poetry bashing

It's funny, but my interest in the bright world of writing and publishing has been dwindling of late.

I decided back in July, for instance, that I didn't want to HOT AIR this year (i.e. helm the THIN AIR blog) and so my attendance at this year's festival was spotty.

I didn't even bring my camera with me to Wednesday's Poetry Bash, which is scandalous, given that I've covetously photographed the winning poet's hand for the last handful of years. (Heh.)(I look this grainy darling with my iPhone...)

Not that I wasn't interested in the writers on offer. There were many readings and conversations and performances I wished I could have attended, but it just wasn't possible this week to make the life/writing life equation work in the festival's favour.

As I mentioned before, I've also given up the monthly poetry column in the Winnipeg Free Press that Jennifer Still and I co-helmed. And as of November, will no longer be haphazardly publicizing poetry for Palimpsest Press.

So in addition to clearing the decks, work-wise, I'm also withdrawing a bit from the bustle.

I'm not sure what's coming, in terms of the writing. Which project, precisely, needs this pace and this space. But I'm content to wait.

I'm also content to note that the Poetry Bash was lovely. Jenn Still's reading was lovely. I also greatly enjoyed UMP author Kim Anderson's event.

Out-of-Town-Authors: Guy Vanderhaeghe

A Good GUY

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
by: Ariel Gordon

Saskatoon-based writer Guy Vanderhaeghe has published five novels, seven collections of short stories, and two plays.

His first book, Man Descending: Selected Stories won a Governor General's Award in 1982. He repeated the trick with 1996's The Englishman's Boy. His novel The Last Crossing was selected for the 2004 edition of Canada Reads.

Vanderhaeghe has written a new 'Western Epic': A Good Man. He'll be launching it Friday as a part of the Thin Air: Winnipeg International Writers Festival.

He'll do a solo reading at the Millennium Library at 12:15 p.m. before appearing at that night's Mainstage with Clark Blaise, David Homel, Rosemary Nixon, Waubgeshig Rice and Miriam Toews.

1) As a writer (i.e. someone whose artistic practice is predicated on time spent alone) how do you approach performance? What do you get out of it?

Public readings are never easy for me and I always approach them with plenty of trepidation. Since I'm no actor, the best I can do is to try to let the words speak for themselves. What I like best about readings is the opportunity to meet and talk with an audience that loves books. For me, that's the real benefit.

2) What do you want people to know about A Good Man?

A Good Man, like any novel, is almost impossible to summarize. The book is set in roughly the same time period and geography as my earlier historical novels, The Englishman's Boy and The Last Crossing. In part, it deals with the arrival of Sitting Bull in Canada after the Battle of Little Big Horn and his complicated relations with Major James Walsh of the NWMP. But it also covers other events: the establishment of the first Canadian secret service, the invasion of Canada in the 1860s by the Irish Republican Army, and Confederate conspiracies hatched in Toronto to attack the northern states. This may sound like a history lesson, but it's simply the backdrop for a much more intimate story concerning two men, Michael Dunne and Wesley Case, who each have a secret past, and are vying with one another for the attentions of a young widow named Ada Tarr.

3) Will this be your first time in Winnipeg? What have you heard?

I've been a participant in the festival once before in 2002. Thin Air is a great event and Winnipeg has a vibrant writing and arts scene so I'm expecting things to be exciting and lively. I'm grateful to have been invited to take part this year.

4) What are you reading right now? What are you writing right now?

Right now I'm reading Marilynne Robinson's Home, the sequel to Gilead, a novel that I admired. At present I'm writing nothing, simply fiddling with ideas and feeling guilty that I haven't started on something new.

5) Your work has garnered a bristling bouquet of awards and other recognition. What are your goals for your writing career now?

I don't really have any goals for my writing career because I've never been able to think of myself as having a "career." When I started writing, my aim was to become better at my craft and to fashion whatever I was working on with all the care and attention I was capable of bringing to it. I don't feel any differently 30 years later. I don't look beyond what I'm working on and have no expectations beyond those I put on myself.

Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg writer.

Reprint: Poetic Edits

Vancouver-based writer Kevin Spenst is doing a series of interviews with poets focused on the editing process. He calls them Poetic Edits.

I was tickled, after receiving his interview request, to see that Bren Simmers, Sandra Ridley, and Linda Besner were all there, saying smart but also heartfelt things about editing.

Here's an excerpt from my interview, posted today:

Any pet peeves when it comes to editing your own work or someone else’s?

Ariel Gordon: I’m no one’s wife but I OFTEN find myself married to the original idea/image/sound in a particular work.

Convincing myself to radically change a piece – throwing out most if not all of it, dramatically re-writing the rest – is hard mental work, especially if I’ve got something that sort-of-kind-of-but-doesn’t-quite-FUCKING-work.

The problem is that you have to be committed to changing the piece for the changes to be any good.

And if you’re not convinced that it needs changing, well…it feels baby/bathwater-y.

The absolute worst is when I’m having a stupid day and somehow decide, in the midst of my stupidity, that maybe I should edit my poems.

Thank gods I keep all the different e-versions of my poems...

I have two thoughts, late on a Sunday night the day before school starts. The first is: Thanks Kevin! The second is: Oh what fun...

Cabin fever

So my co-conspirator Julia Michaud and I are nearly done our JackPine chapbook, How to Prepare for Flooding.

We've got another session of tweaks planned and then it's off the printer, where its gory reds and blacks will be printed on BLINDING WHITE PAPER. 

I'm so grateful to J. for all her work on this project.

And so I'm greatly looking forward to launching it with her, both in Winnipeg and in Saskatoon.

In the meantime, here's a shot of me doing final edits at the cabin this past July.

I wedged my computer into a space on the kitchen between the girl's craft gak and M's late night snack.

I was lucky enough to have notes from three Writers-in-Residence (Melissa Steele, Ivan Coyote and Meira Cook) and to have the first prototype of the chapbook to consult.

(Thinking in terms of the poems. Thinking in terms of the design.)

And the front door was open and there was a bit of a breeze and M brought me a cup of tea without much prodding....

Thanks to M, both for for the pic AND for including the absolutely-vital-for-the-a-cabin-in-the-bush tube of Afterbite in the pic.