First time in print, Weatherall's Down Darkened Corridors is best described by Lydia Schoch as "this collection as a charcuterie board of Weatherall's writing chops. There are little nibbles of many other emotions and experiences sprinkled among his numerous references to the many shapes that loneliness can take: regret, guilt, forgiveness, a bone-deep longing for a better world, and even a few tangy references to how Covid-19 has changed not only our daily habits, but how we live in our most intimate moments when we don't feel safe interacting in person."
Down Darkened Corridors is a jump off point into Weatherall's poetry and writing, replete with commentaries and links to further reading.
"Weatherall's dark poetry is like the edge of a knife with which he pries under his own and the reader's comfort zone. Exposing the ominous hum of his own darkness, Weatherall reminds us that only by facing our shadows and shining a light of introspection on them can we expunge them. Chiselling this shadow world into verses, he gives us hope that with lyrical gentleness we can all find self-forgiveness."
—Jana Begovic,
author of Poisonous Whispers, poet and senior editor at Ariel Chart Literary Journal
"... the philosophical personality emerges from the poet and starkly points out the boring restrictions inherent in social conformity. We learn the "freedom" promoted in congruency is a facsimile destined to morph into a stifling existence for a creative individual."
—Mark Antony Rossi,
Ariel Chart International Journal's Editor-in-Chief
“Sitting at the crossroads of art and life is where Michel excels, as he describes what it's like to have one foot on each side of their respective lines and having no interest in choosing one world over the other.”
—Lydia Schoch,
Science-fiction author & Blogger
Author, Poet, Publisher, Printer, Imagination-weaver. A native of Ottawa, Michel Weatherall grew up as an army-brat living in Europe and Germany and has since travelled extensively.
Having over 37 years experience in the print/publishing industry, the transition to self-publishing was a natural step with his publication company, Broken Keys Publishing & Press.
Weatherall’s current books in print are, The Symbiot 30th Anniversary, The Nadia Edition, Necropolis 10th Anniversary, The Alia Moubayed Edition, The Refuse Chronicles, Ngaro’s Sojourney, Sun & Moon (poetry), Down Darkened Corridors (poetry), and A Dark and Corner of My Soul (poetry).
His poem “This Burden I Bear” appeared in This Could Be The Last Time: A Collection of Poems on Pandemics, Places, and Everything (April 2020) (Apt613).
Other works have appeared in Ariel Chart's International Journal (the poems “Sun & Moon,” “This Burden I Bear,” “Eleven’s Silent Promise” and the sci-fi short story “Rupture,” and several articles), as well as The Indian Periodical (“Jacob's Darkness”). His theological essay “The Voice of Sophia” has been published in American theologian Thomas Jay Oord’s “The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence” (2015).
Accolades and Awards include
2023 Creative Visionary Award
Winner of the 2020-21 Faces of Ottawa Awards Best Author
2023 Best of the Net Nominee for "The Asshattery of Statistics"
2023-2024 Ottawa Awards Best Printer
2022-2023 CommunityVotes Award Best Printer
2022 Top 15 Influential Authors, the Ottawa Faces Magazine
2021 CPACT-NCR Best Publisher
2020-2021 Ottawa Awards Best Publisher
2021 Book of the Year, The Ottawa Awards (Short story appeared in Thin Places: The Ottawan Anthology)
2022 Book of the Year, The Ottawa Awards (poem appeared in Love & Catastrophe Poetre)
2023 Book of the Year, The Ottawa Awards (short stories appeared in Ghosts and Other Chthonic Macabres)
Weatherall's other accolades include
2021 Best of the Net Nominee for “Purgation”
2020-21 Parliamentary Poet Laureate Nominee
2020 Best of the Net Nominee for ”This Burden I Bear”
2019 Pushcart Prize Nominee (Poetry),
2019 FEBE Awards Nominee for Creative Arts,
2019 CPACT Awards Nominee for Entertainment Excellence (Arts),
2018-19 Faces of Ottawa Awards Finalist for Best Author.
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