Hands on: Tracy Hamon

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I shot this early in the tour, before our first reading. Tracy had resurrected an old journal and found first drafts of poems that were now in the book at her elbow. While she was leafing through its pages, I noticed that her hands were pink and looked cold. I grabbed her fingers, because that's the kind of relationship we have, and they were cold.

Girl-with-bad-circulation cold. Girly-girl cold.

My favourite hands-on moments of the tour included watching T. sign books. She refused to use anything but hotel pens. And then there was the time Tracy pulled out an emery board and started filing her fingernails during a reading in Edmonton (not mine, thankfully.).

We were sitting in the back row, so I'm pretty sure I was the only one to hear the soft percussion...

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Tracy Hamon is a mother, a university student currently finishing a MA in English with a creative option at the U of R, a part time barber/stylist, and the coordinator for the SWG Writers/Artists Colony. She recently founded the Vertigo Reading Series. Born in Regina, she currently lives there.

Her first poetry collection, This is Not Eden, was published in 2005 and her work has appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Grain, Spring, A Room of One’s Own and Event, as well as numerous anthologies. Her manuscript of poetry on Egon Schiele was short listed for the 2007 CBC Literary Awards.

Her latest book is Interruptions in Glass (Coteau Books, 2010).

Manitoba Book Awards

These photos were taken at the Manitoba Book Awards on April 25, 2010 by Winnipeg Free Press photographer Trevor Hagan.

(The scintillating woman in the second pic is Deborah Schnitzer, who won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction for her novel an unexpected break in the weather. She was a prof of mine back in the day and she is utterly magnificent!)

Reprint: Manitoba Book Awards

The jury for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer at last night's Manitoba Book Awards had the following to say about my work:

Ariel Gordon's writing allows the reader access to the essence of a place and time. Her command of language brings an importance to moments both fateful and seemingly insignificant. Her work displays a surprising combination of ease and conviction, of playfulness tempered with insight, and evokes a vivid sense of the word in its studied context, the image in its rightful place. Her first full collection of poetry, Hump, will be launched May 5.

Given the shortlist - novelist Rosie Chard, filmmaker Danishka Esterhazy and poet John Toone - I was very happy just to be nominated. And so sat in the middle of a row in CCFM's circular theatre.

(I mean, have you seen the list of past winners? Anita Daher! Melissa Steele! Carolyn Gray!)

My only concession to the fact that I might win was that I made M take my gum moments before the announcement. Just in case.

M says he wishes he had had been filming the moment they announced the winner, because apparently I looked astonished. (Because I was...)

Thanks to Jenna Butler at Edmonton's Rubicon Press and Dawn Kresan at Kingsville's Palimpsest Press for the nomination, to the jury for the honour, and the MWG / AMBP for putting on the shindig!

Thanks too to Michael Van Rooy for winning last year and so being the one to present the award to me. It meant a lot to get the award from Michael, given how very supportive he's been of me and my writing over the past few years...

Finally, thanks to M for not minding that I forgot to thank him.

De-tour: the Update

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We're halfway through our tour now, having made our way from Calgary to Edmonton to Athabasca.

Tracy and I have read and signed books and bought launch frocks and spent glad hours, post-readings, talking with other writers...but tonight, in Athabasca, was a De-tour first:

The audience clamored for an encore.

So we read an extra poem each, perched on the sturdy oak desk at the front of the reading space.

Fun!

(One audience member, while buying our books, also tipped us. Luckily, she didn't insist on putting the money in our pants herself...)

Hands on: Lorri Neilsen Glenn, take two

Hands on: Lorri Neilsen Glenn

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I petitioned Lorri for a portrait when she first crossed Aqua's threshold. Her first reaction was: "But I chew my nails!" Her second reaction was something along the lines of "Yes! Fun!" So that was how we wound up on step-stools, after her reading from Lost Gospels (Brick Books, 2011) was complete, Lorri with her hands twined among the crystals of Aqua's massive 70s chandelier and me trying to capture her hands and the glass and all that goddamn light.

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Originally from Western Canada, Lorri Neilsen Glenn now lives in Halifax and spends her summers in Saskatchewan. The author of many academic books and two previous books of poetry (all the perfect disguises, 2003, and Combustion, 2007), she served as Poet Laureate for Halifax from 2005-2009.

Reprint: Calgary Herald

I've always wanted to be on someone ELSE's to-do list...

This is for the first of the readings on what Regina poet Tracy Hamon and I are calling The De-tour.

Calgary Herald: The To-Do List
April 16, 2010

Fri MIREILLE PERRON The artist's new show at Stride is (wait for it) Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics Presents: Ateliers of the Near Future. ART, p14-17.

Sat FROM VIENNA TO RIO The CPO takes listeners from Europe to a land where winter is just arriving. Thank goodness it's only a metaphorical journey. CONCERTS, p6-9.

Sat + Sun SUPER TRAIN Canada's largest model train show just keeps on rolling. This year, it pulls into the Subway Soccer Centre. SPECIAL EVENTS, p18-20.

Mon ARIEL GORDON The poet reads from Hump. And, no, her latest collection is not a salute to Wednesday, so leave the kids at home. LITERARY, p18.

Tue RUBBING STONE ENSEMBLE New Works Calgary's resident ensemble is named for a glacial erratic, but its performances are focused delights. CONCERTS, p6-9.

Over the next week, we'll hit Edmonton, Athabasca and Lethbridge, Alberta and then also at the Wallace Stegner House in Eastend, Saskatoon.

And then I'm home just in time for the Manitoba Book Awards on Sunday (literally just in time, as I'll be driving in from Regina that day...) and my reading with Sandra Ridley & Jennifer Londry on Tuesday.

Fun!

Saskatoon launch: Interruptions in Glass

So I got to go to Tracy Hamon's Saskatoon & Regina launches of her second book, Interruptions in Glass (Coteau Books, 2010).

I drove up late on the Saturday through a windstorm and while it turns out I left half my Sktoon/Regina ensembles in my closet in Winnipeg, it was such a treat to be able to attend sweet T's launches.

And while Tracy's featured reader stint at Tonight It's Poetry at Lydia's in Saskatoon was lovely, Tracy's Regina launch, her bonafide launch, was my favourite of the weekend.

I mean, she wore petticoats. And her teenage daughters giggled from the second row. And the room was big and well-lit and my chai tea was pricy but perfect.

But my favourite bit was when Tracy stood there and delivered three of her poems from memory. And was so strong and sure in her delivery.

And so I was honoured when she asked me to read a poem to 'warm up' her already very warm audience.

This being me and T, I read Tit poem, which I think will find its way onto my semi-permanent set list.

Afterwards, T and T's husband Tom and I went for a drink at the nearly note-perfect bar/resto La Bodega. And it was an impeccable evening. And I'm so proud of T and thankful that she wanted to share her launches with me and my half-an-outfit(s).

Consummation!

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At 5 pm yesterday, I went and sat on our porch, hoping it would speed up the delivery truck. At 5:30, I took Aa to register her for soccer, knowing the books would show up while I was gone.

I saw the delivery truck from down the street, walking home. And didn't run.

I resolved not to show it to everyone at the (W)rites of Spring but was only partly successful. Heh.

I'm off to Regina today, to accompany Tracy Hamon to her Saskatoon and Regina launches. Driving into snow, basically, but after the week and month and year I've had, that's nothing. I'll just pull off the road and nap.

(Thanks to Dawn Kresan, poet/publisher, for everything. Really.)

Hands on: Lise Gaboury-Diallo

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This image is imperfect. It does no justice to a thoroughly elegant writer whose books are all lovely, thanks in part to the artworks of her father and daughter, architect/artist and artist respectively...but also thanks to her words.

I took a bad picture because I was pleasantly tired after a long day but also after a great trio of readings from the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry nominees but Lise had the same cast to her face...so I'm going to use it.

When I asked her if I could take a picture of her hands, she looked down at them and said, "But I haven't had a manicure or anything. They're just my normal every day hands..."

After I assured her that was precisely what I wanted, she looked down one last time at her hands, rubbed the callus on the side of her index finger and muttered that it was her "writer's bump."

And then she smiled. Tiredly. Pleasantly.

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Née à Saint-Boniface (Manitoba), Lise Gaboury-Diallo est professeure de langue française et des littératures francophones au Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface (MB). Elle est l'auteure de 6 recueils de poésie, et édité Sillons: hommage à Gabrielle Roy (Éditions du Blé, 2009).

Dry Hump!

My books were here! And I wasn't! Sob!

The search for happiness...

...is the theme of issue 148 of Descant, a lit mag based out of Toronto.

Apparently my Waterage, featuring laundry and a poor man with a knife, fits the bill.

My thanks to the professional - and pleasant - staff at Descant.

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FICTION
Robert Raymer - The Future Barrister
M.H. Vesseur - Babyface Junkie (Translated by Paul Vincent)
Douglas Glover - Pointless, Incessant Barking in the Night
Emi Benn - What Martha Did

ANNALS OF TRAVEL
John Keyes - Evacuation Route (A Canadian Goes South)

POETRY
Ariel Gordon - Waterage
David Day - Cry of the Curlew
Myrna Garanis - Myrtle on the Midnight
Brian Henderson - Something to Remember the World By
Jeffrey Herrick - Divine Wind; Hohle Fels
Leanne Averbach - Dusk, If That
Roo Borson - Nara
Joanna M. Weston - The Canoe

Hump: full cover

Hump-day!

Hey all,

It’s nearly time to launch my first book. Which may or may not be more exciting for me than for you, but I would be VERY pleased to see people at one or both of these events over the next month or so...

We quite deliberately set the launch for a Wednesday, which is, according to the dictionaries I've consulted, commonly known as hump-day.

Heh.

If you’re wondering which to attend, I’d prefer you to come May 5 but wanted to give people with ironclad commitments the chance to come say hello and have a gander at the book.

Also, if you know anyone that might be interested in either event, please feel free to pressgang them!

(The book is available for pre-order now thru McNally Robinson, or, if you prefer, directly from Palimpsest.)

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The details:

When: Tuesday April 27, 7 pm
Where: Aqua Books, 274 Garry Street
What: Short reading to support out-of-town poets Sandra Ridley & Jennifer Londry

When: Wednesday May 5, 8 pm
Where: Prairie Ink Restaurant in McNally Robinson, Grant Park Mall
What: Hump launch!

About Hump:
Hump (Palimpsest Press, 2010) is a mash-up of pregnancy-and-mothering poems and urban/nature/love poems that functions as an anti-sentiment manifesto from Winnipeg writer Ariel Gordon. Month by month, stanza by stanza, Gordon attempts to adequately represent the wonder and devilment of being-with-child. Hump is a love poem written simultaneously to a father and child, to a lover and the glimmer in his eye, and to a city that is gritty, faded, but still greener-than-most.

"Ariel Gordon is superbly, supremely, a poet of the body. She finds words for the physicality of the forest, of the garden, of pregnancy. Hump speaks the erotics of being alive and being in love with being alive." -- Robert Kroetsch