Jesse Keith Butler

Jesse Keith Butler is an award-winning poet, based in Ottawa, Ontario. His work bridges traditional and contemporary poetic forms, rooted in his experience of the life of faith. He recently was a third place winner in the Kierkegaard Poetry Competition, judged by Dana Gioia and Mary Grace Mangano. See below for links to published poems.

Butler’s first book, The Living Law, was published by Darkly Bright Press in 2024. It can be ordered from your local bookstore, Indigo/Chapters, Amazon Canada, Amazon US, Eighth Day Books, or straight from the publisher (only in the US).

“With this debut collection, Jesse Butler is joining the growing group of Canadian poets who are taking poetry away from the academy and returning it to a broader audience of poetry lovers. Butler’s poems are thoughtful, well-crafted, and a pleasure to read.” — A.M. Juster, author of Wonder & Wrath

“The Ministry of Water Levels” – Arc Poetry, Frock Consciousness: the Spring 2024 Issue (only available in print)

“The Valley Between the Floods” – The Chained Muse, April 2024

“On Overlooking the Prehistoric Champlain Sea” – flo., Sojourns and Odysseys (only available in print)

“Immersion” – The Chained Muse, January 2024

2023

“Lightning Strikes Churches” – Dappled Things, Mary, Queen of Angels, 2023

“Lightning Strikes Churches” – Homage to Søren Kierkegaard: Poems in Memory of Reverend Ronald Marshall, Wiseblood Books (only available in print)

“Odysseus’ Oar” – THINK: A Journal of Poetry, Fiction, and Essays, Summer/Fall 2023 (only available in print)

“The Boatwright” – Blue Unicorn, Spring 2023 (only available in print)

“A Hermit’s Elegy” – Ekstasis Magazine, Spring 2023

“Sunrise Over Crow Puddle” and “The Life We Chose” – THINK: A Journal of Poetry, Fiction, and Essays, Winter/Spring 2023 (only available in print)

“A Strand of Sound” – Ekstasis Magazine, Winter 2023

“Villanelle of the Elect” – Solum Journal, Winter 2023

“Nepotism Also Slams It Open” – Asses of Parnassus, February 2023

2022

“Too Much Morningtime” – Better than Starbucks, November 2022

“Beneath the Buzzing Brainstem” – Ekstasis Magazine, Issue 9

“The Lonesome Blues” – The Orchards Poetry Journal, Summer 2022

“The Life of the Lake” – Cloud Lake Literary, Volume 4 (Paywall)

Older work can be found at Darkly Bright Press.

 

Media

Interview on rob mclennan’s blog.

Feature on the Kingdom Poets blog, March 2024.

Interview on Let Go the Goat Podcast, December 2023.

Feature on Chaudiere Books blog, May 2022.

Connect with me on Twitter or on Instagram.

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