Stuart Ross's Blog, page 21
April 3, 2012
You Exist. Details Follow. launches in Toronto on Thursday!

My new poetry book, my seventh full-length collection, and perhaps my craziest book, You Exist. Details Follow. launches on Thursday (April 5) in Toronto. The poster says 7, but it starts at 7:30.
I'm reading/launching along with Patrick Friesen, who also has a new book out from Anvil Press, and Susan Steudel and Walid Bitar, who have new books from Coach House. Hosting the evening will be the definitive Dani Couture.
My publisher, Anvil Press, let me know that the books arrived at their office yesterday. It's a really weird feeling know that the books are out there — they exist! — and I still haven't seen them. I should be getting my 10 author's copies and the 100 additional copies I'm buying (for starters) soon.
Last weekend held a nice trip to Hamilton for the GritLit festival. I've been to Hamilton a million times, but I've never stayed downtown before, or spent much time there. Some amazing things happening along James Street: all sorts of great arty things. The festival seemed very well organized and very friendly. I was scheduled into the very last event, on Sunday evening at a café called Homegrown Hamilton. Six of us were reading, and I wound up getting the last spot. Throughout the evening I neurotically revised what I'd read up there — chapters from Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew — knowing that whatever I left them with would be the last note of the festival. So the very depressing ending I was toying with gave way to something a bit more ambiguous. And I also read a chapter I'd never read aloud before: The Many Uses of a Yahrzeit Candle. The reading went over really well.
Nice to see a bunch of friendly writers at the festival too: Glenn Downie, Gary Barwin, Amanda Jernigan, Stephanie Bolster, Will Ferguson, Susan Shaw, and plenty more.
Next festival: Prince Edward County at the end of next week.
Meanwhile, will my copies of You Exist. Details Follow. arrive here at home, or will I see it for the first time at Thursday's launch?
Over and out.
Published on April 03, 2012 10:33
March 30, 2012
Sheesh, I'm busy. Details follow.
OK, I've just done an inventory of what I've got coming up. Busy times ahead in Hamilton, Toronto, Wellington, Picton, Cobourg, Ottawa, Kingston, Vancouver. And Victoria and the Kootenays are yet to be scheduled.
This Sunday in Hamilton I'll be reading from Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew as part of the GritLit festival gala. A few days later, if all goes according to plan, You Exist. Details Follow. will be ready from the printer and I'll launch it all over the place, starting on April 5 in Toronto.
Very excited, too, about the four new Mansfield Press books, all part of the "a stuart ross book" imprint, that we'll be launching this spring, starting off in Nelson Ball's turf, Paris, Ontario, on April 15. In addition to Nelson's new book, there'll be new titles by David W. McFadden, Alice Burdick and Jaime Forsythe.
Over and out.
This Sunday in Hamilton I'll be reading from Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew as part of the GritLit festival gala. A few days later, if all goes according to plan, You Exist. Details Follow. will be ready from the printer and I'll launch it all over the place, starting on April 5 in Toronto.
Very excited, too, about the four new Mansfield Press books, all part of the "a stuart ross book" imprint, that we'll be launching this spring, starting off in Nelson Ball's turf, Paris, Ontario, on April 15. In addition to Nelson's new book, there'll be new titles by David W. McFadden, Alice Burdick and Jaime Forsythe.
GritLit: Hamilton's Literary Festival — Sunday, April 1, 7:30 pm. Stuart reads with Barry Dempster, Susan Evans Shaw, Amanda Jernigan, Trevor Shaw. Homegrown Hamilton, 27 King William St, Hamilton. Free.
Anvil/Coach House Toronto Launch — Thursday, April 5, 7:30 pm. Stuart launches You Exist. Details Follow. along with launches by Walid Bitar, Patrick Friesen, Susan Steudel, hosted by Dani Couture. The Magpie, 831 Dundas Street West, Toronto. Free.
Prince Edward County Authors Festival Poetry Boot Camp — Friday, April 13, 1-4 pm. Stuart leads an intensive 3-hour Poetry Boot Camp. $40. Wellington Public Library, 261 Main Street, Wellington, Ontario. http://www.pecauthorfest.com/
Prince Edward County Authors Festival — Saturday, April 14, 1:30 pm. Stuart reads along with Alison Pick and Hal Niedzviecki. $8. Books and Company, 289 Main Street, Picton, Ontario.
Paris Spring Poetry Launch: Mansfield Press & Stuart Ross — Sunday, April 15, 2 pm. Stuart launches You Exist. Details Follow. along with Mansfield Press poets Nelson Ball, Alice Burdick, Jaime Forsythe, David W. McFadden. Green Heron Books, 31 Grand River Street North, Paris, Ontario. Free.
Mansfield Press Toronto Spring Launch Party — Monday, April 16, 7:30 pm. Stuart hosts the launch of new Mansfield Press books by Nelson Ball, Alice Burdick, Jaime Forsythe, David W. McFadden. The Monarch Tavern, 12 Clinton St, Toronto. Free.
Kingston Spring Poetry Launch: Mansfield Press & Stuart Ross — Tuesday, April 17, 7:30 pm. Stuart launches You Exist. Details Follow. along with Mansfield Press poets Nelson Ball, Alice Burdick, Jaime Forsythe, David W. McFadden. The Grad Club, 162 Barrie St, Kingston. Free.
Ottawa Spring Poetry Launch: Mansfield Press & Stuart Ross — Wednesday, April 18, 7:30 pm. Stuart launches You Exist. Details Follow. along with Mansfield Press poets Nelson Ball, Alice Burdick, Jaime Forsythe, David W. McFadden. Raw Sugar Café, 692 Somerset St W, Ottawa. Free.
Cobourg Launch for YEDF — Tuesday, April 24, 7 pm. Stuart launches You Exist. Details Follow. Free. The Human Bean, 80 King St W, Cobourg, Ontario.
Anvil Press Vancouver Poetry Launch — Sunday, April 29, 7:30 pm. Stuart launches You Exist. Details Follow. along with other poets TBA. Café Montmartre, 4362 Main, Vancouver. Free.
Over and out.
Published on March 30, 2012 08:07
March 14, 2012
A prickly (on my part) chat with Bruce Kauffman about open mics and other stuff

Over the fall of 2010, I had the privilege of acting as writer-in-residence for the English department at Queen's University, In Kingston. Those few months in Kingston were pretty exciting — among the best periods of my life. I found a very welcoming community, got to know a lot of great people, helped to create some community, put on a heap of readings, ran some workshops, taught some classes, met with dozens of writers from the campus and community, drank a lot of beer at The Mansion, and attended some local events.
One of the regular events I got to was an open mic at the Artel, a kind of artist-run, communal art space just off Princess Street, Kingston's main drag. The open mic at the Artel, which happens on the first Tuesday of every month, is the creation of Bruce Kauffman, who is as swell a guy as you can find anywhere. He also hosts a poetry show on Queen's campus radio station CFRC. Bruce and I had several java meetings over the course of my stay in Kingston, and he came out to just about every reading I organized. So we saw a lot of each other.
But me, I have very little patience for open mics. Sometimes I want to run from the room screaming. How does one create a supportive testing ground for new writers and at the same time also encourage quality work? This question, which has plagued me for years as I've squirmed through the "I just wrote this poem on my napkin tonight" readings at the Art Bar in Toronto and elsewhere, is what sparked me to conduct my first-ever interview here on my blog.
So here, without further blah-blah, is my back-and-forth, via email, with my friend Bruce Kauffman. I'm hoping it'll be just the first in a series of interviews I'll do with people I don't agree with.
SR: You've provided some great energy in the Kingston literary scene the last couple of years, with your monthly open-mic series at the Artel, and with your weekly radio show on CFRC. You're supportive and enthusiastic, and you've channelled those qualities into creating community and into providing opportunities for local writers to give their work exposure. Perhaps we can start with you explaining how and when each of those projects evolved.
BK: thanks for the opportunity and the kind words, stuart — my pleasure — and honoured to be a part of your project
chronologically, the open mic poetry reading came first — so i'll start with that — a few years ago, my chapbook, seed, was published — and in the course of self promoting over the period of a couple of years or so, i moved next door to the artel (an artist collective) and thought that would be a perfect place for one of my readings, and then wanted to make it bigger than just me, so i included a 45-minute open mic ahead my own reading there in march of 2009 — the open mic was exciting that night and many came away pretty pumped and wanted to know when the next one was — so i canned the idea of me or anyone as a feature and launched the "poetry @ the artel" series in may of 2009 as strictly 3 hours of open mic, and on a regular monthly night — there are reasons why i created it other than the fact that there was a demand for it, but i'm guessing that might be another question ☺
as for the radio show, after hosting the open mic for about 9 months or so, i was looking for a way to add another level, or another dimension or something to it — i had indirectly been involved with CFRC in a very limited way over the course of a few years but knew several volunteers who worked there — so i was interested at the "listener" level and had indicated an interest in becoming a volunteer myself — long story short — i thought about the open mic series — i knew how important that series was to all of those who participated, and i thought of it as a way of taking their voices to a bigger audience and another level — if you think about it in those terms, the title of the show, finding a voice, can really be interpreted or read in a number of ways — after the initial idea was approved by CFRC staff and a successful demo and shadow done, the show was launched the first week of may 2010.
SR: Let's back up a bit now. What's the short-form version of your background? When did you begin writing poetry? What writers inspired you? And, finally, do you remember your own first public reading?
BK: i'm originally from colorado — and began writing poetry in my 1st year university there — and although i continued to write, i really didn't become passionate about it until about 1994 and i believe it was in 1994 that i attended my first readings — and it's somewhat of a chicken and an egg thing — not sure which came exactly first, but both the passion and the doing seemed to grow together — i religiously began to attend a weekly open mic/featured poet reading series for 2 or 3 years, then was asked to co-host and then host the series for about 2 or so years, basically until i moved to ontario in 1999 — and now, i host both the monthly open mic poetry series and the weekly radio show here
publishing history — research editor for the poiesis poetry guide for colorado (1998), several collaborations/anthologies both here and in the states, a chapbook, seed, published (2006), streets, a stand-alone poem published (2009) and a book review (antigonish review — john pigeau's the nothing waltz — 2010)
most inspired by w.s. merwin — far and away my favourite poet — but other poetic favourites have been/are whitman, william stafford, czeslaw milosz and pablo neruda — and as well rumi and gibran — but other than gibran and whitman, most of these didn't come into my life until the '90s — and, really, it was very early in my teens, probably the single most author and event that made me "understand" that i was a poet was the book (and as well the movie) dr. zhivago by boris pasternak
i do remember my first public reading — at one of the weekly open mics mentioned earlier in this answer — so it would have been in the summer of 1994 — we each had 4-5 minutes and i was quite nervous
SR: Like you, I also did a lot of early readings at open mics, mostly at the Axeltree Coffeehouse readings in downtown Toronto. Unlike you, I find them pretty hard to take now (more on this later). You create a very warm and welcoming atmosphere at the Artel. What is your philosophy around open mics? What do you think they accomplish, for both those presenting their work and for the audience?
BK: most of my early readings, and my experience with open mics, were held in the daily grind coffeehouse in denver — and i guess my philosophy toward open mics might come a bit from those experiences — which i felt were also warm and welcoming
and i guess, simply, the first tenet is that an open mic must be a place where any poet can come and feel "safe" — a place that encourages compassion, a place that feels inviting and encouraging — a place where anyone can come and not feel intimidated
as for what open mics accomplish — i think there are as many answers as there are those who either attend or present — but i think it, in and of itself, inspires people — there is a bit of a kindred spirit there — i have seen it inspire people to pick up a pen after both short and long periods of neglect, to begin writing for the first time, to allow presenters to verbally share their words perhaps in a way that wouldn't be possible anywhere else, to get feedback, to pick up on a single idea or a seed that becomes something enormous and intense when they develop it into something else, and a fulfilled desire to touch others with a message presented in a deeply felt way —— as for the audience, i feel their sense of accomplishment comes when they are touched or moved by another person's words
but now i'm not guessing — personally, both either as a presenter or as an audience member, i go to poetry readings because in the doing i become more passionate about poetry in general and in my writing as well — and it was after my first reading that i truly came out of my shell — and kind of an aside here, to me, there really aren't very many things more beautiful than watching and hearing a poet read in front of a caring audience for the very first time
SR: OK, here's where I start to get lost with open mics. I do think it is important for people to be encouraged around their writing and made to feel safe in presenting it, but where does the quality of writing come in? What I see happen at open mics is that everyone gets wild applause. In fact, sometimes the most inexperienced writer gets the most applause. Is it possible that open mics reward bad writing much of the time?
BK: let's start this way — let's assume that there is importance to the quality of writing — especially in any eyes of the "editor," the self-editor, the publisher — couldn't the argument be as easily made that an open mic's reception and exposure actually create the space to allow the inexperienced writer to become "better"? — specifically, the environment allows and then encourages those inexperienced (and really any) writers to continue to write by "being around and hearing" other and diverse writers — put another way, the open mic space indirectly encourages more writing along with a possible exploration of depth, style, vision and voice
now let's come at it from a different direction — "good" and "bad" — and let's deal specifically with poetry — what is a good poem anyway? — is it something that resonates — most probably — but nothing ever, anywhere resonates with everyone all the time — so does that, then, make any/every poem a bad poem — and then if it's ok that it's a good poem as long as a number of people resonate with it — where do you draw the line — what happens if only one other person resonates with it, or two — or ten in a group of eleven — or one hundred in 60 million — the concepts of good and bad are obviously subjective in everything, but i feel definitely more so in art — i've long taken more of a taoist view when it comes to these terms in poetry
for me — at an open mic and in each poem, i try to hear three things that really have nothing to do with quality — they are seed, voice and heart — what "thing," in its own time, that touched the poet enough to pick up the pen at all, the sound it was heard in and the place within that wishes to share the words and the message
SR: Greeting cards and Harlequin romance novels resonate with tons of people too, but I don't think they're good literature. In response to your first point, though: if the aim is to encourage inexperienced writers to improve, wouldn't they do better reading some really good books of poems? As I said before, I think the consistently warm applause at an open mic encourages bad poetry.
But I'm getting the sense that you're not trying to create something that produces fine writing: you're more concerned with providing a safe forum for people to express themselves.
Do you think, though, that there is such a thing as a good poem and such a thing as a bad poem? I mean, aesthetic taste aside? Are you suggesting that quality is entirely subjective?
BK: i still feel that with anything written — it is ultimately about resonance —
to start and simply for argument's sake — the fact that i, or you or someone else, might "think" that greeting cards and harlequin romances are not "good" literature is really quite irrelevant — moreover, the fact that we "think" — in itself, implies subjectivity — and if greeting cards or romance novels touch someone, move someone, encourage someone to read and to find joy in reading something, anything — i feel that is important — and looking at "good" from a different perspective — isn't that, in this way, "good" literature? and for them — we do not know where that goes, or what it leads to next
sure, the mission of the poetry series is to create an open, friendly and accepting space — and nothing else — it has never concerned itself with attempting to impress, but has felt that presence at times — i believe that "good" and "bad" as mentioned in the previous answer — are really just a simplification of what's in front of us — not just in poetry, but in all things — so i can't really go there — but, to try to explain these good/bad concepts i don't really believe in — this — does applause really encourage bad writing? to me that focus is too narrow — applause "can" do so many things in a broader sense — encourage confidence in the novice and the unsure, encourage commitment in the humble or the pragmatic, encourage capacity and growth in the sure and the involved — and that may lead nowhere, or down any number of almost infinite paths that i cannot, but someone may, predict and then deem as either good or bad
i shy away from the advocacy that there is an objective way to measure a poem — the "logic" behind that advocacy comes from the concept that 2+2=4 —— but 3+1=4, 1+3=4, 47.27-43.27 also equals 4 — and what is 2 or 4, 2 apples does not equal 2 children crying — does not equal 2 suicide notes — does not equal 2 dead babies left in a dumpster … and even taking mathematics (perhaps the only objective thing i know — and even that is questionable) just a tiny step outside itself — it, too and immediately, becomes obviously subjective — so, by default, all other things, including quality, must be subjective as well
SR: I don't think you're going to agree with my suggestion to lock open-mikers up in spartan rooms where they are forced to listen to recordings of Mark Strand and Alice Notley for days on end. (I believe this is called "poetry-boarding" — it may not be legal.) So let's move on!
Tell me about your anthology project with Hidden Brook Press. Do you see it as a new avenue, or something that organically has grown from the Artel event and the radio show?
BK: That Not Forgotten is the title of the upcoming poetry/short prose anthology with Hidden Brook Press and is set to launch late summer/early fall 2012. The call for submissions went out on May 1 and ran until October 31, 2011. The call was selective, only geographically — and even loosely at that. The only requirement was that the poet/author needed to have some connection, at some point in their life, to the north shore of Lake Ontario, in an area roughly from Kingston to Port Hope and north to the #7 Highway. The mission of the call, and now the book, is to paint "with an eclectic brush, reflections of, reaction to, hope within — pieces of ourselves found, pieces of ourselves lost here in this place."
There is both a wealth of talent and a generosity of heart here. There were over 100 poets or authors who contributed well over 300 individual pieces. As editor of the anthology, I am hoping to complete the second and final read/edit of the submissions by mid-December at the latest. Following that, a determination of sequencing, order, possibly grouping and that type of thing — and then after that I turn it all over to Tai Groves, the publisher, and let him do his thing. We do currently have another call for submissions out, until January 31, 2012, for cover artwork for this anthology and are already getting a few submissions. The book, in the end, will be published by Hidden Brook Press/North Shore Series, again, set to launch late summer/early fall.
Stuart, I can say that I have fallen in love with editing as much as I already had with writing and, yes, would love to pursue more of it. And i really believe all things are in process and equally interconnected, and i see perhaps editing and working on other projects as a growth both from and around the open mic poetry @ the artel reading series and finding a voice on CFRC — and that a growth from my desire to promote, encourage and help nourish local talent — and that as well a growth from my love for the written and spoken word — and all of it flowing from the support of and the wonderful talent of others, and the genuine compassion found here in this city.
SR: Bruce, I really appreciate your time and patience with this interview. Clearly, you're a good guy and I'm a meanie. But that's just how it is.
Over and out.
Published on March 14, 2012 14:40
March 12, 2012
You Exist. Details Follow. — coming next month!
My seventh full-length collection of poetry is heading to the printer later today, after a bunch of rounds of edits and proofreads. I have never before tinkered so much with a collection after it hit page proofs. Somehow, though, there were some thing that seemed visible only after the poems were typeset and laid out.
You Exist. Details Follow. is being published by Brian Kaufman's Vancouver-based Anvil Press. It's my third book with Anvil. And it is, perhaps, my most eclectic, and maybe challenging, poetry collection. It's a deliberate grab bag of the "normal" and the "weird," and with no apologies. I'm expecting some brutal reviews, if it does get reviewed. But it's the book I needed to put out there now, given what I've been up to in my poetry practice over the past few years, and given the poets I've been reading.
It's packed with centos, cut-ups, list poems, quasi-sonnets, cubist poems, New Year's poems, a couple of new Razovsky poems, and some very conventional autobiographical free-verse poems. It kicks off with the title poem, for which I fused together seven poems written using the River of Words process, while listening to John Ashbery's poem "A Wave" in my Poetry Boot Camps. The book's patchwork structure emulates some of my favourite poetry books: Ron Padgett's Tulsa Kid, Charles North's The Nearness of the Way You Look Tonight, Ted Berrigan's In the Early Morning Rain. These books are roller-coasters where you never know what's going to happen — content-wise or form-wise — from one poem to the next. In a sense, that makes them not as reader-friendly as, say, a book by Mark Strand or Sharon Olds or James Tate or Charles Simic, a bunch of other poets I admire but whose books are cohesive and perhaps predictable.
Here's the cover for You Exist. Details Follow. It's by an old friend of mine, the renowned artist Gary Clement, who also did covers for my collection I Cut My Finger and my anthology (with Stephen Brockwell) Rogue Stimulus: A Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament.
The epigraphs kicking off this collection are by the American poet Paul Guest and the late Canadian fiction writer, and very dear friend and mentor, John Lavery.
The book should be printed in a few weeks. It launches in Toronto at the Magpie Tavern on April 5 and in Vancouver at Café Montmartre on April 29. There will also be launches in Ottawa and Kingston, as well as in the Kootenays.
Over and out.
You Exist. Details Follow. is being published by Brian Kaufman's Vancouver-based Anvil Press. It's my third book with Anvil. And it is, perhaps, my most eclectic, and maybe challenging, poetry collection. It's a deliberate grab bag of the "normal" and the "weird," and with no apologies. I'm expecting some brutal reviews, if it does get reviewed. But it's the book I needed to put out there now, given what I've been up to in my poetry practice over the past few years, and given the poets I've been reading.
It's packed with centos, cut-ups, list poems, quasi-sonnets, cubist poems, New Year's poems, a couple of new Razovsky poems, and some very conventional autobiographical free-verse poems. It kicks off with the title poem, for which I fused together seven poems written using the River of Words process, while listening to John Ashbery's poem "A Wave" in my Poetry Boot Camps. The book's patchwork structure emulates some of my favourite poetry books: Ron Padgett's Tulsa Kid, Charles North's The Nearness of the Way You Look Tonight, Ted Berrigan's In the Early Morning Rain. These books are roller-coasters where you never know what's going to happen — content-wise or form-wise — from one poem to the next. In a sense, that makes them not as reader-friendly as, say, a book by Mark Strand or Sharon Olds or James Tate or Charles Simic, a bunch of other poets I admire but whose books are cohesive and perhaps predictable.
Here's the cover for You Exist. Details Follow. It's by an old friend of mine, the renowned artist Gary Clement, who also did covers for my collection I Cut My Finger and my anthology (with Stephen Brockwell) Rogue Stimulus: A Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament.

The epigraphs kicking off this collection are by the American poet Paul Guest and the late Canadian fiction writer, and very dear friend and mentor, John Lavery.
The book should be printed in a few weeks. It launches in Toronto at the Magpie Tavern on April 5 and in Vancouver at Café Montmartre on April 29. There will also be launches in Ottawa and Kingston, as well as in the Kootenays.
Over and out.
Published on March 12, 2012 05:50
March 9, 2012
First Poetry Boot Camp of 2012! In Toronto!
The last few months have been insanely busy on the poetry front. First, I've been editing the entire spring 2012 poetry list for Mansfield Press — books by Nelson Ball, Alice Burdick, Jaime Forsythe, and David W. McFadden. On top of that, I've been working intensively on my own new poetry book, my seventh full-length collection, You Exist. Details Follow., coming out next month from Anvil Press.
You Exist. Details Follow. is, I think, a real departure for me. About half of it is comprised of these kinda intuitive, Cubist, splatter poems, not unlike the pieces that made up the third section of Dead Cars in Managua; the other half are very straightforward narratives, albeit with a surrealist sort of bent.
And I probably wrote about half the poems — some from each aesthetic camp — in my own workshops over the past few years.
Which brings me to this: On March 24, I'm running my first Poetry Boot Camp of 2012, in Toronto. Information right here:
Over and out.
You Exist. Details Follow. is, I think, a real departure for me. About half of it is comprised of these kinda intuitive, Cubist, splatter poems, not unlike the pieces that made up the third section of Dead Cars in Managua; the other half are very straightforward narratives, albeit with a surrealist sort of bent.
And I probably wrote about half the poems — some from each aesthetic camp — in my own workshops over the past few years.
Which brings me to this: On March 24, I'm running my first Poetry Boot Camp of 2012, in Toronto. Information right here:
STUART ROSS'S POETRY BOOT CAMP
Saturday, March 24, 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
hunkamooga@sympatico.ca.
BOOT CAMP DESCRIPTION
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!
COMMENTS ON MY PREVIOUS BOOT CAMPS:
– "I really enjoyed myself and felt like I got a lot done. I thank you
very much for the stimulation & the relaxed atmosphere."
– "Yay! Excited to go back to trying to write poems. I have so many
new things to try now. Thanks!"
– "I liked being exposed to the familiar in a new, fresh, creative way."
– "I most enjoyed the relaxed pace and the self-directed nature of the work."
– "The Boot Camp pushed me beyond my comfort zone in precisely the way
that I hoped it would."
– "My favourite part was the variety of non-threatening strategies for
writing."
– "Really informative, really helpful workshop. Great energy!"
– "Excellent overall. I got a lot of out of it. Money very well spent!
I'd recommend it to others."
– "Very well-run, well-thought-out workshop! Thanks!"
Over and out.
Published on March 09, 2012 01:43
February 10, 2012
A bunch of upcoming things. Here. Read 'em if you want. Here. Really.
OK, I swear I'm going to get back to blogging. It's important that I blog. If not to you, then to me.
A little round-up to kick things off:
FEBRUARY 11: WYCHWOOD BARNS FARMER'S MARKET: 100-MILE LITERARY DIET
I'll be joining Denis De Klerck, publisher of Mansfield Press, as we sit behind a table of Mansfield books and my own books, from about 8 am till 1 pm, at Wychwood Barns (on Wychwood Avenue, just a couple blocks south of St. Clair West). Drop by and say hello, and have a look at some excellent poetry, fiction, and non-fiction! I'll have copies of my recent chapbook, Cobourg Variations, plus a bunch of other stuff, and over on the Mansfield part of the table you'll find new books by Lillian Necakov, Carey Toane, Rishma Dunlop, George Bowering, and lots more!
FEBRUARY 12: DRAFT READING SERIES
The next day, I'll be doing my first public Toronto reading in ages at the Draft Reading Series, at 3 pm at The Only Café, 966 Danforth (at Donlands). I'll be reading some new fiction, as well as a sneak preview of my forthcoming poetry book. Also on the bill: Ann Elizabeth Carson, Kathryn Mockler, Mark Sampson, and Noreen Shanahan. Admission is by donation, plus you get a free copy of the new issue of the print version of Draft. Hope to see you there!
SOMETIME IN MARCH: POETRY BOOT CAMP
I'm bringing back the ever-popular Poetry Boot Camp, with a few old favourites and a bunch of new writing strategies, and it'll happen on a Saturday in March and it'll go from 10 am to 5 pm and it'll cost $85 and you'll write at least a dozen poems and it'll be painless. If you're interested in taking this workshop, please drop me a note at hunkamooga [at] sympatico [blip] ca. I should have the timing and location details firmed up next week.
AND THEN IN APRIL...
I'll be launching my new poetry book, You Exist. Details Follow., from Vancouver-based Anvil Press. I'll let you know where and when. I'll also be hosting the Mansfield Press launch that month, featuring four new poetry books under my "a stuart ross book" imprint: a debut collection by Jaime Forsythe, as well as a third collection by Alice Burdick, plus new books by beloved poetry vets Nelson Ball and David W. McFadden. Again, you'll be hearing more from me about that soon.
MEANWHILE, ON THE INTERNET...
You can read three new poems by me on the Maple Tree Literary Supplement site.
AND HERE'S SOMETHING THAT'S ONGOING...
One-on-one Writing Coaching: Do you have a poetry, fiction, or non-fiction manuscript you're trying to complete? Have you just begun writing? Have you been writing for ages but want give yourself new challenges and workouts? I offer one-on-one writing coaching, in person, over the phone, and via Skype. Single sessions, in which we look at 10 to 15 pages of your work, cost $75. If you pay in advance for five sessions, the cost is $300 (or $60 per session). Drop me a note if you have any questions?
Over and out.
A little round-up to kick things off:
FEBRUARY 11: WYCHWOOD BARNS FARMER'S MARKET: 100-MILE LITERARY DIET
I'll be joining Denis De Klerck, publisher of Mansfield Press, as we sit behind a table of Mansfield books and my own books, from about 8 am till 1 pm, at Wychwood Barns (on Wychwood Avenue, just a couple blocks south of St. Clair West). Drop by and say hello, and have a look at some excellent poetry, fiction, and non-fiction! I'll have copies of my recent chapbook, Cobourg Variations, plus a bunch of other stuff, and over on the Mansfield part of the table you'll find new books by Lillian Necakov, Carey Toane, Rishma Dunlop, George Bowering, and lots more!
FEBRUARY 12: DRAFT READING SERIES
The next day, I'll be doing my first public Toronto reading in ages at the Draft Reading Series, at 3 pm at The Only Café, 966 Danforth (at Donlands). I'll be reading some new fiction, as well as a sneak preview of my forthcoming poetry book. Also on the bill: Ann Elizabeth Carson, Kathryn Mockler, Mark Sampson, and Noreen Shanahan. Admission is by donation, plus you get a free copy of the new issue of the print version of Draft. Hope to see you there!
SOMETIME IN MARCH: POETRY BOOT CAMP
I'm bringing back the ever-popular Poetry Boot Camp, with a few old favourites and a bunch of new writing strategies, and it'll happen on a Saturday in March and it'll go from 10 am to 5 pm and it'll cost $85 and you'll write at least a dozen poems and it'll be painless. If you're interested in taking this workshop, please drop me a note at hunkamooga [at] sympatico [blip] ca. I should have the timing and location details firmed up next week.
AND THEN IN APRIL...
I'll be launching my new poetry book, You Exist. Details Follow., from Vancouver-based Anvil Press. I'll let you know where and when. I'll also be hosting the Mansfield Press launch that month, featuring four new poetry books under my "a stuart ross book" imprint: a debut collection by Jaime Forsythe, as well as a third collection by Alice Burdick, plus new books by beloved poetry vets Nelson Ball and David W. McFadden. Again, you'll be hearing more from me about that soon.
MEANWHILE, ON THE INTERNET...
You can read three new poems by me on the Maple Tree Literary Supplement site.
AND HERE'S SOMETHING THAT'S ONGOING...
One-on-one Writing Coaching: Do you have a poetry, fiction, or non-fiction manuscript you're trying to complete? Have you just begun writing? Have you been writing for ages but want give yourself new challenges and workouts? I offer one-on-one writing coaching, in person, over the phone, and via Skype. Single sessions, in which we look at 10 to 15 pages of your work, cost $75. If you pay in advance for five sessions, the cost is $300 (or $60 per session). Drop me a note if you have any questions?
Over and out.
Published on February 10, 2012 14:19
January 15, 2012
Donate to Sierra Club Canada in honour of Kathryn Marshall!
After I saw this video, in which "Ethical Oil" spokesperson Kathryn Marshall accused Sierra Club Canada of being a puppet organization, when Ethical Oil itself is clearly backed by conservatives and oilies of all stripes, I decided to make a donation to Sierra Club Canada.
The nice thing is you can make your donation in honour of someone. I made mine in honour of Kathryn Marshall. Her email address is kathryn@ethicaloil.org I did, and I let her know in the comment box how grateful I am that she has brought so much attention to the excellent work that Sierra Club Canada is doing!
Nice term, "Ethical Oil." Sort of like "Humane Torture" or "Gentle War."
Perhaps you'd like to make a donation in honour of Ms Marshall yourself!
Over and out.
Published on January 15, 2012 20:01
January 1, 2012
NEW YEAR POEM 2012
MUSIC OR REPAIR
When I wake I am already
halfway to the park,
dressed for the cold. The elms
are trembling, the roads empty.
Cars have been uninvented.
Three birds are assigned to me: two are silent
and one fills the air with noise.
Clouds swoop like dark kites.
Telephone wires quiver and twang.
In the park,
everyone I've never seen before
is milling around.
A tuba lies in the crispy grass.
I also see a toy sewing machine.
Opportunities are abundant, but I can't
decide which — music or repair.
As a result: tension.
(Tension is a good thing sometimes.
For example, you should stick it in art.)
I step carefully through
an expanse of discarded 1's,
and where park becomes beach
I watch flocks of 2's,
with their promise of grace,
glide across the frozen lake
toward me.
Stuart Ross
1 January 2012
When I wake I am already
halfway to the park,
dressed for the cold. The elms
are trembling, the roads empty.
Cars have been uninvented.
Three birds are assigned to me: two are silent
and one fills the air with noise.
Clouds swoop like dark kites.
Telephone wires quiver and twang.
In the park,
everyone I've never seen before
is milling around.
A tuba lies in the crispy grass.
I also see a toy sewing machine.
Opportunities are abundant, but I can't
decide which — music or repair.
As a result: tension.
(Tension is a good thing sometimes.
For example, you should stick it in art.)
I step carefully through
an expanse of discarded 1's,
and where park becomes beach
I watch flocks of 2's,
with their promise of grace,
glide across the frozen lake
toward me.
Stuart Ross
1 January 2012
Published on January 01, 2012 20:56
December 30, 2011
10 poetry books from 2011 that flipped me out and one that doesn't exist
I'm not going to claim that I read every damn poetry book that was released in 2011. There are a whole bunch I haven't even dug into yet that might've ended up in this list. There are a whole bunch I have read that just as easily could have been included. And, of course, I'm going to leave out books for which I had editorial responsibility — but you can check out the "a stuart ross book" titles for yourself here at Mansfield Press's snazzy new website.
What follows, then, are 10 perfect-bound books of poetry from 2011 that I'm sure glad were published. They're numbered, but in no particular order.
1. Full Higher, by Dean Young (Copper Canyon Press)
2. How Long, by Ron Padgett (Coffee House Press)
3. Match, by Helen Guri (Coach House Books)
4. Destroyer and Preserver, by Matthew Rohrer (Wave Books)
5. By Word of Mouth: Poems from the Spanish, 1916–1959, by William Carlos Williams (New Directions)
6. From the Observatory, by Julio Cortázar, translated by Anne McLean (Archipelago Books)
7. The Selected Poems of Ted Berrigan, edited by Alice Notley, Anselm Berrigan, and Edmund Berrigan (University of California Press)
8. You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake, by Anna Moschovakis (Coffee House Press)
9. Novel, by bill bissett (TalonBooks)
10. Tres, by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Laura Healy (New Directions)
And what's coming up for 2012? I'm not sure what other presses are publishing, but I'm putting four poetry titles through Mansfield this spring that are pretty dreamy. How did I ever get in the position to work with such authors? to help such books into the world? such books that I wish I'd written? (Thank you, Denis De Klerck.)
In This Thin Rain, by Nelson Ball
Holler, by Alice Burdick
Sympathy Loophole, by Jaime Forsythe
What's the Score?, by David W. McFadden
There's another book I'd like to draw your attention to, though:
Oh There You Are, by Larry Fagin (Adventures in Poetry, or perhaps Wave Books, or maybe Coffee House Press, or possibly a resurrected Full Court Press or Siamese Banana Press)
Truth is, this book doesn't exist. Larry Fagin hasn't released a trade collection of poetry since 1978's appropriately titled (as it turns out) I'll Be Seeing You: Poems 1962–1976. But, judging from the generous sampling of his prose poems that appeared in the first issue of The Sienese Shredder back in 2006-07, a new book by Fagin would be pretty damn exciting.
To paraphrase and expand upon Kenneth Patchen, if you say you're a poet, and you expect people to read your poems, you better get out there and buy new poetry books. Even if it means skipping a few precious beers, or even a meal. Because if you don't, then you are a self-absorbed goof. Better yet, buy those books from an independent bookstore. Even if it means paying a bit more. if you absolutely can't afford to buy poetry books, team up with some friends and buy them cooperatively.
Have a good 2012.
Over and out.
What follows, then, are 10 perfect-bound books of poetry from 2011 that I'm sure glad were published. They're numbered, but in no particular order.
1. Full Higher, by Dean Young (Copper Canyon Press)
2. How Long, by Ron Padgett (Coffee House Press)
3. Match, by Helen Guri (Coach House Books)
4. Destroyer and Preserver, by Matthew Rohrer (Wave Books)
5. By Word of Mouth: Poems from the Spanish, 1916–1959, by William Carlos Williams (New Directions)
6. From the Observatory, by Julio Cortázar, translated by Anne McLean (Archipelago Books)
7. The Selected Poems of Ted Berrigan, edited by Alice Notley, Anselm Berrigan, and Edmund Berrigan (University of California Press)
8. You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake, by Anna Moschovakis (Coffee House Press)
9. Novel, by bill bissett (TalonBooks)
10. Tres, by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Laura Healy (New Directions)
And what's coming up for 2012? I'm not sure what other presses are publishing, but I'm putting four poetry titles through Mansfield this spring that are pretty dreamy. How did I ever get in the position to work with such authors? to help such books into the world? such books that I wish I'd written? (Thank you, Denis De Klerck.)
In This Thin Rain, by Nelson Ball
Holler, by Alice Burdick
Sympathy Loophole, by Jaime Forsythe
What's the Score?, by David W. McFadden
There's another book I'd like to draw your attention to, though:
Oh There You Are, by Larry Fagin (Adventures in Poetry, or perhaps Wave Books, or maybe Coffee House Press, or possibly a resurrected Full Court Press or Siamese Banana Press)
Truth is, this book doesn't exist. Larry Fagin hasn't released a trade collection of poetry since 1978's appropriately titled (as it turns out) I'll Be Seeing You: Poems 1962–1976. But, judging from the generous sampling of his prose poems that appeared in the first issue of The Sienese Shredder back in 2006-07, a new book by Fagin would be pretty damn exciting.
To paraphrase and expand upon Kenneth Patchen, if you say you're a poet, and you expect people to read your poems, you better get out there and buy new poetry books. Even if it means skipping a few precious beers, or even a meal. Because if you don't, then you are a self-absorbed goof. Better yet, buy those books from an independent bookstore. Even if it means paying a bit more. if you absolutely can't afford to buy poetry books, team up with some friends and buy them cooperatively.
Have a good 2012.
Over and out.
Published on December 30, 2011 15:37
December 2, 2011
Vancouverama
[This entry is from December 2. I'm a lazy-ass, so just finished writing it now and posted it nearly a month late.]
At the airport in Vancouver, on my way home. Hadn't been here in a couple years, I think, and an invitation from the JCC's Vancouver Jewish Book Festival brought me back.
When I arrived on Monday, headed straight from the airport (on the snazzy new Canada Line rail service) to Mark Laba's place. Mark and I have known each other since we were about four years old. Mark's a literary whiz, and certainly a comedic genius. Why he has only one full-length book (the poetry collection Dummy Spit, from The Mercury Press) is beyond my understanding. So I continued my crusade, bugging the shit outta him to get a MS out there. He didn't seem perturbed. Mark spent about eight years writing an insane, surreal food column for The Vancouver Province. I think the editors finally read it a couple years ago, and then closed down the column, much to the dismay of probably thousands of fans of Mark's brilliant assault on restaurant reviewing.
George Bowering popped by Mark's place to pick up his copies of How I Wrote Certain of My Books, a wonderful addition to the "a stuart ross book" imprint that I put through Mansfield Press. It's George's 101st book. Or as his wife, Jean Baird, puts it, the first of his second hundred books. It was sort of an early birthday present for George, who turned 76 a few days later. George and I found a coffee place not far away and sat and talked about Audie Murphy and Stewart Granger for an hour. Well, cowboy movies in general.
The Festival generously put me up at the Rosedale on Robson, so this was probably my first-ever Vancouver visit where I stayed downtown. Spent several hours Monday wandering between grit and glitter. What a fascinating, weird city. It's also a city that has all sorts of personal resonances for me: the place I met the Pulp Press gang back around 1980: Tom Walmsley, Stephen Osborne, D. M. Fraser, Jon Furberg, and many others. I've also had a lot of writer friends land in Vancouver: Mark, of course, but also Clint Burnham, Brian Dedora (who finally came to his senses and moved back to Toronto this past year), Michael Boyce, and Laura Farina.
Tuesday I met up with Michael Boyce. We always have great conversations. Michael is the author of two novels from Pedlar Press: Monkey and Anderson. It's really pleasurable to have someone to discuss experimental fiction with — and someone who actually creates it. Michael and I met in Toronto in the early 1980s. I published his first work in a great little chapbook called Hit by a Rock. Brief prose pieces by Michael accompanied by line drawings by me. A Proper Tales Press product.
In the evening, I went to a weird Anvil Press launch: for Bob Robertson's Mayan Horror: How to Survive the End of the World in 2012. I hadn't heard of Robertson, who is apparently a CBC Radio personality. He was pretty darn funny. Headed out for some cheap-but-good sushi with Anvil's Brian Kaufman and Karen Green. We talked about publishing, digital books, Mark Laba, and my forthcoming poetry book, You Exist. Details Follow. The new Anvil catalogue has an early cover drawing for the book by Gary Clement, who did the cover for I Cut My Finger back in 2007. It's nice working with Anvil again.
Wednesday was a veritable festival of Clint Burnham, whose new scholarly work, The Only Poetry That Matters: Reading the Kootenay School of Writing, was launch a couple weeks back. Clint and I also share both ECW and Anvil as publishers of our poetry books. The usual great tour of East Hastings and some art galleries with Clint, Chinese lunch at New Town with Clint and his partner, Julie, and a look at the Stan Douglas photo installation over the doors of the new Woodward fancy-arts-centre-gentrification outlet. Oh, and we popped by ArtSpeak, where I scored a few more copies of A City, Some Rain, a beautiful "shared" publication by artist Toni Latour and me.
Headed to the JCC in the evening for my first festival event: a reading/panel with Norm Ravvin, Roberta Rich, and Alexi Zentner, moderated by yamulka-topped academic Alex Hart, who was excellent. We four writers were a pretty eclectic bunch, brought together with little in common except that we'd all just published novels. But that became the interesting challenge of the evening: drawings lines from one of us to another. I got a great response from the audience, with far more laughter (as usual) than I'd expected, and afterwards had a pretty steady stream of buyers of Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew (from which I'd read) looking for signatures.
Just before the reading, I was astonished to see three quasi-cousins of mine waiting in the lobby for the event: Elise, Sandi, and Nanci. It's a seriously rare occurrence to have a relative of mine at one of my readings, so I was pretty thrilled. I get the feeling that what I'm doing is so foreign to my cousins, etc., that they keep their distance. But these three came to the reading, bought my book, and really enjoyed themselves! After the event was over, Clint and I went to an amazing place on Main for some food and drinks.
Thursday morning, I did a reading/Q&A/talk for high school students from King David High, which is just about next door to the JCC. I read a few poems, a quick story, and a chapter or two from SDJ, and the kids were really attentive and had some great questions. This was my second time working with students from King David; hope I'll see them again!
Had a real nice lunch with my cousin Sandi. It's always good to feel like I have family. Because I do. Sandi's daughter is co-owner of the Broom Co. on Granville Island. You want brooms, that's the place to go. Tell her I sent you.
In the afternoon I met up with Laura Farina, great person and wonderful poet, whose 2005 collection from Pedlar Press, This Woman Alphabetical, is dying for a follow-up. And from what I've seen of Laura's new poems, it's gonna be great. After that I hoofed it to the lounge of the Hotel Vancouver to meet with the documentary filmmaker Catrina Longmuir. I met Catrina a couple years back in New Denver, when she and fellow documentarian Moira Simpson were working on Telling the Stories of the Nikkei, a film that ND teacher Terry Taylor, a local marvel, made finally happen.
An evening with Mark Laba at a sort of surreal cook-off event that closed the Jewish Book Festival rounded off the trip.
Pretty eager to get back to Vancouver to launch my forthcoming poetry collection from Anvil Press, You Exist. Details Follow.
Over and out.
At the airport in Vancouver, on my way home. Hadn't been here in a couple years, I think, and an invitation from the JCC's Vancouver Jewish Book Festival brought me back.
When I arrived on Monday, headed straight from the airport (on the snazzy new Canada Line rail service) to Mark Laba's place. Mark and I have known each other since we were about four years old. Mark's a literary whiz, and certainly a comedic genius. Why he has only one full-length book (the poetry collection Dummy Spit, from The Mercury Press) is beyond my understanding. So I continued my crusade, bugging the shit outta him to get a MS out there. He didn't seem perturbed. Mark spent about eight years writing an insane, surreal food column for The Vancouver Province. I think the editors finally read it a couple years ago, and then closed down the column, much to the dismay of probably thousands of fans of Mark's brilliant assault on restaurant reviewing.
George Bowering popped by Mark's place to pick up his copies of How I Wrote Certain of My Books, a wonderful addition to the "a stuart ross book" imprint that I put through Mansfield Press. It's George's 101st book. Or as his wife, Jean Baird, puts it, the first of his second hundred books. It was sort of an early birthday present for George, who turned 76 a few days later. George and I found a coffee place not far away and sat and talked about Audie Murphy and Stewart Granger for an hour. Well, cowboy movies in general.

The Festival generously put me up at the Rosedale on Robson, so this was probably my first-ever Vancouver visit where I stayed downtown. Spent several hours Monday wandering between grit and glitter. What a fascinating, weird city. It's also a city that has all sorts of personal resonances for me: the place I met the Pulp Press gang back around 1980: Tom Walmsley, Stephen Osborne, D. M. Fraser, Jon Furberg, and many others. I've also had a lot of writer friends land in Vancouver: Mark, of course, but also Clint Burnham, Brian Dedora (who finally came to his senses and moved back to Toronto this past year), Michael Boyce, and Laura Farina.
Tuesday I met up with Michael Boyce. We always have great conversations. Michael is the author of two novels from Pedlar Press: Monkey and Anderson. It's really pleasurable to have someone to discuss experimental fiction with — and someone who actually creates it. Michael and I met in Toronto in the early 1980s. I published his first work in a great little chapbook called Hit by a Rock. Brief prose pieces by Michael accompanied by line drawings by me. A Proper Tales Press product.
In the evening, I went to a weird Anvil Press launch: for Bob Robertson's Mayan Horror: How to Survive the End of the World in 2012. I hadn't heard of Robertson, who is apparently a CBC Radio personality. He was pretty darn funny. Headed out for some cheap-but-good sushi with Anvil's Brian Kaufman and Karen Green. We talked about publishing, digital books, Mark Laba, and my forthcoming poetry book, You Exist. Details Follow. The new Anvil catalogue has an early cover drawing for the book by Gary Clement, who did the cover for I Cut My Finger back in 2007. It's nice working with Anvil again.
Wednesday was a veritable festival of Clint Burnham, whose new scholarly work, The Only Poetry That Matters: Reading the Kootenay School of Writing, was launch a couple weeks back. Clint and I also share both ECW and Anvil as publishers of our poetry books. The usual great tour of East Hastings and some art galleries with Clint, Chinese lunch at New Town with Clint and his partner, Julie, and a look at the Stan Douglas photo installation over the doors of the new Woodward fancy-arts-centre-gentrification outlet. Oh, and we popped by ArtSpeak, where I scored a few more copies of A City, Some Rain, a beautiful "shared" publication by artist Toni Latour and me.

Headed to the JCC in the evening for my first festival event: a reading/panel with Norm Ravvin, Roberta Rich, and Alexi Zentner, moderated by yamulka-topped academic Alex Hart, who was excellent. We four writers were a pretty eclectic bunch, brought together with little in common except that we'd all just published novels. But that became the interesting challenge of the evening: drawings lines from one of us to another. I got a great response from the audience, with far more laughter (as usual) than I'd expected, and afterwards had a pretty steady stream of buyers of Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew (from which I'd read) looking for signatures.
Just before the reading, I was astonished to see three quasi-cousins of mine waiting in the lobby for the event: Elise, Sandi, and Nanci. It's a seriously rare occurrence to have a relative of mine at one of my readings, so I was pretty thrilled. I get the feeling that what I'm doing is so foreign to my cousins, etc., that they keep their distance. But these three came to the reading, bought my book, and really enjoyed themselves! After the event was over, Clint and I went to an amazing place on Main for some food and drinks.

Thursday morning, I did a reading/Q&A/talk for high school students from King David High, which is just about next door to the JCC. I read a few poems, a quick story, and a chapter or two from SDJ, and the kids were really attentive and had some great questions. This was my second time working with students from King David; hope I'll see them again!
Had a real nice lunch with my cousin Sandi. It's always good to feel like I have family. Because I do. Sandi's daughter is co-owner of the Broom Co. on Granville Island. You want brooms, that's the place to go. Tell her I sent you.
In the afternoon I met up with Laura Farina, great person and wonderful poet, whose 2005 collection from Pedlar Press, This Woman Alphabetical, is dying for a follow-up. And from what I've seen of Laura's new poems, it's gonna be great. After that I hoofed it to the lounge of the Hotel Vancouver to meet with the documentary filmmaker Catrina Longmuir. I met Catrina a couple years back in New Denver, when she and fellow documentarian Moira Simpson were working on Telling the Stories of the Nikkei, a film that ND teacher Terry Taylor, a local marvel, made finally happen.
An evening with Mark Laba at a sort of surreal cook-off event that closed the Jewish Book Festival rounded off the trip.
Pretty eager to get back to Vancouver to launch my forthcoming poetry collection from Anvil Press, You Exist. Details Follow.
Over and out.
Published on December 02, 2011 15:06