Two nifty lit events

Hey all,

I'm agog about the long weekend I'm going to have. And so should you be. OR ELSE.

Yours,

Ariel

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Interruptions in Glass LAUNCH:
Featuring Jonathan Ball, John Toone & Tracy Hamon

Date: December 2, Thursday
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: Free!

Please help Aqua Books - and two poets named Jo(h)n - welcome Regina poet Tracy Hamon to our fine city.

Interruptions in Glass bites down on the metaphors memory stores, exploring perceptions of everyday exchanges, familial relationships, loves, and losses. Is the language of our aging hysterical or historical? These poems supply a manual of conversations, studying the present by peeling back the past, letter by letter. Snowmen, plays, rice and even disappointment are some of the images that provide places for readers to park and devour the connections. It talks us through the metallic moments we continue to consume on the journey. A subtly powerful collection that celebrates the shape and detail of a full life and its memories.

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Jonathan Ball is the author of the poetry books Ex Machina (BookThug, 2009) and Clockfire (Coach House, 2010). He holds a Ph.D. in English with a focus in Creative Writing from the University of Calgary. His film Spoony B appeared on The Comedy Network, and his writing has appeared in The Believer and Harper’s. He is the former editor of dandelion and the former short films programmer for the Gimli Film Festival.

John Toone’s first collection of poetry, From Out of Nowhere, was published by Turnstone Press in spring 2009. He published two kids’ books in fall 2009, Catch that Catfish! and Hope and the Walleye. His poems also appear in the story Sixgun Quixote in book one and book two of The Imagination Manifesto (Alchemical Press). John is a past president of the Manitoba Writers’ Guild.

Tracy Hamon was born in Regina, SK and grew up traveling between Regina and her parents' farm near Edenwold, Saskatchewan. She holds a BA Hon and a MA in English. She is currently the Program Officer for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild. Her poetry has appeared in numerous Canadian literary magazines including Grain, Wascana Review, A Room of One's Own, sub-TERRAIN, and Event as well as numerous anthologies. Her first book of poetry This Is Not Eden (Thistledown Press) was released in April 2005 and was a finalist for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Portions of Interruptions in Glass (Coteau Books, 2010) won the 2005 City of Regina Writing Award and was been shortlisted for two awards in the 2010 Saskatchewan Book Awards.

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Nestallation: A reading & book presentation
with Jennifer Still & Jennifer Beaudry

When: Saturday, December 4, 11 am - 5 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: FREE!

As a part of Aqua Books' Crafty Minions Handmade and Vintage Craft Sale, Jennifer Still & Jennifer Beaudry will take over one of the writers' studios and create a "nestallation" that draws from their recent collaboration, Nest (JackPine Press, 2010).
Screenprinted in a laced concertina design, Nest is hand-assembled with salvaged 1970s vintage materials including kitchen wallpaper, couch upholstery, owl needlepoints and baby yarn. Each limited-edition copy is wrapped in a needle-felted slipcover.

Guests are invited to join in a sewing-circle style reading and book talk with the opportunity to add their own stitches/layers to the room.

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Jennifer Beaudry and Jennifer Still were born in Winnipeg in 1973 and have been crafting together since learning how to tie rollerskate shoelaces. Jennifer B. applies her nimble hand to photography, willow furniture building, knitting, bookbinding, sewing, felting, and most recently, quilt-making. Jennifer S. writes poetry and papers her walls in a tall yellow house in Winnipeg. NEST will appear in her second collection, Girlwood in spring 2011, with Brick Books.

the best thing...

...about winter is kicking - tap tap tap - the slush icebergs in the front tire wheelwells. How they fall, suddenly and all at once. How you drive over them, after.

(I'm cheating already in that I've used this observation in Five months: all knocked up, which is midway thru the second section of Hump.

It's also in the title poem of my upcoming JackPine chappie, How to Prepare for Flooding.

But STILL!)

The best thing...

...about making curries is the orange-y bubbles during clean-up.

(I'm not very favourite-y or very list-y, so I'm trying out definitive statements. On the blog.)

HTPFF: the sample spread

How to Prepare for Flooding

As you will have noted from even a cursory look-see of this site, I like chapbooks.

Mostly because they're small and ingenious.

I also like the collaboration that writing / publishing a chapbook entails.

I've also developed a bit of a thing for what I call how-to poems.

That's why I'm so pleased to announce that Saskatoon's JackPine Press will be publishing a chapbook by myself and the oh-so-brilliant Julia Michaud called How to Prepare for Flooding.

The poems in this chapbook are this grumpy/frumpy Winnipeg poet’s answer to the question “How do you=prepare for life’s inevitable yet random disasters?”

The answer being, of course, “Write a poem about it. Duh.”

And so, in addition to the title poem, there is also: How to Survive in the Woods, How to Water Your Lawn Effectively, How to Sew a Button, How to Catch a Wild Rabbit, How to Pack Without Overpacking, and How to Survive a Plane Crash.

The chapbook - whose design concept revolves around 1950s survival manuals - is slated for publication in fall 2011.

Which is pleasantly far away and gives me LOTS of time to dream about, for instance, launching it in the hangar at the Western Canada Aviation Museum. Or doing something Pecha Kucha-ish with it...

PBN: Kerry Ryan

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From the fall 2010 issue of Prairie books NOW.

Toronto, ON: October 7

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

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So the Double Down Tour consisted of six readings in eight days.

But we had almost three days in Toronto and only did a reading one of those days, so we got to see/do things.

Do things, you ask. Aren't you meant to be working on this g-d tour?

I was actually supposed to be reading thru the titles I was reviewing for October's WFP poetry column but never pulled a single book from my bag. Sigh.

Instead, we went to Jack Whyte's launch at the Dora Keough, which featured a scotch tasting, a singing author, and a folk band with a bagpiper.

(Jack Whyte's sporran had a beady-eyed badger on it. Which was LOOKING at me.)

The next day we hit Kensington Market. And then, after we'd gotten our fill of vintage/hippy stores, made our way to the Holy Oak Cafe.

The event included a geographical quiz composed by host Ibi Kaslik (winners got jam!) based on the home town of each of the readers. And the room was charming and the other readers were charming and Lee Maracle sat the back of the room and laughed at all my jokes, the ones in the poems and the ones I told between poems. And that was more than enough.

The next day, we hit the AGO and I spent the whole time (okay, I also nipped over to the Shary Boyle exhibit...) in the Ken Thompson collections.

Specifically, the ivories and the model ships. Both reminded me of mushrooms, with their impossible tiny oddities. And two hours amidst them nearly made me weep. And know, again, how terrible and wonderful people are.

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Thanks to Ibi Kaslik for organizing everything, even these pics. Thanks too to Don Robinson and Craig Saunders for all the (unearned) hospitality.

Ottawa, ON: October 5

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

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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.

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

Hands on: Jennifer Still, take two

Nest!

Hands on: Jennifer Still

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So Jennifer Still is a poet who has spent the last several weeks feverishly making books. Which, because this is Jenn, involves sewing, embroidery, felting, and various intricate slicings-and-dicings. Hence the irregular nail on her pointer finger.

She's also someone who doesn't completely like her hands. But she didn't forbid me from using this photo, even though the thumbnail glimpse on the back of my camera hadn't pleased her.

Even though she has since sent me several gorgeous photos of her hands, feathering her own Nest, as it were.

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Jennifer Still’s first book of poetry, Saltations (Thistledown Press, 2005), was nominated for three Saskatchewan Book Awards. NEST, a chapbook published by JackPine Press will also appear in her second collection, Girlwood, forthcoming in Spring 2011 from Brick Books. An earlier version of Girlwood won the 2008 John V. Hicks Manuscript Award, a Saskatchewan Emerging Artist Award and two poem sequences were finalists in the 2008 CBC Literary Awards. After 13 years in Saskatchewan, Jennifer now lives in a tall yellow house in Winnipeg with her husband and two children.

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"Nestallation", a reading and book presentation by Jennifer Still and Jennifer Beaudry.

Saturday, Dec. 4, 11-5 at Aqua Books' Crafty Minions Handmade and Vintage Craft Sale:

Enter the textures, movements, uncertainties and comforts of a distinctive 1970's domesticity, in which the compulsion to craft (think macrame, needlepoint, decoupage, paper tole), and nest (think wallpaper, shag carpet and mirror tiles), frame, line and reflect the restless interiors of our lives. Guests are invited to join in a sewing-circle style reading and book talk with the opportunity to add their own stitches/layers to the room. The sale runs from 11 am - 5 pm.

Nest(JackPine Press, 2010) is a limited-edition handmade book screen-printed in a laced concertina design and built with salvaged 1970s vintage materials including kitchen wallpaper, couch upholstery, owl needlepoints and baby yarn. Each limited-edition copy is wrapped in a needle-felted slipcover. 50 signed and numbered copies are available for purchase.

Sob!

There was a copy. At Aqua Books. This whole time.

The best part about this anecdote of lit woe is this:

The person who donated it to the store a month or so ago along with a stack of other recent books - she'd adjudicated a prize and did the classy thing (i.e. didn't want to keep the all books, necessarily, but also didn't feel right about selling them) - sent me an email Wednesday (the day AFTER the Giller Lite Bash) alerting me to the book's presence.

I ran to the shelves, softly gnashing my teeth, and found it.

I was going to buy it but then the donor asked if she could possibly have it back, given that she'd mistakenly put it on the 'to donate' pile in the first place.

Apparently, I am not meant to have a copy of this book.

Bashed

So last night I got up in front of the sold out Winnipeg edition of the Scotiabank Giller Light Bash.

I was meant to advocate for Johanna Skribsrud's debut novel, The Sentimentalists (Gaspereau Press).

Except I didn't get the book - and then, only via PDF - until Friday.

And though I'm used to tight deadlines, this was a bit tight.

Also, reading books in PDF format really really SUCKS.

In any event, though I was hoping I would come up with something subtle and nuanced, given the time constraints, I mostly just got up and mugged for five minutes.

The mugging was all about the book, of course, but still...

And I was halfway undone by the fact that emcee - and Frontier College grand poo bah - waved my book around while introducing me and talked about how good it was (which was decidedly off script).

Anyways, I sipped champagne all night because I was wearing my chocolate tweed suit and my tiger's eye jewelry and it was lovely to sip champagne, especially after my five minutes was up.

And then we all watched the Toronto ceremony on the big screen. And Skibsrud won. And cried. And her sister, back at her table, looked broken open.

Which was also sort of pleasant. You know, being right and all. And having said glass of champagne at my elbow...

And now I have this to say to the world-at-large: no more deadlines!

...except that the December poetry column will be due at least a week early, because of the holidays....

But after that! Nothing new on the pile!

Kerry Ryan's Versus

This was supposed to be a special edition of the Hands On Project - featuring Winnipeg's Kerry Ryan with her second book, launched this past week at McNally Robinson - except apparently I can't take a sharp picture of people's hands to save my g-d life.

So you get a diptych of mostly sharp pics, even though I had ringside seats and blooming tea to calm me after a haphazard day/week/year...

Congrats to Kerry, who was gracious and thoughtful and calmly confident at the mic. Yay Kerry!

Also worth noting is how Kerry accessorized her book with pins. I was hoping for a mug or maybe even underoos, but she rolled her eyes at that. And really, it was the worst joke ever. But still!

Still to come is my interview with Kerry in Prairie books NOW, which should be out any day now.

Fun!

duckweed

hiving

flare

All photos FortWhyte Alive, Winnipeg, MB. November 7, 2010.

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Not the forest, I know. But within shreiking distance. And I really like this shot...

The Keystone of Canadian Poetry

So CV2 is middle-aged. But I'm two years older. Which makes me middle-aged +2.

In any event, the Winnipeg-based lit mag is/has published two special editions celebrating its oldness.

They've also done a country-wide tour, featuring past contributors from Halifax, Toronto, and Vancouver.

It was very nice to see that Jeannette Lynes (who edited Hump) was reading in Hfx and Bren Simmers (a fellow Sage Hill attendee in 2003) in Van.

The Winnipeg event will be November 20 and features eight of nine or Winnipeg's best poets. And you should go.

This isn't a completely altruistic mention, as I've a poem in the second issue - with several dozen other poets - but still. Go.

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CV2 35th Anniversary Launch

When: Saturday, November 20. 7 pm
Where: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street)
Cost: FREE!

Contemporary Verse 2 is celebrating 35 years of publishing fine poetry and critical writing with the launch of two Special Editions, and a reading by 9 Winnipeg poets, each a key contributor to CV2 over the years. Join us for an evening of poetry, prizes and celebration on Saturday, November 20 at 7:00pm.

Readers for the evening include Allison Calder, Maurice Mierau, Charles Leblanc, Rosanna Deerchild, Meira Cook, George Amabile, Dennis Cooley and Sarah Klassen.

In addition, there will be an introduction by editor Clarise Foster, and copies of both Special Editions will be available.

About the Special Editions:
CV2: The Early Years explores the first ten years of the magazine, including writing by Roo Borson, Marilyn Bowering, Patrick Friesen and 26 others, as well as original, type-written correspondence between once regional editor bpNichol and the CV2 editorial collective. Also featured are a series of lino cuts by contributing artist Arthur Adamson.

CV2: The Keystone of Canadian Poetry turns 35 continues where the first edition leaves off, with a look at CV2 magazine’s contribution to literary arts in Canada over the past 25 years. Over 75 of Canada’s best-loved poets are featured in this issue, both French and English, including all the poets from this year’s Coast to Coast Reading Tour.

Regina, SK: October 4

Vertigo Reading Series
John Toone, Jonathan Ball, Ariel Gordon, Gillian Harding Russell

The Vertigo Reading Series is a platform for emerging and established writers in any genre to share their work with an audience and sell their books in sunny Regina, Saskatchewan. It takes place once or twice a month with the exception of July and August, generally with four readers per event.

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We stumbled upon Cafe Orange Izakaya, the venue for our reading, while walking the 13th Ave neighbourhood, where, fatally, everything was closed.

John pointed down the street and kept on saying, "That's open. Right there. The patio has people one it."

And lo and behold, the Vertigo poster was on the door.

So we sat on the patio, in the sun, and had Korean food. Which is really best case scenario for me.

After some backyard chit chat and dinner at Regina poet Tracy Hamon's place - where I was staying, while the boys were crazily meant to drive back to Winnipeg after the reading - we headed over to the venue.

My favourite part was the couple that was trapped behind me. I paused and asked them, over the mic, if they'd like to escape. They graciously emerged from their niche and I kept reading, to the accompaniment of the audience member who laughed at all my bad jokes and small vulgarities.

After ditching the boys, we had a last drink/nibble at La Bodega, which is my new Regina tradition.

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Thanks to Kris Brandhagen, Vertigo organizer and photographer, for the pictures with me in them.

Saskatoon, SK: October 3

TIP Triple Header ft. Jonathan Ball, John Toone and Ariel Gordon.

Featuring established poets from across Canada and further diversifying the stage with a cascade of local emerging poets, Tonight it's Poetry (TIP) is Saskatoon`s only weekly poetry series and performance series of its kind in Saskatchewan.

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If Brandon was the land of plenty, Saskatoon was all scarcity. Except that it all worked out and we were shown great - if last minute - hospitality.

We drove straight from Brandon to Saskatoon, thinking we'd get something to eat once we arrived. But then nothing was open, not even the Bulk Cheese Store we joshed about and then seriously considered patronizing.

We had to split up, the boys staying with a friend of Jonathan's and myself with the lovely/talented Bernice Friesen.

Which meant proper Irish tea when we waited and WAITED for the boys to come pick me up the next morning.

The highlight of the reading was when we each read each other's poem. I read JB's Pomegranate poem from Clockfire, which I thought was too perfect, given that I almost wound up with one on my cover.

Did I mention I really like my spiky cover? I do! I do!

Brandon, MB: October 2

Poetry Explosion (i.e. our workshop + reading) was 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.

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We had a splendid time in Brandon. The events were well attended, included snacks and they'd even ordered in books. Which they implored us to sign!

Yea, Brandon was the land of plenty, at least when it came to this tour. We ate well - sushi, steak/shrimp - we each got our own suite at the hotel, and the hotel bar had doubles for $1 more than singles!

The only mishap was that the front desk missed my request for a wake-up call. Which meant that I woke up at 9...and was supposed to be at the lobby, packed-up and ready to go, at 9.

The boys were merciless.

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Thanks to Di Brandt for having us!