Contemporary Verse 2 (CV2) is celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2025 with a slew of issues championing emerging voices and honouring the contributions of those who built the magazine.
The recently released summer issue of the magazine features local and national talents on multiple levels from poetry to photography to layout. According to managing editor Ava Glendinning, CV2 offers a unique opportunity for emerging and established artists alike to showcase their creativity in one of the country’s oldest poetry publications.
“I think it’s really special and really important to have something like this,” she said in an interview on Morning Light. “It lets people get their work out there and share their art without having to be a published poet or even as a way to get their start and kind of build up their work and maybe have something later that they’re able to publish as a full book or a chapbook.”
Throughout its 50th anniversary year, CV2 has been celebrating their legacy of championing some of the great Canadian poets over that time. “One special thing about this [issue] was that we gathered a lot of archival poetry,” explains Glendinning. “We collaborated with longtime editor Clarise Foster, who ran CV2T and did so many good things for it about 20 years. She came back and went through a bunch of the archival issues."
Some of that archival work allowed the magazine to pay tribute to its founder, Dorothy Livesay, who passed away in 1996. Although she’s only been managing editor for a little under a year, Glendinning says that as she learns more about Livesay, the greater the honour of carrying on her legacy. “I knew that she was the founder of this magazine and that we pay tribute to her,” she says. “I was looking through it and wow, she was actually an amazing person! So much activism and work for gender equality."
With the summer edition out in the world, CV2 now turns its attention to the fall edition, which Glendinning says will be out sometime in November. In the meantime, the magazine will also continue its work with developing local voices, hosting workshops and opportunities for new voices.
To learn more about the summer edition of CV2 celebrating their 50th anniversary or acquiring a copy, readers are encouraged to visit their website.