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![[c12d2bd8-6e3d-45d1-aaea-75890054afe9_2048x1536.jpg]] King’s is the proud home to one of Canada’s best Humanities camps for teens, and this summer I got to be the camp’s academic director. This involved selecting a theme, texts, lecturers, and designing the program of activities and workshops (take a look at the official schedule for the program below). As you can probably imagine, the week was a whirlwind ride that did not let up until the very end of our seven-day program. ...

I love Open Heart Forgery. They put out a new 8.5x11 edition of local poems every month, appearing folded like brochures in libraries and on park benches around the city. I have a rule that I submit one poem to OHF a year. I try to pick poems that I love, but that feel personal enough for this format. See the complete issue below. This year’s poem is about a sunset I witnessed in Caronport, Saskatchewan out on the grid roads. ...

“Why don’t we ever do anything with final books of Augustine’s Confessions”, I complained to Neil Robertson, director of [[foundation-year-program|Foundation Year Program]], in the Spring of 2024. “Why don’t we do an extra lecture on them sometime in the Fall?” Augustine’s Confessions is most famous for being the world’s first work of self-conscious autobiography. The problem is the story of Augustine’s life only occupies the first two-thirds of the text. Most people don’t read the last four books, which is understandable because they are very strange. But I think it’s also sad, because while strange, they communicate the philosophical/cosmic/theological centre of the entire work. ...

Living in Halifax for the past 10 years has been a process of becoming aware of, and then falling in love with Atlantic Canadian art. I’ve been especially taken by the 20th century school of realism based around the Art College at Mount Allison in Sackville, NB. This piece reproduces a talk I gave at the University of King’s College Chapel in the Spring of 2024. The prompt was “Hope without Optimism.” This immediately brought to mind for me a passage from Chesterton’s Orthodoxy about the spiritual virtues of the realist–the one who neither judges the world (like the pessimist) nor loves a part of the world at the expense of the whole (like the optimist). The realist loves the world as it is and for what it is. I have found that beginning from this insight opens the door to appreciating in new ways those artists who dedicated their lives to the vision of the Real. ...

There is really so much amazing music coming out every day. It’s hard to know how to navigate even a small selection. Since getting back into music in 2024, I’ve been trying an experiment in my listening habits. The intention has been to learn as much as I can about Canadian folk and country music as I can. This essay reflects on what I’ve learned from that project so far. ...

Where Love Goes by Matthew Joel “Where Love Goes” was written by Matthew Joel Vanderkwaak and recorded in Echo Lake and Dartmouth, NS with Kurtis Eugene in 2025. This single comes with a Bandcamp exclusive bonus track–a special piano ballad interpretation of the song featuring Andrew Killawee. Credits released October 24, 2025 Vocals by Matthew Joel. Additional vocals by Rachel Kimmelman. Pedal steel and electric guitar by Tavis Weir. Electric bass, electric guitar, piano, organ, and drums by Kurtis Eugene. Mixed and mastered by Kurtis Eugene. ...

![[crucifixion_strasbourg.png]] There are several lectures in Foundation Year Program that are infamous for being “impossible.” This is one of them. It is the only New Testament lecture in the year, but in addition to introducing the lives of Jesus and the Apostles, it is also the only lecture on the early church, the martyrs, and the emergence of an imperial church. Further, it serves the purpose of bridging our sections on the ancient and medieval world–a love letter and farewell to the Roman Empire that must also look ahead to Augustine, Dante, and beyond. ...

![[boethius.jpg]] Shoal Lake must be one of the most beautiful places on earth. It’s home to Manitoba Pioneer Camp. One of my oldest and best friends, Nathan Rempel is the camp director and for the inaugural year of a new off-season program at the camp, he invited me to come and teach on a text of my choosing. This was a really special weekend in a really special place. I’m so thankful to the participants who took this 1,500-year-old book so seriously, asked such good questions, and willingly recited poetry out loud. ...

A poem about the only pet I’ve ever loved. A big thanks to my favourite local poetry publication, Open Heart Forgery, for printing this. ![[Screenshot 2026-07-29 at 11.43.56 AM.png]] “Gus (2013–2020).” Open Heart Forgery 16, no. 6 (2025).

![[Screenshot 2026-07-29 at 1.12.47 PM.png]] I wrote this for Kevin Alexander’s wonderful music Substack, On Repeat Records. It tells the story of how I met Andy Shauf as a teen. There is a companion piece to this one on my newsletter here. While working on these essays I made a remix of one of my favourite songs from the Foxwarren album, which I’ll share below. “On the Chance Encounters That Form Our Musical Tastes.” On Repeat Records, July 23, 2025. ...