Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Ottawa, ON: October 5



West Meets East I
Featuring Ariel Gordon, Tracy Hamon, Christine McNair & Pearl Pirie
Collected Works Bookstore

* * *

I hate red eye flights. But taking this particular red eye meant that Regina's Tracy Hamon and I would get to Ottawa early enough to find our B&B...and maybe even have a goddamn snooze before the reading.

Collected Works is a great supporter of Palimpsest according my dear poet/publisher Dawn Kresan and so it was great fun to read there.

Though technically Tracy and I read in the adjoining photo shop, which they'd recently bought and knocked down the wall between the two...

And Craig Poile, events coordinator (and recent winner of the 2010 Ottawa Book Award AND the Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry for his True Concessions) was gracious in his introductions, even if he had to run off immediately afterwards...he'd promised, you see, to be home for bedtime.

And our reading was inconveniently EXACTLY at bedtime.

Another treat was finally finally getting to read for my friend Ed Janzen, who moved first to Montreal and then Ottawa in pursuit of his fine art. Or, more precisely, his fine art education.

Over the years, GNed has gifted me with currency pillows and silk-screen prints of Ziploc containers...and much sass. So I wanted to return the favour, beyond just giving him a copy of the book.

So I believe I heckled him from the podium.

* * *

Thanks to Pearl Pirie for the pictures with me in them. Many thanks to Pearl and Christine McNair for reading with us...

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