Stuart Ross's Blog, page 20

Billy and Shane

OK, so in 2007 or 2008, Shane Koyczan was caught passing off a Billy Collins poem, "The Lanyard," as his own during a festival reading (or, at least, not giving Collins credit for the work). When it came to light, Koyczan wrote an apology to the festival that included this: "My sincerest apologies for failing to disclose the authorship of the piece 'Lanyard' in my last appearance at your fine festival. The poem is indeed written by Billy Collins with the exception of the beginning which was penned by myself. I have performed the piece many times and have always credited Billy as he is one of my favorite writers and it is always a delight to spread the word about those we love."


So, while looking for a Maxwell House Coffee commercial featuring Koyczan (!!!), I came across this clip from a 2010 reading, where again he includes the bulk of Billy Collins' poem "The Lanyard" in this piece called "Move Pen Move." Unless it happens after the clip cuts off (in which case, please disregard everything I've written here), he doesn't seem to acknowledge Collins, doesn't spread the word about this poet he loves. And here he has added a very long (and weak) ending to the poem, and given it a new title.
This is especially odd because his letter of apology also included: "As a writer I am completely aware of how crucial it is that the proper recognition fall on the proper people. I don’t have to imagine how upsetting it would be to hear that someone was trying to pass off my work as their own... it’s happened. The most recent example is a boy in the states who used “Move Pen Move” and “Visiting Hours” in a speech forensics competition. It stirred up quite a fuss and he was disciplined rather extremely."
Maybe someone can explain this to me. Does this just happen and nobody has mentioned it to me — that you can just tuck someone else's poem into your own without attribution?

Over and out.

Basketcase

Here I am, in my favourite place in Canada — the West Kootenays. Reading a poem from You Exist. Details Follow.



Over and out.

A reading in Toronto tomorrow and 2 workshops in Ottawa in July!

OK, there's an awful lot to talk about and catch up on, but for now, here are a couple of things:On Tuesday, June 26, I'm reading at the Art Bar Poetry Series at Pauper's Pub, 8 pm, in Toronto. Aside from launches, it's been a long time since I've done a Toronto reading. Many months, anyway. I'll be sticking to poetry for this event, reading from You Exist. Details Follow. and also from newer poetry. I actually didn't realize I had much newer poetry, but a recent grant deadline threw me into action and I found out that I had … well, a grant application's worth!Also reading at the Art Bar will be Aisha Sasha John and Andrea Thompson. I should mention that I haven't read at that series in at least four or five years. I got invited a couple times by one of the series' organizers, but another one or two of the series' organizers were then my arch-enemies. The archies in question have since departed the Art Bar team and I have accepted the invitation to read.Next month, I'm very excited to be doing a couple of workshops in Ottawa. The Tree Reading Series is bringing me in for a freebie before its monthly reading, and local poet and alphabet adventurer Pearl Pirie has asked me to do a Boot Camp at her place. Details follow.I'll also have some time in Ottawa for one-on-one coaching sessions, if anyone's interested.
AFTER JOE BRAINARD
A one-hour writing workshop sparked by the literary works of the late and magnificent Joe Brainard, on the occasion of the release of his Collected Writings and the re-release of the legendary Bean Spasms collaboration between Joe, Ron Padgett, and Ted Berrigan.

Free!
Tuesday, July 24, 6:45 – 7:45 pm
Arts Court, Daly Ave, 2nd floor
Presented by Tree Seed Workshops
STUART ROSS’S POETRY BOOT CAMP
A relaxed but intensive workshop for beginning poets, experienced poets, stalled poets, and haikuists who want to get beyond three lines. Poetry Boot Camp focuses on the pleasures of poetry and the riches that spontaneity brings, through lively directed writing strategies. You will write in ways you’d never imagined. Arrive with an open mind, and leave with a heap of new poems!$45
Wednesday, July 25, 6:30 – 930 pm
Venue is a private home in Hintonburg
(a block from the 86 bus route)
Register by prepaying via PayPal or eTransfer to Stuart Ross at razovsky [at] gmail [dot] com
Space is limited.Over and out.

2 workshops in Toronto this weekend!

This weekend, I'm offering my two most popular workshops in Toronto: my Poetry Boot Camp and Plotless Fiction. Still a little space in each, so drop me a note at razovsky [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested in attending.

STUART ROSS’S POETRY BOOT CAMP

Saturday, June 2, 10 am - 5 pm (w/ 45-minute lunch break)

Christie/Dupont area

$90 includes materials and light snacks

Prepayment guarantees your spot.

To register, write Stuart at razovsky@gmail.com.

A relaxed but intensive one-day workshop for beginning poets, experienced poets, stalled poets, and haikuists who want to get beyond three lines. Poetry Boot Camp focuses on the pleasures of poetry and the riches that spontaneity brings, through lively directed writing strategies and relevant readings from the works of poets from Canada and abroad. We’ll also touch on revision and collaboration. You will write in ways you’d never imagined. Arrive with an open mind, and leave with a heap of new poems!

PLOTLESS FICTION 

Sunday, June 3, 10 am – 5 pm (w/ 45-minute lunch break)

Christie/Dupont area 

Fee: $90 includes materials and light snacks. 

Prepayment guarantees your spot. 

To register, write Stuart at razovsky@gmail.com. 

Fictioneer and writing teacher Stuart Ross offers a relaxed, supportive workshop for writers at all levels. Plotless Fiction explores the possibilities of fiction beyond the constraints of narrative and the artificiality of plot. In this hands-on session, you will be introduced to writers from around the globe who push against the definitions of the story, and you will produce a half-dozen or so of your own short works, using a variety of enjoyable, challenging writing strategies.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Stuart is the author of seven full-length poetry collections, most recently You Exist. Details Follow. (Anvil Press), but also including the acclaimed I Cut My Finger (Anvil Press) and Hey, Crumbling Balcony! Poems New & Selected (ECW Press). His second story collection, Buying Cigarettes for the Dog, earned positive reviews across the country, went into a second printing after only two months, and won the ReLit Prize for Short Fiction. His plotless novel Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew also won great critical acclaim. Stuart is editor for Mansfield Press, where he has his own imprint, and Fiction & Poetry Editor for This Magazine. He also writes a regular column — “Hunkamooga” — for the literary magazine sub-Terrain. In fall 2010 Stuart was Writer in Residence at Queen’s University in Kingston. For nearly 25 years, he’s led workshops in fiction, poetry, editing, and memoir across Canada.

Over and out.

YE.DF. reviewed in Winnipeg Free Press!

I've been a little antsy about whether my new poetry book, You Exist. Details Follow., is going to get reviewed. So I was happy to see it looked at as part of a group review in the May 26 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press. The reviewer is Jonathan Ball. I really like that he talked about my poem "Time."

You Exist. Details Follow (Anvil, 120 pages, $16), by Cobourg's Stuart Ross, is filled with fresh, stunning images: "a pale flower / that cares about bombs." Ross is always smart, strange and hilarious, while still conveying emotion. Laments that "I didn't know how to walk / in the valley of too many shoes" and observations that "They were in their world, / where nothing was weird" are both clever and affecting.

Other moments with less pathos still build strange characters: "A dog barked at me. / Who is in that dog? / Who is telling me something / from inside a badly sewn dog suit?"

The short poem Time best blends Ross's interests in junk culture and existential questions, allowing him to reflect on matters as weighty as "time" through considering some generic, campy, sci-fi time-travel flick. "A brave crew? Strange place? / Prehistoric gals? Sue me. / Tell me where all past years are. / It's about dinosaurs vs. astronauts. / It's about their fate."

Will there be other reviews? Will my book get clobbered?

Over and out. 

A launch and a Poetry Boot Camp in Vancouver

Heading out west this week to launch my new poetry book, You Exist. Details Follow., in Vancouver, Victoria, and the Kootenays. First stop is Vancouver, where I'll launch with Susan Steudel, whose debut poetry book, New Theatre, came out recently from Coach House Books. We'll be joined by a good friend, Laura Farina, whose wonderful first collection, This Woman Alphabetical, came out from Pedlar five or six years ago. About time Laura had another book!

So, that's Sunday April 29, 7 pm, at Café Montmartre!

The day before, I'm running my Poetry Boot Camp, the second time I've ever held one in Vancouver. Here are the details:

STUART ROSS'S POETRY BOOT CAMP

Saturday, April 28, 10am-4:30 pm (w/ 30-minute lunch break) 

Kerrisdale

$75

Prepayment guarantees your spot. To register, write Stuart at razovsky@gmail.com.

A relaxed but intensive one-day workshop for beginning poets, experienced poets, stalled poets, and haikuists who want to get beyond three lines. Poetry Boot Camp focuses on the pleasures of poetry and the riches that spontaneity brings, through lively directed writing strategies and relevant readings from the works of poets from Canada and abroad. We'll also touch on revision and collaboration. You will write in ways you'd never imagined. Arrive with an open mind, and leave with a heap of new poems!

After Vancouver, I'll be heading through the Kootenays for a few weeks before ending my trip in Victoria. Details on the Victoria launch coming soon!


Over and out.

bpNichol Chapbook Award

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS 2012 BPNICHOL CHAPBOOK AWARD 

A $2,000 prize will be awarded for the poetry chapbook judged to be the best submitted. Interested authors or publishers should submit three copies of a chapbook of poetry in English published in Canada in 2011. Chapbooks should be no less than 10 pages and no more than 48 pages. Submissions should include a brief C.V. of the author, plus address, telephone number, and email address. 

Send to: Meet the Presses / bpNichol Chapbook Award, PO Box 26, Station P, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2S6 The closing date for submissions to the 2012 competition is May 31, 2012. Please email Meet The Presses for more information: meetthepresses@gmail.com. 

ANNOUNCING A NEW ADMINISTRATIVE BODY FOR THE BPNICHOL CHAPBOOK AWARD 

In the spirit of the original Phoenix Chapbook Award, which was adjudicated for its first two years by Frank Davey and bpNichol, and continued as the bpNichol Chapbook Award for 23 years by Phoenix Community Works Foundation, the award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry published in chapbook form. With the demise of Phoenix Community Works Foundation, the Meet the Presses collective is pleased to assume management of the award. 

Meet the Presses is a Toronto-based collective devoted to promoting micro, small and independent literary presses. This collective has come together in the spirit of the original Meet the Presses event begun in Toronto in the mid-1980s by Nicholas Power and Stuart Ross. Members of Meet the Presses have organized a variety of curated public events, and all the events focus on independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. 

Meet the Presses – an unfunded and non-profit collective – consists of members Gary Barwin, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Paul Dutton, Maria Erskine, Ally Fleming, Beth Follett, Leigh Nash, Nicholas Power, and Stuart Ross. Chapbooks written by members of the Meet the Presses collective are ineligible for the award. Authors of chapbooks published by members of the collective remain eligible for the award.

THE BPNICHOL CHAPBOOK AWARD 2011 WINNER 

Claudia Coutu Radmore for Accidentals (Apt. 9 Press) 

HONOURABLE MENTIONS 2011 

Kevin McPherson Eckhoff, Game Show Reversed (BookThug) 

Toronto Poetry Vendors, Vol 2, No 1 (authors: Laurie D Graham, Sachiko Murakami, Aisha Sasha John, Linda Besner, Mathew Henderson, Nathaniel G Moore, Adam Seelig, Moez Surani, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Matthew Tierney) 

Special mention for excellence in production: JackPine Press 

The judges for this year’s competition were Maggie Helwig and Bill Kennedy.

I'm sure glad to be a part of all this!

Over and out.

Two workshops in June in Toronto!

Very happy to be presenting two workshops in June — both of 'em tried and true, though I'm always honing and retooling.

STUART ROSS'S POETRY BOOT CAMP

Saturday, June 2, 10am-5 pm (w/ 45-minute lunch break)
Christie/Dupont area
$90 includes materials and light snacks

Prepayment guarantees your spot.
To register, write Stuart at
razovsky@gmail.com.

A relaxed but intensive one-day workshop for beginning poets, experienced poets, stalled poets, and haikuists who want to get beyond three lines. Poetry Boot Camp focuses on the pleasures of poetry and the riches that spontaneity brings, through lively directed writing strategies and relevant readings from the works of poets from Canada and abroad. We'll also touch on revision and collaboration. You will write in ways you'd never imagined. Arrive with an open mind, and leave with a heap of new poems!


PLOTLESS FICTION

Sunday, June 3, 10 am - 5 pm
Christie/Dupont area
Fee: $90 includes materials and light snacks.

Prepayment guarantees your spot.
To register, write Stuart at razovsky@gmail.com.

Fictioneer and writing teacher Stuart Ross offers a relaxed, supportive workshop for writers at all levels. Plotless Fiction explores the possibilities of fiction beyond the constraints of narrative and the artificiality of plot. In this hands-on session, you will be introduced to writers from around the globe who push against the definitions of the story, and you will produce a half-dozen or so of your own short works, using a variety of enjoyable, challenging writing strategies.


MY BIO: I am the author of seven full-length poetry collections, most recently You Exist. Details Follow., but also including the acclaimed I Cut My Finger (Anvil Press), which went into a second printing, and Hey, Crumbling Balcony! Poems New & Selected (ECW Press). My second story collection, Buying Cigarettes for the Dog, earned positive reviews across the country, went into a second printing after only two months, and won the ReLit Prize for Short Fiction. My plotless novel Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew also won great critical acclaim. I'm Editor for Mansfield Press, where I have my own imprint, and Fiction & Poetry Editor for This Magazine. I also write a regular column — "Hunkamooga" — for the literary magazine sub-Terrain. In fall 2010 I was Writer in Residence at Queen's University in Kingston. For nearly 25 years, I've led writing workshops and I've brought my popular Poetry Boot Camp to venues across Canada.

Over and out.

The sublime joy of the Paris launch

Yesterday, we kicked off the Mansfield-and-Stuart Ontario launch tour at Green Heron Books, in Paris, Ontario, the home of poet and small-press legend Nelson Ball. I was expecting a tiny crowd and a warm little event, but the store was packed and tons of books sold.



Amazingly affable bookseller Roy Skuce hosted the afternoon event, and I kicked things off with a brief reading from You Exist. Details Follow., my new poetry book from Anvil Press. Among the three poems I read was "Late," a longer piece that hinges on a couple of appearances by Nelson Ball.

Then, as the Mansfield Press portion of the afternoon started, Roy introduced Denis De Klerck, who waved from the audience, relieved, I think, that he didn't have to get up and speak. First up for Mansfield was Jaime Forsythe, reading from her debut collection, Sympathy Loophole. She was gentle and funny and wise, reading several of my favourite poems in that book. Well, I'd be hard-pressed to identify any poem in there that isn't a favourite. As happened when each of the Mansfield poets read, I was hearing the works as if for the first time, even though I had edited all the books and read each of those poems at least half a dozen times.



David W. McFadden took the podium next, holding his copy of What's the Score?, and he is the consummate pro. He did something pretty brave, which was to read one long poem. I mean, you do that and there's no turning back! The poem was the first the book's 99, "Stimulation Galore," which takes place in Italy. The poem is a pretty astonishing journey, packed with more surprises than you get in your average entire book of good poetry. I started learning from Dave's work when I was a teenager, and I continue to learn.



Alice Burdick, who, like Jaime, came in for this week's launches all the way from Nova Scotia, read next, from her third full collection, Holler. I love Alice's challenging work on the page, but she's one of those poets, like John Ashbery, who seems to show you a really beautiful way through her work as she reads. She ended off with the book's last poem, "Body House," and when she read the title aloud, she laughed: she hadn't ever noticed the pun.



The Mansfield readings finished off with a selection of poems from In This Thin Rain, by Nelson Ball, read by Nelson's friend, the poet and Laurel Reed publisher Kemeny Babineau. Nelson doesn't do readings, but he sat way back from the podium and smiled with pure pleasure as Kemeny read his poems, interlacing them with brief excerpts from Jorge Carrera Andrade's essay from Micrograms, a book recently published by Wave.



The readings finished, Roy and his partner, Ann, brought out coffee, bottled water and Girl Guide cookies, and the animated post-reading conversations went on for another hour.

This event was a dream for me. There was a certain beauty in kicking off our tour in this tiny town of fewer than 12,000. And the town that Nelson Ball, another of my literary heroes, has called home for at least a couple decades now.

Looking forward to tonight's launch at the Monarch Tavern in Toronto, population 2.6 million; tomorrow's at the Grad Club in Kingston, population 160,000; and Wednesday's at Raw Sugar in Ottawa, population 883,000.



Denis De Klerck dreams a launch in Paris. From left: Stuart Ross, Alice Burdick, Jaime Forsythe, Denis De Klerck, Nelson Ball, David W. McFadden, Roy Skuce.

Over and out.

Workshop & reading at the Prince Edward County Authors' Festival!

I'm thrilled to be part of the Prince Edward County Authors Festival, with both a Poetry Boot Camp tomorrow (Friday) and a reading on Saturday.

The Boot camp is filling up, but there are still a few spaces left. On Saturday I'm reading with poet/novelist Alison Pick and my slightly less than arch-nemesis Hal Niedzviecki.

Here are the details:

FRIDAY APRIL 13
Poetry Boot Camp with Stuart Ross
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. At Wellington Public Library, 261 Main Street, Wellington. This workshop is limited to twelve attendees. Pre-registration is required. A relaxed but lively workshop for beginning poets, experienced poets, stalled poets, and haikuists who want to get beyond three lines. Poetry Boot Camp focuses on the pleasures of writing poetry and the riches that spontaneity brings, through some unusual and exciting writing strategies. We'll also touch on revision and collaboration. You will write in ways you've never imagined. Arrive with an open mind, and leave with a heap of new poems! - $40.

SATURDAY APRIL 14TH
1:30pm Fiction/Poetry Readings with Hal Niedzviecki, Stuart Ross and Alison Pick

Upstairs at Books & Company, 289 Main Street, Picton. This space is now fully accessible by elevator. Saturday sessions are $8 each, or $20 for an all-day pass

Please contact Books & Company to register for the Friday afternoon workshops or buy tickets for the Friday evening Mix & Mingle Cocktail Hour, the all-day Saturday pass and individual Saturday sessions. For further information: 613.476.3037 or info@pictonbookstore.com

In other news, the Toronto launch of You Exist. Details Follow. was a great success last week. Evan Munday put together a great party, Dani Couture was a warm and wonderful host, the folks from Type were consummate booksellers, and I was so happy to read with writers as great as Walid Bitar, Patrick Friesen, and Susan Steudel. The 30 copies of my book quickly sold out at the book table, and I sold another 9 contraband copies from my own batch of 10.

Over and out.