Wine & Words: recap

During his prefatory remarks at tonight's Wine & Words fundraiser, Theatre by the River Co-Artistic Director Matthew TenBruggencate started thanking people.

At one point, I thought I heard him say "from the bottom of our arts..."

He didn't, of course. But "from the bottom of our arts" is such an apt expression for an event that co-mingled theatre and literature, writers and readers.

There were 24 readings tonight and many of the texts being read were by GG winners from all across Canada.

But there was also a really interesting mix of locals: Ron Romanowski. Jonathan Ball. Rosie Chard. John Toone.

I didn't know who the locals were beforehand, so it was fun to sit down with the programme just after I arrived, especially when I saw that MY piece would be preceded by one by Carolyn Gray and followed by one by Susie Moloney.

It was also good to see that Kevin Anderson would be performing my piece, specifically Corporal of the Guard, from my manuscript-in-progress on American inventor Thomas Edison.

And, when my turn came, it was curious to hear my words in the mouth of an older male actor.

Curious...and generative, given that the narrator was a teenage boy.

Afterwards, several people made 'mmm' noises at me. Curious noises. And then someone bought me glass of wine. And then I won two of the raffle prizes.

I can safely conclude, therefore, that it was a both a entirely pleasant and productive evening.

Oh! I almost forgot! I'd like to thank Theatre By the River...from the bottom of my art.

Hands on: Bertrand Nayet

* * *

Bertrand Nayet is a Franco-Manitobain poet and organizer. My favourite title of his is "secrétaire perpétuel du Collectif post-néo-rieliste."

Over the last year, Bertrand has organized a variety of French literary events at Aqua. He is polite, even courtly...and generous.

(He not only bought my book but has been one of the lovely people who has quoted my lines back to me. Which is such a shivery treat, if you know what I mean...)

So much so that when I asked tonight if I could do a portrait of his hands he nodded sagely and plunked his long thin hands down on one of Aqua's old typewriters.

So much so that he didn't feel the impulse to explain the origin of his missing thumb.

And so, in addition to taking this picture, I also took the tiniest part of his grace...and didn't ask.

* * *

Né à Auxerre (France) en 1962, Bertrand Nayet réside à St-Norbert au Manitoba. Il a publié nouvelles, récits et poèmes dans diverses revues et recueils. Il a aussi écrit du théâtre, créé des mises en scène et joué plusieurs rôles pour diverses troupes du Manitoba. Il est l’animateur, un des pères fondateurs et secrétaire perpétuel du Collectif post-néo-rieliste, un regroupement de créateurs franco-manitobains. Il collabore à la programmation du Foyer des Écrivains, la partie francophone du Winnipeg International Writers’ Festival.

La lune en mille gouttes (Les Editions David, 2009) est son deuxième recueil de haïkus.

resident poet reading

Hey all,

I'll be reading with once-and-forever Winnipegger Gillian Sze (who now lives in Montreal) in a coupla weeks.

And then I'll rush home to snap at M whilst hurriedly and incompletely packing my suitcase for a 5:45 am flight to Toronto for the LCP national conference.

One earring. Shoes that don't match the frock I've packed. Insufficient amounts of underwear.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to hearing what Chandra is up to and to getting better acquainted with Gillian.

Fun!

* * *

Writer-in-Residence Reading
Gillian Sze, Aqua Books W-i-R June 2010

Date: Thursday, June 10, 7:00 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: FREE

After Gillian Sze appeared at Aqua last summer in support of her first book of poetry, bookstore owner Kelly Hughes was determined to have the former Winnipegger as Writer-in-Residence.

After much negotiation - and compromise on both sides - Sze agreed to be W-i-R during the month of June 2010.

Please join Aqua in a reading celebrating her capitulation that also includes resident Aqua poets Ariel Gordon and Chandra Mayor.

* * *
Ariel Gordon's first book of poetry, Hump, was published by Ontario's Palimpsest Press in spring 2010. She recently won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer at the Manitoba Book Awards. When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods and taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

Chandra Mayor is a Winnipeg writer, editor, and shop girl. She is the award-winning author of three books, including the short story collection All the Pretty Girls (Conundrum Press, 2008), which was the recipient of the Lambda Award for Lesbian Fiction.

Gillian Sze was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her poetry collection, Fish Bones (DC Books, 2009), was shortlisted for the QWF McAuslan First Book Prize. She is the author of three chapbooks published by Withwords Press and her work has appeared in a number of national and international journals. The Anatomy of Clay, a poetry collection, is forthcoming from ECW Press in April 2011. She is also co-founder and co-editor of Branch Magazine. Gillian has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University and resides in Montreal.

drape

fleshy

(being the smallest of the impossibly white + wet fleshy mushrooms I mentioned previously...)

upstanding

All photos Assiniboine Forest, Winnipeg, MB. May 25, 2010.

* * *

M did that thing again. Where I am less observant and he, by force of habit, sees the mushrooms I have missed.

Hateful but also necessary, I suppose, otherwise I would have missed the morel (!) and also the large fleshy mushrooms upholstering a log, both approximately where they had been before the narrow wooded mulch trail was turned into a wide limestone trail.

I was feeling out of sorts and the batteries in my camera went dead mid-way through our walk but it was still a good day to go tromping in the woods, to sit in muck in the name of photographing mushrooms...

...and then to parade my mucky jeans through the Tuesday afternoon grocery store crowd.

Heh.

How to Write a How to Poem

So I taught a workshop for the Writers' Collective today that was largely driven by my favorite exercize, the how-to poem. I snuck in a first-line exercize and a situational exercize but mostly, we played with articles such as...

...How to Eat Roadkill. How to Survive High School. How to Deal with Foot Cramps.

I'd written my lesson plan so that the workshop was more on firing up the engine to generate new poems than an examination of the machine's parts...

Which presented a bit of a problem, given the range of experience of the workshop participants.

Some of them wanted to discuss the value of editing or what made a poem a poem instead of a piece of prose, while others just wanted to get down to writing poems.

I think part of the issue might have been in the title: How to Write a Poem.

Maybe the next time I deliver this workshop, I'll just call it How to Rip a Phone Book in Half and leave it at that...

In the meantime, it was great fun to share poems by Tracy Hamon & Lori Cayer in pursuit of the how-to poem (In the Absence of Conversation II & How to Stay Alive in the Woods, respectively...).

I'm also thinking ahead to my workshop June 20th at Fort Whyte which will focus on nature poetry. I'm going to share some of Don McKay's bird poems but am also hoping to use poems by Brenda Schmidt and Barbara Klar.

Oh the joys of curriculum development...

Wine & Words: update

* * *

Here's to being an "and more!"

Seriously, this should be an amazing night of what I'll call staged readings, given that local celebrities and thespians (I'm rigorously hoping for the latter, specifically Carolyn Gray...) will be reading the texts instead of their authors.

(A section of Our Boy out in the world! Yay!)

How to Write a Poem: this weekend

Hey all,

I'll be teaching a workshop lousy with my exercize of choice - the How-to Poem - this coming weekend.

If you know anyone who needs to jog their established writing practice or who wants to spend the better part of a Saturday writing & talking poetry or who just sort of kind of wants to investigate poetry, then please pass along the details of this course...

Thanks!

* * *

How to Write a Poem

Have you ever wondered how to rip a phone book in half? Or how to survive in the woods? Or, even, how to seduce a woman…in poetry? By the end of this workshop with poet Ariel Gordon, designed to open up your writing process via a variety of writing exercises, you’ll have tried your hand at all them.

Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg-based writer and editor. Recent publications include a chapbook of travel poetry entitled Guidelines: Malaysia & Indonesia, 1999, with Edmonton’s Rubicon Press. Some of Ariel’s how-to poems were recently published in Guelph art/lit mag Carousel and shortlisted for Arc’s 2009 Poem of the Year Contest. She is a regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press’ books section and, each September, is Blogger-in-Chief of HOT AIR, the official blog of THIN AIR (i.e. the Winnipeg International Writers Festival). Finally, her first full collection of poetry, Hump, is slated for publication with Palimpsest Press in May 2010.

When: Saturday, May 22, 10 am to 1 pm

Where: TBD, University of Winnipeg campus

How much: $15 for Writers’ Collective members/ $30 for non-members

To register: Contact Michael Van Rooy, Writers’ Collective Program Coordinator at writerscollective@uwinnipeg.ca or by phone at (204) 786-9468.

Hump-day: the video

...or at least one of them, the one that documents the beginning of the launch. And the telling of what Tracy and I came to call "the tit story" during our tour.



It's grainy, I know, but that's mostly because it was shot on my point-and-shoot.

I'm going to build a slide show of the various still images over the next day or so too but thought I'd post this...

(Gory!) Fun!

Reprint: McNally Robinson Booksellers (week two)

I'll repeat last week's exclamations, because they're still apt: What a list! What an honour!

And more!

Hey all,

A while back, Theatre by the River, who recently did a successful run of the Judith Thompson play Habitat at Aqua, had an open call for submissions for their wine & readings evening.

Given that they are a theatre troupe and presumably are all theatre-y, the gimmick was that the texts would be performed by performing arts types and not their writer.

Which is sort of fun. I've long wanted to do a 'strangers on a train' reading whereby I did a whole set of someone else's poems (and vice-versa). But having someone all theatre-y 'do' my poems would be even better...

And I just got word that I'm in. The only catch is...I didn't make the poster.

I'm an "and more..." but then, so is Susie Moloney, and she's brilliant. (And did you see the rest of the list? My word!)

Anyways, I'm hoping that Carolyn Gray, writer and theatre impresario, will get the nod to read my piece. Which, by the way, is a civil-war era snippet of Edisonia.

(Maybe someday I'll get to read one of Carolyn's texts for an audience...)(Criss cross! Criss cross!)

* * *

Wine & Words: new writings
A Theatre by the River fundraiser

When: Saturday May 29th
Time: Bar 6 pm / Readings 7 pm
Where: Red River College: Princess Street Campus (160 Princess Street)
Cost: $10

Tickets available at Artspace Ticket Centre (100 Arthur Street)
or via theatrebytheriver@gmail.com

Theatre by the River presents a night of first tastes - wines you've never sipped and words you've never heard. With brand new writings from some of Canada's most celebrated authors, submissions from local emerging talent and a few delicious red and whites, get set for a night of discovery.

Featuring new works by:

Hannah Moscovitch
Margaret Sweatman
Deborah Willis
Beverley Cooper
Ian Ross
Michael Nathanson
Elizabeth Hay
Anthony De Sa
Brian Francis
Helen Humphreys
Martha Baillie
Anosh Irani
Vern Thiessen
John Toone
Alissa York

And more!

Generously supported by:

Arbeiter Ring Publishing, Assiniboine Credit Union, Absurd Machine Studios, Keneston Wine Market and Stephen & Andrews Food and Wine Shoppe

third

second

first

All photos Assiniboine Forest, Winnipeg, MB. May 7, 2010.

* * *

Another walk with M in the rain. Gloriously dirty.

And I mean the mud. But it IS nice to spend time with him...

Also nice is to see/shoot the first mushrooms of the year.

Reprint: How to Interview a Poet

Katherena Vermette, fellow poet/parent and Writers' Collective board member, interviewed me recently in service of the workshop I'll be teaching for the WC.

I don't know Katherena very well, but after I persisted in mangling her name, both privately and when introducing her at the podium, she kindly let me call her Kate.

Which is probably as it should be. (I knew a Katarina in a former life and now pronounce ANY variant of same KAT-A-RINA...)

It should go without saying that it was pretty spiffy having someone who I haven't personally indoctrinated into the cult of Ariel (i.e hasn't been in a class or a writing group with me) ask me questions about my work.

* * *

The Writers' Collective
May 9th, 2010
by Katherena Vermette

Your ever-inexhaustible interviewer Kate continues to harass authors in and around the internet!

This month’s victim – 2010 John Hirsch winner for Most Promising Writer, Ariel Gordon, who also just released her first poetry collection, Hump, and will be conducting a very important workshop via the Writers’ Collective – How to Write a Poem on Saturday, May 22, 10 am to 1 pm, at the University of Winnipeg!

(Our Q&A appears after the turn...)

This workshop is very special therefore it’ll cost you - $15 for Writers’ Collective members / $30 for non-members. To register contact the equally, if not more so, inexhaustible Michael Van Rooy, Writers’ Collective Program Coordinator at writerscollective@uwinnipeg.ca or by phone at (204) 786-9468.

Also, you have to check out Ariel’s hilarious blog – the jane day reader!

Onward to the interview!

Kate: Your first collection just came out last week! Such an exciting time for any writer. Tell us about your book, HUMP!

Ariel: Well, it’s mostly pregnancy-and-mothering poems but there’s also what I’m calling urban/nature/love poems. It’s firmly rooted in grumpy/frumpy Winnipeg and is nowhere near perfect but I think it’s the best I’m capable of at this moment in time.

I’m also happy to get these poems off my chest.

Kate: I bet! You also have two chapbooks out, can you tell us about those books and how the process of publishing chapbooks was for you??

Ariel: My first chappie was with Palimpsest – who’re now publishing Hump – in 2008. The second was with Rubicon Press out of Edmonton in 2009. Palimpest does full collections in addition to their hand-made limited-edition chapbooks while Rubicon only does chapbooks. Because the individuals behind them are different, the process was different for each one...

But I did launches for each of them, with cake and a lovely co-reader. And, for the Palimpsest chappie, I did a tour with that co-reader, Kerry Ryan. It was a bit ambitious to do a four-city tour to promote it but I wanted to and so I did. And Kerry and I managed to get some funding from MAC for same, so it wasn’t ruinous.

Both books sold out fairly quickly, which is/was gratifying.

Kate: No kidding, that’s a great accomplishment. Your poetry is so rich and inspired – so it begs the question – what inspires you?

Ariel: I have no idea what inspires me until I’m jerking on the line. And even then the hook can slip.

Kate: You seem to do so much – event coordinating at aqua books, blogging, writing, mothering – what’s a typical day in your life like?

Ariel: I have a lot of flexibility in my life, which means that most every day is different. But predictably so, if that makes any sense. And when the routine is singing and I don’t have too many deadlines to meet, I get heaps of done. Other times I just get by.

Like most poet/parents or even just most parents, I suspect…

Kate: It’s the life I guess. I’m so curious about blogging, I’m so new to this and want to learn everything – how did you get into it? When did you start you blog – janedayreader??

Ariel: I started blogging in January 2005 on a dare. I’m several templates down the road now but it’s always been a place where I’ve shared poems-in-progress and photos and my writerly news.

Though I certainly didn’t need it when I started the blog, I sort of wanted to have a presence online as a writer. Which is why, beyond the odd complaint about how overworked I am (pore me!), I keep it mostly writing and publishing. So, no pictures of my daughter, once she came along. And no soiled laundry aired, ever.

All of that said, I did NOT expect to enjoy doing it so much. But then I said the same thing about Facebook...

Kate: Argh the temptress that is Facebook swallows up many a good working hour! So, many collective members are emerging writers trying to get out there, what would be your advice to these novice poets/prosers/rockstar wannabes??

Ariel: Keep going! There are MUCH worse things you could be doing with your time than writing poetry!

Slightly more seriously: Read and write as much as you can. Allow time to dream. Carry a notebook and write things down as they come to you. You will NOT remember it later. Go to readings. While editing your work, read it aloud so you can find any snags. Submit, but when you get rejections, remember why it is that you write.

Kate: Just one more Ariel, I want to start an ongoing poll where I ask everyone I know one question – I’m new to twitter too you see, so the question is, what’s your favourite book of all time and why??

Ariel: I’m bad at favourites. But I really REALLY like Robert Kroetsch’s The Studhorse Man. Such a dirty wonderful book!

Kate: Haven’t read it yet! But do have great love for the Kroetsch! Will have to check it out!

Thanks so much Ariel! Can’t wait ‘til your workshop!

Reprint: McNally Robinson Booksellers

What a list! What an honour!

(Pictures / chittery chat on the launch coming soon...)

scab

hangnail

toenail

vapour

(I swear I didn't put vaseline on the lens! It was condensation from the very rainy day, which I wiped away as soon as I noticed it, but as it turned out, I liked the misty pic best...)

cone

All photos Assiniboine Forest, Winnipeg, MB. May 5, 2010.

* * *

I hauled poet/publisher Dawn Kresan into the forest today. It was rainy and blustery and she looked at me like I was daft when I said we would go walking anyways. She looked at me more doubtfully when I handed her the raincoat that is oversized on ME but pulled it on and went walking.

And I was right. Once we were in the forest proper, under the trees, it was pretty temperate. Despite all the rain we've been having of late, the mulch paths weren't that bad...

Since we didn't ruin her 'practical' shoes and I didn't even TRY to take any pictures of her in her waterproof tent, she was pleased as punch. And I even got her taking pictures of mushrooms!

Of course, any time I get to the forest is a good time. But it was especially nice to be there on my launch day, to console/distract myself somewhat with the forest...

which poems when

For those of you...who live far away or live close and have small children to mind or a really REALLY terrible sudden headache or who absolutely refuse to leave the house because it's STILL raining and it was raining all day and they're wet and they'll get wet again if they go out again for the launch...but who like to follow along, here's my set list for tomorrow's launch:

Tit Poem (p.36-37)
May Day (14-15)
Fall back: the last good day (31)
Fall back: fallen (33)
Eight months: the eldest, after... (52)
Nine months: sweet nothings (59)
Chorus (64)
A year in: mash note (72)
A year in: fireweed (78-79)
Toddle (82-85)

PBN: Lori Cayer

* * *

From the spring issue of Prairie books NOW.

And two more...

I couldn't decide between these two pics, of different mushrooms on the same tree, and so decided to post them both. Heh.

parasol

sponge

waterproof

misty

Looking forward to Hump Day

All photos Assiniboine Forest, Winnipeg, MB. April 30, 2010.

* * *

So M and I went for rainy walk last Friday. And it was good for both of us, to be alone together in the half-woods. The sort-of-wild.

My book launch is coming up this week. And I'm trying not to think about it, so as not to wind myself up in knots.

But I took the day off from Aqua, so I'll have to do something to prepare.

Thinking back, I had hoped the spend the hours and HOURS you typically spend labouring before it's time to go to the hospital walking in the forest.

Because of the circumstances of Aa's birth, that didn't happen. Which is fine, because I wound up WITH Aa.

This time, since I don't literally have to pass my much-anticipated object (i.e. my book) through my vagina, I think I might make it out to the forest for a long walk.

To think and dream and forget about the launch a little longer...

Reprint: Uptown Magazine

Questin Mills-Fenn did a profile of me last week for Uptown - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News.

It's a weekly paper of long standing in Winnipeg and I'm pretty happy to be featured, even if he caught me when I apparently was all swear-y and inappropriate.

* * *

Meet Manitoba’s most promising writer
Manitoba Book Award winner Ariel Gordon launches Hump, a collection of poems about pregnancy and motherhood

By Quentin Mills-Fenn

Winnipeg is having an early spring, patio season is gearing up, and Ariel Gordon is having a great time. On Sunday, she won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer at the Manitoba Book Awards. Next week, the poet, already the author of two chapbook collections, launches her first book.

Gordon says the win was “totally unexpected. I did not think I would win.”

Gordon calls her new book a collection of poems about pregnancy and motherhood mashed up with others focussed on Winnipeg’s urban treasure trails. It’s called Hump (Palimpsest Press).

“The year I had my daughter,” Gordon says, “I had maternity leave, and for some reason, people said, ‘You’ll never write again. You won’t write for 10 years.’ That really upset me. So it was really important to me to keep writing.

“After all,” she adds, “I spent more time working on my writing than I did getting pregnant.”

So, Gordon’s mother looked after baby until nursing time while the poet multi-tasked.

“You spend a lot of time sitting, when you’re breastfeeding,” she says.

Although the core of the book speaks to mothering and pregnancy, the collection incorporates some poetic rambles in places such as La Barriere Park and the Assiniboine Forest, locales Gordon carefully names.

“I could have written those poems without naming names,” she says. “But I wanted the book to be not only love poems for my partner and my child, but also for Winnipeg."

“I have a complete hard-on for Assiniboine Forest,” she adds. “It’s a park on land that’s never been built-on or developed. And it’s right in the city.”

Hump is gentle and sly, but also as sharp as baby teeth and poison mushrooms. And it’s called Hump.

“I find the title funny,” Gordon laughs. “I’m aware the word has all sorts of connotations. People have this perspective that poetry has to be so serious. I wanted to screw with that idea..."

"It does mean that I’ll be the most-googled poet for perverts.”

Ariel Gordon launches Hump at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 5 at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

• • •

In addition to Ariel Gordon, other winners at the Manitoba Book Awards include Jan Horner, winner of the Aqua Books/Lansdowne Poetry Prize for Mama Dada, Michael Nathanson, who picked up the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book for his play Talk, and Deborah Schnitzer, who snatched the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction with her novel, an unexpected break in the weather. The biggest prize, McNally Robinson Book of the Year, went to Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba by Allan Levine. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.