occupied half his life. Several of her assemblage artworks have been included in Juried Shows at the Colborne Art Gallery and Art Gallery of Northumberland. Her works may also be viewed at her own museum, her website!
Linda Hutsell Manning
This week we are pleased to re-run a programme we made with Linda Hutsell Manning in the fall of 2023. Linda has published four picture books, three juvenile plays, two mid-grade novels and Polka Dot Door scripts as well as a literary novel, That Summer in Franklin, a two-act comedy, A Certain Singing Teacher, a memoir, Fearless and Determined about her 1960’s teaching experiences a one room elementary school west of Cobourg. Her latest picture book, Finding Moufette, was released in 2023. A novella, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose, was released in 2024 and another small book was published this year called The Killing Room. These are available in local bookstores and on Amazon. Linda has also written many pieces of short fiction and poetry published in magazines. Find out more at lindahutsellmanning.ca.
Word on the Hills Radio Program 