Alumna Writes with a Lucky Rabbit's Foot in her Pocket (Not Literally)

April Bulmer MA ‘96

“I think I am driven to write because I’m quite shy and quiet,” says April Bulmer MA ’96. “I am able to express myself best in writing. I also love metaphors and imagery and enjoy exploring these visual elements in my poetry.”

Bulmer is a successful poet who has had nine books of poetry published by reputable publishers, including two with Windsor-based Black Moss Press.

Her newest book, Creeds and Remedies: The Feminine and Religion in Waterloo Region, was published in May 2017. Like many of Bulmer’s, it focuses on themes based on feminist beliefs and spirituality. It’s a keen interest she traces back to her Master of Arts degree in religious studies, which focused on women and religion.

Creeds and Remedies’ collection of stories and poems was developed from personal interviews and explores women's views and experiences in a wide range of faiths and belief systems.

Bulmer, who lives in Cambridge, Ont., received two grants to write the book: one from the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund and another from the Ontario Arts Council. 

“I think I have a rabbit's foot when it comes to publishing and have nine books now,” she says. “But it is still a challenge to have poems accepted in literary magazines, especially since so much of my work is about esoteric beliefs in the divine.”

Bulmer says that “It’s challenging to translate some of the beliefs and traditions I've studied into verse form: to present them in a clear and yet lyrical way.”

Her works have been well received. Windsor poet Mary Ann Mulhern reviewed Bulmer’s book Women of the Cloth in 2013 and wrote: "April Bulmer mingles Native Indian and Christian symbols in her chalice of words. She creates a tense landscape of nature and grace, an unsettled, haunted beauty of spirit, flesh and blood. Bulmer's brilliant metaphors bring the reader inside, to explore, to wonder."

John B. Lee, Poet Laureate of Brantford, wrote: "If great poems are sometimes a conversation with the soul, then these fully imagined poems reveal what the soul has to say when the poet is listening... in that gender is often essential to our way of seeing. I am most grateful for the luminous, feminine visionary source of the insights made available by the presence of April Bulmer's poetry in my library." 

Canadian poet Kathrine Gordon called Bulmer’s 2016 book And With Thy Spirit (Hidden Brook Press) "a landmark of literature to cherish and reference as we evolve from static views into a discovery of our own divinity and purpose." 

Bulmer grew up in the poetically named Sherwood Forest area of Mississauga, Ont. After she received her undergraduate bachelor of arts from York University, she moved to Toronto where she worked at TVOntario and, eventually, Maclean's magazine. She wrote a column for two years in the alternative publication The Cambridge Citizen about a variety of spiritual topics.

She elected to attend the University of Windsor because of its graduate program in religious studies. “I was excited to learn that the University of Windsor offered an emphasis on women and religion. I am a feminist and thought this sounded like a theme that would interest me.”

She learned about traditions in a variety of religions that focused on women and others that limited them. “I was also intrigued by courses like Eastern Religions and Contemporary Spirituality that included teachings about women in their curriculum.”

Her final paper focused on contemporary Christian theologies by and about women. Dr. Norman King, department head at that time, arranged for her to take a course at the University of Detroit Mercy. “I was the only graduate student to take part in the exchange program that year,” she recalls. Bulmer took the course, Black Religion in the U.S., and eventually wrote a poem about a black woman and her religious environment later published in her book, HIM (Black Moss Press).

Bulmer began to write poetry as a late teenager and attended poetry workshops as an undergraduate. Eventually, she earned a master of art in creative writing at Concordia University in Montreal, Que. 

For those who dream of becoming a published writer, Bulmer says that, “First, it is important to be disciplined and to write often to develop a personal poetic voice or the ability to create characters who speak the language of poetry.”

She advises researching national and international literary journals and publishers to become familiar with their guidelines and focus. For example, the Ontario Poetry Society (TOPS) runs poetry contests and offer a membership that allows writers to publish in their newsletter and attend reading events. 

Writing workshops and organizations are an effective way to test whether poems work and communicate effectively. “These groups also offer support and friendship to writers at all levels and who might feel a little isolated.” She belongs to the Cambridge Writers Collective.”

Bulmer, who also writes freelance articles and sells them to local magazines in Waterloo Region, says she doesn’t have a “day job”. Instead, “I hope that I might be making a difference in the lives of my readers, as I offer alternative ways of approaching and understanding the divine.

“I often do this in my poetry in the form of metaphor and hope that the concepts are visual and somewhat memorable.”