Squash

* * *

I saw this at Crampton's Market on the weekend and thought it was mostly perfect combination of image/text.

I bought a bright orange/red unlabeled one whose colour reminded me of the cardiac arrest of lobster mushrooms.

Speaking of the forest and what-one-might-find-there, I'm taking Sally Ito's creative writing class at CMU on a tour of Assiniboine Forest on Thursday. I'll be sure to point out the spot where the plane went down which created a suitable - if fleeting - habitat for a yearling moose and his mother.

I'll be sure to mention the snowmobile that prowled for unleashed dogs one winter afternoon and the man-naked-except-for-hiking-boots one day mid-summer.

Fun!

Reprint: 95 Books

From the 95 Books blog, in which the conceit is: "In 2006, George W. Bush read 95 books. We will do better."

Contributors include nikki reimer, Jonathan Ball, ryan fitzpatrick, melanie brannagan frederiksen, Claire Lacey, William Neil Scott, Natalie Zina Walschots and Meghan Doraty, among others...

94. Hump (Ariel Gordon)
A first poetry collection organized around the poet’s pregnancy, Hump could move in a lot of lousy directions but Gordon reigns in the sentimentality as much as possible to produce a set of clever and curious poems.

Although loving, the poems also give away her frustration and otherwise focus on the changes in her life that the child hath wrought.

I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to, given that this generally isn’t my “thing” — Gordon also has a good eye for alliteration and internal rhythm and makes better use of compound adjectives than I’ve seen in a while (in the early poems, that is, the ones that have nothing to do with the child but set up a contrast so that the changes in her life become apparent).

How often do you see a well-used compound adjective in poetry? A tiny excerpt for you:

I wanted to write a tender poem
about you that marked the moment months in,
months in, when your dry furious cheeks
first wetted down
…
but I don’t remember when it was
…
& I would still give just about anything
for a moment to myself
& oh fuck you just woke up—

— Jonathan Ball

moss/brown

twigged

moss/green

fest/rest

All photos Assiniboine Forest, Winnipeg, MB. September 26, 2010.

* * *

So M and I raced from the THIN AIR volunteer party to the forest.

Between all the uncertain weather this summer and the THREE garage sales we had in and around that uncertain weather - and all my bookish to-ings and fro-ings - neither of us has been to the forest in AGES.

But today we had childcare and some (goddamn) lovely sun, so we went.

Unfortunately, so did everyone else and their dogs and their small children. Which meant that while there were a lot of mushrooms, most of them were kicked up.

We're heading back tomorrow. The same sun. Fewer (goddamn) people.

Heh.

Author bag

I've been wanting to peek inside one of the THIN AIR, Winnipeg International Writers Festival author bags for a long time...

For more thoughts, see the (goddamn lovely) HOT AIR blog.

Um...gone fishing?

Fort Whytealive, Winnipeg, MB. September 19, 2010. Photo by M.

* * *

So I literally went fishing today at Fort Whyte, as part of a fishy reading/comic book-making/fishing workshop.

(We lost two worms, six minnows, and two lures in one of their man-made lakes...and while M and I re-discovered the joy of casting a lure, Aa specialized in reeling IN the lure...)

But this post is really and truly to say that I'll be mostly over at HOT AIR this week. And also reading at THIN AIR (ack! ack! over the MOON!).

So if you want more news, visit the website or come hang around the fest.

West meets...west.

So I forgot to mention that the fall tour I'm embarking on has two phases.

A three day Brandon/Saskatoon/Regina leg with Winnipeg poets Jonathan Ball and John Toone and then a four day Toronto/Ottawa leg with Regina poet Tracy Hamon.

I'm looking forward to hazing the Jon/Johns on our trip. I haven't told them that I've found accommodation (with poets!) in Saskatoon and Regina for myself but not for them. Yet.

Heh.

* * *

Poetry Explosion!

(1) Poetry Writing Workshop
with John Toone, Jonathan Ball & Ariel Gordon

Three young Winnipeg poets share their secrets for writing and publishing...

FREE CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP
that will make your head spin and get your poetry mojo working!

Poetry Video Lab
114 Clark Hall, Brandon University
Saturday, October 2, 2010 1:30 – 4:30 pm

Please pre-register at the BU Faculty of Arts office: 727-9790 mahoney@brandonu.ca


(2) Poetry Reading
by John Toone, Jonathan Ball & Ariel Gordon

104 Clark Hall
Saturday, October 2, 2010 7:30 pm

Free Admission!! Free Refreshments!! Everyone Welcome!!

Co-sponsored by THE HAWKWEED LITERARY FORUM as part of SEE, dir. by Di Brandt, Brandon University Canada Research chair in Literature and Creative Writing, together with Dale Lakevold, BU Creative Writing program coordinator, and the Brandon Folk Music and Art Society, dir. by Shandra McNeill, as part of WORD@FOLKFEST Winter Workshop Series, with generous support from the League of Canadian Poets.

West Meets East

Hey all,

If our SK/AB tour in the spring wasn't enough, Regina's Tracy Hamon and I will be traveling to Ottawa & Toronto in early October...and reading with a brace of poets in each town.

I know I've got barely one and a half readers of this blog in Ottawa and Toronto put together but I thought I'd make note of it here...

Many thanks to Ibi Kaslik for her help in arranging the Toronto reading; ditto Sandra Ridley for e-whispering Pearl Pirie's name in my ear.

Thanks too to the League of Canadian Poets, Palimpsest Press and Coteau Books, who have enabled our swanning about the country, books in hand.

Do come! It'll be great fun!

* * *

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

When: October 5, 7:30 pm
Where: Collected Works Bookstore (1242 Wellington St. W., Ottawa)
Cost: Free!

Christine McNair's work has appeared in The Antigonish Review, Prairie Fire, ditchpoetry.com, CV2, the Bywords Quarterly Journal, Descant and a few other places. Her poems were featured in Dalhousie Blues, a collaborative project with Sean Moreland, Jamie Bradley and Caleb JW Brasset (ex-hubris press, 2009). Her work was also included in the Dinosaur Porn (Ferno House, 2010) and Rogue Stimulus (Mansfield Press, 2010) anthologies. She is one of the hosts of CKCU's Literary Landscapes program and works as a book doctor in Ottawa.

Ottawa poet Pearl Pirie’s been shed bore (Chaudiere Books, 2010), her first trade poetry collection, follows years of a small voice gaining in strength, and in volume, through so much subtle activity and quiet disconnect that by the time she was noticed, she was already everywhere, and already a confident voice. Her chapbooks include over my dead corpus (AngelHouse, 2010) and boathouse (above/ground, 2008). She blogs at pesbo, Humanyms, and a few other places. Poems have appeared thru dandelion, ditch, PRECIPICe, Dusie, 17 Seconds, 1cent, and Ottawater.

* * *

West Meets East II
Featuring Ariel Gordon, Tracy Hamon, Melanie Janisse & Damian Rogers

When: October 7, 7:30 pm
Where: Holy Oak Cafe (1241 Bloor St. W., Toronto)
Cost: Free!

Damian Rogers was born and raised in suburban Detroit. She has published poems in various North American magazines, including Brick, The Walrus, Matrix, Maisonneuve, and MoonLit. Her first collection, Paper Radio, came out with ECW Press in October 2009 and was nominated for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Rogers lives in Toronto.

Melanie Janisse is a native of Windsor, Ontario. She holds degrees Communications from Concordia University and Visual Arts from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Now a resident of Toronto, Melanie keeps active as a visual artist, poet, designer and shop owner. Orioles in the Oranges (Guernica Editions, 2009) is her first collection of poetry.

Treetop

Photo Westminster & Canora, Winnipeg, MB. September 11, 2010.

* * *

Or, rather, mid-way up a tree behind a hedge. In someone's yard but reachable from the sidewalk. While we walked home from the Sherbrook Street Festival...

Proof

Yes, I hit him...

So I was on the first THIN AIR edition of KHL last week.

I was reluctant to go on the show - and Kelly was reluctant to have me - because even though I'm a festival author this year I also work at Aqua.

Which means that Kelly couldn't poke as much fun as he maybe would have liked because he knew I'd be staring at him balefully my next shift.

Also, it was strange being interviewed on stage by my boss given that I wasn't even interviewed for the job.

Guests were meant to do a trick as they left the stage. Jordan Wheeler caught coins that he stacked on his elbow. Since I don't have a trick, Kelly offered to let me hit him.

He cowered a bit but I couldn't hit him lightly. I would NEVER live that down. But I did take my ring off before I punched him.

I think that was generous of me.

Another list

Joseph Boyden, John Ralston Saul, David Sedaris, Jeff Rubin, David Bergen, Mark McEwan, Michael Van Rooy, Martha Brooks, Catherine Hunter, Tim Cook, Jake MacDonald, Melissa Steele, Jane Urquhart, Carolyn Smart, Richard B. Wright, Alissa York, Gail Bowen, Christie Blatchford, Charlene Diehl, Ross King, Margaret Buffie, Grant Lawrence, Bill Stillwell, Di Brandt, Bob Mersereau, Ariel Gordon, Cendrine Marrouat, Ken Kowal, Barbara Bowes, Zofia Monika Dove, David Korinetz, Dr. Paul D. McCutcheon, Les MacDonald, Ruth Simkin, Frances Swyripa, Michael C. Zwaagstra, Rodney A. Cliffton, John C. Long, Plynn Gutman, Leuba Franko, Edwina Gateley, David Arnason, Pat Pattan, Linda Leona, Janet Lewis Anderson, David Zinger, Jon Paul Fiorentino, Gary Geddes, GMB Chomichuk, John Toone, James Rewucki, Losang Samten, Susin Nielsen, Susan Gray, Jennifer Brown, Reinhold Kramer, Tom Mitchell, GEM Munro, Jim Blanchard, Donna G. Sutherland, Owen Clark, Uma Parameswaran, Michael Lista, Valerie Fortney, Sharon McCartney, Craig, Francis Power, Carolyn Gray, Michael Wex, kevin mcpherson eckhoff.

...this time, McNally Robinson's list of writers appearing at their store this fall.