In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Toronto poet Guy Elston about his debut poetry collection, The Character Actor Convention (Gordon Hill Press/Porcupine's Quill, 2025).

A pumpkin writes a letter to his father. A sheep recalls a revolution, and love. Hydrogen pens a tell-all expos of Oxygen. The Stick Insect Orders His Tomb. Napoleon counts waves and cheats at cards. A sunflower seeks answers - why sun? A crow considers children in this cruel, spiky world. And allthe while, character actors gather for the endless convention...

Guy Elston's debut poetry collection, The Character Actor Convention, is a curious smorgasbord of personas, new voices and (un)natural perspectives. Through impossible encounters and strange viewpoints an insistent, ever-shifting 'I' questions its relation to reality, and itself. Wist, wit, obsession and irony rise like tides, are forgotten, and start fresh. Authenticity is always just round the corner.

The Character Actor Convention is not urgent, timely or topical. It's something else.

Guy Elston was born and raised in Oxford, UK. After various jobs, journeys and other lifetimes he surfaced in Toronto in 2020. He has an MA in History from the University of Amsterdam. Since moving to Canada his poetry has been published by The Malahat Review, Canadian Literature, Event, The Literary Review of Canada, Vallum, The Antigonish Review and other journals. His chapbook Automatic Sleep Mode was published by Anstruther Press in 2023. His debut full-length collection, The Character Actor Convention, is forthcoming from The Porcupine's Quill in 2025. Guy lives in Toronto and can be found at poetry events. He's a member of the Meet the Presses collective and is a first reader for Untethered magazine.

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