Published by Asemana Books (March 19, 2026)
WHERE WORDS DEFEAT BULLETS
An Anthology
Poems for Iranian People and Their 2026 Uprising
Compiled by
Mansour Noorbakhsh
Albert Moritz, Bruce Meyer, Susan Ksiezopolski, Bruce Hunter, Mark McAlister, Olga Stein, Cy Strom, Peta-Gaye Nash, Keith Garebian, Diana Manole, Patrick Connors, Patricia Keeney, Brenda Clews, Brett Campbell, John Oughton, Peter Taylor, Josephine LoRe, I.B. Iskov, Lynn Xu, Hiram Larew, Sylvia Petter, Claudia Piccinno, Emil Nicolae, Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews Elizabeth Barnes, Elana Wolff, Mahdi Ganjavi, Mbizo Chirasha, Niels Hav, Richard Harrison, EVA Petropoulou Lianou, Antje Stehn, Stephen Kent Roney, PJ Yukon, Kelly Kaur, Chris Wanamaker, Anne Sorbie
To purchase a paper copy via Amazon, click here.
To Purchase a paper copy via Lulu, click here.
To Purchase the kindle version, click here.
Where Words Defeat Bullets is born from a moment of profound grief and unyielding courage. In January 2026, as peaceful protesters in Iran were met with violence, silence was imposed through internet shutdowns, and countless lives were taken or forever altered, poets refused to let truth be buried. Gathering in solidarity in Toronto—and joined by others who later added their voices—these writers transformed mourning into language, and language into resistance. This anthology stands as a testament to the belief that even in the darkest hours, words can rise where weapons fall.
This collection affirms the enduring power of poetry to confront tyranny and defend human dignity. The poems in this volume do not answer violence with violence; they answer it with memory, conscience, and humanity. Where Words Defeat Bullets is both a tribute to those who have suffered and a declaration that expression cannot be extinguished. When repression seeks silence, poetry speaks—and in speaking, it endures.
About the Poets
Albert Moritz
A. F. Moritz’s new book of poems is The Wren (2026), his 23rd. Almost simultaneously he is publishing his English version of Juan Ramón Jiménez’s great 1918 book Eternities, which Homero Aridjis calls “one of the very best translations of any of the great Spanish-language poets”.
Bruce Meyer
Bruce Meyer is the author of 80 books of poems, short stories, flash fiction, non-fiction, literary journalism, translations. Edited anthologies, and textbooks. He was the subject of Guernica Editions’ 2024 critical volume Bruce Meyer: Studies in His Works edited by Benjamin Berman Ghan and Bruce Meyer: Inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Barrie by Juan de Dios Toralbo Cabellero (published in Spain). Winner of numerous national and international awards and medals, his works have been translated into Spanish, French, Bengali, Mandarin, Italian, German, Danish, and Greek. He as Director of the Writing and Literature Orogram at the university of Toronto, professor of Liberal Studies at Georgian College, professor of Literature and Writing at the University of Toronto, and was writer in residence at the University of Texas and the University of Southern Mississippi. He has also taught at several Ontario universities and was the subject of a course at the University of Windsor. He lives in Barrie Ontario with his wife Kerry.
Susan Ksiezopolski
Susan Ksiezopolski an award-winning poet, has published two poetry collections, My Words, and Writing for Change, The Writer’s Workbook and Fuel Your Creativity Journal. She is an advocate who explores the intersection of creativity, healing, and mental wellness. A graduate of the Humber School for Writers and founder of WriteWell, she facilitates workshops using writing to build emotional resilience.
In 2021, she received the Arts for Mental Health award. Her documentary, “Art of Wellness,” earned international short-list recognition in 2022. In 2025 Mosaic Press released, Susan’s latest book My Transplanted Life, which poignantly examines themes of immigration, identity, and belonging.
Bruce Hunter
Bruce Hunter’s award-winning best-selling novel In the Bear’s House, his 12th book, was just released in May by Frontenac House. In 2024, his novel Nella casa dell’orso (In the House of the Bear) was published in Italy by iQdB edizioni. In 2023, his poetry collection Galestro was published in Italy. Bruce’s poetry, fiction, reviews, interviews, and creative nonfiction have appeared in over 100 blogs, journals, and anthologies internationally. He is a proud new grandfather to Julian, Alice, Lucas, and wee Theo.
Mark McAlister
Mark grew up in Toronto. After High School, he studied movement and creative speech in Spring Valley, New York. He went on to have a career as a management consultant. He founded Warm Handshakes Inc., organizing business development programs in the tech sector in communities across Ontario. His deep interest in the mystery of human communication was a critical factor in his practice. Now retired, he is devoted to creative writing projects, and to organizing and presenting at Speaking Word events.
He lives with his wife Debbie at Hesperus Village, just north of Toronto.
Olga Stein
Olga Stein has a PhD in Canadian literature and cultural studies. She’s an editor and essayist. Her first poetry collection, Love Songs: Prayers to Gods, Not Men, was published in July of 2025.
CY Strom
Cy Strom works as an editor. Together with poet and essayist Bänoo Zan, he co-edited the international poetry anthology Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution (Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2025).
Peta-Gaye Nash
Peta-Gaye Nash is a multi-genre writer of adult short fiction, children’s literature and poetry. She is known for captivating storytelling, vivid characters and insight into the human experience. Her short story collection, Told Ya – Stories is published by Tamarind Tree Books, 2024 and explores themes of class differences, adversity, endurance, and resilience. Told Ya – Stories won Third Place Fiction in the 2025 Next Generation Indie Book Awards; Distinguished Favourite in the 2025 NYC Big Book Award program; Winner Short Stories Category 2025 Independent Press Award.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica and having lived in Ontario for over twenty years, Peta-Gaye draws inspiration from the rich tapestry of the Caribbean, her mixed race heritage and the immigrant life. She is the author of short adult fiction, I Too Hear the Drums and seven children’s books. Her short stories and poems have appeared in several anthologies and she blogs on her website http://www.petagayenash.com about all manner of things, especially personal growth and self-help. In 2015, she won the Mississauga Arts Awards (the Marty’s) for Emerging Literary Art and in 2022 she won the same for Established Literary Art, as well as two Observer Literary Awards in her hometown, Kingston, Jamaica. Peta-Gaye lives and works in Mississauga. She is currently working on her first novel.
Keith Garebian
Keith Garebian has received plaudits for his twelve poetry collections, especially Children of Ararat, Poetry is Blood, Against Forgetting, and In the Bowl of My Eye. Two of his poems have been set to music, one by American Gregory Spears, the second by Juliet Palmer in Toronto. Garebian recorded 18 of his poems from Poetry is Blood on CD. Garebian has served on juries for the Gerald Lampert and Raymond Souster Awards, and has won many awards and grants, including a writing grant from the Canada Council, and over three dozen from the OAC, and last year Guernica published an anthology of essays about his works.
Diana Manole
Writer, translator, and scholar, Diana Manole was born in Bucharest, Romania, and in 2000 emigrated to Canada. Her poetry was featured in English and/or in translation in literary magazines in fifteen countries. Diana was nominated for a Pushcart prize and awarded the 2020 Very Small Verse prize of the League of Canadian Poets and Honorable Mention in the 2023 Lush Triumphant Poetry of subterrain magazine, Canada. The English-Romanian dual-language “Praying to a Landed-Immigrant God” (Grey Borders Books, 2023) is her seventh collection of poems. Since 2013, Diana has been dreaming and writing in English. You can read more of her work at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianamanole/
Patrick Connors
Patrick Connors is the author of The Other Life and The Long Defeat, both published by Mosaic Press. Recent publications include Asemana Magazine, Spadina Literary Review, Paddler Press Faith Issue, and Dissident Voice. He is a manager for the Toronto chapter of 100,000 Poets for Change.
Patricia Keeney
Patricia Keeney is an award-winning author of over a dozen volumes of published poems, novels and criticism. A long-time professor of English, Creative Writing and Humanities at Toronto’s York University, she has taught and given readings across Canada, the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Bulgarian, Hindi and Chinese. Website: wapiti words.ca
Brenda Clews
Brenda Clews is a Zimbabwe-born Canadian multimedia poet, painter, videopoet & photographer. Her books include Tidal Fury (Guernica, 2016), also in an Italian translation, Furia delle marree (PlusPlas Edizioni, 2024) and a prose poetry novella, Fugue in Green (Quattro, 2017). She’s published in journals and e-zines. Her artwork has appeared on journal covers, in solo & group shows- it is also featured on her book covers. Her website is https://brendaclews.com.
Brett Campbell
Brett Campbell was born in London, Ontario to a father with Scottish roots and a mother with Ukrainian heritage. He moved to Toronto with his family as a young child. While completing his degree in English literature in the early 1980’s, he developed an interest in poetry.
Brett’s poems have appeared in many different literary journals and anthologies including The Grammateion, Lichen, Labour of Love, Phoenix Anthology 2001, The Art Bar Poetry Series Team Reading Anthology and others. He is the author of two collections of poetry, I SEND LETTERS, published in 2004, and Alchemy, published in 2025.
John Oughton
John Oughton grew up in Guelph, Ontario. After sojourns in Nova Scotia, Iraq, Egypt, and Japan, he now resides in Toronto’s Beaches area. He has published six poetry books (Most recently The Universe and All That), a mystery novel, and a book about post secondary teaching as well as around 500 articles, reviews, blogs, and interviews and several chapbooks (most recently, Double Vision). John retired as Professor of Learning and Teaching from Centennial College, where he taught English and then led faculty development. His current pursuits include guitar, photography, and kayaking. He is the Treasurer e of the Writers Union of Canada.
Peter Taylor
Peter Taylor has published seven books and chapbooks and his poems have appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada and in more than a dozen countries. His latest book, Cities Within Us (Guernica Editions), was shortlisted for the Welsh Poetry Book Awards, and Antietam (Winning Writers), his experimental verse play on the Civil War, was awarded honourable mention in the War Poetry Contest in Northampton, Massachusetts. He holds a master’s degree in English Literature and has worked as a printer and bookbinder, medical publisher, institute director and non-profit executive. Born in Edmonton, he lives in Aurora.
Josephine LoRe’s poetry has been read on stage and in global zoom-rooms, put to music, danced, integrated into visual art, and published in anthologies and collections in 11 countries and 4 languages. Publications include FreeFall and Vallum in Canada, Fixed & Free and Tiny Seed Journal in the US, Constellate in England, Ireland’s Same Page Anthology, and the Wild Word in Germany. Josephine has two collections, Unity and the Calgary Herald Bestseller The Cowichan Series. https://www.josephinelorepoet.com/
I.B. (Bunny) Iskov – is the Founder of The Ontario Poetry Society, http://www.theontariopoetrysociety.ca. Bunny has several poetry collections, and she has won numerous contest prizes. Bunny is the recipient of the Absolutely Fabulous Woman Award, 2017. Her most recent collection is “One Place the Light Remains”, Mosaic Press, 2025.
Lynn Xu, an observer, a reader, a learner of life, it is my strong belief that though we cannot choose the culture we are born to, we can break all boundaries by expanding our inner visions, and poetry is one of the doors that opens my vision.
Hiram Larew’s work appears widely in English and other languages. His most recent collection, This Much Very, was published in 2025 by Alien Buddha Press. He founded Poetry X Hunger to bring a world of poets to the anti-hunger cause. HiramLarewPoetry.com and PoetryXHunger.com
Sylvia Petter, born 1949 in Vienna, is an Australian. Her stories have been widely published. Her debut novel, All the Beautiful Liars, was published by Eye Books, UK, in 2021. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, and is currently working on her second novel, Ambergris.
Claudia Piccinno is a teacher, poet and translator. She has been the Continental Director for Europe in the World Festival Poetry from April 2019 to september 2021, she is the artistic director for the Versatili Versi and Con-versi-amo con il Mondo festivals. She is the recipient of many national awards among these: Gold medal Frate Ilaro 2017, Ossi di Seppia prize 2020, Pannunzio 2022, Murazzi aknowledgement for culture, translation prizes in Paestum, Massa Carrara, Mugello. She is meritorious of the Municipality of Castel Maggiore (Bo) for cultural merits.
EMIL NICOLAE (Emanuel Nadler, b. 1947 at Bacau, Romania; he lives in Piatra Neamț) – writer, journalist, museum curator, art critic, translator. Member of the Writers’ Union of Romania (since 1990).
He has published 29 books of poetry, essays, studies, and art albums. His most recent publication is Emanuel Speaks (poetry & confessions, 2022).
He has received poetry and literary criticism awards granted by the Writers’ Union – Iași Branch (2000, 2006, 2012, 2018, 2023), as well as the Order of Cultural Merit, Knight rank, awarded by the President of Romania (2004).
He holds the title of “Honorary Citizen of the Municipality of Piatra-Neamț” (2018).
Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews has written seven collections of poetry and two non-fiction books. Her work appears in various journals and anthologies among which: Canadian Literature, The Malahat Review, Descant, The Canada Literary Review, Acta Victoriana, Canadian Poetry Review, The Blue Nib and Lothlorien, among others. Her poetry won first prize in the 2023 International Poetry Prize in Rome’s Antonio De Ferraris contest. Her poem “The First Time I Heard Leonard Cohen” was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize. Her latest book of poems, A Nomenclature for Light was released September 2025 by Mosaic Press. Josie is a member of The League of Canadian Poets, the Ontario Poetry Society, the Italian Canadian Writers Association and The Heliconian Club for Women in the Literary Arts. She teaches workshops for Poetry in Voice and is the host & coordinator of The Oakville Literary Cafe series.
Poetry and writing poetry have helped me along the way, to understand myself and others and to make sense of the comings and goings of this world. It has opened my eyes to many layers of experience and meaning which I will continue to explore. Elizabeth Barnes
Elana Wolff writes from the ancestral land of the Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat First Nations in Ontario. Her poems have recently been featured in Anacapa Review, Best Canadian Poetry 2024, Blood+Honey, Gyroscope Review, Horseshoe Literary Journal, The Nelligan Review, Paragon Magazine, Pinhole Poetry, Public Reverie, and The/tEmz /Review. Her cross-genre Kafka-quest work, Faithfully Seeking Franz, received the 2024 Canadian Jewish Literary Award in the category of Jewish Thought and Culture. Her poetry collection, Everybody Knows a Ghost, is soon forthcoming.
Mahdi Ganjavi
Mahdi Ganjavi is a poet, publisher, and professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. His work explores Middle Eastern studies, Cold War knowledge production, and print culture. He is the author of Education and the Cultural Cold War: The Franklin Book Program in Iran (I.B. Tauris). As editor-in-chief of Asemana Magazine and director of Asemana Books, he amplifies diasporic, underrepresented, progressive, and decolonial voices. Ganjavi has published a novel, two short story collections, and five poetry collections, including The Galaxy Has No Memory of Sunset. His work bridges scholarship, resistance, and cultural memory through multilingual, community-driven publishing.
Mbizo Chirasha is the founder of the Writing Ukraine Prize and a UNESCO-RILA Affiliate Artist. He has been a Free-Speech Fellow to PEN-Zentrum Deutschland, African Fellow at IHRAF (USA), and Guest Writer at Glasgow University. His residencies include Fictional Cafe (USA), Sotambe Film Festival (Zambia), and ICACD (Ghana). He curated the Voices of Africa and co-edited The Second Name of Earth is Peace. Chirasha is chief editor at Time of the Poet Republic, founding editor at WomaWords Literary Press, and curator of Africa Writers Caravan. His books include A Letter to the President, Pilgrims of Zame, and co-authored Whispering Woes of Ganges and Zambezi. His works—poetry, essays, fiction—appear in over 1000 publications worldwide, including The Evergreen Review, Poetry London, FemAsia Magazine, Ink Sweat and Tears, The Bezine, Poetry Pacific, and Festival de Poesia Medellin.
Facebook Account www.facebook.com/mbizowachirasha
Wikipedia www.wikipedia.com/mbizochirasha
Niels Hav is a full-time writer with awards from the Danish Arts Counsil. His books are widely translated, and he is frequently interviewed by the media, as he has travelled widely in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America.
Niels Hav was raised on a farm in western Denmark, today he resides in the most colourful and multi-ethnic part of the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
His recent book Moments of Happiness is published by Anvil Press in Vancouver.
Richard Harrison is the author of seven books of poetry, among them the Governor General’s Award winning On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood. His work also appears in Beau Beausoleil and Deema Shehabi’s anthology, Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: Poets and Writers Respond to the March 5, 2007 Bombing of Baghdad’s ‘Street of Booksellers’” and in the international photography and text exhibit about missing and executed Iraqi academics, Shadows and Light. With accompanying translation, the poem “Iran Under Theocracy” was aired first on the Farsi-language radio program Namaashoum.
Eva Petropoulou-Lianou was born in Xylokastro, Greece. Initially she loved journalism and in 1994 she worked as a journalist for the French newspaper “Le Libre Journal” but her love for Greece won her over and she returned in 2002. She has published books and eBooks: “Me and my other self, my shadow” Saita publications, “Geraldine and the Lake elf” in English – French, as well as “The Daughter of the Moon”, in the 4th edition, in Greek – English, Oselotos publications. Her work has been included in the Greek Encyclopedia Haris Patsis, p. 300. Her books have been approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus, for the Student and Teacher library.
Antje Stehn, member of German Exile-PEN, of the Italian Collective “Poetry is my Passion”. She collaborates with the Piccolo Museo della Poesia, Italy and she is co-editor of the magazine TamTamBumBum. She has published five poetry Chapbooks. In 2022 her bilingual book Grotesque, Expeditionen Verlag, in 2024 her latest book Guerra. Since 2020 she is curating the art-poetry projects “Rucksack a Global Poetry Patchwork“, in 2023 “Hair in the Wind“ in solidarity with the Iranian movement “Woman, Life, Freedom” and in 2024 the antiwar project “The View of the other from a different point of yiew” which each involved more than 250 international poets. Her poems are translated into twelve different languages, published in many international anthologies and magazines.
Stephen Kent Roney is widely published in Canada and abroad and winner of the 2021 Mensa World Poetry Prize. He currently resides in Saint John, New Brunswick, with a view of the sea.
PJ Yukon, Canadian poet PJ Yukon was invested as Yukon Poet Laureate in 19194. Known for her literary works and advocacy for animal welfare, particularly for sled dogs, she is the author of several books of poetry. Recognized for her contributions to Yukon arts and culture, she is known for her live performances and storytelling incorporating music and spoken words. Her works reflect her connection to the Yukon and its people. She is considered a prominent figure in Canadian literature.
Kelly Kaur is a writer, author, and speaker. She was recognized at the Alberta Legislature for her writing and for honoring Punjabi Sikh heritage for her children’s book, Howdy, I’m Singh Hari. She was awarded the 2025 South Asian Inspiration Award for Achievement in Arts and Culture (SAIA) and was a recipient of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award in 2024. Kelly has a novel, Letters to Singapore, a poem on the Moon, and an upcoming poetry collection – My Love is a Durian. She’s a reader for the International Human Rights Art Movement, New York, and a two-time TEDx presenter.
A retired clinical social worker and Anglican priest, in recent years Chris Wanamaker has created and hosted podcasts and radio shows featuring poets, fiction writers and political commentators. On these shows and at open mics he also shares his own poetry. He writes prose poetry in simple language that sometimes tells a story and uses imagery to convey movement and feeling.
Chris has lived and worked in many parts of Canada, including Canada’s north, where he experienced life in small, cold, dark, isolated and insulated northern communities.
Anne Sorbie is a writer Scottish born, Canadian writer. She has published four books, the latest of which is (M)othering, an anthology (co-edited with Heidi Grogan). Her work has appeared online at CBC Books, and in a range of Canadian magazines and journals.
One of her latest and deepest commitments is advocating for folks in long term care.
As an act of social protest, Anne is currently writing about love and hope
The 4th Poet Laureate of Toronto (2012-15) and the 7th Parliamentary/Canadian Poet Laureate (2016-17), George Elliott Clarke was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1960. An English prof at the University of Toronto, Clarke has taught at Duke, McGill, UBC, and Harvard. Laurels? Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellows Prize, Governor-General’s Award for Poetry, National Magazine Gold Award for Poetry, Premiul Poesis (Romania), Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction, Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry (US). Basta!
Mansour Noorbakhsh
Mansour Noorbakhsh, author of “In Search of Shared Wishes, FriesenPress 2017”, “Till You Recognize Me, Mosaic Press 2024”, and “Powdery Wings, Mosaic Press 2024”. Member of “The Ontario Poetry Society”, “The Writers’ Union of Canada” and “League of Canadian Poets”. He has presented “The Contemporary Canadian Poets” and “The World Poets” in a weekly Persian radio program from 2020 to 2024.