Welcome to my eclectic (but mostly-about-poetry) blog. Please tool around the site, leave comments, and subscribe. Check out my website, where I house some of my poetry and collages, among other things.
Here’s a little something about me:
Camille Martin is the author of four collections of poetry: Looms (2012) and Sonnets (2010), both from Shearsman Books; Codes of Public Sleep (2007), and Sesame Kiosk (2001, out of print). A chapbook was recently released from Above/Ground Press: Sugar Beach (2014). Above/Ground Press also published a chapbook in 2011: If Leaf, Then Arpeggio.
Of Sonnets, Rae Armantrout observes that “in some ways, these poems are almost traditional,” yet “in these taut, fast-paced, self-aware poems, the lyric meets 21st-century paranoia and sparks fly.” Carol Dorf writes that Martin creates “a world where science and myth intersect,” a “world of a mind reflecting on itself, the natural and built environments, time, and language.” And Jordan Scott speaks of “the magnificence in these poems, a poetic magnetic, propelling you to turn the page.”
She has presented and published her work internationally. In 2010, her tour to promote Sonnets, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, brought her to several cities in Canada as well as venues in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France. Her poetry has been published in Canada, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and Chile, and translated into German and Spanish. It has garnered major grants from the Ontario Arts Council (for Sonnets) and from the Toronto Arts Council (for Looms).
One of her current poetry projects is R Is the Artichoke of Rose, a collection of minimalist poems, and Blueshift Road, a collection influenced by astronomy. She’s also working on The Evangeline Papers, a poetic sequence based on her Acadian/Cajun heritage and her participation in archaeological digs at an eighteenth-century village in Nova Scotia, where her finds included ancestral pipes and wine bottles.
Martin earned an MFA in Poetry from the University of New Orleans and a PhD in English from Louisiana State University.
Unless otherwise noted, all material on this website is copyright Camille Martin.
Rogue Embryo 
Dear Camille – thanks for the piece about ‘Slow-Motion’. Much appreciated. Tony at Shearsman is bringing out a new volume in August. I also have a couple of chapbooks out now – i would happily send them to you if you’d like them.
Best wishes
Rupert
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You’re welcome! That poem really spoke to me.
I’ll email you about the rest.
Cheers,
Camille
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My daughter just started to school at Ryerson. Small world. I was published in several of the magazines you have listed. But that was many years ago. I will return to look at your work again.
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Hi, Camille:
I was wondering if I could use one of your beautiful photos, Paris Dusk (with the chair and its shadow).
I’m about to start an adjunct to my first blog page, which is kind of like the dark underbelly of the former, and this photo of yours really spoke to me. It’s haunting and lovely and peaceful yet mysterious. I absolutely love it.
I would, of course, credit you and link to your website.
Please let me know at your earliest convenience.
Kind Regards,
Shelley
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Hi, Shelley. I’m glad you like the photo. It’s fine to use it for your blog.
Camille
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Hi Camille,
My name is Libby and I’m a 15 year old art student from South-West England, and as part of my GCSE coursework I chose to study your (amazing!) collages and visual poetry.
I would absolutely love to hear from you yourself about what inspires you to make your art, the process of putting the collages together etc. to get a more accuate view of what is behind your work.
I’m sorry if this isn’t the right place to ask such a question (about your art, rather than your poetry), but when i saw your own replies to others’ questions, I couldn’t help but write a quick note!
I would love to hear back from you whenever possible, and look forward to your reply!
Libby Norman, Colyton Grammar School
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Hi, Libby, thanks for writing! I’m delighted that my collages speak to you. If you email me at
c8martin at ryerson dot ca
I’ll be happy to talk to you about them.
All the best,
Camille
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Hi dear Dr. Camille,
I really enjoyed reading your significant essay. As a matter of fact, I’m working on academic research-paper on the topic of musicality in Thomas W. Shapcott’s poetry. I may, after your permission, quote some important details in your significant essay. I put in my mind to read your poetic experience and it’s my pleasure to write an article on it. Thanks with best wishes and regards,Dr. Muslim Abbas Eidan Al-Ta’an
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Hello, Dr. Muslim Abbas Eidan Al-Ta’an. You are most welcome to quote from my essay.
All the best,
Camille
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One of the photos on your blog shows a doorway, probably somewhere in Paris, with “double ogive with cats”. Can you tell me what the address is for that particular door? Thanks much,
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Hello, Will James. The double ogive with cats is located at 12 Rue Blomet (15th arrondissement).
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Thank you Much!
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Camille, thank you so much for your blog – all of it! – it awakened emotion i never knew I had.
It’s such an unforgettable experience to see the world through your pictures and your words – my mind is happily wonderstruck.
It makes me want to “shred the map, ditch the crouches, torch the house” and go where you have been …………
Thanks again,
Adam
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Hi, Adam, thank you for your enthusiastic response to my blog. I greatly appreciate your generous words!
Cheers and very best wishes,
Camille
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