Susan Ioannou

Tips for writing poetry that is clear and accessible

Written in a rich variety of voices, the colourful narratives aim to entertain. They begin with a little girl’s weekend in an artist’s home, then shiver from a “Giant-Lady’s” wintry farm, to summer dining in a mansion and a boy’s exotic lunches on a neighbour’s porch. A university student delights in her debonair “older man”, a corporate executive rediscovers romance, an immigrant’s daughter searches for a lost homeland, and women challenged by advancing years cope each in her unique way. Realistic, bizarre, funny, or touching, the stories in Nine to Ninety promise a potpourri of diverting reading.

Part 1, Familiar Faces, is about people encountered from day to day. Part 2, Private Grief, contains poems about loss.

In a breathtaking display of erudition, craft, and attention, award-winning poet Susan Ioannou explores how our humanity has been crafted by our ancient relationship with the world of rocks, metals, gemstones, and mining. From the subatomic to the cosmic, from the lab to the lyre, she ranges across the continuum of being of which our humanity is but a part. This book is unique.

In A Real Farm Girl, Susan Ioannou tells the story of a young city girl's adventures while visiting her grandmother's farm in the 1940s. Mary wants to prove that she can handle farm chores. She helps her Uncle Louis collect eggs from the chicken coop, milk the cows, and feed the pigs. The chores are not as easy as she thought. She gets pecked by the chickens, is chased by a bull, and has a manure mishap. But she doesn't give up. Parents and kids will enjoy Mary's antics and her determination to become a real farm girl.

Part 1, Familiar Faces, is about people encountered from day to day. Part 2, Private Griefs, contains poems about loss.

Reflections on travel, art, and meaning in life, from a long friendship between two women, are preceded by an introduction detailing the circumstances that gave rise to the writing of individual poems.

Unveiling the commonality of emotions even in the most exotic locations

A friendly back-and-forth on God and the meaning of life between two poets

Reflections on travel, art, and meaning in life, from a long friendship between two women, are preceded by an introduction detailing the circumstances that gave rise to the writing of individual poems.

From a full-blown sonnet to free verse, the poems in this book speak in many voices: humorous, descriptive, lyric, narrative, and philosophic. Part I is about animals, make-believe, and simple experiences familiar to elementary school children. In contrast, Part III expresses grown-up themes in a more sophisticated style, for reading and discussion with students in senior high school. Halfway between in subject and form, fall the poems of Part II, aimed at the middle school and junior high years.

Illustrated lessons in story form, plus practice, projects, and games to make learning punctuation fun.

Much like the short stories of Alice Munro...Ioannou's poetry elevates simple nature and everyday experience into the realm of the wondrous and sublime.

A chapbook of incidental poems

Why should the art of poetry be a mystery? Quoting over 60 of our best poets—from Atwood through Lane to Wayman—A Magical Clockwork reveals the subtle mechanisms that make a poem tick. To share the secrets behind good writing, through discussion and example it explores such key elements as immediacy, movement, persona, image, symbol, line, pattern, metre, free verse, rhyme, tone, and vision—all from a uniquely Canadian perspective. A Magical Clockwork not only guides and inspires, but is also a pleasure to read.

When his friend Gunnar discovers a $100 bill in a hidden valley just north of Toronto's Don Valley Golf Course, Mike Steriou thinks his dream can come true: owning a genuine Explorer sleeping bag for the autumn Scout camp near Alliston, Ontario. However, a near-tragic accident for pal Tuan, unpleasant new neighbours across the street, two vicious dogs, a break-in at his uncle's Danforth printing shop, and other exciting events gradually piece the high-tech puzzle together, until Mike and his buddies daringly bring three criminals to justice.

From warming up, through poetic craft, to getting published, The Crafted Poem gives friendly, helpful advice on writing, illustrated by Canadian poems.

Jenna Wade thought she had everything in life when she married Daniel Prescott. But when her marriage fell apart and she lost the child she was carrying, along with her dreams she lost her faith. Returning home to Cypress Creek, she built a wall between her and the rest of the world. Jake McConnell had faced his own challenges, but his faith had carried him through his own personal crisis. Now he wanted to help Jenna find her way back to God and see if they could build a future together. Can he break through her barriers and convince her they can have a future or will she keep her back turned to everything she believed in?

From three decades of editing, teaching, and writing fiction and poetry, Ioannou shares the thorns and honey of the literary life. She knows the aesthetic and personal challenges a literary artist faces. “When we write, we are up against the wall. Who am I? What do I feel? What do I think? Writing forces us to be alone with our thoughts, to work through the wrinkles of our own living.”