D.A. Lockhart

Poetry from its Canadian roots in the hard scrabble edges of Lake Ontario to the big lights where men strut as gods. Leaf Counter is here, released by storied Alberta-based publisher Frontenac House.

#indigenous #poetry #canlit #books #booklover #canlit #writing #lenape #reading

Self care on a frigid day here in Waawiiyaatanong means poetry work on strange new long poem, ordering groceries on line, and generally avoiding leaving the house. Maybe some Jim Harrison reading later. Big day, ya know.

I type this while I eat a cold sconedog: Holy, do I love me a friday night Hhaudenosaunee Gathering. Food, company, and watching the next generations come into the culture. Lenape Skin Dance to close it all out.

#indigenous #windsoressex #lenape

Respect? For stealing from actual Indigenous people? That took no courage. Theft takes no courage. It takes privilege. Privilege to assume what doesn't belong to you should. He never had community. So no Indigenous culture was his. He stole it.

Been reviewing my Works in Progress, trying to figure out what goes out next into the completion queue. Looks like a toss-up between a short-fiction mss (Shift Change) and an Indigenous historical fiction novel (Waters That Divide). Either way, good chance of a fiction/prose pivot in 2026.

#writing

The ghosts of waterways, the markers of lost towns, the medicine we leave behind, is etched in water, frozen or free.

Any season is the right season for books. But the spirit moons in these last months of year call for them more strongly.

#indigenous #poetry #books #writing #reading #midwest

Flow into a new season in one of Canada’s most celebrated literary landscapes, with Leaf Counter. A lyric decolonial romp through the Ontario’s famed Prince Edward County, Leaf Counter draws us through the poetics of the land and the struggles of the poet as decolonizer

#books #indigenous #poetry

Great news for my new science fiction novel, After the Stars Fell. The project has received project funding from @canada.council. This funding will help me to complete this new book in the interconnected scifi universe I am currently working through.

#books #canada #writers #grants #indigenous

And to celebrate the return here, why not a new essay up on the substack.

#substack #oldtv #essays #southwalkerville #writing #poetry #indigenous #story #scifi #detroit

After a crazy few months that saw us sell and buy a house, move, myself publish two new poetry collections, and witness the grand fall of the pretendian Thomas King, I am back on this platform. And looking forward to it. Hello y'all.

As follow up to the post about using Indigenous cultural symbols to promote non-Indigenous events: curator told me that they know best (non-native) and that I could consign some books of mine to sell to make up for it. Pretty gross. Par for 3 centuries of settler occupation.

Cracking 70F in Waawiiyaatanong. Perfect day for MF Doom and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Warm Spring Afternoon. Ignoring the burning world for a few hours. Find your joy, y'all. Survival is only so much.

A photo of poet D.A. Lockhart. Text at the top of the image reads "National Poetry Month on All Lit Up: Tributaries." D.A. is a light skin-toned Indigenous man with long, grey-brown hair and a grey-brown beard, wearing a floral paisley printed blue button down shirt. He looks serious and contemplative. He stands in front of a water reservoir tower at dusk, the sky darkening behind him. There is an inset photo of the cover of his book, Commonwealth.

"The clatter and wallop / of the land beneath us, reads / like the finality of a folk tune"

@dalockhart.bsky.social shares "Union Pacific North to Lake Forest" from his new collection COMMONWEALTH (@kegedoncepress.bsky.social) for today's #ALUtributaries. alllitup.ca/tributaries-...

Can't believe that I have to still say this in 2025: Our culture is not your costume or sales prop. If you are holding event and you have no Indigenous people involved in the event, don't use a medicine wheel as your backdrop.

#yqg #indigenous #hottips.

Absolutely floored by this thoughtful and in-depth review of Commonwealth (Kegedonce Press). My newest collection is still not officially out in the world and in our trying contemporary times, making space for reconciliation and healing of our land is so critical.

#writing #books #poetry #canlit

Back at it again, my socials. Here is a preview of the newest essay about CliFi, Indigenous literature, and how we imagine Futurisms with Min Sterling's Camp Zero at its heat. Read more at substack. Follow along.

#substack #radio #essays #clifi #writing #poetry #indigenous #story #books

Big news: my new short fiction collection, Pishkok at the Dearborn Heights National Coney Island, has received project funding from Ontario Arts Council. This funding will help me to complete a first complete draft of the book.

#writing #books #shortfiction #grants #newwork #ontario #canlit

Honest, one of the strangest new habits we've adopted this year is switching out US/American Beef for Australian Kangaroo. Carbon footprint sucks. Although Aussies are kin, so that's a plus. The pastas and chilis and the like are a lot more tastee. Strange year we're having.

Wanishi,

A small note of gratitude to the Public Lending Right program and to all the work by Writers Union of Canada & Canada Council have done to make this program possible and successful. The support helps myself and countless others in the writing community across Canada.
#writing #plr #canlit

Been away for bit, spinning vinyl and putting pen/ink to paper, and taking in some wrestling to finish off this new Bret Hart/Al Purdy poem. Let me say this: Wrestling is absolutely a framework for a rooted, cross-cultural poetics. Will have to write it all down. But it's there.

#poetry #writing

Nations and borders organize wealth and power against those same people they demand wave their pretty multicoloured rags... Poetry | D.A. Lockhart | Issue 43

Sneak peek from Issue 43 of Send My Love to Anyone--a poem from @dalockhart.bsky.social's new poetry collection Commonwealth (Kegedonce Press!)

sendmylovetoanyone.substack.com/p/nations-an...

Blows my mind that neither CBC nor countless Non Natives can wrap their heads and actions around the fact that Thomas King is not Indigenous. What is going to take?

#writing #books #indigenous #native #canlit

Honoured to have North of Middle Island reviewed in the Seaboard Review. Wanishi to Dr. Robinson for taking the time to talk about this strange book.

Been cleaning up these John Prince Centos today and this had led me down many a strange rabbit hole. Most recent one is writing up small bio for Lord Cathcart, 2nd Earl of Cathcart, who was in Montreal. Decolonizing his stuff too.

#writing #canada #history #poetry #indigenous

Wrapping an essay about being Lenape and witnessing the total eclipse from a American homestead on the Canadian side of Lake Erie. A piece of mythologies, borders, and the lake that supports us all. Submission this week.

#writing #indigenous #midwest #water #lakes

Fresh book review up at Fiddlehead for an absolute classic of Indigenous poetry. Revisit Emily Riddle's 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize winner The Big Melt.

#poetry #books #reviews #canlit #indigenous #writing

Thrilled to announce that my Indigi-Scifi Novel What Lies Beneath has received an Ontario Arts Council work-in-progress project grant. This funding will enable me to finish the manuscript and revisions to this exciting me endeavor in storytelling and writing for me.

#writing #books #scifi #grants

Strange breakthrough in writing this evening. Hit the anchor poem, the final poem, for a grant project I was wrapping up. Hot lyric action at the ONroute outside Woodstock, ON on the 401 makes this night a wrap.

#writing #poem #canlit #authors #nightwork

Been organizing and listening my vinyl library today. And definitely feeling that we lose so much by the Spotify algorithm. The joy of collection to what you find, owning it, physically have to start and stop it. Music as an act not a formless commodity. Remembering joy.

#music #vinyl #listening

Ended up writing up this strange little essay about Robotech and specifically Lynne Minmay and how art and war and survival are all wrapped up in this odd little thought exercise. Perhaps something to follow.

#writing #essays #anime #authors