This anthology features selections from twenty-one works-in-progress by emerging to established writers of poetry, non-fiction, and lyric prose. Portfolio Milieu represents the most thoughtful, innovative and current writing from women writers across the country. Intensely textured, edgy, and often disturbing in both content and form, the writing confounds identification of genre, pushing the margins of possibility. Although commonalities of theme affirm there are issues particular to lives lived as women, many pieces tackle uncommon themes, unusual perspectives.

Contributors: Oana Avasilichioaei, Morgan Chojnacki, Lindsay Diehl, Marilyn Dumont, Susan Andrew Grace, Sandra Huber, Adeena Karasick, Sarah Leavitt, Sylvio Legris, Marcie McCauley, Lori McNulty, Christine Moore, Sarah Murphy, Shauna Paull, Sharron Proulx-Turner, Seema Shah, Nathalie Stephens, Jennifer Still, Meaghan Strimas, Rita Wong, Ongana Yawnghwe.

Morgan Chojnacki's profile page

Christine Leclerc's profile page

Arleen Paré's First book, Paper Trail, was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay BC Book Award for Poetry and won the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize in 2008. Leaving Now, a mixed-genre novel released in 2012, was highlighted on All Lit Up. Lake of Two Mountains, her third book, won the 2014 Governor General's Award for Poetry, was nominated for the Butler Book Prize and won the CBC Bookie Award. Paré's poetry collection, He Leaves His Face in the Funeral Car, was a 2015 Victoria Butler Book Prize finalist. The Girls with Stone Faces, her fifth book, won the American Golden Crown Award for poetry in 2018. Her sixth book, Earle Street, was released in Spring, 2020. She lives in Victoria with her partner of forty years.

Arleen Paré's profile page