Montreality Mentioned

Montreality: B-Sides and Rarities discussed by the Man from Glengarry here.

12 or 20

I answer a series of questions posed by the King of Pumpkin Ale here.

New Review

A wonderful new analysis of American Standard/ Canada Dry by Angela Szczepaniak at Electronic Poetry Review here.

International Festival of Authors Appearances

I'm very excited to have the opportunity to do two introductory poetry readings at the International Festival of Authors this year.

On Saturday, October 20th at 5 p.m. I'll be reading with A.J. Jacobs and Bruce Meyer in the Brigantine Room.

On Friday, October 26th at 8 p.m. I'll be reading with Will Self, David Davidar, and Tracy Chevalier at the Premiere Dance Theatre.

Elegant Elephant

Taking some time to read some of the chapbook pile before the September crunch begins again. One of the most pleasant surprises has been Jason Heroux’s Unfinished Elephant, published by In Case of Emergency Press. As expected from past experience, it is a beautifully designed and produced chapbook, and Heroux’s contemporary Surrealism is of the Steve Venright school with an added lyric sheen. Most enjoyable is Heroux’s use of metaphor and simile – some of the most surprising, yet completely appropriate, comparative images I’ve come across in a long time. Two favourites: “The moon hangs in the sky like a silver medal, as if the world won second prize in a contest” and “the rain puddles open for business/ like pawnshops selling little pieces of sky.”

Canadian Writers in Person Dates

I'll be organizing and hosting the Canadian Writers in Person series at York University for 2007-2008. Here are the authors and the dates that they will be reading. All readings are free, open to the public, and take place at 7 p.m. in Room 206, Accolade West.

Sept. 20: Christian Bök:
Eunoia (Coach House)

Oct. 4: Eden Robinson:
Blood Sports (McClelland and Stewart)

Oct. 18: Karen Hines:
The Pochsy Plays (Coach House)

Nov. 1: Lorna Crozier:
Before the First Word (Wilfrid Laurier UP)

Nov. 15: George Elliott Clarke:
Black (Polestar)

Nov. 29: Rawi Hage:
De Niro’s Game (Anansi)

Jan. 10: Steven Heighton:
Afterlands (Knopf)

Jan. 24: R.M. Vaughan:
Ruined Stars (ECW)

Feb. 7: Hiromi Goto:
Hopeful Monsters (Arsenal)

Feb. 28: Lynn Coady:
Mean Boy (Anchor)

Mar. 13: a. rawlings:
Wide Slumber for Lepidoperists (Coach House)

Mar. 27: Heather O’Neill:
Lullabies for Little Criminals (HarperCollins)

3 in St. C

I'll be doing an out of town reading at St. Catharines' Grey Borders series tomorrow night with Jay MillAr and Sandra Alland.

7:30 at the Merchant Ale House (98 St. Paul St.)

Lots of new material, and all the hits from Double Helix.

A wilde review

Lucid Forge reviews Double Helix here.

Record review

A short but sparkling review of Double Helix by Alex Good in the Waterloo newspaper, The Record, here (as a pdf).

Hosting at Harbourfront

I'll be hosting an evening with four Swedish mystery writers tomorrow night at Harbourfront.

Kjell Eriksson
Inger Frimansson
Hakan Nesser
Helene Tursten

And yours truly at the Lakeside Terrace at 7:30 p.m.

Clogged blog

I haven't been able to write anything in the last week or so while working on my Architecture of the Book conference paper, and won't be able to write again until I return from Corner Brook.

When I do I'll have a report of the conference and some impressions of the Four Horsemen Project.

Ray Fest

Many of you know my great admiration for translator, teacher, critic, and general supporter of the avant-garde, Ray Ellenwood. I was happy to contribute to the Open Letter festschrift for him with an essay that explains much of my affection for Ray.

For the event below, I'll be keeping it very short, with just a simple thank you to Ray and a reading of a Claude Gauvreau poem.

EGREGORE: FOR RAY ELLENWOOD (Open Letter ser. 13 no. 1)

Writings by: Jean Antonin Billard, Betty Bednarski, Patricia Smart,
Stephen Cain, Barry Callaghan, Stan Dragland, Barbara Godard, Patricia Godbout, Beatriz Hausner, Karl E. Jirgens, Arni Brownstone, Alok Mukherjee, Ian Sowton, Robert Paquin, Christine Klein-Lataud, David Homel, Paul Wilson, Susana Wald, Ludwig Zeller

Readings and performances by contributors, as well as William
Davison and Sherri Lynn Higgins.

When: Monday February 19, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. (doors open at 5:30)
Where: Supermarket Restaurant & Bar. 268 Augusta Ave., Toronto, ON. Phone: (416) 840-0501

Review2

Another blog review of Double Helix has appeared. This time from rob mclennan.

Testing

While I'll won't be able to make this event as I'll be lecturing on Derek McCormack, Steve Hayward, and Hiromi Goto, I encourage everyone to check out this month's Test featuring Sharon Harris and Nicole Brossard. Wednesday the 7th at 7:30 p.m. Mercer Union Gallery.

First DH review?

Sandra Alland might be the first person to review Double Helix. She makes mention of it on her excellent and politically-charged blog Blissful Times. I take her criticism in good spirit, although, to be fair, the literary figure I reference the most is that well-known white, male, Christian, heterosexual: Gertrude Stein.

Poems About Poems

Dan Waber of Minimalist Concrete Poetry fame (among many other projects) is running a series of verse poetics with a snowball constraint at Ars Poetica. I've contributed "Canada Dry" from American Standard/ Canada Dry. There's some great stuff on the site, and lots of Canadian content for a U.S. based project.

To b. or not to b.

So, the experience of the last month and a half has been good. I'll continue to post a weekly entry throughout 2007.

For those of you in the Toronto area, Sharon Harris is reading tonight at the Artbar at the Victory Cafe at 8 p.m.