Friday, February 15, 2013

haunting



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This press release was issued by the Transatlantic Agency this week:

"Edited by beloved Can Lit blogger and editor Kerry Clare (Pickle Me This and The 49th Shelf), Truth, Dare, Doubledare: Stories of Motherhood features some of Canada's best young writers including Heather Birrell, Zoe Whittall, Saleema Nawaz, Susan Olding, Diana Fitzgerald Bryden, Carrie Snyder, Alison Pick and others. This anthology probes the limits of maternity, from the ordinary to the unconventional. World rights sold to Susanne Alexander, Goose Lane Editions for publication in Spring 2014, by Samantha Haywood."

I'm an "...and others" contributor. I swear! And I had two thoughts in response to the presser:

1) This is the first time any publication of mine has been newsworthy. ("Deal news!")

2) Come spring 2014 I'll be a Goose Lane author. In the most tenuous sense, of course. But still: fun!

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The image for the spring special issue of Room, entitled Mythologies of Loss, is by Ontario artist Amy Friend. I'm a bit haunted by this image. (That perforated cheek...)

Here's how Amy characterizes the series: "Through small deliberate interventions, I altered these vintage images, allowing light to pass through them. (After all, photographs are made possible with light.) In a literal and somewhat playful manner, I aimed to give the photographs back to the light, hence the title of the series, Dare alla Luce, an Italian phrase used to describe the moment of birth."

I imagine the issue itself will be similarly haunting, esp. given the list of contributors:

Kimberly Alcock, Megan Alford, Meghan Bell, Elizabeth Berlin, Jan Bottiglieri, Sarah Brooks, Jennifer Delisle, michele marie desmarais, Nandini Dhar, Candice Fertile, Sally Franson, Amy Friend, Jeanette Geraci, Ariel Gordon, Sue Goyette, Angela Narth, Sigal Samuel, Karen Shklanka, Rachel Thompson, Dania Tomlinson, Bronwen Welch, d lee Williams, Lisa Xing.

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Bread pudding with this summer's pears, made after writing a poem about picking this summer's pears. (The dessert is half-eaten, the poem half-edited...)

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If you'll recall, poet Heidi Greco and I corresponded around the Poems! For the Trees! Project.

She wound up sending me a picture of my poem in a tree. And, also, this image.

I mean, how could she not?

2 comments:

Brenda Schmidt said...

Great news! Congratulations!

Ariel Gordon said...

Thanks, B. (Wait, are you congratulating me on the bread pudding? Given your tendencies, that's as likely as for the publications...)