Mondo!Poetry

Hey all,

For most of you, next week is Reading Week or even just the week after Valentine's Day. But Aqua Books is trying to transform February 17-21 into Mondo!Poetry, an annual festival celebrating Canadian poetry.

This first incarnation of Mondo!Poetry will feature Al Purdy and includes a fundraiser called the Mondo!Purdy Video Dance Party to support The A-Frame Trust. This group is working to preserve the fifty year-old cottage where Purdy wrote his best work and similar fundraisers have been planned for other cities across the country.

I'm including information below on all the programming we have slated for Mondo!Purdy. If you have any questions, please email me at ariel@aquabooks.ca.

If you have any problems deciding what to attend, my advice is to pick the Mondo!Purdy Video Dance Party February 21. (Dancing! Silent auction! Readings by stellar MB poets! All in support of a good cause!)

Thank you and please make me happy by sending this info on to anyone else who might be interested...

Thanks!

* * *

Speak, Writer!
Dancing Monkeys, Microphones, and Other Mysteries of Performance
A workshop with Tim Higgins and Chandra Mayor

Date: Tuesday, February 17
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Cost: $10

Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Tim Higgins and author Chandra Mayor join forces for a practical workshop, specifically for writers, full of tips, tools, and advice on how to give memorable readings and performances - from the mysteries of mics to choosing your material, body language to voice and breath.

* * *

Open Road, Open Mic
Hosted by Colin Smith and Chandra Mayor

Date: Wednesday, February 18
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Cost: FREE!

Bring your poetry and fiction, your non-fiction and your props, to this night of open mic readings in celebration of poet and performer Al Purdy.

* * *

The Landscapes in Your Voice: Riffing off Purdy
A workshop with Armin Wiebe and Kate Bitney

Date: Thursday, February 19
Time: 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Cost: $30

A writers' workshop in which Armin Wiebe and Katherine Bitney will conduct a dialogue on voice and landscape and lead participants through a series of "riffing exercises" designed to stimulate exploration of individual writing voices. Bring a notebook and a pen and a willingness to surrender to your imagination.

* * *

The Boxcar Chat
Poets David Arnason and Dennis Cooley with critic Neil Besner and moderator Ron Robinson

Date: Friday, February 20
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Cost: FREE!

Our version of the fireside chat, which includes a screening of Al Purdy: A Sensitive Man (NFB, 1988), as well as a panel discussion with contemporaries of Purdy's.

* * *

Mondo!Purdy Video Dance Party
Poets Catherine Hunter, Deborah Schnitzer, Rosanna Deerchild, Charlene Diehl

Date: Saturday, February 21
Time: 8:00 pm - 1:00 am
Cost: $10/$5 for students

Food, music, readings, remembrances, a sweet silent auction, and more. Catered by EAT! Bistro, the final night of Mondo!Purdy, this fundraiser in support of the Purdy A-frame Trust will be the literary event of the season.

Aqua-cizing!

On April 21, Aqua Books will celebrate the inaugural Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry / Prix Lansdowne de Poésie with readings in French and English.

Poets nominated for this year’s prize, to be announced at the Manitoba Book Awards April 26, include Charles LeBlanc, Alison Calder, and Christian Violy.

Date: Monday, April 21st
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Aqua Books, 274 Garry Street

EAT! bistro will be providing finger food for the event as part of the celebration.

Please join us for our first-ever bilingual reading!


* * *

On April 24, Aqua Books welcomes students from the Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre in Norway House, who will join their voices with other Aboriginal authors in an evening of readings.

The students will be launching The Voice Behind the Mask, a collection of poems, tributes, fantasy, facts and fun co-edited by teacher Audrey Guiboche and Manitoba author M. D. Meyer.

Originally from the Interlake region of Manitoba, Metis author Deborah Gillespie will also read from her new book A Journey through the Circle of Life.

Date: Thursday, April 24th
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Aqua Books, 274 Garry Street

Come out and enjoy the rich variety of styles and genres reflected in the unique talents of these Manitoba authors!

spousal support...overdue.

Hey all,

On the eve of my first official day at Aqua Books as Events Coordinator, I thought I'd better post the wobbly pictures I took at Free Your Mind: Spousal Support, way back on February 18th. Or was it the 19th?

As you may recall, the 'angle' for this event was that our reading, only five days after Valentine's Day, featured four writers but two couples - specifically, two of Winnipeg's pre-eminent literary couples: David Elias / Brenda Sciberras and Warren Cariou / Alison Calder.

I even came up with some snappy copy to advertise the event ("Have a blah Valentine's Day? Don't know what to do with a mid-winter long weekend? Then join us at Aqua Books for an evening of writing...")...but then the MWG didn't include it in their weekly e-update.


Poet Brenda Sciberras at the podium.

And then Kelly and I were both as sick as dogs...but at least Kelly's sickness didn't make him say anything stupid.

(Well, there was that crack about Brenda Sciberras being a Maltese Princess...but that wasn't so much illness-induced as business-as-usual for Kelly.)

I completely blame my illness for the fact that I approached the quartet of readers for the evening and muttered something about "playing to the audience they had."



This, because it was evident that it wasn't going to be the fullest house we'd ever had.

Blame the holiday, blame the weather, heck, blame me...but I really can't explain why we have to shoehorn them into seats in the aisles for some events and at others have room for a tumbleweed or six.

But it was a lovely evening, redolent of popcorn and gasoline, roadkill and freaks. We had poetry, we had fiction, we had clever love poems cleverly addressed to people in the room and poisoned fictional relationships that only lived in the brain of their creators...until the upcoming book launches, that is.


Prof and writer Warren Cariou has his turn at the podium.

Finally, I will admit that it will be nice not to ever have to haul out Kelly's rag-tag collection of chairs again.

At the new Aqua, I'll have my pick of events rooms - a smaller room once used for karaoke (that has shiny gold wallpaper! GOLD!) and a large room with a stage in front and a serving kitchen in the back.

Also, a coat check room! Swoon!

Though I'm not assuming that any of our four readers checks this space - that would be plumb egotistical! - I'd like to thank them for reading while also simultaneously resisting the urge to apologize for the empty chairs.

Thanks! No, really...thanks!

And to all you rat bastards who didn't come to the perfectly lovely reading I organized...well, I already called you rat bastards.

Free Your Mind: Spousal Support

Have a blah Valentine's Day? Don't know what to do with a mid-winter long weekend?

Then join us at Aqua Books for an evening that will feature two of Winnipeg's pre-eminent literary couples: David Elias / Brenda Sciberras and Warren Cariou / Alison Calder.

Monday, February 18th, 7:30 pm

Aqua Books, 89 Princess St.
(Between McDermot & Bannatyne)

The Free Your Mind Reading Series is a collaboration between Aqua Books and The Writers' Collective, with each event featuring a different literary genre and/or theme.

Admission is free.

* * *

Aqua Books proprietor Kelly Hughes is probably too busy to be hosting this event, given that he's mid-way through a (much-documented) renovation of his new building.

And I'm probably an idiot for scheduling an event a lean week after I return from holiday, but neither Kelly nor I wanted to stop programming for the store altogether between Christmas and the move to the new store, so I schemed up the Spousal Support concept.

There are several literary couples in Winnipeg I could have called on, but I wanted to see David/Brenda and Warren/Alison and this is probably the last chance I have to do something selfish before I officially start as Aqua's Events Coordinator, so...

Did I mention that I'll be starting at Aqua in that capacity March 1st?

This wasn't a decision I made lightly, given that I spent eight years with my current employers. They've given me room to grow (from mostly admin gak to communications) and also the flexibility to take advantage of a variety of opportunities, not the least of which was less than a week's notice before hopping on a plane for Scotland and a month-long artist's retreat there.

But the new job will also allow me to chat with writers and book folk while simultaneously trying to reach out to people interested in books and thinking and performance...for money.

It was an easy choice, in the end.

Now all I have to do is survive two more weeks of full time at the old job, which will include hiring a new me as well as tidying up several years worth of files, both electronic and on paper.

Hopefully, I'll see some of youse that I've neglected, lo these hectic few months, at the event...

full house

There were people standing in the aisles for the Lansdowne reading on Thursday. Some of those people just preferred to stand but others, who came later, genuinely had nowhere to sit.

And this was after we'd excavated everything resembling a chair from the back room and even marshaled the stools scattered charmingly throughout the store.


(l-r) prof/poet Karen Clavelle, prof/poet/mystery writer Catherine Hunter, editor Andris Taskans.

Reverse alphabetical it was, not that it made any difference to me, because smack dab in the middle is smack dab in the middle, no matter where you start off.

Deborah Schnitzer brought a cushion and a dose of antihistamines, knowing she would be among cat people but also perched on a hard hard seat. No slight on Kelly's hospitality, but one of the things I'm looking forward to in the new venue is never having to set out his collection of assorted chairs.

Not that the 100 or so chairs we'll need for Aqua's performance space will likely all be the same, but there'll probably be more than two or three of the same design.


Editor/poet/LCP President Maurice Mierau.

Maurice Mierau brought his disdain for In Flanders Fields in the form of a poem modeled on the Remembrance Day stalwart as well as the first poem from Barbara Nickel's Domain, which, switching hats for a second (Maurice is the poetry reviewer for the Winnipeg Free Press), he highly recommended.

Chandra chastised Kelly for leaking personal information from the podium, which gave Kelly ample material to work with for the rest of the evening. I think it was a bit they worked out in advance, employer to employee, but who am I to say...

Fittingly, Lori Cayer and Sharon Caseberg, who co-chaired the committee, read last. They deserve many kudos for organizing the various events that raised half of the funds needed to award a poetry prize at the Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards.

I look forward to seeing both on the podium in the future, not giving away the prize, but accepting it. Which could come sooner rather than later, as Lori is finishing her second collection and Sharon working on her first, baby and busy freelancing career permitting.


Prof/poet Karen Clavelle.

With my five minutes of podium time, I read a new/old poem from my manuscript, Storm, spare room. The core of the poem was written a year or more ago but it just wasn't...finished...until I re-worked it this past fall.

I didn't rehearse the poem as much as I would have liked, but given the week I was having, I'm lucky to have made it to the reading at all...

[Kelly was kind enough to let me know that my neck didn't go red (a reading constant with me...if I'm wearing an open-necked shirt, interesting Rorschach-like patterns appear on my upper chest) until near the end.]

It wasn't apparently a good night for book sales, but my feeling is that too many people is as bad as too few, when it comes to such. With too few, the equation is obvious - fewer people buy fewer books. But with too many, the problem lies in the fact that people feel too squished to browse properly. Which is the only way to second-hand book shop, really.


PF President/WIWF General Manager Perry Grosshans and PF Editor Andris Taskans.

In other news, we're off to Utah on Monday for two weeks of in-law mediated hiking. I plan on walking my legs off.

I've got a review of Anne Simpson's Falling and an article on Thuong Vuong-Riddick's The Evergreen Country: A Memoir of Vietnam due before I return, which will give me an excuse to hole up in cafes with M's laptop when not hiking.

resolute

First of all, my apologies. The past few months have not been especially good when it comes to the blog...and also the activities that make for copy on the blog.

Though I'm sure most of you know this (from whiny back-channel emails), I added an extra day a week to my usual two part-time days in November. In December, that was upped to full-time, which will continue until the end of January.

I made the decision based on a couple of factors the foremost of which was that I'd pushed and pushed to finish Hump, my manuscript of poetry, in time for a mid-November deadline...and thought I would very likely need a break from writing.

But, foolish me, working full-time isn't a break. Between work and my other work-like obligations (organizing events for Aqua Books, facilitating the poetry workshop for Creative Retirement Manitoba, reviewing books for the Winnipeg Free Press) - and the fact that I had to spend considerable time with Aa, reassuring her that I wasn't going anywhere except to work - there was very little time left for housework, nevermind writing.

Did I also mention that Xmas was in there somewhere?

Anyone halfway rational would say:







"Give up some of your extracurricular, at least for the short term..."

or "Aren't you supposed to be taking a bit of a break? Why not just enjoy it?"

But...the extracurricular are what keep me sane. And really, there's my blither blather about writing, the idea that I can schedule my need to write, and then there's the part of my brain that gets all gnaw-y and piss-y when I don't write.

And so, for the first time in months, I have a full slate of submissions out in the world, to the CBC Literary Awards, to Carousel, and The Fieldstone Review, and a handful more.

And the VERY hastily put together launch of A/Cross Sections at Aqua featured both a full house and a good vibe.

So while I didn't actually write much (which is why I'm gnaw-y and piss-y and not blogging much), I'm reasonably pleased with what I got done and ever more resolute in my conviction that working full time is a fool's bargain. A bum's rush.

So I've only got another month of whining and woe-is-me-ing before I'm back to my part-time existence.

(My apologies to those who work for money full-time when they'd rather be doing something else...I know how lucky I've been, lo these past few years, to be able to work park time.)

A/Cross Sections at Aqua!

To celebrate its silver anniversary, the Manitoba Writers’ Guild recently released A/Cross Sections: New Manitoba Writing, edited by founding members Andris Taskans and Kate Bitney.

At 91 contributors, A/Cross Sections offers a little of something for everyone, from poetry to fiction, memoir, drama and even horror.

So join us for the Aqua Books launch of A/Cross Sections, which will feature local literati Charlene Diehl, Faith Johnston, and Deborah Schnitzer.

December 17th, 7:30 pm
Aqua Books
89 Princess Street
(Between McDermot & Bannatyne)

Wrapped copies of A/Cross Sections, perfect for slipping under the tree, will be available at the event.

ensnared

Last night I attended the NeWest/Snare Book Tour at Aqua Books, which featured Calgarians Ryan Fitzpatrick, Natalie Zina Walschots, and William Neil Scott.


Natalie Zina Walschots arranges her hair, pre-reading. The poets (Melanie Brannagan and Mariianne Mays) and and the poet-lover (who shall remain nameless) in the back row appear to be averting their eyes but they are really only examining a title on the bookshelf.

Aqua owner Kelly apparently wasn't feeling well, but you couldn't tell by his hosting, which included much of the usual tomfoolery as well as gentle mockery of the definitely-not-title-case titles of the magazines and anthologies the readers had thus far contributed to...

It was a smallish crowd but the authors performed to the back of the room and when they were done, there was lots of room for good chat, for instance when Dennis Cooley assured me there are generally only three or four days between finishing a manuscript and publishing it...


Post-reading, poets (Robert Kroetsch, Dennis Cooley, and Mariianne Mays) convene in Aqua's soon-to-be-expanded poetry corner, while another versifier (Melanie Brannagan) gives me the stink-eye.

I bought Ryan and Neil's books (Natalie had sold out somewhere earlier on the tour and was hoping that the box her publisher sent to Winnipeg would arrive in time for the event, but no luck and no nippleclamps for us) but also a book called the Encyclopedia of Ignorance (essays by scientists edited by poets!) and two A.A. Milne chapter books (for Aa, who at least is obsessed with something palatable).


Bookseller Kelly's raven locks sell books to the poet-lover (still nameless) while William Neil Scott, who goes by the name of Neil, looks on nonchalantly...

Kelly also presented me with a fridge magnet of a Thomas Edison advertisement. I'm currently embroiled in Edison research for the chamber opera I'm collaborating on with David Raphael Scott but that's a whole different post...

...Fun!

Free Your Mind pics!

Last week, amidst meetings and appointments, I had the distinct pleasure of reading to a full room.



It was a lovely mix of people too - I ushered pods of fond friends (and, as you'll see, their babies) to adjacent seats, leaving just before they started cackling and peppering me with insults...and even found my mother-in-law a spot on the couch, within ogling distance of said baby.



Writerly types, used to the hullaballoo of readings, confidently strode towards the sturdiest of the folding chairs and got a good gossip on.

Kelly of Aqua Books, who will soon be moving kit and caboodle to a new, expanded venue, was avuncular (even jolly!) while introducing me and also the main draw, George Murray.



I've been busy compiling (and piling and unpiling) a manuscript of poetry of late and so am feeling sentimental about certain poems - and completely indulged myself by choosing three that have yet to find a home and trying them out on my invisible living room audience.

They loved it...and the audience at Aqua, the next day, seemed to like them okay too.



But then, I'd made half the room promise to lie to me if I bombed, so who knows how I did, really...

And then I spent the whole of George's reading cradling my friend's three-month-old son because there's something wonderful about the empty arms of a new mother.

He grunted and pecked me with his little chin, not precisely in rhythm to George's poetry but almost.



So here's to George Murray, for giving me a reason to assemble such an august assembly...and for asking me to join him.

Here's to Kelly, for keeping Aqua open late for the reading and for being such a supporter of literature, reading by reading by reading.

And here's to all of you who came, or meant to come, or even emailed to say that you wished you could have come.

And though I probably end too many posts this way: Fun!

(I recorded audio of one of the poems I performed that night but haven't yet found a free way to upload it...anyone have any suggestions?)

FYM: Bookninja

The Aqua Books Author Series presents: Poet and Bookninja George Murray

Please join Aqua Books for an evening of poetry featuring Winnipegger Ariel Gordon and visiting poet and Bookninja George Murray.

Location: Aqua Books, 89 Princess St.
Date: September 19, 2007.
Time: 7:30 pm.

Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg-based writer and editor. September 23-30th, Gordon will be the blogger-in-chief of HOT AIR, the official blog of THIN AIR, Winnipeg International Writers Festival. Her poetry has recently appeared in PRISM International, The Windsor REview, and Prairie Fire. She is also regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press' Books Section.

George Murray's latest book is The Rush To Here (Nightwood Editions, 2007). His three previous books of poetry include The Hunter (McClelland & Stewart, 2003) and The Cottage Builder’s Letter (M&S, 2001). His poems, fiction and criticism have appeared in many publications in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, and Europe. Murray is the editor and publisher of the popular literary website Bookninja.com and a contributing editor for several literary magazines, including Canadian Notes and Queries and The Drunken Boat. He lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

FYM: CBC Literary Awards

Manitoban poet Méira Cook was recently awarded the prestigious 2006 CBC Literary Award for poetry. Fellow Manitoban Sarah Klassen was named to the shortlist. We'd like to celebrate their accomplishment by presenting readings from each of these excellent poets. Please join us!

* * *

Méira Cook is a writer, critic and poet living in Winnipeg. Her most recent book of poetry is Slovenly Love, and she is the winner of the 2006 CBC Literary Award for poetry.

Sarah Klassen is a Winnipeg writer whose most recent poetry collection, A Curious Beatitude, was short-listed for the new Lansdowne Poetry Prize. Her new story collection, A Feast of Longing, was launched in May 2007. Also in May, she attended the launch of Poetry as Liturgy (St Thomas Press), an anthology that included a number of her poems.

* * *

The Aqua Books / Writers' Collective Free Your Mind Reading Series is a monthly multi-genre reading series. Hosted by Aqua Books, a bright and cheery second-hand bookstore in Winnipeg's Exchange District, each event features readings from two established and one emerging writer.

* * *

Free Your Mind: CBC Literary Awards
Tuesday, May 29 / 7:30pm
Aqua Books (89 Princess Street)

true crime

Free Your Mind: True Crime
Thursday, May 17 / 7:30pm
Aqua Books (89 Princess Street)

Featured readers: Mike McIntyre, Bill Redekop, Dan Zupansky

* * *

Mike McIntyre is the justice reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. He operates his own website, www.mikeoncrime.com, which features the latest in local, national and international crime and justice news. McIntyre is also the author of three bestselling Canadian true crime books.

Bill Redekop is the ramblin' regional reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press, roaming rural Manitoba. (Say it three times fast.) He is a co- winner of a National Newspaper Award in 1998, and has co-written two Free Press books, A Red Sea Rising and The Way We Live. He has written two true crime books, Crimes of the Century: Manitoba's Most Notorious True Crimes, which won the Mary Scorer Book Award in 2002, and Crime Stories (More of Manitoba’s Most Notorious True Crimes) in 2004.

Dan Zupansky is a singer/songwriter and producer, operating the recording studio Superhero Recordings. In March 2000, Dan began writing, hosting and producing the talk-radio program Off the Cuff on UMFM. In 2004 Dan became involved with the Sydney Teerhuis murder trial and decided to write his first book Trophy Kill: The Trial and Revelations of a Psychopathic Killer.

* * *

The Aqua Books / Writers’ Collective Free Your Mind Reading Series is a monthly multi-genre reading series. Hosted by Aqua Books, a bright and cheery second-hand bookstore in Winnipeg’s Exchange District, each event features readings from two established and one emerging writer.

Two more FYM pics

All photos from FYM: Young Adult, Aqua Books. March 21, 2007.

Free Your Mind: Young Adult

All photos from FYM: Young Adult, Aqua Books. March 21, 2007.

thriller

All photos from FYM: Thriller, Aqua Books. February 21, 2007.

tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...

The Aqua Books / Writers' Collective
Free Your Mind Reading Series

FYM is a new monthly multi-genre reading series. Hosted by Aqua Books, a bright and cheery second-hand bookstore in Winnipeg’s Exchange District, each event will feature meaty readings from two established and one emerging writer.

* * *

FYM: Thriller
February 21 / Aqua Books / 7:30 pm

Featured readers: Susie Moloney, David Annandale, Kyle Martin

Susie Moloney is an award-winning humourist and the author of three novels, The Dwelling, Bastion Falls, and A Dry Spell. Her books have been published all over the world. She lives in Winnipeg.

David Annandale did his MA on the Marquis de Sade at the University of Manitoba, and his PhD on horror fiction and film at the University of Alberta. His novels are the thrillers Crown Fire and Kornukopia, and he is working on the third entry in the Jen Blaylock series: The Valedictorians. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies of horror fiction. His Fringe plays include The Switchblade Oratorio, Phantom Limb and The Smiling Crematorium. He teaches literature and film at the University of Manitoba.

Kyle Martin earned his Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, from the University of Winnipeg, and is currently enrolled in Red River College, as an Advertising major in the Creative Communications program. The thriller Comfort Food is his first novella, undertaken as the major creative Independent Professional Project that is requisite in order to complete the Creative Communications program.

* * *

Opened in 1999, Aqua Books is located at 89 Princess Street, between McDermot and Bannatyne. One of the top two used bookstores in Uptown's 2006 Readers' Choice Awards, Aqua is home to 20,000 books priced under $10. Aqua Books is open Tuesday-Thursday 11am-7pm, Friday and Saturday 11am-9pm.

Two upcoming events

The Aqua Books / Writers' Collective
Free Your Mind Reading Series

FYM: Thriller
February 21 / Aqua Books / 7:30 pm

Featured readers: Susie Moloney, David Annandale, Kyle Martin

Susie Moloney is an award-winning humourist and the author of three novels, The Dwelling, Bastion Falls, and A Dry Spell. Her books have been published all over the world. She lives in Winnipeg.

David Annandale did his MA on the Marquis de Sade at the University of Manitoba, and his PhD on horror fiction and film at the University of Alberta. His novels are the thrillers Crown Fire and Kornukopia, and he is working on the third entry in the Jen Blaylock series: The Valedictorians. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies of horror fiction. His Fringe plays include The Switchblade Oratorio, Phantom Limb and The Smiling Crematorium. He teaches literature and film at the University of Manitoba.

Kyle Martin earned his Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, from the University of Winnipeg, and is currently enrolled in Red River College, as an Advertising major in the Creative Communications program. The thriller Comfort Food is his first novella, undertaken as the major creative Independent Professional Project that is requisite in order to complete the Creative Communications program.

* * *

FYM: Young Adult
March 21 / Aqua Books / 7:30 pm

Featured readers: Martha Brooks, Anita Daher, Perry Grosshans

Critically acclaimed playwright, novelist and short fiction writer Martha Brooks was born and raised in a medical family on the grounds of the now defunct Manitoba Sanatorium at Ninette, Manitoba and resides with her husband, Brian, in Winnipeg. Her books are published in Canada and the US, as well as Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, Denmark, England and Australia. Her travels as an author have taken her not only throughout her own country, but to international festivals in Australia, Iceland and Germany. She is a self-taught writer who learned her craft through isolation, hard work and the guidance of superb mentors. Her young adult books are multi-generational meditations on love, loss and the miracle of unexpected connections. Brooks is also a jazz singer and lyricist. Her debut CD Change of Heart won the 2002 Prairie Music Award for outstanding jazz album. Martha’s latest YA novel, Mistik Lake, will be released by Groundwood Books here in Canada in May, and by Farrar Straus and Giroux in the States in September.

Anita Daher draws writing inspiration from the many places in Canada she feels fortunate to have spent time, which include Summerside, PEI, Yellowknife, NT, Churchill, MB, Baker Lake, NU, and Sault Ste. Marie, ON. She's been entrenched in the book publishing industry for several years writing books, articles and reviews, leading workshops and presentations, and has worked on the publishing end of things as a marketing director and editor. Earlier books are Flight From Big Tangle and Flight from Bear Canyon (Orca, ages 7 to 12). In April she will launch two new books, Racing For Diamonds (Orca, ages 7 to 12), and Spider’s Song (Penguin, young adult psychological thriller). Anita lives in Winnipeg with her husband, two daughters, a basset hound and a Westfalia camper van named Mae.

Perry Grosshans is a Winnipeg writer and game designer with degrees in History, Classics and Anthropology. He is the General Manager of the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, and has served on the board of Prairie Fire Press for the last five years. He has published articles in the Icelandic newspaper Logberg-Heimskringla and Prairie Books NOW. In 2005, Grimm Magazine published the short story Sagebrush, written with financial support from the Winnipeg Arts Council.

* * *

The Free Your Mind Reading Series Mandate
The Free Your Mind Reading Series is a new monthly multi-genre reading series. Hosted by Aqua Books, a bright and cheery second-hand bookstore in Winnipeg’s Exchange District, each event will feature meaty readings from two established and one emerging writer.

The Writers’ Collective Mandate
The Writers’ Collective is a grassroots organization for writers, housed in the library archives of the University of Winnipeg. It formed in the summer of 2000, following the demise of the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Authors Association. Today the organization has grown to roughly 200 members, and works to offer services and programs for writers of all skill levels, with an emphasis on emerging writers.

Contact FYM Coordinator Ariel Gordon for more information.

communion

Last weekend, it was the Free Your Mind Reading Series, a new multi-genre series whose inaugural event was in unofficial celebration of National Poetry Month.

Twenty people accumulated in a bookstore aisle (ala Narnia?), listening intently to poems about spring, children, and parents.

There was an old pulpit to read from, a papier mache elephant's head on the wall, and copies of a second book to be sold for the first time.

Best of all, there was a sense of intimacy.

This weekend it was the Coffee & Cadence Lyric Cafe, a fundraiser for a poetry prize a group of us is trying to establish for the Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards.

Seventy people gathered in a speakeasied church basement, listening intently to poetry about spring, lovers, and children.

We had lava lamps. We had strawberry shortcake. We had strong coffee and jazz and old typewriters for auction (my favorite had a sideways 'e' ... but I was persuaded that the four typewriters I had at home were sufficient for my typewriterly needs).

Best of all, there was a sense of community.

Oh, I had such a good time - both events contained elements of what drew me to the writing and publishing community in Winnipeg in the first place, and both events revitalized me, especially after a string of engagements where I was one of only a few on-purpose attendees.

Anyways, if you weren't there, you should have been. If you were...well, wasn't that elephant/shortcake divine?

after

Aqua Books' poetry / modern & classic fiction aisle, positively bristling with audience members listening to poet Laurie Block on April 15, 2006.


The Writer's Collective Programming Coordinator (and poet) Lindsey Wiebe in the foreground, with featured reader Sally Ito underneath the elephant on April 15, 2006.

before

Aqua Books' poetry / modern & classic fiction aisle, with and without Marjorie Poor, Prairie Books Now's Editor browsing the shelves, on April 15, 2006.