Ariel Gordon's Blog, page 84
April 12, 2011
NPM reading #1
Alison Calder & Charles Leblanc at the Millennium Library April 12.
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Which suggests that there's a NPM reading #2, non?
Here are the details:
NPM Reading #2
Featuring Colin Smith & Deborah Schnitzer
When: Tuesday, April 26, 12:00 - 1:00 pm
Where: Main floor, Millennium Library (251 Donald Street)
Cost: FREE!
Every spring, the League of Canadian Poets celebrates National Poetry Month, which is dedicated to reading, writing, speaking and promoting poetry.
In 2011, the League of Canadian Poets will also celebrate 25 years of the Public Lending Right in Canada, which attempts to both nurture poets and provide free access to their work. This spring, explore Poets + Libraries = PLR for National Poetry Month!
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Colin Smith is a poetry scalawag. Books = 8X8X7 (Krupskaya, 2008) and Multiple Poses (Tsunami, 1997). More current work pops up in CV2, The Collective Consciousness, and Dandelion. Rarely meets a curse he doesn't like.
Deborah Schnitzer is co-editor of the award-winning collection, The Madwoman in the Academy: 43 Women Boldly Take on the Ivory Tower, whose creative writing includes the long poem, lovinggertrudestein, Loving Gertrude, the novel gertrude unmanageable, and most recently, An Unexpected Break in the Weather, winner of the 2010 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction. She has collaborated with Shelagh Carter on three short experimental films, rifting/blue, resolve, and Canoe, and with River on the Run North, an eco-arts collective examining environmental challenges to Lake Winnipeg. Deborah is currently at work landscaping a new novel, the woman who swallowed West Hawk Lake and the long poem, water^woman.
April 11, 2011
April 10, 2011
pussywillow
All photos Assiniboine Forest, Winnipeg, MB. April 9, 2011.
April 7, 2011
Reprint: Getting over her hump
Wolseley writer Ariel Gordon talks poetry, parenthood, and Winnipeg's growing literary community
The Metro
Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
By: Matt Preprost
Posted: 04/6/2011 4:06 AM
It took Ariel Gordon nearly 20 years before she was finally able to have a tangible, 95-page paperback in her hands to prove she was, in fact, a writer.
And since the 38-year-old Wolseley resident's debut book of poetry titled Hump was released last May, it keeps on giving.
Gordon was recently shortlisted for two Manitoba Book Awards: the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry and the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book.
The nominations follow on the heels of her being named Manitoba's most promising writer last year by the Manitoba Writer's Guild.
"When you publish a book, you hope certain things will happen to you," said Gordon, a freelance writer and events co-ordinator for Aqua Books.
"I didn't expect, after being in this community for so long, that they would all happen to me. People have been kinder than I probably deserve and all of the small dreams I've had about publishing a book have come true.
"I've been saying I was a writer since I was 19 with no proof. Anyone can say they're writer, but until you have a book, there's no real qualitative proof."
The 43 poems that comprise Hump illustrate Gordon's love of nature, her relationship with her partner, and her transition into motherhood.
"My life was hijacked by getting pregnant and having a child, and my writing life was hijacked, too, because all of a sudden it was all I wanted to write about," said Gordon, whose daughter is now four years old. "It was almost like a compulsion, I didn't have much choice of what I was writing about. I was really trying to explain pregnancy and mothering to myself."
Also nominated for one of the guild's 12 awards are Wolseley-based writers David Bergen and Kerry Ryan.
Bergen's book The Matter With Morris is shortlisted for The Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, which carries a $3,500 award, and the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. Ryan was nominated for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer.
Gordon called the awards a "celebration" of the province's growing literary community.
"When I was 19 and first started going to events in this community, there were only four awards," she said. "The awards have grown at the same time the community has grown and look at how many international writers are from Winnipeg.
"I can't say that I'm one of them, but one day I'd like to think I might take my place, if I'm lucky and I don't die or turn into a terrible writer."
Award recipients will be announced on April 17 at the Manitoba Book Awards gala, held at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain in St. Boniface. The event is free and open to the public.
matt.preprost@canstarnews.com
The Metro
Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
By: Matt Preprost
Posted: 04/6/2011 4:06 AM
It took Ariel Gordon nearly 20 years before she was finally able to have a tangible, 95-page paperback in her hands to prove she was, in fact, a writer.And since the 38-year-old Wolseley resident's debut book of poetry titled Hump was released last May, it keeps on giving.
Gordon was recently shortlisted for two Manitoba Book Awards: the Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry and the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book.
The nominations follow on the heels of her being named Manitoba's most promising writer last year by the Manitoba Writer's Guild.
"When you publish a book, you hope certain things will happen to you," said Gordon, a freelance writer and events co-ordinator for Aqua Books.
"I didn't expect, after being in this community for so long, that they would all happen to me. People have been kinder than I probably deserve and all of the small dreams I've had about publishing a book have come true.
"I've been saying I was a writer since I was 19 with no proof. Anyone can say they're writer, but until you have a book, there's no real qualitative proof."
The 43 poems that comprise Hump illustrate Gordon's love of nature, her relationship with her partner, and her transition into motherhood.
"My life was hijacked by getting pregnant and having a child, and my writing life was hijacked, too, because all of a sudden it was all I wanted to write about," said Gordon, whose daughter is now four years old. "It was almost like a compulsion, I didn't have much choice of what I was writing about. I was really trying to explain pregnancy and mothering to myself."
Also nominated for one of the guild's 12 awards are Wolseley-based writers David Bergen and Kerry Ryan.
Bergen's book The Matter With Morris is shortlisted for The Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, which carries a $3,500 award, and the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. Ryan was nominated for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer.
Gordon called the awards a "celebration" of the province's growing literary community.
"When I was 19 and first started going to events in this community, there were only four awards," she said. "The awards have grown at the same time the community has grown and look at how many international writers are from Winnipeg.
"I can't say that I'm one of them, but one day I'd like to think I might take my place, if I'm lucky and I don't die or turn into a terrible writer."
Award recipients will be announced on April 17 at the Manitoba Book Awards gala, held at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain in St. Boniface. The event is free and open to the public.
matt.preprost@canstarnews.com
April 6, 2011
Speaking Volumes poster!
Here's the official poster for Prairie Fire's Speaking Volumes dinner May 7.
I like how Jake MacDonald is growing out of my ample forehead. Like a reverse Zeus/Athena/migraine.
Now that's a pregancy story!
I mean, I get that Metis was somehow able to give birth inside of Zeus. And I suppose I get that Zeus would relieve a headache by taking an axe to his forehead.
But how did Metis get weapons inside Zeus with which to arm Athena?
I mean, Zeus swallowed Metis. Not Metis + an armory. Did she also give birth to weaponry? (Which would make her the mother of swords!)
Maybe since Zeus thought he could solve his marital problems by eating his spouse, at an earlier date he also thought he could create peace by eating his adversaries' weapons.
And they were just rattling around in there. (This is a really long poster, eh?)
I like how Jake MacDonald is growing out of my ample forehead. Like a reverse Zeus/Athena/migraine.
Now that's a pregancy story!
I mean, I get that Metis was somehow able to give birth inside of Zeus. And I suppose I get that Zeus would relieve a headache by taking an axe to his forehead.
But how did Metis get weapons inside Zeus with which to arm Athena?
I mean, Zeus swallowed Metis. Not Metis + an armory. Did she also give birth to weaponry? (Which would make her the mother of swords!)
Maybe since Zeus thought he could solve his marital problems by eating his spouse, at an earlier date he also thought he could create peace by eating his adversaries' weapons.
And they were just rattling around in there. (This is a really long poster, eh?)
April 5, 2011
Reprint: PLR podcasts!
The Public Lending Right Commission, or PLR, chose to celebrate National Poetry Month by podcasting poems on their website:
p.s. My performance is a little quiet. But I like the performance itself, so PLEASE turn up the volume on the media player on the PLR website AND on your computer. Thanks!
Let's Celebrate!
Authors' associations rally to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Public Lending Right Commission.The League of Canadian Poets is launching the celebrations!
During the National Month of Poetry, poets and hosts have set up readings and performances in public libraries, and each library will feature a Canadian poetry display during April. The PLRC and the League of Canadian Poets invite you to cultivate poetry in your community. Nurture creators and recognize free access to their work. Foster the love of poetry at your local library!
Let poetry be part of your everyday life. Make a weekly visit to this website to hear podcasts of some of the readings.
p.s. My performance is a little quiet. But I like the performance itself, so PLEASE turn up the volume on the media player on the PLR website AND on your computer. Thanks!
March 31, 2011
Aqua Books Lansdowne
Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie nominees (l-r): Jonathan Ball, Ariel Gordon & Lori Cayer.
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The Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie is an annual award presented to the Manitoba writer whose full length adult book of poetry in either French or English is judged the best written.
The award will be handed out April 17 at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain.
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I think I look tired and therefore kind of squinty here. But oh well. Very nice to have heard Jonathan and Lori read, esp. as this was the first time I've been on the same bill as Lori, nevermind the same shortlist.
Wine & Words, part the second
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I couldn't help but post this gorgeous poster.
I've submitted my How to Sew a Button poem for this year's edition of Wine & Words. And am highly curious to see who will read it...
Last year, actor Kevin Anderson read one of my Edison poems. He later told me that he'd forwarded the poem to Matthew Edison, an actor who has spent time in Winnipeg who happens to be a great, great, great grand-nephew of Thomas Edison.
Which made for a sort of ticklish pleased feeling...
