PALIMPSEST

Short Review of Carapace

2012-01-31T11:14:00.000-05:00

In the Winnipeg Free Press: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/search-of-literary-journals-discovers-poetry-at-its-best-138250999.html

"Toronto's Laura Lush also focuses on sparse, descriptive poems in Carapace (Palimpsest, 88 pages, $18). Lush tackles expected poetic themes — death and birth — although she occasionally transcends her subject matter with an unexpected perspective: "Tell me, what else is more / beautiful, more punishing / than milk?" Lush's best poems evoke nature in stark tones... Lush has a strong sense of how to use verbs like this to great effect, adding philosophic depth to otherwise simple observations."

Fernie Fix 2011 Reading Highlights

2012-01-29T13:14:00.000-05:00

Carapace by Laura Lush

"One of my favourite poetry collections of 2011 was Carapace – mainly for its powerful and beautiful descriptions of birthing and motherhood. It’s a gorgeous book that I will cherish and revisit often."

By Angie Abdou. Link for all of Angie's 2011 recommendations at http://www.ferniefix.com/article/2011-reading-highlights

Good Holding Ground Reading

2012-01-12T13:16:00.002-05:00

Cynthia Woodman Kerkham will be reading from her poetry collection Good Holding Ground

January 26, 2012 @ 7:30pm.
Readings by the Salish Sea.
Pelican Rouge Coffee House.
15142 North Bluff Road.
White Rock, B.C.

Quill & Quire Review of Carapace

2012-01-09T13:59:00.002-05:00

Laura Lush’s third collection is awash in dualities: it is as much a celebration of life and new beginnings as a metaphysical journey into the notion of endings. The poems constantly switch from ironic to solemn, loving to hurt, empowerment to desolation. Anchoring these conflicting states, however, is the primacy of imagery.

Poems like “Sunset,” focused on how the eye sees – “your eyes, / anchored to the lake’s skyline, gazed the vastness” – evoke the works of John Ashbery and Wallace Stevens. Here the skyline becomes most overwhelming at its vanishing; to see the sky is to approach it not as a thing but a kind of activity, a poetic process.

Many of the poems in Carapace are painfully intimate. Giving birth becomes a stage upon which the constant colliding of psychic states – the elegiac against the euphoric, for example – produces a synthesis that gives the individual conditions new significance they would not possess in isolation. Elsewhere, the poems “Time Under” and “First Born” poignantly consider the “colossal effort of one foot in front / of the other” required in the midst of grief.

A carapace is the dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton on a variety of animals, including crustaceans and tortoises. The collection retains the image of the shell, especially as it relates to Lush’s nuanced explorations of human vulnerability. While it would be convenient to don a shell in our weaker moments, the poet suggests, to carry a carapace at all times would most likely be debilitating.
Carapace is a thoughtful collection, to be read and appreciated for its ideas about nature, family, and love. “This tableau vivant all yours” Lush writes in “Right Now at This Moment.” This moment, and many others in the collection, prompt us to see the world anew.

Reviewed by Adebe de-Rango-Adem (from the December 2011 issue)

The link is http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=7512

Ariel Gordon reads "Tit Poem" from Hump

2011-12-28T13:11:00.003-05:00

The fabulous Ariel Gordon performs at the Words Aloud Spoken Word Festival at the Durham Art Gallery, Durham, Ontario (November 4, 2011). Visit the festival at www.wordsaloud.ca.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeAtvazWhjM&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1

John Wall Barger radio interview

2011-12-20T13:21:00.007-05:00

John Wall Barger was interviewed at the University of Tampere in Finland, which was published by Radio Moreeni. Listen to the interview through Soundcloud. He also reads poems from Pain-proof Men. Link below.

http://soundcloud.com/festusminimus/radio-moreeni-interview

What would happen if typographers went Hollywood?

2011-12-15T13:35:00.005-05:00

Helvetica Bold Oblique Sweeps Fontys

"LOS ANGELES—Helvetica Bold Oblique was the big winner at Tuesday's 73rd Annual Fonty Awards, taking home 11 statues, including those for Best Sans Serif and the highly coveted 2001 Best Font prize. Helvetica Bold Oblique designer Oliver Rudd accepts one of his font's 11 awards. The gala event, attended by the biggest names in the publishing and graphic-design worlds, was held at the Shrine Auditorium and followed by a post-ceremony bash at the recently refurbished Linn Boyd Benton Printing House. 'A million thanks to all the wonderful folks in the font community who believed in Helvetica Bold Oblique,' said an ecstatic Oliver Rudd, designer of the font, in his acceptance speech. 'Without your faith in my vision, I would not be here before you tonight. I'd also like to thank Helvetica Regular designer James T. Helvetica, the giant upon whose shoulders I stand. And, of course, the designers of the Visa Card Terms & Conditions booklet, who brought my font to the forefront of the American typeface scene this year.' With its victory, Helvetica Bold Oblique takes its place in a long line of Fonty-winning Helveticas. In the awards' history, three other variations of the typeface have won Best Font: Helvetica Condensed Light in 1960, Helvetica Ultra Compressed in 1981, and Helvetica Black in 1988"[...]

"Despite the plaudits heaped on Helvetica Bold Oblique all night, some questioned the academy's choice. 'A bold as Best Font?' said Christopher Rankley, editor of Typography Today. 'They may as well have handed the award to Chicago, for God's sake. Or, better yet, Chicago Shadow Underline.' Rankley said he was rooting for the more traditionally tooled Palatino—which snagged just one award, for Best Display Font—to take home top honors this year. 'Palatino is one of the most popular Oldstyle revivals in existence, blending classical Italian Renaissance letter forms with the crispness of line needed for 20th-century printing processes. Yet it has never won Best Font,' Rankley said. 'I think a lot of Palatino fans out there were thinking maybe this would be the year.' A common criticism of the Academy Of Fonts & Typefaces is that it is out of touch with the cutting edge, favoring fonts with mainstream, commercial appeal. Academy members have little awareness, detractors say, of today's more challenging fonts, such as the daring, highly ornamental Blackletter." [...]

Read the entire Onion report at: http://www.theonion.com/articles/helvetica-bold-oblique-sweeps-fontys,263/

FREE poetry book

2011-12-01T14:00:00.001-05:00

The Haunting of Amos Manor in Calgary

2011-11-24T11:06:00.002-05:00

Richard Stevenson will be reading from The Haunting of Amos Manor

November 26, 2011 at 2pm
Monkey Shine Children’s Books
113, 2215 - 33rd Ave S.W.
Calgary, Alberta.

12 or 20 questions with Laura Lush

2011-11-23T14:33:00.000-05:00

Rob Mclennan interviewed Laura Lush for his 12 or 20 questions series. Below is the first two questions and answers. You can be read the entire interview at http://robmclennan.blogspot.com/2011/11/12-or-20-questions-second-series-with_18.html

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?

Good question. My first book, Hometown (Vehicule Press, Signal Editions, 1991) was written mostly at the Banff Centre over three summers. And some of the poems were written when I was a creative writing undergrad at York University between 1984-87. So, I was very fortunate that my first attempt to publish a m.s. was successful. I don’t think this is a very realistic experience for “new” or “emerging writers.” In fact, finding a publisher for my most recent book, Carapace (Palimpsest Press, 2011) took over a year. Also, my first book was nominated for a GG---and that scared the hell out of me. I wasn’t ready. Of course, I didn’t win. And that has been a good thing. I always have a great fondness for Hometown as the poems were about my childhood and my family. The memories/images were very very raw. My work today is a bit more removed. There is more of a “buffer” between the narrator’s voice and the actual material. And I think the work tries to grapple with more abstract/metaphysical complexities rather than just speak of past memories.

2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?

I had very little interest in poetry in high school. I’m not sure why this was. But shortly before I applied to the creative writing program at York, I went into see Don Coles, who, of course, is one of our best---if not best---modern Canadian poets. Something in that initial conversation turned me towards poetry. It was very very subtle, yet powerful enough to make me want to explore poetry further.

12 or 20 (small press ) questions

2011-11-20T14:24:00.003-05:00

Rob Mclennan interviewed me for his series on small press publishing. A snippet can be found below. Read the entire interview on rob's blog at http://robmclennan.blogspot.com/2011/11/12-or-20-small-press-questions-dawn.html

1 – When did Palimpsest Press first start? How have your original goals as a publisher shifted since you started, if at all? And what have you learned through the process?

Palimpsest began in 2000. At that time I was publishing a literary journal called Kaleidoscope. It wasn’t until 2004 I began to publish trade books and then later chapbooks. It was a very gradual process for me. It took me a long time to view myself as a publisher, and then even longer to do things like get proper distribution, hire editors, and apply for grants. It wasn’t until 2008 that I first applied for a grant. I was very conflicted about this leap. Funding meant that I could afford sales representation, warehouse storage, and hire editors and designers. When I received funding I started doing more and more, because I could, and then when my funding was decreased, I was left with a lot of debt. My first four years of relative calm anonymity in publishing suddenly turned into a thrilling and terrifying rollercoaster. It’s a lot of ups and downs and I never know what is around the next corner. At this point, I am just trying to hang on. In the beginning I had no business savvy, no five year plan, no funding — I did it because I loved it — but I had to learn to strategize, create marketing plans, do inventory valuations and balance sheets. I’m exhausted all the time. The stakes and expectations are higher, and yet I still do it because I still love it. My original goal was to find and publish great poets, and although publishing great authors is still my overriding goal, the growth of Palimpsest has paradoxically made survival much more precarious.

2 – What first brought you to publishing?

My love of poetry and books. I’ve always admired the writer/ artist, who both writes and produces his own beautiful editions. What a lovely bringing together of talent and vision, to be able to make the object, the book itself, say something about the words it contains. The way the design, typography, and materials all work together to communicate the author’s voice truly fascinates me. I started a press to learn more about the process, to be involved in something I found exciting and important.

A "Poetree" in Support of Libraries

2011-11-18T08:58:00.002-05:00

"Last spring, Julie Johnstone, a librarian at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh, was wandering through a reading room when she saw, sitting alone on a random table, a little tree. It was made of twisted paper and was mounted on a book..."

Read this incredible story about an artist who gave these beautiful treasures to libraries in "support of libraries, books, words, ideas", and who wished to remain anonymous.

The complete story and more pictures can be found at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/10/28/141795907/who-left-a-tree-then-a-coffin-in-the-library

Laura Lush in Newfoundland

2011-11-10T08:43:00.006-05:00

November 14th, 2011 at 7:30pm.
Jennifer’s Bar Room. 48-50 Broadway.
Corner Brook, NFLD.

November 15th, 2011 at 2pm.
Dr. Shoshana Gan’s Contemporary Canadian Poetry Class.
Department of English, Grenville Campus, Memorial University.
CornerBrook, NFLD.

November 15th at 2 pm.
Dr. Stephanie McKenzie’s Creative Writing Class.
Department of English, Grenville Campus, Memorial University.
CornerBrook, NFLD.

Bookfest Windsor 2011

2011-11-03T10:29:00.000-04:00

Bookfest starts today — Thursday November 3rd. The below is copied from the official Bookfest Windsor site, which can be found at http://www.bookfestwindsor.com/node/344

BookFest Windsor 2011 Schedule

Program, artists, and schedule subject to change! Except where noted, all events take place at the Art Gallery of Windsor. This is a preliminary schedule: be sure to check back here for updates. (Note: Where this schedule differs from the printed brochure, this website should be considered more up to date.)

Thursday, November 3, 2011

7:30 pm: Girls' Night Out, with Karen Mulhallen, Rosemary Sullivan, Mary Ann Mulhern, and Terry Ann Carter. Moderator: Marty Gervais.
Wilkinson Room
7:30pm: All Together Again. Howard Pawley reads from his new autobiography.
Valiant Suite

Friday, November 4, 2011

4:30 pm: Never Give Up. Ray Robertson reads from Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live. Moderator: Julia Beard DeBono.
Wilkinson Room
4:30 pm: Kill Shakespeare. Anthony del Col and Conor McCreery present their graphic novel.
Rodzik Gallery
6:00 - 7:00 pm: Buffet Dinner.
8:00 - 10:00 pm: IFOA Authors. Clark Blaise, Will Ferguson, Brian Francis, and Sarita Mandanna . Moderator: Karl Jirgens. Cash Bar.
Wilkinson Room
10:00 pm: Live Words. Klyde Broox performance poet, and Laurie Smith. Moderator: Braydon Beaulieu.
Phog Lounge

Saturday, November 5, 2011

9:30 am: Coffee, Tea…and…Literary. Writing workshop with Marty Gervais. Coffee and muffins.
Valiant Suite
10:30 am: Looking Beyond the Veil. Ava Homa, presenting her new book. Music and visual art. Moderator: Sara Elliott.
Wilkinson Room
11:30 am: Author, Author…. Stories about Storytellers with Douglas Gibson. Moderator: Martin Deck
Valiant Suite
11:30 am: It Doesn't Have To Rhyme. Robert Earl Stewart, Antony Di Nardo, Tammy Armstrong, Salvatore Ala, Jenny Sampirisi, Bill Harris, Klyde Broox. Moderator: Stephen Pender. Poetry, coffee, and nibbles.
Rodzik Gallery
2:00 pm: Getting the Word Out. Aspects of the Book - Publishing. Jack David, Jack Illingworth, Douglas Gibson, and Alana Wilcox.
Moderator: Dan Wells.
Valiant Suite
2:00 pm: lu et approuvé. David Homel, Melchior Mbonimpa, and Philippe Porée-Kurrer. Moderator: Judith Sinanga.
Explorations Gallery (3rd Floor, south side)
2:00 pm: A People's History. Karen Flynn, Natasha Henry, Adrienne Shadd, Virginia Schwartz. Moderator: Kenn Stanton.
Wilkinson Room
4:00 pm: The Experience. Prose and Poetry. Rosemary Nixon, Antanas Sileika. Gail Scott, Alan Davies, & Karl Jirgens (who will also moderate).
Wilkinson Room
7:00 pm: Champoems. Poetry Contest Winners from regional schools. Moderator: Irene Moore Davis.
Valiant/Rodzik
7:30 pm: Young at Heart. Martha Brooks, Evan Munday, Drew Hayden Taylor. Moderator: Susan Pedler.
Wilkinson Room
9:00 pm: Knights of the Read Table. Alistair MacLeod, Michael Crummey, Ray Robertson, Peter Behrens. Moderator: Percy Hatfield.
Wilkinson Room
All day: Working Books: Writers' and Artists' notebooks. Including: Michael Marcon, Nadia Ionta, Bill Harris, Carole Harris, Karen Klein, Arnold Klein, Louis Cabris, Hal Neidzviedki, and Sarah Beveridge. Susan Gold Smith.
Concourse
PRESENTATIONS FOR CHILDREN AT PUBLIC LIBRARIES - THE PUBLIC IS WELCOME
Local children's author, Shelley Awad, will be reading from her series, The Greenhouse Kids. For more information, please contact (519) 255-6770 ext. 3310.
Thursday, November 3
Sandwich Branch
Time: 1:15 - 2:15 PM
Friday, November 4
Central Branch
Time: 2:00 - 3:00 PM

Ontario Readings

2011-11-01T08:36:00.000-04:00

Laura Lush launching Carapace with Ariel Gordon
November 3rd, 2011 at 6:30pm.
Toronto Women’s Bookstore. 73 Harbord St. Toronto, ON.

Ariel Gordon reading from Hump
November 4th, 2011 at 7:30pm.
Words Aloud: Poetry, Spoken Word & Storytelling Festival.
Durham Art Gallery. 251 George Street E. Durham, ON.

Reading at Audrey's Books Today!

2011-10-30T11:43:00.001-04:00

A review of Gunmetal Blue: A Memoir

2011-10-27T09:38:00.005-04:00

A dream review of Shane Neilson's Gunmetal Blue: A Memoir.

Below is a snippet. Read the whole review at http://freerangereading.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-gunmetal-blue-memoir-by-shane.html

"Perhaps the best way to describe what Gunmetal Blue is, is to describe for you what it is not. Poet, critic and family physician Shane Neilson has not written a pat memoir making pat connections between medicine and literature. Nor has he written a densely academic treatise about the role poetry plays in healing. He hasn’t written a sensationalized tell-all about his patients and how their suffering informs his poems. He hasn’t written a feel-good story about a depressed young man who overcomes adversity.

What he has written is a raw-boned, devastating, unflinching, uncomfortable and fiercely honest portrait of his life as a doctor and a poet. Neilson describes these duo careers (it’s unfair to call them hybrid careers, since he works so hard at them both) without a hint of sentimentality or pretension. Medicine is a matter of life and death, but for Neilson, so too is poetry. He weaves its importance into the very fabric of his life, treating it not as a pleasant adjunct to his existence but as a core component of it. Gunmetal Blue is about a man finding his voice both as a physician and as a scribe. It is cold-eyed and elliptical. This is a memoir as memoir should be..."

The Haunting of Amos Manor Halloween Events

2011-10-25T10:24:00.004-04:00

Halloween-themed book launch with musical accompaniment
Children are encouraged to come in their Halloween costumes
Thursday October 27th @ 7:30pm
The Crossings Branch Library
255 Britannia Blvd. West, Lethbridge, Alberta.

Halloween Eve Story hour with Halloween treats and costume prizes
Sunday October 30th @ 2pm
Janice MacDonald will be reading from Ghouls Night Out
Richard Stevenson is readings from The Haunting of Amos Manor
Audrey’s Books. 10702 Jasper Ave. Edmonton, Alberta.

Reprint: An Interview with John Barger

2011-10-18T09:48:00.001-04:00

John Wall Barger’s second book, Hummingbird, is forthcoming with Palimpsest Press for Spring, 2012. He divides his year between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Tampere, Finland.

Dylan Riley: The first things that jump out from your bio are the divergent locations – but maybe that’s two questions.

First, what’s Finland like? What brought, or continues to bring you, there?

John Barger: I fell in love with a Finnish woman! This summer we lived together in Tampere, in the south, for four months. The whole country is eerie and gorgeous. So much dark. So much light. We visited a birch forest in Lapland, in the Arctic Circle, with five others in a cabin beside a frozen lake. It took two days to heat it. We chopped a hole in the lake for water, cut wood, had saunas at night. One night there were northern lights that looked like green flamenco fingers. The eternals (Vainamoinen, the eternal singer) and demons (Hiisi, the goblin who drowns children in lakes) you read about seem very close up there.

DR: I’m from the Maritimes myself, and I noticed a bit of a pattern. Young people seem to move from an obscure, small, Maritime city to Halifax, then from Halifax on to Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver. How do you feel about this, and do you plan on living permanently in Halifax?

JB: I did that: moved to Vancouver at twenty. I love Halifax, but I’ve always felt separate from it. I’m envious of “regional” writers like Faulkner or Margaret Laurence, who can write about a community and have it stand for the world. I don’t feel like I’m from anywhere. My first book, Pain-proof Men, mostly takes place in Halifax, but my next book, Hummingbird, does not have a single poem set there.

DR: But do you feel regionalism can be a trap sometimes, that in a way you better of as a writer without it?

JB: Maybe it’s a case of the grass always being greener – because I lack it, I want it. But I love [Charles] Olson’s Maximus poems, and his connection with Gloucester, Massachusetts. It seems like knowing where you are from is a beginning point, rather than an end. Like, once you have place, then you can jump off into the cosmos. I know most of the world lacks this sense of place these days – I’m not unique for this.

Read the rest of the interview at http://soliloquies.ca/2011/10/13/halifax-to-helsinki-the-john-barger-interview/

Review of The Haunting of Amos Manor

2011-10-17T10:09:00.012-04:00

CM Magazine highly recommends our new Magpie Books juvenile fiction The Haunting of Amos Manor by Richard Stevenson.
"The Haunting of Amos Manor is a wonderful mystery filled with suspense and foreshadowing. Through Mark's detective skills, readers will be intrigued in finding out the buried secrets of Amos Manor. As they follow Mark in uncovering the mystery, readers will also feel the tension and nervousness the characters feel."
3 1/2 stars out of 4!
Read the entire review here:

http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol18/no7/thehauntingofamosmanor.html

Too Obvious?

2011-10-14T10:28:00.002-04:00

I know marketers use sex to sell but in this case it is so obvious I find it funnier than anything else.

Hungry? Well, for the women, BK promises at least 7 inches. And for men, they not so subtly hint that it is better than a blow job!

Reprint: Eat Your Cake and Read it Too

2011-10-11T11:27:00.001-04:00

"Cakes were in abundance at Willistead Manor yesterday as Windsor’s Pediatric READ program hosted it’s charity event 'Have Your Cake and Read It Too!'. The event was a charity auction of over thirty cakes made by local businesses, bakeries, and schools. All of the cakes were literacy themed, having been based off of a book or story, and were sold through silent auction..."

See more cakes and read the rest of the article at the link below:

http://windsorite.ca/2011/10/eat-your-cake-and-read-it-too/

Carapace Book Launch

2011-10-05T10:00:00.009-04:00

October 15th, 2011. 7pm.
A Different Drummer
with Shane Neilson
and Robyn Levy
513 Locust Street.
Burlington, ON.
http://web.me.com/diffdrum/a_different_drummer_books/Home.html

The poems in Carapace explore the tensions between life and death as they battle for equal play in the natural world. As in her last two collections of poetry, The First Day of Winter and Fault Line, Lush returns to the themes of loss, death, birth, and rebirth, but with a more unforgiving eye and savage vision, exploring the dualities and ironies of experiencing these states simultaneously. At times, these poems are told through the eyes of a new mother as she attempts to balance the complex and often-times conflicting emotions that accompany motherhood: joy, anger, uncertainty, awe and fear. At other times, they are told through the eyes of a bereft narrator as she comes to grip with death and loss. Driving these poems is an often random and unexplained energy that arises from nature, the life force that underpins the natural world as it gives way to both regeneration and degeneration, and the surrendering to these forces as the narrator tries to arrive at some sort of understanding. The results are short lyric-narratives written in a highly imagistic mode.

PRAISE FOR LAURA LUSH:
“Lush’s ability to articulate by not saying gives her work a spiritual depth, an insight into the winters of the soul.”
— Books in Canada

“Adept at developing fresh images and metaphors that do what the best kind of writing should, Lush makes us take a second look at the world, makes us feel as if we are seeing things for the first time.”
— The Malahat Review

“Laura Lush…excels in flash fusion, the implosion of disparate materials into sudden metaphoric unities.”
— Essays on Canadian Writing

Cool Ads Using Painted Hands

2011-09-30T14:51:00.000-04:00

1st Annual Windsor Essex Open Studio Tour

2011-09-27T19:39:00.001-04:00

For four days in September-October, local artists will open their studios to curious visitors, inviting them to talk, check out how they work, and buy artwork if interested.

Tours are free and self-guided, just follow the map. With more than 30 artists participating, there’s a wide range of arts and crafts to take in, from painting and photography to ceramics, and more. Artists will display works of art in their studios and at local community centres, inviting the public not only to see what they create, but how and where they create it. Artists will talk about their work and give demonstrations.

Dates:
Friday September 30 and Saturday October 1
Friday October 7 and Saturday October 8

Times vary depending on the studio. For the locations of all the participants please visit http://www.weopenstudiotour.com/ for a tour map.

Palimpsest will be taking part in the studio tour. Please drop by between nine and three to see a demonstration of our Gordon oldstyle platen press. During studio hours Dawn will be working the letterpress and putting together some hand-sewn chapbooks.

Ottawa Book Awards

2011-09-25T12:26:00.000-04:00

The City of Ottawa is pleased to announce the 2011 Ottawa Book Awards Finalists. Congratulations to Elisabeh Harvor, whose book An Open Door in the Landscape, has been shortlisted for The Ottawa Book Awards. The award recognizes the top English and French books published in the previous year. Both awards have separate categories for fiction and non-fiction. All shortlisted finalists receive $1,000 and each winner receives a prize of $7,500.

The awards will be presented on October 27, 2010 at 8 p.m. at Library and Archives Canada. The event will be hosted by Lucy van Oldenbarneveld, co-host of CBC News Ottawa and Isabelle Brisebois, Cultural Reporter for Le monde selon Mathieu, Radio–Canada.

Word on the Street

2011-09-20T08:54:00.001-04:00

Richard Stevenson will be reading from his new juvenile fiction book, The Haunting of Amos Manor, at the Word on the Street Festival September 24th and 25th.

See the website for details: http://lethbridgeword.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/local-poet-richard-stevenson-set-to-enchant-wots-audience/

“An Old House With Possibilities,” the Real Estate advertisement had read, meaning, one supposed, a fixer-upper. For the Waldmans at least, that would be half the pleasure, for the house did indeed offer possibilities. The large upstairs bedroom would make a wonderful painting studio for Mrs. Waldman, for one thing, and Karen and Mark would certainly have fun decorating their rooms the way they wanted them. For Mr. Waldman, a little rural respite from the duties of managing the new Safeway in Chilliwack would be just what the doctor ordered... except that things start to go wrong from the moment the Waldmans move in. Karen is having strange dreams and someone keeps moving things. Then there is the strange crow – some would say a spirit familiar – keeps appearing and disappearing at the most inopportune moments. Do ghosts really exist? Are the ghosts of the former inhabitants still claiming resident status? Twelve-year-old Mark Waldman is determined to find out. A self-confessed science geek and amateur sleuth, whose silly sister is obviously just a nervous Nellie, he sets about looking for a scientific solution. Join Mark as he solicits the help of his family, and, yes, even the assistance of his nerdy sister, in uncovering the mystery. Some things never die or stay hidden for long.

Carapace by Laura Lush

2011-09-15T11:55:00.006-04:00

Released September 15, 2011

The poems in Carapace explore the tensions between life and death as they battle for equal play in the natural world. As in her last two collections of poetry — The First Day of Winter and Fault Line — Lush returns to the themes of loss, death, birth, and rebirth, but with a more unforgiving eye and savage vision, exploring the dualities and ironies of experiencing these states simultaneously. At times, these poems are told through the eyes of a new mother as she attempts to balance the complex and often-times conflicting emotions that accompany motherhood: joy, anger, uncertainty, awe and fear. At other times, they are told through the eyes of a bereft narrator as she comes to grip with death and loss. Driving these poems is an often random and unexplained energy that arises from nature, the life force that underpins the natural world as it gives way to both regeneration and degeneration, and the surrendering to these forces as the narrator tries to arrive at some sort of understanding. The results are short lyric-narratives written in a highly imagistic mode.

ABOUT LAURA LUSH:
Laura Lush has an Honours B.A. in English and Creative Writing from York University and an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from The University of Calgary. She has also done several writing workshops at the Banff Centre for Fine Arts, where she was awarded the Bliss Carman Award for poetry. Currently, she is working on her M.Ed. in Teacher Training and Curriculum Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She teaches academic English and creative writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. She has also taught numerous creative writing workshops in Toronto and was one of the creative writing mentors for the University of Guelph’s inaugural Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in 2007. Her books include Hometown (Signal Editions, 1991), which was nominated for the 1992 Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry, Fault Line (Signal Editions, 1997), The First Day of Winter (Ronsdale Press, 2002), in which selections of this book tied for second place in the 2002 CBC Literary Contest, and a collection of short stories, Going to the Zoo (Turnstone Press, 2002). Her poems have also been widely anthologized in Canada, the United States, and Ireland.

The beautiful flowers of summer

2011-08-30T11:11:00.000-04:00

A review of Turning Left to the Ladies

2011-08-17T09:34:00.003-04:00

Published in Fernie Fix (July 2011) Part of the review can be found below, written by Angie Abdou. The on-line version can be found here.

"I could throw adjectives at Kate’s work (genuine, original, important, honest, brave, risky, and beautiful are the first to pop to mind), but instead I’ll recommend that you read it.

Start with Turning Left to the Ladies – a 2009 book of poems inspired by Kate’s experiences as a construction worker and carpenter in the 1970s and 80s when such labour trades were very clearly delineated as “men’s work.” Kate Braid was the first female member of the Vancouver union local of the Carpenters and the first full-time woman teaching trades at the BC Institute of Technology. Turning Left to the Ladies chronicles these years with cutting insight, sharp humour, and an ability to transform intensely personal experiences into art. These are not raged filled poems complaining of the hostility, the sexism, and the lewd sexual innuendo in the work place. All those things are present, but the poems surprise with their humour, humanity, and compassion – for all sides. Kate Braid treats a heavy topic with a perfectly light touch.

One could say that Turning Left to the Ladies tracks the immigrant’s experience – a woman immigrant in the world of men. She is a “Spy” in a nation not her own: “I parachute into man’s country/ hoist a beer in the bar as if a native.” But no matter how deft the female carpenter becomes at imitating the ways of men, she can never assimilate entirely: “It’s only a small slip under the radar/ when I turn left to go to the Ladies.”

Don’t, though, think this world of hammers and nails and lack of male hospitability will be one without music. There is music everywhere in these poems. Braid brings us the song of construction: “Got the rhythm, kid, you got it now?/ You’ve got to love a job that’s got/ this much rhythm,/ this much swing.”"

Palimpsest Logo Design

2011-08-15T13:46:00.004-04:00

The Friends of Fort Malden, a non-profit group, hired me to create a logo mark for their organization. It had to be friendly and inviting, since their volunteers work with children much of the time, but it also had to pay homage to the military history of the Fort. The clients specified that they wanted a soldier, and he had to be in a military uniform appropriate for 1812.

EVENTS at Fort Malden National Historic Site

Since 1988, volunteers have worked in conjunction with Fort Malden to create programs and special events that foster interest and help preserve the unique military heritage of the Fort. The annual Military Heritage Days are in August. Please come out to Amherstburg and get all fired up as you discover 200 years of military life. There will be tactical demonstrations by period re-enactors, military bands, and activities for the kids.

Art by the River will take place August 27^th and 28^th. It is held annually the weekend before the Labour Day and has grown into the largest Arts and Crafts show in Essex County. Stroll the grounds of Fort Malden and browse the selection of work available from over one hundred talented artisans from across Essex County and Ontario.

Poetry in Transit

2011-08-10T16:23:00.003-04:00

Congratulations to Cynthia Woodman Kerkham, whose poem "In Praise of Mushrooms" has been selected for this year's Poetry in Transit Program. Soon her poem can be read on buses across British Columbia. The poem, found below, has been excerpted from her collection Good Holding Ground.

Here is what Patricia Young had to say about Cynthia's book: “Reading Good Holding Ground is like entering a lush and sensuous garden filled with fruit and flowers, animals and birds, bodies and sex, a garden at once in splendid bloom and in the process of decay. In thrall to the sounds and shapes of things, Kerkham crafts her words with exquisite precision. Yes, she says, there is regret and sickness and death but there is also healing and love and compassion. By turns, tough, tender, elegant and disturbing, these spirited poems address the complicated business of being human. A debut collection well worth the wait.”

Image provided by Ariel Gordon

IN PRAISE OF MUSHROOMS

My boot almost crushes domed towers dew-beaded,
sprung in the night through loamy ground,
knobbed umber caps on vellum stocks
frilled gills underneath to breathe in the deep.

Mushrooms surprising sprouted bright
white buttons on blackened logs, or fleshy
ruffles from ruin where tub and tiles meet.

Precious fungus—shitake, chanterelle,
oyster, portabella and truffles—
sponge-tongued taste of earth.

Spores float like words,
take hold in the cold and wait
to bloom in the dark.

ReLit Awards

2011-08-03T09:25:00.001-04:00

The ReLit 2011 longlist has been released, and I am so happy to see both Palimpsest poetry titles there alongside with so many other great books. Congratulations to Elisabeth Harvor and Ariel Gordon. Palimpsest titles have made the longlist before, so it would be fantastic to see at least one make the shortlist.

The entire list can be found here. The shortlist will be announced at the end of August.

A review of An Open Door in the Landscape

2011-07-27T09:57:00.001-04:00

In Elisabeth Harvor’s An Open Door in the Landscape, the poems “open” on moments of narrative and lyrical intensity and humour. The collection is divided into sections without titles to focus theme and category, leaving the reader to ascertain the order and balance among poems. Rather than strictly by chronology or subject matter, the poems or clusters of poems are arranged according to some more subtle choreography of image and story, with longer narrative pieces interspersed with short lyrical poems. The poems are at once sensitive and honest in the ruthless way of adolescence, but often with the ironic perspective of hindsight and maturity that adds something funny or at least satisfying...

For a poetry collection that begins with adolescent ardour and romanticism, it ends on just the right note of self-irony. In “For: Dear Companion in Night Sorrow,” the speaker commiserates with a fellow sufferer in a neighbouring room left lighted all night, only to find out later that the occupant was in fact out of town, and so the speaker’s sympathy was misspent. Nevertheless, through the power of the juxtaposition and its effect as a foil, the poem ends on a true romantic note with the speaker in her bed reaching for the letter that has caused her own sorrow and led her in this way to project her pain on a stranger “night companion in sorrow.” This is a strong collection, romantic but never soppy, at times hard but always honest in feeling and sympathy, and sometimes even downright funny.

Read the entire review at The Prairie Fire Review of Books

Reprint: Shane Neilson discussing his memoir

2011-07-25T09:26:00.001-04:00

Originally posted in The Winnipeg Review. Read the post http://www.thewinnipegreview.com/wp/2011/06/posters-for-the-book-launch/

When I was ill, I never looked around at the hospital, a hospital that was dispensed to me in increments of freedom, and thought: I will write about this place. I looked at a mammoth painting of a malignant sun setting behind a blackening mountain, the word BELIEVE written in huge letters along a desert plain. Many newcomers have stopped at that painting, awed or annoyed. I passed by it, unaware, inert. I had nothing to believe in, only something to remember. The memory was simple: a memory of arrival. I was here, and I was not free. I needed poetry. I desperately needed sense.

Some writers would look upon committal as an opportunity. I’ve even read one deliberate account of committal (Voluntary Madness, by Norah Vincent) as an act of journalism. Being a loony is good material! I looked upon committal differently, for I was a doctor, accustomed to signing the forms that made incarceration legal. Standing in one of two day’s worth of clothes, I was reduced by irony; I possessed the irony of reduction. I looked upon the hospital as perhaps the last one on earth. The BELIEVE sign needed OR ELSE graffiti. But then this place was an or-elsewhere.

Yet I did come to write about the hospitals I frequented and lived in. As I made the effort to remember, I realized that I was shot through with belief: that the poetry I knew and had lived with had kept me alive, and that I never turned my back on it. I wrote about the link between mental illness and poetry, and it was only years later, after the book had arrived on my doorstep, and after plans were underway for me to launch it, that I realized I would have to go back into the hospitals as a strange emissary. Not as a doctor, which I’ve done many times since my release. In this case, I had no patient to treat. Not as a patient either, which I’ve done since too, albeit as an ambulatory one. As a poet, well, I didn’t have poems in my mind when I walked through the Homewood Hospital and the Guelph General Hospital that evening, copies of the poster for my launch in hand.

I walked through those hospitals as if I belonged in some other, new way.

I walked up the stairs to the Homewood, past smokers not obeying the minimum distance line. I pushed through two sets of entrance doors and I walked down the hall, past the reception area where security and secretaries keep the place safe. The floor was tile, the hallway green. Potted plants were installed at corners. Because the hospital consists of components, built as haphazard additions over the years, I walked down the next corridor, descending gently down. There were photos of previous inmates and staff on the walls, all in black and white. There were photos of several classes of nurses the Homewood had trained in the early 1900s. Some disturbed people were pictured standing over plants. Old doctors with moustaches looked sternly out, and past, the onlooker.

Still further to go. I entered another hallway at an angle. Just past where I had to turn was the library. It stocked my first book, a chapbook, a few weeks after I first became a patient. I believe I was quite ill, but well enough to migrate, and I asked to speak to the librarian. I have never asked a bookstore or library to stock my book after that first experience, but not because of that librarian, who looked on me then as an honoured guest— far better than I deserved. I had to be sick to ask her to get my book because I had other things I should have been doing and caring about, other sense-making things. But it did help that the book did come, and was something to touch. I kept coming back to it. I still look at it on the shelf, and consider it the best copy.

I turned and walked down a stairwell. There was another hallway. The walls were an institutional grey, the floor indestructible. The meeting rooms were numerous. Outside the largest of these, where I had spent over 300 hours over seven years, was a bulletin board. On this board the ill posted recovery group meeting times, phone numbers in case a voice was required, advertisements for local shelters. I had stared at this board on many occasions before I went into the appointment room. It is a kind of tea leaves: look at the board, see the swirling energies, the places people frequent in order to survive.

I placed my poster on the bulletin board. It announced the publication of a new book, Gunmetal Blue, with a Venn diagram of a heart and brain at opposite poles. I felt like writing graffiti on it: BELIEVE.

I walked out of the hospital and moved up Delhi Street. Just a few hundred metres on was the medical hospital. Situated on the other side of the street! This is the place I visit my patients who, mostly, are about to die. I recall my time in residency in Newfoundland, speaking to patients, many of whom conceived of hospitals as the place one goes to die. (In Ontario, hospitals are seen as places to get checked over.)

To get into the medical hospital, one requires access. The mental hospital is perversely freer. Once the mental patient is allowed to escape his small confines, he can roam about. In the medical hospital, areas are sequestered. No administrator wants patients and others frolicking around the MRI machine. I walked past the emergency department, past the radiology department, and towards the window that looked upon the parking lot still charging a quaint flat $6. Down a set of steps, these far wider than the mental hospital, and past a locked door requiring a badge to enter.

In the doctor’s lounge, there are very few posters on the bulletin board. The most recent rounds poster was there, as was a summer barbeque proposition. The hospital pharmacopeias demanded physicians take notice of a recent change of IV antibiotic policy. I affixed my poster to the board as an omen to myself. I knew that some would look at it and say, Can you believe this?

In asking that question, they would indeed know a part of me quite well. But not the part that walked into this hospital, on this day.

Palimpsest Logo Design

2011-07-19T11:25:00.001-04:00

The client wanted a logotype with a mark that would be elegant and organic looking. I chose a font that was graceful and sophisticated, and also had a curvaceous feel that mimicked the curvy lines in the heart. The heart is a symbol of affection and care, quite appropriate for a body and health spa. The shape of the heart is made organic by the stylized foliage. The spa itself displays vintage inspired wallpaper and this heart has the same damask look. The colours of the type are muted and calming, whereas the heart gives a pop of colour, a deep burgundy, which is a historically appropriate colour to the Victorian building the spa is housed in and also complimentary to the greens used in the logotype.

Patron Saint of Bookbinders and Poets

2011-07-10T10:28:00.007-04:00

St. Columba of Iona

Ever since reading the Deptford Trilogy, I have found hagiology fascinating. I recently came across Columba, who is the patron saint of poets and bookbinders, and inexplicably also invoked against floods. Born in Ireland, Columba was also a poet and is believed to have written the latin poem "Altus Prosator".

Best known for his love of books, Columba went to great lengths to obtain or make copies of valuable manuscripts. In 540 his first master procured a copy of St. Jerome's Vulgate. Columba got permission to view it and made a copy of it for his own use. His master, Finnian, on being told of this, laid claim not only to the original but also to the copy. Columba withheld this copy, made by his own hand, and the question of ownership was put before the King of Ireland. Columba lost, the trial ending with King's decree: "To every cow her calf, and to every book its son-book" (an interesting early case of copyright infringement).

Columba's skill as a scribe can be seen at the Irish Academy, where the oldest surviving example of Irish majuscule writing and the earliest existing example of a Celtic illuminated manuscript is on display.

Shake your tail feathers

2011-06-24T11:19:00.000-04:00

A Curious Case of Plagiarism

2011-06-23T11:59:00.007-04:00

I was looking at vintage book covers on the net and came across Fires of Youth (1968) by James Lincoln Collier. The cover is titillating for the time it was published, the naked woman posing in a bottle, as if manufactured and ready to be consumed. But I was also intrigued by the subtitle, “With a forward by Robert Lusty about a curious case of plagiarism.” So I did a little research and it is indeed quite curious.

In 1962 Arthur Koestler announced that the newly founded “Koestler Prize” of 400 pounds would be awarded to an inmate for his contribution to art, music and literature (yes, you read that right). The British government endorsed the project, and a manuscript entitled Young and Sensitive by Dartmoor inmate Don Robson was awarded the first ever Koestler Prize.

Hutchinson & Co published Young and Sensitive in 1964, and launched a promotional campaign centered on Robson winning the Koestler Prize. The book was received to great critical praise. The Sunday Telegraph called it “a work of outstanding merit.” An Observer reviewer wrote that it was “the best account of an adolescent affair I have ever read.” Vogue described it as one of the “most poignantly written novels.” And Mordecai Richler, in The Spectator, stated that it was “a work of outstanding merit… [and] strongly reminiscent of the best of Sherwood Anderson.” The author, Don Robson, finished his jail sentence and then got married. He even appeared on television doing interviews about the book.

A year later, an unnamed man checked out a copy of Young and Sensitive at a library. This man realized that he had read the story before. He had indeed read Fires of Youth by Charles Williams, and noticed that it was, with only a few discrepancies, the same book. He informed the publisher by letter. The Robson book was, without a doubt, a plagiarism. The publisher pulled the planned paperback, and attempted to find the original author, Charles Williams, without success. Don Robson never tried to deny his guilt and returned the prize money. His story was that he bought the manuscript from an inmate for fifteen ounces of tobacco. The publisher released a statement explaining the fraud and gave notice that the book would be pulled from circulation. Robson was never prosecuted.

The New York Times picked up the story of the on-going search for Charles Williams. The American publisher Magnet hadn’t been in business since 1960 and had also gone AWOL. That is when a New York writer named James Lincoln Collier contacted Hutchinson & Co. He told them he had written the novel and sold it to Magnet under the pseudonym Charles Williams.

Penguin, in 1968, published the first British paperback edition of Fires of Youth (the cover pictured above). It was the third time the book was published, but the first time published with the correct author’s name printed on the cover. James Lincoln Collier went on to write over twenty books. My Brother Sam is Dead won the Newbery Honor and was nominated for a National Book Award. I always find it interesting how we, as an individual or culture, assign value to literature, and this story leaves me with many feelings of contradiction and compunction. Why is it that the original American version received no attention or acclaim? Was it that an award was given to an unlikely source of literary merit, which in turn created the sense of value? I’m curious to see what the reviews were like after the third publication came out. In any case, it makes an interesting, and yes, curious, study of how books are published and perceived.

All I need is vitamins?

2011-06-22T16:24:00.005-04:00

Author Insults

2011-06-21T11:59:00.001-04:00

Authors can be cruel to each other but it sure is funny! Check out this post for a laugh: http://flavorwire.com/188138/the-30-harshest-author-on-author-insults-in-history

My favorites are:

21. Lord Byron on John Keats (1820)
“Here are Johnny Keats’ piss-a-bed poetry, and three novels by God knows whom… No more Keats, I entreat: flay him alive; if some of you don’t I must skin him myself: there is no bearing the drivelling idiotism of the Mankin.”

9. Truman Capote on Jack Kerouac
“That’s not writing, that’s typing.”

6. W. H. Auden on Robert Browning
“I don’t think Robert Browning was very good in bed. His wife probably didn’t care for him very much. He snored and had fantasies about twelve-year-old girls.”

4. Mark Twain on Jane Austen (1898)
“I haven’t any right to criticize books, and I don’t do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can’t conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

Typography Humour

2011-06-20T15:14:00.000-04:00

I found this on the net and find it immensely funny, although I suppose that makes me a nerd.

Poems and Fiction of Place

2011-06-16T10:39:00.002-04:00

Yvonne Blomer
Anne McDonald
Cynthia Woodman Kerkham

TUESDAY JUNE 21st, 7:30 pm at CAFE MONTMARTRE (4362 Main Street, Vancouver B.C.). The food and drinks are excellent at Cafe Montmartre, bring cash as they don’t accept cards of any kind!

Gunmetal Blue Book Signing

2011-06-13T09:27:00.003-04:00

June 14th and 15th, 6-9 pm
Stone Road Mall
435 Stone Road
Guelph, Ontario

Please join us for the LAUNCH of Shane Neilson's NEW book Gunmetal Blue: A Memoir. He'll also be signing his Trillium Book Award-nominated Complete Physical (Porcupine's Quill).

Gunmetal Blue is an investigation of how to be in the world—how to be a doctor, how to be a poet, and how to be both. Tempered with memoir and populated with poetic case studies, Neilson learns about himself as his patients reveal their frailties. Medicine might be considered the more productive activity by society, but Neilson found poetry in every office visit. Taught to research clinical questions, he took this scientific practice and made it a literary one: how can a doctor better know his patients, and how does this translate into self-knowledge? Poetry and medicine are topics intertwined since the time of the Greeks and, in this case, the connection between the two literally becomes his lifeline.

Shane Neilson is a physician who practices Family Medicine in Erin, ON. He has published two poetry collections, Mensicus and Complete Physical, which was recently nominated for a Trillium Book Award. In 2010 he won Arc's Poem of The Year contest. Gunmetal Blue is his second nonfiction book, his first being a collection of essays entitled Call Me Doctor.

Palimpsest Logo Design

2011-06-03T10:17:00.002-04:00

Kingsville Chiropractic Clinic wanted a logo with mark that was professional and classic in feel while also demonstrating its natural approach to health. The client also indicated that he didn’t want it to be excessively serious, as he has a friendly personal relationship with his patients, and yet not too quirky since he is held in a position of authority.

During my research I came across a quote: “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.” The chiropractor later told me that this was a quote most chiropractors are familiar with. This quote became the inspiration for me to create a graphic that used a tree trunk to depict a spine. Above is a singular leaf. The tree speaks to a holistic approach to health, while the leaf above the text indicates protection. The text is done in a modern sans-serif humanist font. The script font at the bottom gives the logo a more casual feel and the grass line has a grounding effect while bringing everything together.

Letterpress Wedding Announcements

2011-06-01T15:05:00.000-04:00

I have been doing letterpress periodically for a few years in my basement laundry room on a tabletop unit. Since I've moved into this studio space, I've set up a full sized Gordon press. This is my first job on the Gordon and I love it! The wedding announcements in silver ink with red blossoms are pictured here drying on type drawers.

Palimpsest author is now wallpaper!

2011-05-31T14:52:00.001-04:00

Do you see her? Yes that is Palimpsest author Ariel Gordon as wallpaper, right there above the 30. Get an up close view at McNally Robinson bookstores.

Balancing Domestic and Creative Work

2011-05-29T11:51:00.001-04:00

My poetry collection, the challenging and long overdue Beata Beatrix, has finally been accepted for publication. I am thrilled that it has found a home with Tightrope Books, a press that does such fine work. I began this manuscript, not knowing where it would take me, in 2000 when I took my first creative writing course at Humber College. I have always been fascinated by the 19^th century and so I began writing poems about people I found intriguing. It seemed easier to me to write about other people, rather than myself. It gave me a bit of distance from the work. The finished manuscript is based on the life of Elizabeth Siddal, who was married to the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Although an artist and poet in her own right, she is best known as a Victorian muse and the inspiration for her husband’s paintings. Although some supported her artistic development, including her husband and the art critic John Ruskin, they did so while upholding the doctrine that a woman’s primary duty was to her family. And so what began as an ekphrastic study of Rossetti’s art transformed into an account of the female artist’s struggle, and as a result folded me as a female poet into the content. The notion of distancing the “I” through a persona became harder to maintain and something I no longer needed. As my confidence increased as a writer, I found that I didn’t require a buffer. This process led me into more questioning and personal territory since the issue of how female artists value their own work is one that I still struggle with. I have always written, and still have the bad high school poetry to prove it, but it wasn’t until I started to take my writing seriously that the issue of balancing creativity and domestic life became very real to me.

The infamous Gloria Steinham statement, “I have yet to hear a man ask how to balance family and a career”, cuts to the heart of the issue of how we value labour. A career is paid labour, a necessity for survival, but also socially valued through its participation in industry and commerce. Raising a family, housework, carpooling to soccer, may also be a necessity, but as unpaid labour it is socially devalued. In today’s society the discrepancies between men and women in the workforce and at home are eroding, and so the balancing act is one that both sexes must negotiate. My point is, then what, if the statement is “I have yet to hear a man ask how to balance family and creativity.” Women typically spend more time with small children, feeding and diapering, and then when they are older, being on school committees, attending teacher conferences, and driving them to practice. I hear many female writers talking about how they divide their time, giving each other advice on how to manage it all. It is true I hear men discussing a similar issue — how to divide time between the unpaid labour of writing and the paid labour of a job. Do you write early in the morning before work or after work when you get home? In the evenings after the kids are in bed? Weekends? But for female writers the issue is a bit different. Since taking care of the kids and house is unpaid labour and then writing is also (for most of us) unpaid labour, the female author is saddled with a double guilt. And by “the female author” I mean me. Not only do I have no income-producing career, I am spending my free time on a labour that brings in no additional household revenue. When I am writing, there is also the guilt that I am taking time away from my daughter. This was especially true when she was younger. And for the first few years of her life, I pretty much stopped everything and focused solely on her. Getting back into it afterwards was hard and I still flounder at times. I have to remind myself that my writing time is not to be compromised and I have to remind others that I am working, which is not an easy thing to do when work is writing poetry.

Most of my family and friends view my writing as a hobby and something that can be easily postponed for more important things, like talking to them on the phone. They would never call their husbands at work and expect them to drop everything to have a little chat about the funny thing their cat just did. But in their defense, it is hard for them to see writing as “real” work. Hell, it is hard for me to see it that way sometimes. A necessity of my life, most definitely, but something that takes time away from other responsibilities and domestic duties is hard to validate. As with any art, people see it as work when you get paid for it, otherwise it is a hobby that has to fit around everything else. Unpaid labour is seen as wasted time, art an indulgence. An equal division of labour is, in fact, in many cases an unattainable ideal. For my part, I consider myself lucky that I had the opportunity to spend so much time with my daughter when she was young and the opportunity to publish so many excellent poetry books. In the last ten years or so I have published over twenty books through Palimpsest, yet I have written only one. It is hard to justify time for writing when the process for me is so slow going. Most people like to see the tangible results of work, such as a published book in hand, but for many writers this is a lengthy process and one that is unquantifiable.

I have been told, more than once, a statement that begins, “it must be nice that you have the time to…”. The truth is that I didn’t and still don’t have the time. But for people that are driven to create art, whatever their medium, they just do it. There are times when the dishes are heaped in the sink, the laundry piled on the floor, and I am writing at four in the morning. And it makes me wonder about Elizabeth Siddal. Here I am, in the 21^st century, with all my conveniences, a microwave, dishwasher and so on, and I am struggling to find the time and to give myself permission. I’m in awe of this woman who faced such enormous challenges. How did she, in the Victorian age, find the strength to move out of her father’s house as an unmarried woman and pursue her own artistic interests? After her death it is true that biographers whitewashed her reputation and put her more in line with that of a domestic Victorian muse, but she wasn’t so passive, at least not in the beginning of her romance with Rossetti. This was a woman who had the audacity to have business cards printed that identified her as an “artist.” This, in a time, when male artists had a precarious reputation at best. All this is to say that in the past women’s creative lives demanded fearlessness and a certain amount of spunk, and yet even now they continue to be a challenge. The question of how to balance creativity with domestic life remains an important issue. Having supportive family and friends is vital, and yet I find it difficult to ask them to give me the time needed when I have to convince both them and myself that my creative life is more important than ironing.

The one creative act that women have been honoured for is childbirth. And this is where the Siddal story becomes so fascinating. Siddal was sick with an unknown “female malady.” She became weak and suffered recurrent bouts of depression. There was no known biological root to her illness, and recent historians have suggested everything from anorexia to bi-polar disease. Physicians suspected that she was draining her energy through the creation of her art, and when she became pregnant she was strictly ordered not to work on her drawings and to remain in bed. She was not to direct her creative energy into anything other than the new life developing in her body. As a poet in the 21^st century it is easy to see the death of her stillborn child as a metaphor for her repressed creativity. Her art was dead and so was her child. Of course, as a human story it is much more tragic. A woman with so much potential, driven to a life of volatility, filled with personal betrayals, depression, drug addiction and suicide. I am left wondering how many others there were like her. So many other women, then as now, who crave a life of fulfillment, a life filled with art and passion and love, and they end up defeated, both metaphorically and literally. Certainly Siddal’s Victorian world played an important role in her gradual deadening, but that isn’t the entire explanation. Is it the artistic calling itself? Do artists possess a certain disposition that leads to self-destruction? Am I romanticizing tragedy? Am I complicit in idealizing the muse? What makes a person creative? How is value assigned to works of art? These are just some of the questions I grapple with in my collection. And in many ways the questions go unanswered, and yet I feel they are important questions for any writer to wrestle with. At some point all writers should look back to those creative individuals who came before and try to answer basic questions about art and living as an artist. While I don’t think there are definitive answers, looking to the past demonstrates how the artistic life can take its toll and reveal the sacrifices that have been made. While some have suffered for their art, others have been able to negotiate this slippery terrain with determination and grace.

Perhaps lessons can be learned, and at least for me, my exhumation of the past has shown me that repressing who we are has tragic outcomes. I am no longer going to be a closet poet. My creative life has value, even if it is merely a personal one, and I should nurture it and protect it as I would something else of great value. I have never doubted where my passion lies, and yet I have struggled to find acceptance in who I am and the choices I have made for as long as I can remember. This inner conflict is due in no small part to the labels I have been saddled with over the years — emotional, melodramatic, unstable — in other words, a 19^th century description of woman. I now realize that other’s opinions don’t really matter. I have always been raw in my emotions, and as self-defense, I have unsuccessfully tried to bury them. People will always label behaviours they don’t understand. I shouldn’t expect others to understand why I invest in a business that consistently looses money, why crowds of people cause me anxiety, why nightmares stalk me in the daytime, why I write poetry at four in the morning, or why I write poetry at all. The truth is that behind the façade of normalcy we all have our particular brand of insecurities, fears, passions and compulsions. It is a matter of habit now for me to hide behind my own well-crafted façade of distancing silence. But if I have learned anything over the years, it is that trying to explain myself to others is a useless endeavour. Living a life of authenticity has always been of the utmost importance to me, although I haven’t always been able to live up to that ideal. I should view myself as fortunate that I live in a place and a time that gives me such opportunities. I can list dozens of female artists who had to face overt sexism and overcome family objections to their artistic pursuits. My small tribulations and inner conflicts seem minimal in comparison. It’s true that my family and friends haven’t always been supportive of what I do, and yet I have never tried to impress upon them how important it is to me. Siddal’s story continues to remind me of that importance.

Pain-proof Men in Freefall Magazine

2011-05-17T10:11:00.002-04:00

Here is a snippet of the review in Freefall (21.1):

"The title poem, 'Pain-proof Men,' which is in part about the fakir who gives both the poem and the book its title (the title is a literal translation of the word fakir), provides the book with both a mantra and a solid pun; 'In here,' notes one speaker, 'you'll find no fakers!' (70) True to this line, Pain-proof Men is for the most part a very earnest, observational book about the intermingling of the other-worldly and the everyday."

Mayworks Poetry Festival

2011-05-14T09:53:00.006-04:00

Kate Braid reading from her poetry collection, Turning Left to the Ladies, May 11th at the Mayworks Poetry Festival of the Working Arts in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Reprint: In Defence of Poesy

2011-05-12T10:06:00.001-04:00

This article first appeared on the blog That Shakespearean Rag. The link is http://www.stevenwbeattie.com/?p=2494

Elisabeth Harvor is a poet and novelist. Her most recent book of poetry is An Open Door to the Landscape. Below, she shares with TSR some sense impressions about poetry, poetic imagery, and poetry’s lifeblood.

Words on an Abandoned Church, Feral Roses, a Bird Stepping out of a Limousine, and Troubled Eyes

In the liner notes for 1975′s The Best of Leonard Cohen, an album that includes his classic song “Famous Blue Raincoat,” Cohen says that the raincoat actually belonged to him, not to someone else. (And not, as we’ve always suspected, to his brother, his killer.)

I had a good raincoat then, a Burberry I got in London in 1959. Elizabeth thought I looked like a spider in it. That was probably why she wouldn’t go to Greece with me. It hung more heroically when I took out the lining, and achieved glory when the frayed sleeves were repaired with a little leather. Things were clear. I knew how to dress in those days. It was stolen from Marianne’s loft in New York sometime during the early seventies. I wasn’t wearing it very much toward the end.

The above quote is itself poetry, intimate and declarative and revelatory in an offhand sort of way. When I got into the habit of bringing a tape of “Famous Blue Raincoat” to the poetry workshops I used to lead at York University in the late 1980s and at Concordia University in the 1990s, I wanted my students to particularly listen for the pause between the socially grateful “thanks, for the trouble you took …” and the stunning free fall to the inspired surprise of “from her eyes.” (The lines in their entirety read: “Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes / I thought it was there for good so I never tried.”)

Much later, the swerve of the thrillingly anthropomorhpic poem about a heron walking out of a river through the tall river grasses appeared on a Guardian U.K. website: “Long-legged, she steps out of her limousine of weeds.” I’ve long since lost the name of the writer, and if anyone can supply it, I would be extremely grateful to know it.

Then there’s the opening of Plath’s great “Morning Song”: “One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral.”

And a finally, in the most recent issue of Fiddlehead, a poem by Bruce Taylor called “Left Behind,” which contains the following lyrical but ominous evocation of an abandoned church in deep country, “There it stood, at the far end of our road / in a damp and bosomy luxuriance / of lilacs and feral roses.”

Jolts, swerves, contradictions, anthropomorphisms, riffs on illogic … These – for me – are the lifeblood of poetry.

Speaking Volumes and Hatchets

2011-05-08T09:45:00.020-04:00

Ariel Gordon taking aim Lizzie Borden style. The hatchet throwing contest took place at Prairie Fire's Speaking Volumes benefit at historic Fort Gibraltar. Not every poet can say that hatchet throwing is part of a reading, at least not in the literal sense.

Nightmare's Silhouette

2011-05-06T12:01:00.000-04:00

A Modest Warning

2011-05-06T12:00:00.000-04:00

Gone Astray

2011-05-06T11:58:00.000-04:00

Flight

2011-05-06T11:56:00.000-04:00

She Smiles

2011-05-06T11:54:00.001-04:00

Double Vision

2011-05-06T11:53:00.001-04:00

Reading in B.C.

2011-05-01T15:49:00.000-04:00

The Malahat Review will launch its Spring issue (#174) soon:

Tuesday, May 3rd
7:00 - 9:30 p.m.
UVic Fine Arts Building
(readings in room 103)

There will be readings by Open Season Award winners Cynthia Woodman Kerkham (poetry) and Philip Huynh (fiction), as well as Patrick Friesen, Barbara Stewart, Iain Higgins, and Rhonda Batchelor (reading Michael Larson).

Friends of The Malahat, please come and enter your names in our draw for one of two prizes: a one year subscription to Arc Poetry magazine, or a book from the Overleaf Cafe-Bookshop.

On Monday, May 2nd, tune in to CFUV 101.9 FM from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. to hear Cynthia Woodman Kerkham and Patrick Friesen talk about their writing on Wild Orphans. Cynthia's first poetry collection, Good Holding Ground, has now been released and is available for purchase.

Dream big poets!

2011-04-21T09:21:00.001-04:00

A wicked bit of satire from the Onion. We can all have a group cry now.

"CINCINNATI—Shortly before her reading Tuesday at local bookstore Word Mentality, author Francine Massey told reporters that she does her absolute best for everyone who comes out to see her, whether it's just three people or a much larger crowd of nine people..."

Read the entire article here.

Manitoba Book Award Winners

2011-04-18T15:03:00.001-04:00

Palimpsest Press congratulates Ariel Gordon who has WON the Aqua Books Lansdowne Poetry Prize for Hump.

Here are the judges' comments:

"Hump is Ariel Gordon's first book, coming on the heels of a variety of magazine publications and two chapbooks. The focus of Hump is the rich experience of motherhood and marriage on the one hand, and of city life in the integrated context of the natural world, which is everywhere engaging, fierce, beautiful, and unstoppable. This is capable, exuberant writing, at once passionate and meticulous. Hump is a worthy first book indeed."

—Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry / Le Prix Lansdowne du poesie jury, composed of Michael Harris, Kenneth Meadwell, and Serge Patrice Thibodeau.

MAGPIE BOOKS

2011-04-15T09:59:00.004-04:00

Palimpsest Press has previously published two picture books, The Naming Book of Rascally Rhymes and Eanie Meanie Hate Zucchini. We intend to continue publishing picture books while expanding into juvenile and young adult fiction with our new imprint Magpie Books.

The first book to be published under the Magpie imprint will be a picture book entitled Oscar, written by Jordan Troutt and Sarah Preston. Oscar is a curious cat who must travel to the moon in order to get milk. In anapestic rhyming couplets, the narrative is fun, lively, and easy enough for young children to follow along. The second book is The Haunting of Amos Manor by Richard Stevenson. “An Old House With Possibilities,” the Real Estate advertisement had read, meaning, one supposed, a fixer-upper. For the Waldmans that would be half the pleasure... except that things start to go wrong from the moment they move in. Karen is having strange dreams and someone keeps moving things. Then there is the strange crow that keeps appearing and disappearing. Do ghosts really exist? Fourteen-year-old Mark Waldman is determined to find out. Join Mark as he solicits the help of his family, and, yes, even the assistance of his nerdy sister, in uncovering the mystery. Some things never die or stay hidden for long.

The website is now on-line http://www.magpiebooks.ca/

Upcoming Readings

2011-04-12T09:13:00.005-04:00

Ariel Gordon will be reading from Hump April 14th at the Manitoba Book Awards nominee reading. It will be at Aqua Books in Winnipeg at 7pm.

Ariel will also be at a benefit reading May 7th at 866 Rue St. Joseph. Dinner at 7 and readings at 8. Jake MacDonald will also be reading. Admission $65. A charitable tax receipt will be issued for a portion of the ticket price. Rainbow and silent auction to follow. Tickets available at Aqua Books, McNally Robinson, and Prairie Fire.

Good Holding Ground Book Launch

2011-04-06T14:48:00.007-04:00

Cynthia Woodman Kerkham will be reading from her debut poetry collection Good Holding Ground at

PLANET EARTH POETRY
at The Moka House, #103-1633 Hillside Avenue,
Victoria, B.C. V8T 2C4.
(250) 370-2077
FRIDAY April 29th 7:30 P.M.
$3 at the door.

Gunmetal Blue: A Memoir

2011-04-01T10:26:00.001-04:00

SOON TO BE RELEASED —

Gunmetal Blue is an investigation of how to be in the world—how to be a doctor, how to be a poet, and how to be both. Tempered with memoir and populated with poetic case studies, Neilson learns about himself as his patients reveal their frailties. Medicine might be considered the more productive activity by society, but Neilson found poetry in every office visit. Taught to research clinical questions, he took this scientific practice and made it a literary one: how can a doctor better know his patients, and how does this translate into self-knowledge? Poetry and medicine are topics intertwined since the time of the Greeks and, in this case, the connection between the two literally becomes his lifeline.

LetterMpress

2011-03-30T10:49:00.002-04:00

LetterMpress is a project by graphic designer John Bonadies to create a virtual letterpress environment for the iPad that will allow users to create authentic-looking letterpress designs and prints:

The design process is the same as the letterpress process—you place and arrange type and cuts on a press bed, lock the type, ink the type, and print. You will be able to create unlimited designs, with multiple colors, using authentic vintage wood type and art cuts. And you can print your design directly from LetterMpress or save it as an image or import it into other applications.

Read the entire article by clicking the link below.

http://www.casualoptimist.com/2011/03/04/lettermpress/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheCasualOptimist+%28The+Casual+Optimist%29

Shortlist Aqua Reading

2011-03-28T09:04:00.002-04:00

Shortlist READINGS Lansdowne Prize for Poetry Nominees Reading

When: Thursday, March 31st at 7 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage). Cost: FREE!

Jonathan Ball, Ariel Gordon and Lori Cayer have been shortlisted for this year's Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie.

Bookstore owner Kelly Hughes will hand out the prize at the Manitoba Book Awards on April 17, but in the meantime, Aqua Books is continuing its tradition of hosting nominee readings.

Award-winning writer Chandra Mayor will host.

Jonathan Ball is the author of the poetry books Ex Machina (BookThug, 2009) and Clockfire (Coach House, 2010). He holds a Ph.D. in English with a focus in Creative Writing from the University of Calgary. His film Spoony B appeared on The Comedy Network, and his writing has appeared in The Believer and Harper’s. He is the former editor of dandelion and the former short films programmer for the Gimli Film Festival.

Ariel Gordon is a writer whose first book of poetry, Hump, was published in spring 2010. How to Prepare for Flooding, a collaboration with designer Julia Michaud, is forthcoming from JackPine Press in 2011. When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods and taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

Lori Cayer’s second volume of poetry, Attenuations of Force, was released by Frontenac House in 2010 as a finalist in the Dektet Series. Her first poetry collection, Stealing Mercury (The Muses’ Company, 2004), won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book in Manitoba in 2004, and in 2005 Lori won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. She serves as co-editor of English poetry for CV2 and is co-founder of the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie, part of the Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards.

Manitoba Book Awards Shortlist

2011-03-25T14:08:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Ariel Gordon for being nominated in two categories!

The Manitoba Writers’ Guild and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers are pleased to announce the Manitoba Book Awards shortlists. The awards will be presented at the Manitoba Book Awards gala, on Sunday April 17th at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain and hosted by Catherine Hunter. Cocktails are at 7:00 p.m., with the ceremony beginning at 8:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie

Attenuations of Force by Lori Cayer, published by Frontenac House

Clockfire by Jonathan Ball, published by Coach House Books

Hump by Ariel Gordon, published by Palimpsest Press

Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book

Black Bottle Man by Craig Russell, published by Great Plains Teen Fiction

Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools by Theodore Fontaine, published by Heritage House Publishing

Gaze by Keith Cadieux, published by Quattro Books

High Speed Crow by Sheila McClarty, published by Oberon Press

Hump by Ariel Gordon, published by Palimpsest Press

Palimpsest Logo Design

2011-03-20T10:07:00.001-04:00

Wicker Park Chocolates wanted a logotype that conveyed a friendly, accessible, and unique feel, while also retaining some sophistication. During the client interview, she described her chocolates as delicious and inexpensive. The ingredients are very accessible: milk and dark chocolate, caramel, fruit creams. Nothing too exotic or intimidating. She also indicated that her shop was casual, fun, and distinctive.

For the logotype I chose a font that has loads of personality and is the perfect balance between whimsy and sophistication. This logotype is not overly elegant and therefore doesn’t convey an expensive feel. It is unique and yet approachable.

Strange yet Amusing Book Covers

2011-03-10T09:20:00.004-05:00

A flee on a dog. Gosh, that is a weird tale indeed.

Holy Easter egg, Bat Man looks cute in pink.

Don't worry little lady, I'll zap this goo creature with my eye scanner.

Elisabeth Harvor reviewed in Arc

2011-02-25T09:31:00.004-05:00

I love the name of this review — "Sleepless nights and botched love affairs you do want to read about." The review is written by Peter Richardson and can be found in its entirety at http://www.arcpoetry.ca/2011/02/14/sleepless-nights-and-botched-love-affairs-you-do-want-to-read-about/

Here is a sampling:

"An Open Door in the Landscape, Elisabeth Harvor’s follow up to The Long Cold Green Evenings of Spring (1997), holds itself to the same standards she set with her award-winning debut, Fortress of Chairs (1992). Her new book demonstrates the virtues of waiting—and this writer has waited—for a group of robust narratives..."

"I was gobsmacked by this book. Few poets chronicle sleeping disorders, bouts of paranoia and fears of romantic ruin with as acute an ear for phrasing, or as sharp an eye for emotional atmospherics. Harvor makes sleepless nights, mistrusted building superintendants and botched love affairs eminently worth revisiting."

Dawn Kresan at Art Bar

2011-02-22T09:53:00.006-05:00

Tuesday March 1st, 8 pm.
Clinton's — 693 Bloor St. W.
Toronto, ON.

Dawn will be reading from her chapbook Framed, along with a few newer poems. Also reading at Art Bar that night are caroline di giovanni and Elizabeth Greene.

Framed explores the life of Elizabeth Siddal, who was married to the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. From the working class, Siddal’s association with influential artists and their upper-class patrons was dramatic and life altering. As a model, then pupil, she quickly developed artistic ambitions. Although she became a painter and poet in her own right, she is best known as a Victorian muse and the inspiration for her husband’s paintings. Although some supported her artistic development, including her husband and the art critic John Ruskin, they did so while upholding the doctrine that a woman’s primary duty was to her family. In Framed, Kresan regards class and gender as rigid structures that confined Siddal and the primary lens through which she was viewed.

Chapbook edition is limited to 60 copies, signed and numbered by the author. The binding has been hand sewn with linen thread. Laser printed on Neenah columns text paper in classic natural white. Collage end papers created with text and images from Russell Ash’s Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Harry N. Abrams Inc, 1995). The cover has been laser printed on handmade St. Armand Ontario flax canal papers. Published by Palimpsest Press in 2009.

Good Holding Ground

2011-02-10T10:23:00.014-05:00

ISBN: 978-1-926794-05-1

PUB DATE: APRIL, 2011

"GOOD HOLDING GROUND is like entering a lush and sensuous garden filled with fruit and flowers, animals and birds, bodies and sex, a garden at once in splendid bloom and in the process of decay. In thrall to the sounds and shapes of things, Kerkham crafts her words with exquisite precision. Yes, she says, there is regret and sickness and death but there is also healing and love and compassion. By turns, tough, tender, elegant and disturbing, these spirited poems address the complicated business of being human. A debut collection well worth the wait." —Patricia Young

Gordon Broadsheets

2011-01-27T09:41:00.001-05:00

These broadsheets of Ariel Gordon's poems were created by Julia Machaud of http://www.instantnoodles.ca/

Reprint: An interview with Aislinn Hunter

2011-01-25T11:01:00.014-05:00

Read the entire interview at

http://www.openbooktoronto.com/news/ekphrasis_with_aislinn_hunter

Open Book:

Why were you interested in guest-editing this year's Arc Poetry Annual, which called upon poets to submit work that responded to visual art and visual artists to respond to poetry?

Aislinn Hunter:

I’ve often attributed my own sense of "becoming a writer" to two experiences: living in Ireland when I was 17, 18, and my art history education at the University of Victoria a few years later — all those notebook jottings that were a mix of proper lecture points and rough drafts of poems. Elaine Scarry writes about this kind of experience via the idea that beauty brings copies of itself into being, stirs up in us a desire to describe or draw it. I’ve long had a sense of how my own engagement with art made me want to write, but I was curious about how that compulsion or relationship to art or beauty might be understood or articulated by other writers.

OB:

Did your work on this edition of Arc change or expand your understanding of ekphrasis?

AH:

I think it expanded my understanding of the complexity of the ekphrastic act. What I love about the issue is that it doesn’t explicate as much as it demonstrates. In the end it sort of shows forth what this act of translation, or derivation, or insistence is. The chain of art and poetry (which was Anita Lahey’s idea) is really wonderful — it demonstrates how artists and writers right here and now are reading, seeing and rearticulating each other’s vision. I have to admit that as someone who spends a fair bit of my museum and gallery time abroad I sometimes forget how vital ekphrastic art is right here and now in 21st century Canada.

OB:

What is it about the dialogue between written and visual arts that you find so rich? Can you point to a couple of poems in the issue where you see this exemplified particularly well?

AH:

When ekphrasis is done well I think it exhibits an extra dimension — not just art / poem or artist / poet (or all of those) but also reader and world — a supplementary context. My favourite poem in the issue is probably Nick Thran’s "David" because it exemplifies this so beautifully and in a way that seems, at first glance, simple. We get the poem addressing the painting, the poet referencing the artist, but then we get this glide into context or meaning that adds the world the reader lives in and knows a bit about. I love the Anne Simpson "Flood" poems on Betty Goodwin’s art for a different reason, for how much space (or canvas) they leave for us readers to put our own world in.

I’m using the magazine as a textbook in a first-year creative writing class at Kwantlen University where I teach. The "David" poem the students can discuss pretty easily — even though the discussion is complex; the "Flood" poems affect them just as much, but they feel them more than they can say them. In this way some of the poems in the issue seem to me to be about external dialogue — like the "David" poem or the playful poems by Gillian Sze — and some about internal, less articulated confluences and ruptures, like the "Flood" series and Jan Conn’s lovely poems. Expression, impressionism in a way.

OB:

Do you engage in ekphrasis — which you describe as an act, a gesture, not a genre — often in your own work? How does it change the writing process for you?

AH:

Both my books of poetry reference art or artists — Monet, Goya, William Morris, Jack Yeats, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Seán McSweeny. There’s a poem set in the Louvre, one set in a natural history museum. One of the characters in my short story collection, What's Left Us (Raincoast), is an artist who paints. There’s a chapter in my novel Stay set at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin where a Yeats painting is the vehicle for meaning. I have a whole piece in my book of lyric essays on Samuel van Hoogstraten’s 17th century “Peepshow with Views of the Interior of a Dutch House” from which my book takes part of its title.

Art, as I tend to write about it (and understand it), carries meaning or gestures forth, which is why I think of ekphrastic acts and experiences as occurrences and not as finite models or fixed modes. I’m in the throes of a novel now and it’s set in a museum in London, so a lot of these engagements are thematically at the forefront of my thinking and process.

I’m also halfway through a PhD at the University of Edinburgh on resonance and beloved objects. So it’s not "art" just now but "things" that I’m thinking about, though the questions and curiosities are the same: how do things resonate? what is resonance? what is the thingness of the thing? what modes of "giveness" (to get all Heidegger-y before noon) are inherent to the thing itself? One of the repercussions of this line of engagement is that the material world in the museum of my novel matters more than it would normally. It’s not a backdrop — objects "world". The struggle in attempting to write this way is that maybe the characters suffer, aren’t busy enough. I’m looking at that in revisions.

Review of Pain-proof Men

2011-01-18T10:11:00.001-05:00

"the poems sing through a maze of faceted opalescence that tends toward brilliancy."

Read the entire review at http://ojs.lib.umanitoba.ca/prairie_fire/article/view/98/8

Review of An Open Door in the Landscape

2011-01-13T15:06:00.007-05:00

Rare is the writer who excels at both fiction and poetry. Harvor, however, makes the cross-genre leap look effortless. Her preoccupations in An Open Door in the Landscape are the same as those of her earlier work: love, obsession, betrayal, longing. There is a startling intensity about all of her work that is especially at home in poetry. Also, the poems in An Open Door take full advantage of Harvor’s disquieting ability to describe the details of everyday life with such originality that the ordinary is no longer ordinary.

Letters permeate this collection. People drafting letters, people mailing letters, people waiting for letters. Letters received. Letters never sent. These missives allow Harvor space to explore human communication and, even more so, human miscommunication. They also give her the opportunity to question how much truth of a person’s life can be captured on the page and how much writers must mine the lives of those around them in order to compose work that is plausible, compelling, and meaningful...

Read the entire review by Angie Abdou at http://www.ferniefix.com/article/open-door-landscape-elisabeth-harvor

Palimpsest Logo Design

2011-01-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

Magpie Books is a children’s books imprint. Since I am the publisher I know who my market is and as a designer I know what works graphically. For the logo I wanted something that would appeal to children while not looking overly childish. As an imprint of Palimpsest, the logo had to express design excellence since Palimpsest takes that as part of its mandate.

In the logo the Magpie is seen flying, as part of the marketing strategy uses the tag line “Let imagine take flight.” The Magpie is known for its beautiful blue and white wings and so these characteristic colours have been added. The tail end of the bird has been rounded so the logo will easily fit on the spine of a book without distortion.

For the logotype I used a kid-friendly font that had enough weight that it looks good while tucked beside the wing. There is a lot of versatility in how this mark and type can be used, either singularly or together.

Custom Design

2011-01-07T14:49:00.004-05:00

Great Book Covers

2010-12-20T14:46:00.021-05:00

Some of my favorite 2010 book covers.

Review of Population Me

2010-12-16T11:36:00.002-05:00

"What is valid about McGimpsey's work is that he himself is not dismissing or endorsing the products or moments of pop culture triviality that appears in his stuff. He's simply a part of the pinball operation, the trajectory if you will. The essays in Population Me are well-crafted and varied, and cover all of the author's greatest hits to date. It was nice to read Elizabeth Bachinsky gush like a schoolgirl about McGimpsey, like she was writing about him from prison or something. It would be great if this book would just fucking get out there and into schools and stuff and not be forgotten. Come on people, do something about it. Ask your teacher to bring McGimpsey into your class and talk about things. I'm sure your classmates will thank you. Pay him to come to your school. Have a garage sale. Jason Camlot and Alessandro Porco shine in their contributions, but man is Nick Mount's essay full of validity, and really shows how McGimpsey's work fits into contemporary literature…"

Read the rest of Nathaniel G. Moore's review in Broken Pencil here.

Cool Typographic Covers

2010-12-15T11:34:00.028-05:00

The graphic designer David Pearson recently did a series of Cormac McCarthy book covers. They look textured, gritty, and reflect the dark content of the novels. They give the feeling of "wanted" Old West posters. I love them!

Gordon Press (part 3)

2010-12-12T11:20:00.005-05:00

The Palimpsest open house is in a few days and my letterpress is finally assembled. It has been sandblasted, primed, and spray painted matte black. Many thanks to my husband and his family of strong, able-bodied men who were able to hoist and assemble this cast iron monster. Now with the strenuous lifting done (my husband actually laughed at me when I asked if he needed my help), and the complicated jigsaw complete, I can finally get to work. I still need the rollers recast but that will be an easy task, comparatively.

Ariel Gordon Tour Pics

2010-12-09T11:01:00.005-05:00

Authors included in these photographs are Jonathan Ball, Ariel Gordon, Tracy Hamon, Christine McNair, Pearl Pirie, and John Toone.

OPEN HOUSE

2010-12-01T11:45:00.006-05:00

Palimpsest Press Office and Letterpress Studio
OPEN HOUSE at 5 King Street in Kingsville
Tuesday December 14th, 12pm - 8pm

Come join us at our new location. Have a tour, check out the letterpress, eat a cookie. Palimpsest has been publishing and providing graphic design services for over 10 years. It is celebrating by opening its doors and having a sale.

Detours Book Submission Call

2010-11-29T09:50:00.007-05:00

Detours: Images from Windsor, Essex County, and Pelee Island
To be published in fall 2012 by Palimpsest Press

Image Submission Call
We are looking for artistic photography that represents this area. Some suggestions might be interesting characters, vistas, architecture, old barns or churches, fence rows, railway yards, factories, fruit stands, festivals, or marinas. We are not looking for postcard pictures of flowers.

Step #1—Query by email first with a few low-res jpeg files (.72 or 150 dpi).

Step #2—If you get the go ahead then please mail us a disk. The disk should have a maximum of 12 tiff images, and they are to be high-res at 300 dpi.

Text Submission Call
We are looking for poetry or prose-poems that relate to this area and convey a distinctive voice. We are not looking for rhyming, clichéd, sentimental or distinct religious writing.

Step #1—Query by email first with 2 -3 pages of text pasted into the body of the email. No attachments please.

Step #2—If you get the go ahead then please mail us a hard copy of your work (12 pages maximum). If we want to use a poem, we will ask for a digital version for typesetting.

Submissions accepted from September 1, 2010 until January 31, 2011. Submission Email: detoursphotobook@gmail.com

Contributors will be paid with copies of the book.

Poems and Drawings of Elizabeth Siddal

2010-11-25T14:11:00.007-05:00

I recently bought Poems and Drawings of Elizabeth Siddal, published by Wombat Press in 1978. I'm so impressed with this slim hardcover book. There isn't much out there that collects Siddal's poetry and art together, much less in such a beautiful edition.

Title page with self-portrait.

A scan of a hand-written letter from Georgiana Burne-Jones.

Lady Clare in watercolour. From a private collection.

Renovation Complete (mostly)

2010-11-20T09:39:00.006-05:00

For those who ask for a definition.

I like silver dogs who don't bark.

My large work table with modified letterpress drawers as legs.

My ceiling!

Old window frame with vintage letterpress blocks inside.

A Poem From My Chapbook FRAMED

2010-11-16T10:30:00.024-05:00

Housebroken
The Pet, Walter Deverall, 1852. Oil on canvas.

She stands in a doorway, on the threshold
between home and garden, peers inside
a bird cage. Yet another type of enclosure.
It is no wonder they love their captor—
well fed and doted upon, the canary is full of melody,
the dog lazily snuffles at your feet. No cares gnawing
at the bone. All kindness and kisses.
So you think.
___________Protection has its costs.
Birds flounder in sorrow. Wings clipped,
they feel for the hand reaching in as one feels toward
a punishing god. Yes, they are pampered, given teeny
treats, fed daily morsels until docile and blithely paunch.
The dog, taught to beg for affection, must always
be pleasing. If it disobeys, the hand that now lovingly
strokes the ear’s soft cushion of fur, will strike
quick as lightening. Pain pulsing
through its skull, the high pitched yelps, its nose
rubbed into the mess it made.

Palimpsest Exterior Office Sign

2010-11-04T15:04:00.003-04:00

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T11:03:00.001-04:00

My daughter dressed up as our dog, Keiko, for Halloween. And Keiko dressed up as a hot dog, in case any of us got hungry and needed a snack.

Palimpsest Press 2010 Ad

2010-10-26T10:50:00.005-04:00

Palimpsest Press titles can be purchased from your local bookstore or on-line. As always, we encourage you to buy locally from an independent bookstore. Sales representation is provided by The Literary Press Group of Canada and distribution is through LitDistCo.

Rejection Letters

2010-10-25T14:14:00.009-04:00

I recently received a rejection letter from a literary journal. Not so odd as I have received several over the years, but this one was different in that it had check boxes where the editor ticked the box that explained why your work was rejected. It was so terribly funny in its ruthlessness. Of course, I might have felt different if the box checked was by the line, “Your work was very bad. Very bad… Please never submit to us.” Having to send out rejection letters myself, I completely sympathize with such a statement although I couldn’t imagine actually using it. Often I have thought extensively on how to tell the poet that his/her work is very bad, without actually saying those words. I typically rely on something like “your poems have potential, keep working at it”, which is stretching the truth quite a lot. However, judging someone’s work is always subjective, and just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean that everyone else will think the same way. Plus, I hate to be mean. Wouldn’t calling the work “bad” be a devastating blow? They may stop writing altogether and if they’re passionate about writing, who am I to crush their spirit.

But despite my best attempts at diplomacy, I have received many angry notes in response to my rejection letters. People have accused me of everything from “only choosing authors who are willing to play the game”(I have no idea what that means) to “not knowing quality writing if it bit me in the face”. I have been called “cruel” and “indifferent”. Once, in an extremely long-winded letter, I was denounced for being like this poor guy’s ex-girlfriend “who gets hurt by assholes and then cries on my shoulder.” I’m not exactly sure what this has to do with his poetry submission, other than he believes women reject him wrongly, but I think his troubles are greater than this since he felt inclined to send a stranger a four-page long woe-is-me letter. However, all this nastiness got me thinking about honesty and our willingness to put it out there despite the costs. My version of charitable falsehoods provoked such fury that I doubt it would have been worse if I had said it was bad. I think people read through the niceties and assume you are saying something negative, so what happens when I really mean it, when I think the work does have potential but requires some more editing. Then what? Perhaps it comes across as dishonest when I’m not being dishonest. Sincerity is a hard thing to come by, and I don’t think as a culture we value it enough.

But where does honesty cross the line? When we don’t ask for the opinion, but it is given anyway? (“You should change before we leave. Those pants don’t look good on you”).

When the opinion is perceived as cruel? (“Why? You’re saying I look fat”).

But is it only a perception? Perhaps the person is too sensitive. (I’m insecure about my having a big ass).

Perhaps there is no cruel intent. (He thought that you’d look better in a different pair of jeans. Maybe the ultra low-rider ones that show your crack when you bend down was not your best decision.)

If the opinion was not intentionally cruel, but is none-the-less perceived as cruel, is it cruel? I guess that depends on whom you are asking. Reality is what we make it, and the reality may be that despite your intent the person finds your comment cruel. So, in the end, that has nothing to do with you. You have no control over another’s perception of reality. Your truth is based on what you know and the other person’s truth is based on his/her experiences. Ask your sibling to describe a shared event from your childhood, and you’ll see what I mean. Truth is always filtered.

I know that I am not comfortable telling someone that they are a bad writer, or even that I find their writing to be bad. I guess I am not comfortable with presenting my opinion in such unflinching terms, that is, to label it good or bad. And, for the record, I am not talking about reviews, as that is part of the literary debate and a whole other discussion. I am only referring to rejection letters and how to word them appropriately. As a publisher, I have to decide what is worthy of publication and what is not. This is not a purely subjective matter, but there is some subjectivity involved. There are many worthy titles, as I deem them, but I simply don’t have the funds and resources to publish them all and looking back over the last decade I know that my aesthetics have changed. I don’t think that my opinions are so varied, but they are fluid, and they have evolved over the last decade. But running a press means that I have to make business decisions, which requires making value judgments on a manuscript: the value to my press, the value to Canadian literature, the value to the market. Regardless of my passing judgment, which I do all the time, actually labeling a work “bad” leaves, um, a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps I am spineless, a CanLit coward, but I think there is a certain egotism that goes with such definitive pronouncements that I simply don’t possess. So be it. In the end, I am not interested or comfortable labeling work good or bad. Frankly, I find the discussion on subjectivity and how we determine worth, either as individuals or as a community, much more interesting.

As far as cruelty goes, I never intend it with the rejection letters I send out, but seem to inflict it anyway. If I give too little then I am “indifferent” and if I give my honest opinion I am “cruel”. It seems the only good response is, “I love it and want to publish it without changing a word”. Well, if that is what you want, all I have to say is good luck with your self-publishing venture. In the end, I will continue to write very little on my rejection forms, as going through hundreds of submissions really is quite tedious and time consuming. Occasionally, if I have the time and deem the work worth the extra attention, I’ll offer some general critique and hope the person takes it for what it is — only one person’s opinion. Ignore it, consider it, refute it, do with it what you will, but when you submit your work to a publisher at a press or journal you are asking us to judge your work and, with that, there is risk.
_________________________________________________________

P.S. — please stop sending me hate mail. Wasn’t askin’ for your opinion anyway.

And by the way, low-riders that show your thong or pants slung down under your ass isn’t flattering on anyone.

Restoration

2010-10-20T10:52:00.007-04:00

This is a picture frame I bought at a yard sale. I painted the frame black, installed tiles and wire for hanging cards on. There is so much negativity in my business at the moment, having seminars called "The Death of the Book", that I have created this small yet beautiful gallery of inspirations and gratitude. I also occasionally receive what can only be called hate mail, and these notes of thanks remind me that what I do matters. It restores my heart.

A window frame reclaimed from my husband's office. It received (not so much a restoration) but a good cleaning. I like the, um, rustic feel of it. I plan on hanging it from chains in my letterpress studio and placing wooden type on the dividers.

This, oddly enough, is a file cabinet. It looks a bit like an apothecary cabinet but is actually a horizontal filing system. I've never seen one before and it is quite impractical as the drawers have to be completely removed to take any files out. But I think it is beautiful and will use it anyway. Practical is as boring as Mary Jane flats.

Rascally Rhymes softcover

2010-10-10T14:04:00.012-04:00

The Naming Book of Rascally Rhymes gently pokes fun at the foibles of children, and the playful, lively rhymes are written in a way that appeals at different levels to both parents and children. Here you will find Abigail who has a face “that’s as sweet as an angel, but when she sings her song, it turns strangely bestial” and Ian who “ate worms and toads and rocks a la mode.” Quill and Quire, the Canadian publishing industry magazine states that Preston’s “vivid illustrations are well-suited to the book’s playful nature… It’s a book children will want to look at after you’re done reading.”

“Jordan Troutt has penned a witty and re-readable book of deadpan rhymes… With silly wit that’s a hairsbreadth from nonsense, Troutt seems to channel the spirit of Lewis Carroll … Sarah Preston-Bloor’s whimsical illustrations are an ideal complement to the verses, colourfully depicting wide-eyed little darlings in a variety of misadventures. This is the kind of book you’ll thumb through for a giggle even when the kids aren’t around.”
— Our Children Magazine

“Troutt perfectly blends an upper level alphabet book with rhymes to produce a humorous selection of poetry. The illustrations are expressive and go hand-in-hand with the poems. This collection of rhymes is very entertaining and full of silly fun, making it great for storytelling.”
— Resource Links

Paperback now available now for $10.50.

Review of Hump

2010-10-01T10:26:00.004-04:00

Jonathan Ball wrote a shortish review of Hump on his blog 95 Books, in which he admits, "I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to, given that this generally isn’t my 'thing'." He also states that Gordon "has a good eye for alliteration and internal rhythm and makes better use of compound adjectives than I’ve seen in a while."

Read the entire review here.

Framed chapbook

2010-09-28T10:13:00.007-04:00

ISBN 978-0-9784917-8-9
Chapbook edition of 60
$20 CDN

A detail from the cover.
The keyhole reveals the collage end sheets.

Framed explores the life of Elizabeth Siddal, who was married to the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. From the working class, Siddal’s association with influential artists and their upper-class patrons was dramatic and life altering. As a model, then pupil, she quickly developed artistic ambitions. Although she became a painter and poet in her own right, she is best known as a Victorian muse and the inspiration for her husband’s paintings. Although some supported her artistic development, including her husband and the art critic John Ruskin, they did so while upholding the doctrine that a woman’s primary duty was to her family. In Framed, Kresan regards class and gender as rigid structures that confined Siddal and the primary lens through which she was viewed.

Framed can be purchased from the Palimpsest website here.

Framed chapbook: work in progress

2010-09-16T15:41:00.009-04:00

My chapbook, Framed, based off of my full-length poetry collection Beata Beatrix will soon be ready for purchase. It is a year late but still... here is the colophon.

Chapbook edition is limited to 60 copies, signed and numbered by the author. The binding has been hand sewn with linen thread. Laser printed on Neenah columns text paper in classic natural white. Collage end papers created with text and images from Russell Ash’s Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Harry N. Abrams Inc, 1995). The cover has been laser printed on handmade St. Armand Ontario flax canal papers. Published by Palimpsest Press in 2009.

Here is a picture of some of my collage pages.

Article: Moving Words

2010-09-15T13:36:00.001-04:00

Fiona Lam wrote an interesting article about the history of the poetry in transit program. Kate Braid's poem "The Beauty of Men" is included in this year's list of chosen poems.

Read the entire article here.

Kate Braid standing under her poem on a city bus. It even has a picture of the cover of her book!

Poetry in Transit

2010-09-14T12:11:00.004-04:00

Kate Braid's poem The Beauty of Men, from Turning Left to the Ladies, has been selected to be involved in British Columbia's poetry in transit program. Congratulations Kate! She will be reading at the poetry tent during the Word on the Street Festival, September 26th at 2:00pm. Here is the poem:

It is not violence but muscle –the force to do –
curled and bent and burning
inside.

They deny it. Hide it. Rip it out
with hammers and knives and guns, even crosses
if they have to.

These are the signs of the beauty of men:
set jaw, the shimmer of muscle
eager to lift beyond any limit, lost

in the wild pleasure of motion. They will move the world
with their own two hands, force it if they have to, doing
what mere thought didn’t know had to be done.

— Kate Braid