Writers Festival, Spring 2008

The writers fest was a success by any count with great attendance, and happy crowds from what I could see.

For more posts on the Ottawa Writers festival, beyond what's at this site, there's lots around.

Charles is doing ongoing pictures of authors who came to the festival. JohnW did portraits of people as well, including Gillian Deacon who did a green talk. rob did a roundup on the book club readings.
Vaughn's book at the fest was mentioned.

Here's a look at Alison Pick, Anne Simpson and Writers that Writers Recommend, another set of ears on Poetry Cabaret #4 featuring Anansi authors, MF Moritz, Elise Partridge and Kevin Connolly (and some on his Revolver in the light of hearing him live at the fest), Here's a summary of some of what Don Domanski said, a little bits about the Messagio Galore V sound poetry performance.

There's also non-poetry summaries from the fest of The Writing Life #1 discussions of Maryse Condé, Stan Dragland and Anne Simpson, Dan Gardner's Risk on critical thinking, and Gary Marcus' Kluge book on how the brain works and doesn't and Me Sexy the book by Drew Haydon Taylor at the reading with Kateri Akiwenzi-Damm and a post on Writing Life #2 with Gale Zoë Garnett, Elizabeth Hay and Ahmad Saidullah. Canada's sexiest male poets list included a lot who were at the fest.

Poetry Cabaret 4 (not three!)

[i apologize that i can't count, noticed my numbering has been off for the entire fest...egad]

the festival ended last night with House of Anansi Press writers A.F. Moritz, Elise Partridge and Kevin Connolly. Poetry Cabaret 4 was eloquently hosted by David 0’Meara whose introductions to everyone’s work are always so good, i’d like to see them as essays. (and he wears great shirts, last night's dashing red with black roses]

i had trouble concentrating last night and my brain came awake fully for the question period and partially for the poetry of Kevin Connolly. not because i wasn’t interested, just because at festival’s end my brain is always overloaded and i simply can’t do more than just drift in and out of consciousness. (dare i mention the wine?)

i’m hoping another blogger (say Pearl?) may have more to say about the actual readings; last night i was quite interested in the audience’s response.

A.F. Moritz read from his new poetry collection “The Sentinel” (House of Anansi Press, 2008). I once heard him read before from Night Street Repairs, which I have and enjoyed. The poems were very lyrical and despite my lack of concentration abilities, I enjoyed the cadences and the delicate nature of his writing. It had a kind of understated strength, if that makes any sense. The audience paid close attention and seemed wrapt in his words.

Elise Partridge read from Chameleon Hours (House of Anansi Press, 2008).

Kevin Connolly, a festival and audience favourite read from his latest poetry collection “Revolver” (House of Anansi Press, 2008), a fascinating journey through various voices and styles, the table of contents being song titles. When I first heard Connolly’s work a few years back, I wasn’t quite there...I’ve had to grow into his writing and now I really appreciate it. I enjoy the risks he takes, for example, writing a moon poem when so many moon poems are cliche and the way he uses a constraint as a challenge and a form of liberation. In answer to the question about understanding, to me there is no better answer than the Bill Knott quote at the beginning of the book, which Kevin read when he began his reading: “I wish to be misunderstood; that is,/to be understood from your perspective.”

Kevin says he is not a surrealist poet but rather he is influenced by the Americans who were influenced by the surrealists. he put it better than that, but at 8 am on a Sunday morning, with really sketchy notes, I can’t do what he said justice. However, the surrealistic influences of his writing show up in poems such as “Counterpane,” which he read last night, when Shakespeare arrives on Ellis Island “with a trussed-up suitcase and the equivalent of $3.50 in badly out of date currency.”

this year’s festival was another great demonstration of literary variety, not only for poetry but also for fiction (and likely for ideas too). as far as the poetry goes, we were exposed to a wide variety of styles, intensities, experimentations, traditions and personalities. i walked out of the festival feeling sated once more and ready to write, ready to read and ready to engage in a poetic dialog with other writers.

thanks again to the Ottawa International Writers Festival. you bring this city to life!

Poetry Cabaret 2: greetings torpor vigilantes, children of the turbulation

Poetry Cabaret 2 took place at the Ottawa International Writers Festival last night and featured Nathaniel G. Moore, R.M. Vaughn and Steve Venright and was hosted by the ever charismatic Stephen Brockwell, who I think has to be my favourite host of poetry events at the festival.

I had never heard any of these men read before and I have to say it was refreshing and thrilling.

Moore began with the intro from his poetry collection “Let’s Pretend We Never Met” (Pedlar Press, 2007), which describes his attempts to get the work of dead poet Catullus published and the various responses from publishers, such as “The reason we’ve never published post-humous writing is that we’ve never had any submissions.” He read several poems from the collection, which marries his translations of Catullus’ poems with popular culture and some autobiographical material. It was interesting to see the 21st century so well blended with Ancient Rome. I enjoyed Moore’s stage presence, his rapport with the audience, his surrealistic sensibilities and his humour. The language of his poems is tight, playful and imaginative.

RM Vaughan read from his poetry memoir “Troubled” (Coach House Books, 2008) about falling in love with his psychiatrist as many patients do, of being sexually exploited by him and of the ensuing legal proceedings. What impressed me about RM Vaughan's treatment of such a personal and traumatic subject is that the truth never seemed to get in the way of the strength of the art, at least from what he read. Many times when someone tries to write about his personal life, the result can be quite banal or melodramatic. This was not the case in Vaughan’s work. Later in response to one of Stephen Brockwell’s questions about the self in poetry, Vaughan explained that for his writing he needed to have a character and that even though this book is clearly autobiographical, he still needed a character.

Steve Venright had me from the first words he uttered: “Greetings all torpor vigilantes, children of the turbulation, fleurs du mal, lucid dreamers, hunters of the snark, surrealists, recordists, fovea centraleans, ritual circus freaks... (and this amazing list poem went on for ages and i loved every second). It’s on the back of Spiral Agitator (Coach House Books, 2000). One of the things Venright is known for is his language play. The man loves spoonerisms. I love spoonerisms and all kinds of word games (my own fetish is palindromes). He read the witty spoonerist tale (toonerist sale) Manta Ray Jack and the Crew of the Spooner from “Floors of Enduring Beauty” (Mansfield Press, 2007) and it had the audience buzzing and popping puzzing and bopping throughout the entire reading. It’s the first time this festival that I’ve seen the audience so animated and engaged. The story also had a non spoonerist version for those who can’t handle spoonerisms. The captain of the ship spoke in transposition only, in other words, he spoke in the spoonerism. This was such a brilliant feat of word play and skill, the attention to language, the linguistic gymnastics, the depth of understanding that goes into something like this took my breath away. You’re going to have to buy this book for yourself. It’s too good to miss.

I bought all three of Steve’s books, including Straunge Wunder, The Metalirious Pleasures of Neuralchemy - New Poems by Steve Venright (Tortoiseshell and Black, 1996). At the signing Steve was kind and gave me a bookmark with a gorgeous variegraph from his site, Torporvigil.com where you can find more psychedelic abstract art and a site rich with wonders that will delight you and surprise you.

This is what I love about the festival, the discovery of someone I have never heard of or not heard enough of and how that discovery inspires and opens up possibilities for me as both reader and writer, audience and performer, watcher and creator.

During the Q&A session, Stephen brought back his lightning round where he quotes little bits of poetic wisdom and asks for a 15-30 second comment from each person. This time around, unlike on Tuesday, the guests rose to the challenge and we all had fun. I didn’t take notes because my synapses were still reverberating from the amazing reading.

[and wasn’t it lovely to have rob back again...he read an exquisite essay on Sheila Watson’s Double Hook and Elizabeth Smart’s By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept]

Poets without Borders

In conjunction with MAYWORKS, the labour arts festival, National Poetry Month presents five world-travelling and genre-bending Ottawa area poets in a free reading to be held at Cube Gallery, around the corner from the Parkdale Market at 7 Hamilton Ave. North, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30.

Ottawa’s poets cross borders regularly, in their work as in their lives. Between Quebec and Ontario, between Canada and the U.S. and beyond, between poetry and music, between the privileged and those who struggle to survive. Share in the lyricism, the questioning and the excitement that the human voice can inspire at the annual MayWorks poetry evening.

The Poets

Born in Chile, Luciano Diaz became a writer after emigrating to Canada in his youth. In the 1990s, he edited two Symbiosis anthologies of poetry and fiction from Ottawa’s diverse cultural communities. He is organizer of the El Dorado reading series in Ottawa. His second book of poetry, Nomados/Nomads, is forthcoming from Split Quotation press.

Rhonda Douglas lives in Ottawa. Her work has been published in literary journals across Canada and overseas. In 2006, she won both the Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry and Arc Magazine’s Diana Brebner Prize. Rhonda is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and is completing the Optional-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at UBC. Her first book, The Cassandra Poems, is forthcoming from Signature Editions.

Anita Lahey's collection of poetry, Out to Dry in Cape Breton, published by Signal Editions in 2006, was nominated for the Ottawa Book Award and the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. She writes for Maisonneuve, Ottawa Magazine and other publications, and is the editor of Arc Poetry Magazine.

Born in Saskatchewan and a long-time resident of Alberta, Monty Reid has lived in the Ottawa area since 1999. His first publications appeared in 1979. Since then he has published 14 books, most recently Disappontment Island (Chaudiere), Lost in the Owl Woods (BookThug) and The Luskville Reductions (Brick). His poetry has won numerous accolades, including the Lampman-Scott Award, and has been nominated for the Governor-General’s Award on three occasions. He lives in Ottawa and works at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Armand Garnet Ruffo’s collection of poetry At Geronimo’s Grave won the Archibald Lampman Award in 2002. His work includes editing a collection of essays, (Ad)Dressing Our Words, and a feature film production of his CBC award winning play, “A Windigo Tale.” Ruffo’s poetry has appeared in numerous literary anthologies, including An Anthology of Native Literature in Canada and Making A Difference: Canadian Multicultural Literatures in English. A selection of his latest work, Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing Into Thunderbird, appeared in the National Gallery’s catalogue for the “Shaman Artist” exhibition in 2006. He teaches at Carleton University.

Tuesday at the Ottawa International Writers Festival

was jam packed with three events in a row of interest to folks of a poetry bent.
all three events were well attended and the Poetry Cabaret in particular sparked a lively discussion.

@ 6pm Don Domanski spoke of the role of the poet and the sacred within the art of poetry. the sacred is the reason why he writes. sacred for Domanski does not have to equal religious or spiritual but rather a fundamental experience with time and space and how each thing holds a mystery simply because it exists.

@ 7pm Alan Briesmaster of the newly formed Quattro, Beth Follett of Pedlar Press and Stan Dragland of Brick Books spoke about their motivations behind literary publishing and what constitutes a success.

In particular I found Beth Follett’s talk very moving. She sees herself as in service to the literary community offering them something which is essential, books. Pedlar Press is interested in works that articulate worry, when there is a mind at work trying to excavate some of the possible answers to the questions. Pedlar Press has been in business for twelve years. Beth said “I am Pedlar Press; I live on chicken feed.”

She doesn’t subscribe to conventional corporate models for business. Her biggest reward is to be the maker of beautiful and essential books.

@ 8pm, Stephen Brockwell hosted Poetry Cabaret 2 with Don Domanski, Anne Simpson and Alison Pick

It was interested hearing Domanski’s work in light of what he said earlier in the talk on the role of the poet. His reading from his latest Governor General Award-winning collection, “All Our Wonder Unavenged” (Brick Books, 2007) got me musing about whether there is a difference between wonder and reverence. In particular I was thinking about local poet Michelle Desbarat’s poetry (latest poems in Decalogue: 10 Ottawa Poets (Chaudiere Books, 2006).

I feel that she is able to articulate the experience of wonder in her work. She describes experiences and you get the impression that the speaker of the poems is inside the experience. What I got from all three poets at Poetry Cabaret 2 was their feelings of reverence for nature. Their work did not make me feel like they were necessarily reporting from within the experience but rather as observers outside of the experience.

Their reading inspired a lively question and answer period and got many of us exchanging emotion and ideas after, as any poetry reading should do, in my opinion. Yes, this is where ideas live...although I’m assuming over at the hospitality suite, the ideas are likely in full bloom ;)

Poetry Cabaret #1

Michael Dennis hosted Rachel Zolf, Fred Wah and Stuart Ross at the Poetry Cabaret #1 on opening night of the Spring edition of the Ottawa International Writers Festival.


April 13, Fred Wah opened the reading by reading from Sentenced to Light (Talon books), which includes ekphrastic poems from a visual artist who said her painting needed words. She asked him to physically apply the poems to her canvases to complete them. The compositions are included in one chapter. He also read from his newest chapbook, Isadore Blue, about Isadore hitting the Yucatan "between Spanglish and anguish". He played with the sounds of "door" in isadore in a sort of list poem cataloguing the effects of the storm. He will be back in re:reading the postmodern conference in May.

He introduced one piece by saying "a prose poem challenges the writer to do something material with the sentence." The laughter pictured in the top picture was from Zolf's "gah!" reaction to Wah's answer of what book he would choose to be stranded with on a desert island – a copy of collected Rilke like first fired his imagination in a book shop in 1957.


Rachel Zolf read from Human Resources and a chapbook, Shoot & Weep (Nomados, 2008) on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As Michael Dennis put it well, what she read are poems that reach into your ear and twist a gear you didn't know you had. People started clapping and snapping fingers at the pace that started out fast and went well into auctioneer speed as she dealt out layers of concepts piled against each other. The Shoot & Weep is not narrative but makes a powerful emotional impact of accumulating losses of war.



Stuart Ross started his reading by listening to the CD of his poems put to music, (An Orphan's Song: Ben Walker Sings Stuart Ross) then reading from I Cut my Finger and his newest, Dead Cars in Managua. He's always a crowd pleaser with his comic asides and his dark and absurdist twists of delivery within poems such as he claims to be the first horse to have ever been ridden by a man but he was just a tub of margarine in a fridge. isn't that enough? There's always more than you expect and multiple readings even in the simplest he stands on a boulder, talking on a cell phone. his voice falls off

Later in the night Messagio Galore with jwcurry and crew, from 8 pm til nearly midnight, was an introduction to decades of sound poetry. Copies of chapbooks of the performers are in the Nicholas Hoare on-site bookstore.

Canal Mug Poetry Series

For Poetry month the Ottawa Public Library is running the Canal Mug Poetry series at the Sunnyside branch (1049 Bank St.) in April. They run each Thursday from 7:00-8:30 pm and admission is free.

The first readers were Claudia Coutu Radmore and Ian Roy (pictured). There was space for about 15 in the audience and a few more chairs were brought out.


Claudia Coutu Radmore read from her completed manuscript a minute or two / without remembering. It tells stories in poems of the 1700s Canada. One of my favorites from what she read was about the fundraising of the Soeurs Grises. Thru masses they converted the wine and the host into lintels and beams of the hospital, and duck eggs were transfigured into roofs for the same. She also has poems of les habitants and soldiers under Montcalm and Levis who, when there was a famine year, tried to persuade the French to eat their horses. There was a passionate protest that one does not eat horses or friends. Levis did persuade the men under him to go against their instincts and eat horse meat to get strength for a battle. If he had been the top commander, would Canada today have been New France?


Ian Roy read from Red Bird, his poetic travels around Canada and down across the continent to California. His asides were an enriching background to the poems, such as the preface to the California poem where he and his fellow travellers came across a town with the same name as his grandmother. They tried to find a souvenir for her from there but had to press on unsuccessfully. His poem of shifting thru states, finding places where he'd like to linger, like Burlington Vermont and other places, not so much, such as in a snowstorm in the mountains in July in Colorado.

The next Canal Mug Series will be April 10 with another pair of poets: Susan McMaster reading from her mid-life memoir about a poet's life in Ottawa, The Gargoyle’s Left Ear, and Paul Tyler, a contributing editor for ARC Poetry Magazine.

On the 17th the readers will be Andrew Steinmetz & Betty Warrington-Kearsley. On April 24th the features will be Rob Winger & Rhonda Douglas.

For all the upcoming readers see the the pdfs of the posters with the details

What inspires you lately?

Cameron Anstee

As a student most of my reading during the academic year is for class, but I've been lucky this semester. I'm in a course taught by Rob Winger on the Canadian long poem around the 1970s. The book list is incredible, including Phyllis Webb's 'Naked Poems', Books 3 & 4 of bpNichol's 'Martyrology, and John Thompson's 'Stilt Jack' as a few highlights.

Carleton also has a fantastic creative writing community (headed by Professor Collett Tracey and her student run little magazine In/Words). Seeing the output and development of the community breeds a productive sort of competitive spirit. It's remarkable to be able to read the work of someone you respect more or less as it is being produced, and then sit down and talk poetry over a beer.

Last but not least, my beautiful girlfriend. On a personal level of course, but she is also a photographer and film student, so she offers me the opportunity to draw from non-literary sources.

I guess those are boring answers (books, peers, love) but I don't feel I ever need to look too far for inspiration."

Cameron is presently completing his B.A. in English Literature at Carleton University, where he will be pursuing an M.A. this coming fall. He is a contributing editor at In/Words and has printed a handful of chapbooks.

Damien Bailey

"Used to be a mix of menacing pressures: time, death, calamities, societal recognition, vengeance.

Now it’s morphine, a legal, chronic prescription serving as a weight blaster–not the fact that I’ve lost 30 some pounds and enter places through the floor and door interstice, but, rather, the morphine’s ability to remove weight carried from the burdens of life. These odd hours of respite are an encouraging vitality; they bring forth a fresh artistic and intellectual approach rather than a wading writing. I can temporarily reject the constraints, the hell, of linear time, without having to fight–even grab a few shiny things along the way and not feel guilty from dictating philosophies.

This is my new freedom and inspiration . . . that is until I’m boxed in detox. Inspiration always has a price."

Damien is working on King Boyle’s Revenge, his six-year-in-the-making poetic novella; he hopes to have it finished before the end of the third millennium. He’s also completing a few scholarly degrees (one in Ethics, one in History) and is currently the emotional CEO of Sorrowland Press, which can be found in the jungle of the internet. He carries a dead man (Che), a dead rabbit (Poe), a dead foetus (Bruno), 2 kids, 2 dogs, and 1 wife that just won’t quit.

Jamie Bradley

“I think that, for me at least, the "inspiration" for a poem is also the closest I can come to asserting why to write a poem at all: the alternative is entropy; the slide into resignation and complacency that you can mark in the eyes of so many (they seem to rush, and no one beautiful should ever hurry). My response is to keep considering and lusting after ideas, people, etc., committing to any, all, and none of them as the mood takes me. Poems serve as spells to not only call these into being, but also to assemble them in odd and gravity defying ways that continue the distraction, both for me and hopefully for the reader. This isn't to label the experience as slight or irrelevant; beauty is the closest thing I can identify to freedom, and there is nothing so easy to take and hard to give away.

In specific terms: I'm currently taken with Frank O'Hara, Anne Carson and Alban Berg; Turner, Balthus and Thomas Heatherwick; Cormac McCarthy, Duras, and Bob Dylan."

Jamie will be reading at the A B Series along with Lindsay Foran and H. Masud Taj on Saturday, April 5 at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Arts Building, Room 509, 7pm

Lindsay Foran

"That's a really tough question, surprisingly! I am always inspired by poetry that I read whether it be something I'm studying in class or a poem I happen to see when picking up a journal. I can sometimes be inspired by movies or songs that touch me in a certain way. Most recently Margaret Laurence's "A Bird in the House" has really inspired me to focus on my writing again. I connected with the young female aspiring writing as I remember what it was like to be ten or so and just wanting to write and make up stories. Besides all of that, I love to just watch the world and people interract. Everyone has something to say, a story to tell. My goal is to put those into words by way of poems or short stories."

Lindsay is currently completing her final semester as an undergrad at the University of Ottawa She has been published in Bywords.ca and the Bywords Quarterly Journal as well as the online journal Ydgrasil. She is also the associate editor of the University of Ottawa literary journal Ottawa Arts Review.

Greg Frankson

"The story of Robert Sutherland inspires me. He was the country's first known university graduate of colour and the first Black person called to the bar of Upper Canada. I became involved in his story as a Queen's student, and it's been ten years since we successfully lobbied the university to name a room on campus after him, but he reminds me that even in tough times, when you're not supposed to be able to do anything of note, strong and talented people rise above and can do what most thought was impossible. I'm thinking about that these days as I push forward, trying to become a better writer, a better performer, a better person ..."

Greg is a spoken word artist, newspaper columnist, facilitator, poetry organizer and arts educator. He’s been performing poetry for the last three years.


Jeff Fry

“Firstly, although there's no other word that i know of to cover "inspiration," unfortunately, the word is misleading in how i experience or understand inspiration in writing or art generally. i've read other writers, including Eliot, discussing this - that's it not as if we are inspired from some external source exactly; instead, inspiration is more like a breakdown of inner barriers that allow a certain emotion and expression out. this makes perfect sense in my experience, where in periods where i repress my feelings the most - consciously or unconsciously - i also writing the least, if anything at all. on the hand, when i feel most in touch with my emotional life, i am writing most. that's how i feel about inspiration generally.


specifically for me, right now, i'm inspired by the anxiety of ageing and the anxiety of having or not having lovers - as this powerfully relates to youth. there are other things and other elements relating to this theme, but this is the most concise answer to the question. i find that Anne Sexton's book 'Love Poems' is very suiting as a poetic reference b/c of the hugely sexual nature of the work and its darkness, death and ageing dealing.”

Jeff ‘s poems have appeared in Bywords.ca and the Bywords Quarterly Journal. He’s a graduate student.

Danielle K.L. Grégoire

“Too funny. I just wrote a poem on inspiration last night! I had to get out of bed to write it. I was inspired by the fact that inspiration is internal, and if we are ready to be inspired we can be inspired by anything from a solo raindrop, to a piece of toast, to a well written book, or performance...sometimes it's the shitty stuff that inspires us to do something.

The poem I wrote is about a girl who told me that I was her inspiration. She was a student, and I wasn't always going to be around so I told her that it wasn't me, but her and she would have found inspiration in someone else because she is a strong and intelligent human being.”

Danielle is a teacher, a drummer, a spoken word enthusiast, the co-director emeritus and door girl of The Capital Poetry Collective, and former radio host of CHUO 89.1's MoodSwings. She’s also recently initiated poetry slams and workshops in the Ottawa Valley.

Mark Sokolowski

“One thing that has gotten me writing lately has been the philosophical debate around the nature of time. I'm engorged in a Metaphysics course right now, and while I should be churning out essays critiquing arguments and logic, all I can think of are the implications of Time: does time exist independently of myself and everyone else? If I cease to be, does time cease as well, or is it some ever flowing stream, surging through the ever expanding boundaries of space? Is there such thing as the present, and as I write a poem, does it recede further and further into the past as I write it? And does reading something haul out of annals of time and into the present, bringing it to life once again?


Another thing that's been gripping me is the issue of Canadian bilingualism that just doesn't seem to go away. There's this Quebec writer, Victor Lévy-Beaulieu, that's been railing against the state of the French language in la belle provence, in particular Montreal and how the Québécois are once again being threatened with assimilation due to the growing presence of English. As usual, I don't buy his histrionics (he's burning his books as an act of protest), but the sentiment is inspiring. Now, however Trudeauesque this sounds, maybe the bilingualism isn't such a bad thing. I think it can be used beautifully in writing, not just to highlight linguistic and political tensions, but to be used as an aesthetic device, something I've been trying to incorporate into my own writing.


VLB has also made me think and write about issues regarding Canadian Anglophone culture, and how most Anglos would probably not react with an iota of the passion for heritage and culture that French Canadians typically do. Most English Canadians are blind to their literary history other than the token signposts (Moodie, Laurence, Atwood, Cohen). A huge portion of English Canadian literature, the works that have paved the way for literature and publishing in Canada as we know it now, are unavailable, out of print. This is something we should genuinely be pissed off about, up in arms, demanding why our tradition is disappearing. But does anybody care, let alone know?”

Mark is a second year English student at Carleton University. He dabbles in editorial duties for both In/Words and Blank Page Magazine. Irving Layton, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac can be found in his book collection.

Sean Zio

“Lately, I have been most inspired when I am in a group of people and each person is reading what he or she wrote on the same topic and, inevitably, each one of us writes something profoundly original. In that moment I remember how diverse and creative we are as individuals and I am inspired to continue creating without the fear of doing something like everybody else.”

A dying prophet blessed Sean Zio a crackpot poet. He spends the remainder of his days fulfilling the prophecy.

[Note-this is the second in my series of roundup-type interviews with Ottawa's poets. thanks to all of the above for responding. i'd love to hear your comments and other responses - amanda at storm dot ca ]

The AB Series: Ottawa Night

It might have been the biggest turnout for the reading series so far at the usual City Hall venue.

Around 50 people came, with standing room only. Host Max seemed pleased with how it went. A lot of diverse and wonderful poetry came out and seemed to be enjoyed by the audience.

John W. posted a photo of Janice Tokar reading her vividly-rendered poems (including one from the perspective of timeless lizard as Fidel Castro's era ends) at the AB Series, Ottawa night.

Amanda Earl read from her newest (still hot from the press last week) chapbook, The Sad Phoenician’s Other Woman, a liturgy of lovers, and the surprises, like the average man who had an apartment full of bears of all shapes, and was entirely covered in bear tattoos. Memorable images such as the slippery scum of spilled beer and ashes beside the mattress on the floor.

Pearl Pirie (that'd be me) read a couple poems from the Oath in the Boathouse and that never-ending series of poems about the experience of train travel which I seem to have written myself into. (90 pages and growing.)

Sean Dowd was back from vacation with a new chapbook St. Paddy's in Costa Rica. He performed excerpts from memory from that and from a long poem which was a take off of Macbeth, spun for ecological responsibility and sustainable economy. The air system was gently whooshing away like a backup chorus.

Rhonda Douglas read from her Cassandra poems, with the news that her book of Cassandra will come out from Signature Editions this fall. She picked up the thread in her poems which were a call of protest from the trees. The maples refuse to make sweet sap and even the oak can not endure air pollution.

Jacqueline Lawrence took us back to her manuscript, with news to come in May on its completion. She read her poem speculating on how her life or her relationship with her dad would have been different, were she around when he was growing up. She also read a poem on the empty chair. From a friend from Benin she discovered the other side of the slave trade, how in villages raided for centuries an empty chair was kept for the family that went missing. If you come and visit, it doesn't matter where you were born, or how long ago you left. The chair is yours to use. She also did her popular poems of love on a beach, for which the air system obliged with a sort of wave sound.

LM Rochefort closed out with poems of she and her dad walking to the moon and looking back at the blue marble of earth during an eclipse, the extension of the Dawkin's Spaghetti monster in the sky story by giving him a Mother. She also did a poem about tobogganing and painted the scene as kids fell off down the curvy slope, one by one, all except for the dad, still aboard and getting smaller and smaller, disappearing towards his birth home.

The next one, #7 is March 28th, with a spoken word focus, is to be guest-curated by Kevin Matthews at the National Archives.

Last Chance To Submit: 2nd Annual Lampman-Scott Award for Poetry

The Arc Poetry Society is accepting submissions for the 2008 Lampman-Scott Award for Poetry. Named after the 19th-century Confederation poets, Archibald Lampman and Duncan Campbell Scott, the award recognizes an outstanding book of English-language poetry by an author living in the National Capital Region.

Eligible entries are English-language books of poetry published between January and December 2007 by a recognized publisher.

Eligible books must be no less that 48 pages in length.

The contest is open to residents of the National Capital Region.

All entries must be postmarked no later than March 31, 2008. Late entries will not be accepted. (Submission copies will not be returned.)

Prize: $1500

The award will be presented in the fall of 2008.

Send four copies of eligible books to:
Lampman-Scott Award for Poetry
Arc: Canada’s National Poetry Magazine
P.O. Box 81060 Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K1P 1B1

Books next?

A little over a week ago, a leak from Heritage Canada showed that they were preparing new guidelines about what was eligible for film production tax credits -- based on whether it was excessively violent, sexual or contrary to government objectives.

The situation was made worse when Canadian Family Action Coalition's Charles McVety took credit for the proposed change and said -- among other things -- that Canadians shouldn't support films with homosexual themes. Conservative MP Dave Batters has said, in an oft-repeated quote to the Heritage committee:

"In my mind, sir, and in the minds of many of my colleagues and many, many Canadians who will be watching today, the purpose of Telefilm is to help facilitate the making of films for mainstream Canadian society, films that Canadians can sit down and watch with their families in living rooms across this great country."

Eek.

You can read about it here, here or here.

The Globe&Mail - which broke the story - has been following it in the closest detail:

Senate Liberals vow to protect film industry from government bill

Tax-credit crackdown on films puts spotlight on evangelical community

Minister snubs Genies amid film flap

Incidentally, take a minute to write to Heritage Minister Josee Verner to tell her how you feel about C-10:

Verner.J@parl.gc.ca

Others are asking you address your letter to the standing committee on banking, since the provisions are contained in an income tax bill. Their deets:

anguswd@sen.parl.gc.ca, goldsy@sen.parl.c.ca, bironmi@sen.parl.gc.ca, rokosg@sen.parl.gc.ca, harbm@sen.parl.gc.ca, jaffem@sen.parl.gc.ca, massip@sen.parl.gc.ca, meighen@sen.parl.gc.ca, moorew@sen.parl.gc.ca, ringup@sen.parl.gc.ca, tkachd@sen.parl.gc.ca

CBC Poetry Faceoff 7, Ottawa

The CBC Poetry Faceoff was Feb 25 in Ottawa. The show will be aired on Bandwidth on Saturday but a full room at 4th stage NAC got to see the poetry competition live with Alan Neal hosting in his famous velvet suit, this year topped up with CBC's answer to the Hawaiian shirt. Here he is with a representative from Sage Youth, the literacy group that door proceeds went to. They offer free tutoring for youth at risk, ages 5-18, in homeless shelters and community centers. Their clientele are kids in challenging circumstances, such as new immigrants and kids with learning disabilities. They offer a low tutor student ratio.

There was a decent-sized crowd. This photo from intermission catches about 1/3 of the enthusiastic room. People were asked to do the drumroll on the table since the drumroll was cut due to CBC cutbacks. ;)

There were swag bags of CBC merch for questions on lyrics about heat and trivia questions such as who is Canada's Poet Laureate a) George Bowering, b) Dennis Lee, c) John Steffler or d) Margaret Atwood.

Which children's show was bpNichol a writer? a) Sesame Street b) the Muppet Show or c) Fraggle Rock.

There was also practice cheering and snare drum effects.



At halftime, while votes were counted, Oni gave a quick update on her poetry travels.


Rusty performed a poem on Icarus, the real story and how Daedalus reported it wrong. His feathers did melt off, each feather a poem taken too high, and he did fall, but he didn't die. He fell onto the backs of other people who fly, who saved him from falling all the way, with their own feathers supported him to fly another day. With community.


The turning over of the crown from last year's reigning Queen, Q the Romantic Revolutionary.

The poets to represent Ottawa are more of a team themselves than competitors. Those who were vying to go to the provincial level competition were to be: Danielle K.L. Grégoire, Free Will, Stachen Frederick, Michelle Wardman and Ian Keteku, a.k.a. Emcee E. Frederick became ill the morning of the competition so CBC producers called on Capital Slam poet Nathanael Larochette to fill-in.

While the other 4 got their prompt 2 weeks in advance, Larochette had to compose and perform for broadcast a poem on the subject of "heat" within 12 hours. He was up for it, although he said when he got the call, had he been awake, he might have thought twice. But in life there is just doing your best.

Each poet had quite a different take on heat.

Free Will interpreted it as turning up the heat to make a political revolution by 2010. "One revolutionary gone is not a revolution dead". He incited change of the corrupted systemic oppression of natives by whites and to overturn government "scum" who should roast in hell. The 18-year old has a new CD for sale of his slam poetry. Last year he won the spoken word competition and represented Ottawa at the National Festival of the Spoken Word 2007 in Halifax.



Ian Keteku, a.k.a. Emcee E twisted the tone in the room 180 degrees. He's a journalist and the founder of the Hip Hop Initiative which seeks to destroy preconceived notions about hip-hop culture and show how spoken word is a tradition of oral culture not urban decay. He was a semi-finalist for the past three years on Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister completion

He opened his time at the mic by saying: "I don't have a poem. I have a problem. I just got laid off of my job as dragon slayer." He went thru how hard it is to find damsels to save this days, women being so self-reliant and dragons so rare. He spun in a little politics and some comic twists of relationships of falling into a slow moment into someone else's pure beauty where she "pierces the heart/ like a good book/ like the English patient" (which got ripples of laughs) "but no time for this I'm freezing my ass off". When he did find a dragon, they roasted marshmallows and just chilled together. He recommended him some cream for those dry scales.


Michelle Wardman (seen here pre-formance as trying to extract herself from saying she is a tree hugger, literally). Asked what kind of trees she likes to hug she said "I like the big ones." Blushing madly she tried to correct herself saying she knows the theme is hot but she didn't mean it like that. She likes old ones. Neal then said, and we're not going to get it any safer for radio from here. Next question.

When performing she opened up by singing and her take on heat was the crazy cotton candy throbbing member love where you don't even care anymore if the poem you write is any good or not. She got a rousing cheer from the audience for her piece too.


Danielle Grégoire took her cue of "heat" to be literal, global warming and homelessness in -40 degrees before windchill where you skin freezes in under a minute and why don't we care about the people right here any more than the pigeons. When we think globally do we forget what is right here. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying we should pollute but a few degrees warmer on the streets where people sleep...And she related the story of Ben, a street artist who asked for a blanket, and would it be too much to ask, for a pillow too. And his eye pop when she actually came back with them and gave him them. She talked about resilience of species and how they adapt, how monkeys stranded on a Mexican island became diving monkeys to survive until they became a tourist attraction, and obese beggars but ate fruit that kept their diabetes in check. And if global warming happens, animals will adapt, people will adapt, because there is resiliency.


Nathanael Larochette, the late entrant took the idea of heat as heat as hate. One person who "sets afire everything in her path" when the "only heat in her life is hate." The poem took us on a magic ride (when with a single clap the audience opted in on the ride) to see the ripple effect of anger and our interconnectedness, how person to person, short fuses are transmitted. Giving a finger in traffic make someone else curse at a clerk, makes someone short with their kid, makes them nervous and distracted and walking into traffic among drivers preoccupied, caught in keeping alive their anger of argument from the night before. It was concrete and illustrative as Grégoire's. Could have heard a pin drop as he read and when he won, he got a standing ovation.


The crowning of the new king for 2008. His poem will be on the CD anthology of the best from each Canadian city competing.

Ian Roy at Tree

Ian Roy was the feature reader on Feb 12 at the Tree reading series. He read from Red Bird. (Good title. Mary Oliver will be snatching it in April.)

He segued from that book of poems to People Leaving from a lilypad hop poem to poem by some commonality (such as a house in Quebec). A snippet of poem? unfailingly, another failure and I swerved to the ditch to wait for morning light to begin, because I always think better by morning light.

The story he read was about a wedding party waiting for the bride to arrive. It was inspired by listening to the song $1000 Wedding. You can read a different story out of the collection here.

The open mic had a few people at it. I didn't get photos of everyone.


Murray Citron reading a Munger sonnet translated from Yiddish on birds and one of his own pieces contemplating family, what kids expect of parents and on a cowbird. The eggs are placed in the another nest to be raised by any number of species of birds, fed by yellow or blue wings where baby cowbird learns instinct sometimes lies. Murray read at Sasquatch as well.

Josh Massey was reading from Historic song from Puddle Leaflet #21 a mardi gras poem of the king clothes in rags and the scullery queen/to usher thru revelry a new solar calm". Max read his Cottage Sestina which would really lose its effect to excerpt in part.


Pearl Pirie read a couple poems including a first run thru of train and bus west of Oujda the bus stopped in the middle/nothing in any direction//by nothing how often do I mean/ no building, no tree, no person/ no government printed sign.


Sean Dowd read poems of meeting someone from years before and deciding we can talk live as neighbours/overcoming/basic wage and divergent paths.

Max pointed out in announcement that The AB Series is this Friday the 15th and will have Jay MillAR, Monty Reid and Emily Falvey.

Basement Tapes Review Now Live at Matrix Magazine Site

Dear Ottawa Poetry Aficionados,
For those of you who missed my review of Basement Tapes by Marcus McCann, Andrew Faulkner and Nick Lea, in Montreal mag Matrix, the article is now available for free online. The collaborative chapbook is published by McCann's press The Onion Union, and has recently gone into its second edition.

Writers Fest Survey

If you haven't filled it out yet, there's still time...

We're developing a strategic plan to help us continue to grow the Festivals - and we're hoping for as much input from the public as possible, so we would appreciate your feedback and input through a short confidential survey. You can find it here.

If our appreciation isn’t enough incentive, how about a Festival Pass for the Fall 2008 Edition, plus a $25 gift certificate from Nicholas Hoare books?

After completing the survey you can leave your name and contact details if you would like to enter a draw for this prize package. The survey will close at 5pm January 31st and the winner of the prize draw will be contacted on February 1st.

Bywords Warms the Night V

Bywords Warms the Night V
Sunday, January 20, 2008, 2pm
Chapters, 47 Rideau Street
Launch of the winter Bywords Quarterly Journal with readings by Jim Davies, Jeff Fry, Joseph Kuchar, M.A. Lithgow and Catherine MacDonald-Zytveld and the music of Glenn Nuotio.

Food Drive for the Ottawa Food Bank, in association with Eggspectations. Donations of
non perishable food items are welcome. Drop them off at Eggspectations, 171 Bank Street or bring them to our reading.
Contact Info: Amanda Earl: tel. 613 868 1364 and e-mail: editor@bywords.ca
Amanda Earl
Managing Editor
http://www.bywords.ca/
PO Box 937
Station B
Ottawa,On
K1P 5P9
Tel. 613 868 1364

NEW YEAR SPOKEN WORD CHECK-IN

2008 looks very good from this end. Here are a few of the things I'm looking forward to in the next month, not so much in order of significance as of chronology:

ARTISTIKA

January 11, Artistika takes place. This is to say a benefit show at Babylon, featuring the Oneness collective, whose birth late last year could be witnessed at Free Will's CD release in December. The emerging collective is a loose and fluid joint project including One, Free Will, Nathanaël Larochette and others in permutations divers and configurations fresh of music and text. But that's just my ambiguous descriptive stab at it. For a sharper idea, witness them yourself! It's a fundraiser for the Mayan Alternative, and features other multi-disciplinary performances.

ANOTHER FRIENDLY OPEN MIC!

There's a new open-mic at the Laff Tuesday nights. Knowing organizers/cohosts Tiah Ase and John Carrol, expect it to be warm and full of surprises, and a nice place to fire-harden your verbal palisades. Or balustrades. Or what have you. Situated in the Chateau Laffayette, you know it will be full of brilliant minds and experimental work, along with the hardcore cast of Akse/Carroll invitees. Familial conviviality and quart bottles all around! Show up anytime after 8, I'm told.

ALMONTE!

Danielle Gregoire, as usual, is up to something. It's called the Spoken Word Plot, and it's launched at the Ironworks Pub in Almonte on January 29. How can anyone resist? The first program includes a too-rare performance by local slam veteran Matt Peake, and debut performances by participants in Danielle's currently-running spoken word performance workshop! If you want to get in on Danielle's three-week February workshop, please email Danielle.

PHOTOS AND TEXT

Poetic Intentions this month is called Photogenic Memories, and should appeal to many local poets as strongly as it does to me. For Monday January 28's show, Tiah has asked for pieces inspired by or related to photos. If you submit the images ahead of time, she will arrange projection of your photos during the performance/reading, and all poets are asked to have hard copy of both text and photos for display at the event. Put on your multimedia caps! More info by email.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH SLAM

Capital Slam on Saturday February 2, feature Doretta Charles, is presented in partnership with STAND (students taking action now on Darfur). The show raises funds for STAND's work, and will be graced by Doretta's first feature set in quite a while, which many of us have been greatly looking forward to. It's always good to see people in the slam who haven't done so before, too! (hint hint why dontcha it's fun)

OUT OF TOWN AND NOTABLE

Throw Slam in Montreal featuring Common Unity collective: Jan 29 [info on "the Facebook"]

Story Slam in Toronto: Jan 12 [info on FB]
$100 Slam in Toronto: Jan 27 [info on FB]

One other mention: watch out for a [tentatively untitled, if that makes sense] performance poetry tour through Ontario and Montreal in April, as we observe National Poetry month. Details will materialize incrementally, as is their way.

What are you currently working on?

a roundup of mostly poetry updates by Ottawa's poets.

Mike Blouin (I’m Not Going to Lie to You, Pedlar Press, 2007)

Currently I am starting on the edits for the novel for Coach House which is due out in September ( I actually really enjoy the collaboration of working with great editors ) as well as completing a poetry manuscript tracing the intersecting lives of American icon Johnny Cash and Canadian poet Alden Nolwan. I'm also finishing a second novel as well as preparing to teach some poetry and some Hamlet.

Daniel Boland (Toward the Chrysalis, Stone Flower Press, 2005)

I'm steadily working away on my writing (when I can find the time). I have more or less completed a second poetry manuscript entitled "Chasing the Hermit" (though I'm still revising it a bit) and I have a third newer collection of poems in the works as well.

Two of my poems were recently named as runners-up for the Arborealis poetry prize, and I'm trying to keep a few individual pieces floating around. That's about it.

Stephen Brockwell (The Read Made Up, ECW Press, 2007)

refining the Pumping Irony poetry workshop.
- investigating the nature of the love poem as an embodied utterance ... lots of lineation experiments there.
- skulking around trying to find a theme for the next project. "Excerpts from 21 Impossible Books" is at least a starting point.
- interviewing John Pass about poetry and emotion.

Ronnie R. Brown (Night Echoes, Black Moss Press, 2006)

One of my first writing-related goals for the new year is to (finally) edit, and organize into a full manuscript, the poems from my "fairy tale" series. The middle section of this collection, "Songs of Eve" need editing and up-dating and the poems in the other two sections need to be ordered
and, in some cases, tweaked. This is something I've been putting off for far too long, and so it's now or never (I guess). I would really like this ms. to be ready to submit before '09 looms.

As well, I plan to keep writing poems to complete the manuscript (tentatively) entitled, ROCKING ON THE EDGE. Many of these pieces are on dark topics (post partum depression, abuse, murder) but I want to add some balance to the collection (which is needed literally and figuratively when you're working "on the edge, " I guess) with more humourous pieces
(I already have poems on aging rockers and shoes.) Strange to say, but "funny" is harder to write these days than death and destruction. Guess that revelation might be scary if I decided to analyze it, but I don't think I'm going there any time soon!

Cyril Dabydeen (Drums of My Flesh, Tsar Publications, 2005)

I am currently working on a new book to be called UNANIMOUS NIGHT (a take-off from the Argentine writer Borges), which perhaps reflects some of my diverse South American, Caribbean and Canadian experiences. I was a guest of the Netherlands Association of Canadian Studies last year (2007) and found a lot of people asking me questions, being curious no doubt, about my "hybrid"--meaning diverse--background and how this influences my work. A
Spanish professor of literature did a paper on my work at a conference at Cambrigde University via the British Assoc. of Canadian Studies, and raised similar questions.

Rhonda Douglas (Time If It Exists, The Cassandra Poems, above/ground press, 2007)

At it happens I'm currently working on the edits for my book out with Signature next fall, the new title of which is "Some Days I Think I Know Things: The Cassandra Poems."

Other than that, I am working on a short fiction collection and have about half of a second poetry collection in the works as well. In theory I am writing a "novel" for my class in the UBC MFA program, but this is more theory than practice at the moment.

Anita Lahey (Out to Dry in Cape Breton, Vehicule Press, Signal Editions, 2006)

I'm working on a few sets of poems, one relating to kickboxing, one on men, and one on obsessive reading. I am also working on a draft of a nonfiction manuscript, an expansion of an article I wrote last year for Maisonneuve about a friend who died young of cancer. The article was called "How to Be Friends with a Redhead."

Anne Le Dressay (Old Winter, Chaudiere Books, 2007)

I tend to work on individual poems rather than on focussed projects, but I'm still writing regularly. You can say I'm in the first stages of putting together a new collection.

Seymour Mayne (September Rain, Mosaic Press, 2005)

I am finetuning a further collection of my own word sonnets, some humourous, some meditative.

During the winter I will be launching a new book, A Dream of Birds:
Word Sonnets (Allied Widget) which I have co-authored with the Montreal poet and novelist, B. Glen Rotchin. We will be reading together at TREE on March 25.

In the meantime, translations of my selected poems are scheduled to appear in French, Hebrew, and Spanish editions in the coming year.

In the pipeline as well is Pluriel, a bilingual anthology I have co- edited, highlighting the diversity of recent Canadian poetry. It is scheduled to be published by the University of Ottawa Press in time for the celebration of World Poetry Day.

Nadine McInnis (Two Hemispheres, Brick Books, 2007)

I'm working on a collection of short fiction, almost finished, called Where All The Ladders Start. I never know how to describe stories thematically so I'll just say that I'm interested in fiction with language as lush as poetry, with vivid images, exploring the place where the conscious and unconscious meet.

rob mclennan (The Ottawa City Project, Chaudiere Books, 2007)

my poetry projects (as of January 3, 2008):

I've got numerous fiction, non-fiction and editorial projects currently on the go. Right now, I've got about half a dozen completed poetry manuscripts that are looking for homes, and another few that probably need some kind of finishing moves. Since I've been in Alberta, I've started a poetry manuscript called "wild horses," including a whole
bunch of smaller sections, poems, sequences and such, including a sequence called "map of edmonton."

My version of George Bowering's "Curious," the book "apertures," is at roughly eighty pieces, so would like to get another forty finished before potentially pulling out about a dozen or two to make it publishable. I've got another manuscript of essays on Canadian poets and poetry, and have been working on dozens of reviews and essays and interviews, including on the poetries of Anne Carson, Stephen Brockwell, David McGimpsey, ryan
fitzpatrick, Monty Reid and Sandra Ridley.

There's a four hundred page poetry manuscript called "a day book" that I need to re-enter and organize in some kind of coherent way; should I break it down into four equal-sized parts? Should I try to make it into a single manuscript? Should I just leave it where it is, hiding out in my computer?

There is a chapbook-sized manuscript of collaborations with the American poet Lea Graham that have been sitting around for some time; a few will be appearing this spring in The Capilano Review, so at least they're getting out into the world. What I'd really like is to be able to sit down with Lea a few more times and hammer it out into a book-length manuscript, but god knows how long that might take.

There are also some other projects I've started and haven't had the proper time to dip back into, including the long poems "Instruction Manual," "bank street: a somerset psalter" and "After Spicer" that could be anywhere from chapbook to book length once they're finished, if I can re-enter them with the time and attention I think they need.

That's all I can think of, for right now.

Susan McMaster (Until the Light Bends, Black Moss Press, 2004)

I'm currently working on three separate manuscripts. The first is a narrative/historical poem sequence around the bitter and unusual strike at the National Gallery in 2001, which incidentally and oddly coincided with my millennial "Convergence: Poems for Peace" project (that brought poetry and art from across Canada to all Parliamentarians), September 11, 200. The tension between my generalized, idealistic, and Quaker-based promotion of peace-making and negotiation in Convergence, the sorrow and shock of Sept 11, and the failure of negotiation and the intense and personal strains and angers I felt as I walked the lines during the strike together make a potent mixture I am still trying to sort out these many years later. I may not publish this ms. for a few years more -- until it is in some way an integrated whole.

My second manuscript is a series I am writing on the decline of my mother, whom I love and respect very much, into Alzheimer's. This is a common, sad story, with un-looked-for bravery and occasional joy, among continuing grief. I started these poems 2 years ago, and will complete them at a yet unknown moment. I've been reading from the poems, and publishing a few, but don't want to rush them; the topic, and my dear mother (all our mothers), are too important.

So neither of these books may be published soon. In the meantime, I am having an interesting time assembling a "Selected and New, due as of current plans to be published by Black Moss in 2009. Most of my books are out of print (one is, amazingly, selling for $187 on Amazon.com!). I'd like the poems to be available, and I'd also like the chance to revise them -- which in most cases means Cut! Cut! Cut!, as Miriam Waddington once told me pointedly years ago. This journey back, and in a sense forward, is invigorating, and reassuring. I did write a poem or two I still like...

I also have a couple of related projects underway. One is to produce a similar "selected" for my music-and-poetry work from the 1980s to now. Musician and producer James Stephens (Stove Studios, Chelsea) and musician and collaborator Alrick Huebener have been helping me on that. James recently mastered a re-issue of my 1980s First Draft tape "Wordmusic", with a few contemporary works taped by Alrick and including poets Max Middle, Colin Morton, and Penn Kemp, and musicians Huebener, Linsey Wellman, Jamie Gullikson, Rory Magill, David Broscoe, and Jennifer Giles. There is also some new recording I hope to do with these and other musicians, especially Mike Essoudry and Mark Molnar, for possible inclusion. A long-term project, possibly out next year if I can find funding.

And, last (for the moment), I'm beginning a Second Draft (following First Draft, described in The Gargoyle's Left Ear) -- a regular meeting of creative people to talk about what they're doing. Who knows what might come of this? I like open-ended, collaborative ventures.

Beyond that, I'm presenting a paper and doing a reading (poems to appear in an anthology) at the Bronwen Wallace conference at Queen's University in Kingston in March, on the topic of the series of letters I edited for publication between her and Erin Mouré just before Bron died, on the subject of feminism and poetics. I'm also expecting to be doing more with John Abbott College, where I gave a "Waging Peace" reading and presentation this fall. I have a tentative project about to begin with artist Jane Burnstein. And finally, I have begun archiving my papers and electronic and visual files with the City of Ottawa Archives, which have established a Literary Heritage collection as a result of the initiative of Steven Artelle's Ottawa Literary Heritage Society.

I'll be reading from The Gargoyle's Left Ear during National Poetry Month on 10 April at the Sunnyside Public Library (Ottawa South), as part of the Canal Mug series, along with some new poems.

Colin Morton (the Cabbage of Paradise, Seraphim Editions, 2007)

I'm preparing for the press a poetry book called _The Local Cluster_, which contains mostly Ottawa poems and will be published in the spring by Pecan Grove Press of San Antonio. Meanwhile I'm working on another long poetry series, based on a historical subject and set along the 49th parallel; working title, _Boundary Issues_.

David O’Meara (The Vicinity, Brick Books, 2003)

I just sent my new book to my editor for once last look-see, and then it's off to the press. It's a book of poems that might be called "Noble Gas, Penny Black," and is due for publication Fall 2008 with Brick Books. I've also just written a stage-play called "Disaster," which is currently scheduled to be produced in April (location still pending).

Oni the Haitian Sensation (Ghettoscracy, McGilligan Books, 2006)

I just found out that "Oni la Sensation Haitienne" was shortlisted for the Montreal Arts Film Festival. The media launch for that event will be held in Toronto on Jan 22. "Oni la Sensation Haitienne" will play on TV Ontario, perhaps on other television networks and will be featured internationally as part of this festival.

On Jan 16th, I'm performing at City Hall and on Parliament for Martin Luther King Day. In Mid Jan, I'm performing for CUPE. I did an interview for Macleans magazine, which should come out soon. In February I'm off to Whistler to work with the Olympic Writers Circle- then I go to Montreal to perform in an erotic poetry showcase called The Art of Aural Sex, then I perform at Winterlude. I was invited to do a launch of Ghettostocracy on Parliament Hill in February.

Monty Reid (Disappointment Island, Chaudiere Books, 2007)

Lost in the Owl Woods (BookThug) is just out
The Luskville Reductions (Brick) comes out in May
Forty Fucks (also BookThug) will come out later in the year

I'm working on Host (the parasitical work) and The Grand Zoo (loose translations from the Cuban poet, Nicolas Guillen) and struggling with translations of contemporary francophone poetry. Plus writing songs and playing as much music as possible with friends.

Sandra Ridley (recent work in Arc, Carousel, Grain, stonestone and Taddle Creek)

This winter, if all goes as planned, I will finish my first manuscript of poetry (Downwinders), which is structured to form a loose narrative about a prairie family living downwind of Cold War nuclear testing. Part imagination, part fact. In tandem with this project is the production of a hand-bound chapbook of poetry (Lift) with Saskatoon-based publisher JackPine Press. (www.jackpinepress.com) With a June 2008 launch date, this chapbook will be a collaboration with my artist spouse Eric Slankis and will contain original linocut prints and twelve ghazals taken from the larger manuscript.

Aside from that, I am up to my ankles in research and tentative first drafts of poems for a second manuscript, which strangely, or perhaps not too strangely, has quickly become much more interesting to me than the first.

Rob Winger (Muybridge’s Horse, Nightwood Editions, 2007)

I'm working on a new ms that takes on the idea of a poetic miscellany, trying to write on/about/with/past all of the most cliched topics that most often appear in such collections.

~~~~
much thanks to all of you who responded. perhaps we'll make this an annual feature.

pictures from the peter f yacht club #8 ottawa launch

Here are some pictures from the reading we had on December 22, 2007 at The Carleton Tavern [check out John W. MacDonald photos of previous Tavern readings/shindigs here and here] to celebrate the eighth issue of The Peter F. Yacht Club. It was a combined reading/Christmas party, and all-around general excuse to hang around and get silly. It was also a good excuse for a number of us to be able to hear each other read, which might not happen as often as some of us would like; being just before Christmas, the crowd wasn't large, but it was big enough, and certainly appreciative. Readers included Amanda Earl [see her write-up on such here; read her 12 or 20 questions here], Roland Prevost (the pictures here were all taken by his lovely wife, Janice Tokar), myself, Sandra Ridley [see my note on her here] and Nicholas Lea (recently returned to Ottawa from Fredericton; he read a poem responding to one by American poet John Ashbery); we even had Pearl Pirie read as well, even though she's not in the issue, but she's been doing such interesting work lately (she read from a poetry manuscript she's been deep inside of for the past few weeks). Even our bartendress, Kelli, jumped into the fray. There are even some photos Pearl posted later, on flickr: here and here and here and here and here and here.

Amanda Earl;

rob mclennan;

Sandra Ridley;

Roland Prevost;
Pearl Pirie;
James Moran, bartendress Kelli + rob mclennan;

Nicholas Lea;

An appreciative crowd, some of the audience included Steve and Cathy from Dusty Owl, James Moran and a very pregnant Anita Dolman (she declined our invitation to read), Charles Earl [see the photo he took of Ridley and I here], John W. MacDonald, Monique Desnoyers, Rachel Zavitz, Carmel Purkis and Michael Miller; it was too bad we couldn't get some of our other regulars out, such as Jennifer Mulligan, Monty Reid, Stephen Brockwell, Marcus McCann, Jesse Ferguson, Clare Latremouille or Max Middle. Currently, Jesse Ferguson is putting together the next issue for February, and another "Edmonton issue" is scheduled for the end of spring. Can anyone say "further launch"?

mother tongue books OPEN HOUSE and BIRTHDAY PARTY

mother tongue books OPEN HOUSE and BIRTHDAY PARTY,
TEMBO * FUNDRAISER and,
Celebration of Ottawa women poets; Passed and Present.

Sunday, 2nd December, 2007: 2:00 p.m. ‘Til 6:00 p.m.

There will be short readings throughout the day; A Silent Auction; 50/50 draws every hour; a raffle and, lots of in-between time for shmoozing, celebrating, remembering poets ‘Passed’ and wishing mtb “a very HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY” and anything else that looks like fun for a passel of poets to be doing while we raise money for mother tongue Scholarships to send young African women to High School in Tanzania.

JC Sulzenko has agreed to start our celebrations off at 2:30 p.m.; reading SYLVIA PLATH and some of her own work. (JC has also agreed to sign copies of her own childrens’ book, “Boot Crazy”).

Below is a tentative list of readers;
SYLVIA PLATH, JC Sulzenko;
JANE JORDAN, Sylvia Adams;
PAT LOWTHER, Barbara Myers;
DIANA BREBNER, Mary Trafford & LM Rochefort;
MARUEEN GLAUDE, Louise Mcdiarmid & Lois A. Wraight;
MARIANNE BLUGER, Ronnie R. Brown;
RUBY SPRIGGS, Michelle Desbarats & Laura Rayner;
CANDIS GRAHAM, Diana R. Windle;
ENID RUTLAND, Susan McMaster & Maureen Korp;
ELIZABETH SMART, Frances Boyle;

If anyone else would like to participate (this IS an all afternoon party): we welcome more readers; donations of cheese, crackers, cookies, wine, etc.; good used books for re-sale or items for our silent auction will also be appreciated. (among our Silent Auction Items; Project TEMBO African artifacts, we have a small PATRICIA KIRBY watercolour and, The Table Vegetarian Restaurant has given us $100 in Gift Certificates). We are still looking for some high-end item(s) for raffles.

In a village world where $720 will send a young woman to High School for 4 years, $1500 will train a school teacher. $150 will help establish a business and, a mere $10 will buy a chicken - every dollar raised will be put to good use. And, not to be crass, we will accept cash

If you have any ideas, donations, questions or, if you would like to schedule yourself to read; call mtb: 613+730-2346 or Lois: 613+722-6759