Stuart Ross's Blog, page 24
May 28, 2011
Jewish Toronto, John Lavery, and poem-mutation
Amy Lavender Harris is writer-in-residence at Open Book Toronto this month and she's written a very thoughtful and thought-provoking piece around my novel, Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew. I like this bit, where she explains the book's title:
She talks also about "Holocaust envy" and about other Jewish Toronto books. Always, I am grateful when people spend time thinking about my writing.
*
On Sunday I'm headed to Ottawa for a memorial tribute to John Lavery, who died earlier this month after, as they say, a long battle with cancer. It's still a strange feeling to wake up in the morning and remember that John is no longer in this world, though he's certainly in the thoughts of so many people. The tribute takes place from 4 to 6 pm at the Manx Pub on Elgin Street, and will be hosted by Ottawa poet David O'Meara. Many of John's colleagues will be there to read from his works, and say a few words about him.
*
On Saturday, I ran my first writing workshop in Cobourg. A half-dozen of us crammed into a tiny study room in the Cobourg Public Library for a new session I called Walking The Poem. It was a great and eclectic group, with three Cobourgers and two people who drove in from Kingston. I got a lot of writing done, and so did they, and along the way we tried out some really fascinating approaches to poem-mutation.
Over and out.
And this is the problem at the centre of Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew, whose title alludes to three pivotal circumstances that seem to define its protagonist's life. His mother, a young child growing up in pre-War Toronto, pelted with snowballs for being a Jew and eventually seeking vengeance; her son, trembling and terrified of a dragonfly that lands on his knee, his flight seeming to foreshadow a life of passivity and retreat; and the question of his own Jewishness, summed up in an essay written for school, in which Ben writes, "you really have to struggle to be Jewish so you really believe in it."
She talks also about "Holocaust envy" and about other Jewish Toronto books. Always, I am grateful when people spend time thinking about my writing.
*
On Sunday I'm headed to Ottawa for a memorial tribute to John Lavery, who died earlier this month after, as they say, a long battle with cancer. It's still a strange feeling to wake up in the morning and remember that John is no longer in this world, though he's certainly in the thoughts of so many people. The tribute takes place from 4 to 6 pm at the Manx Pub on Elgin Street, and will be hosted by Ottawa poet David O'Meara. Many of John's colleagues will be there to read from his works, and say a few words about him.
*
On Saturday, I ran my first writing workshop in Cobourg. A half-dozen of us crammed into a tiny study room in the Cobourg Public Library for a new session I called Walking The Poem. It was a great and eclectic group, with three Cobourgers and two people who drove in from Kingston. I got a lot of writing done, and so did they, and along the way we tried out some really fascinating approaches to poem-mutation.
Over and out.
May 25, 2011
The night of 1 million events
Headed into Toronto yesterday to meet with some friends and to catch some evening literary events.
It was a crazy night. Leigh Nash and Ken Sparling were reading in Lillian Necakov's great Boneshaker Reading Series at the St. Clair/Silverthorn Library; Elyse Friedman, Pasha Malla, Michael Winter and Julie Booker were reading short fiction at an Anansi event at Sneaky Dee's; Rachel Zolf was reading at the usually bland and open-mic-plagued Art Bar Reading Series at Clinton's; Paul Vermeersch was hosting the Insomniac Spring launch at Magpie, featuring old friend Stan Rogal, new friend Mike Spry, and a poet named Sam Cheuk; and Jay MillAr's BookThug was launching about three hundred new titles at The Supermarket in Kensington Market.
I had hoped to get to four of the events, and then whittled my aspirations down to three, and wound up making it to two.
Saw lots of great people and one fuckin' dink.
Here are the books I wound up buying yesterday evening:
Dance, Monster!, by Stan Rogal (Insomniac)
Distillery Songs, by Mike Spry (Insomniac)
The Obvious Flap, by Gary Barwin & Gregory Betts (BookThug)
Killdeer, by Phil Hall (BookThug)
I Can Say Interpellation, by Stephen Cain & Clelia Scala (BookThug)
The Coming Envelope Issue 3, edited by Malcolm Sutton (BookThug)
Instructions for Pen and Ink, by Edward Nixon (Cactus Press)
Here are the inscriptions that appear in the books, censored to protect the signers:
"Over all the years, thanks pal!"
"I can say…thank you & best wishes. With admiration"
"With grateful thanks (there is no shuttle bus)"
"Obviously!"
"Without your support of [censored], I don't think this would have made it into print. Thank you so, so much."
"the osteo pathic flipper thanks Stuart!"
"Thanks for coming to the Launch. All best [censored] with admiration."
"[a drawing of what appears to be a hand poking out of a long sleeve and perhaps with a bullet hole or nail hole in the palm]"
Over and out.
It was a crazy night. Leigh Nash and Ken Sparling were reading in Lillian Necakov's great Boneshaker Reading Series at the St. Clair/Silverthorn Library; Elyse Friedman, Pasha Malla, Michael Winter and Julie Booker were reading short fiction at an Anansi event at Sneaky Dee's; Rachel Zolf was reading at the usually bland and open-mic-plagued Art Bar Reading Series at Clinton's; Paul Vermeersch was hosting the Insomniac Spring launch at Magpie, featuring old friend Stan Rogal, new friend Mike Spry, and a poet named Sam Cheuk; and Jay MillAr's BookThug was launching about three hundred new titles at The Supermarket in Kensington Market.
I had hoped to get to four of the events, and then whittled my aspirations down to three, and wound up making it to two.
Saw lots of great people and one fuckin' dink.
Here are the books I wound up buying yesterday evening:
Dance, Monster!, by Stan Rogal (Insomniac)
Distillery Songs, by Mike Spry (Insomniac)
The Obvious Flap, by Gary Barwin & Gregory Betts (BookThug)
Killdeer, by Phil Hall (BookThug)
I Can Say Interpellation, by Stephen Cain & Clelia Scala (BookThug)
The Coming Envelope Issue 3, edited by Malcolm Sutton (BookThug)
Instructions for Pen and Ink, by Edward Nixon (Cactus Press)
Here are the inscriptions that appear in the books, censored to protect the signers:
"Over all the years, thanks pal!"
"I can say…thank you & best wishes. With admiration"
"With grateful thanks (there is no shuttle bus)"
"Obviously!"
"Without your support of [censored], I don't think this would have made it into print. Thank you so, so much."
"the osteo pathic flipper thanks Stuart!"
"Thanks for coming to the Launch. All best [censored] with admiration."
"[a drawing of what appears to be a hand poking out of a long sleeve and perhaps with a bullet hole or nail hole in the palm]"
Over and out.
May 20, 2011
WALKING THE POEM: A poetry workshop in Cobourg
I'm taking the plunge and leading my first workshop in Cobourg. It's a new workshop, with elements of the Poetry Boot Camp, but an opportunity to dig deeper in the poems and see what can be done with them through various writing strategies.
Please pass it on to anyone in the Durham or Northumberland area. Thanks!
Over and out.
WALKING THE POEM
Saturday, May 28, 1-4 pm
Cobourg Public Library, 200 Ontario Street
Group Study Room (2nd floor)
Stuart Ross leads a relaxed, supportive workshop for poets at all levels, focusing on creating new work and exploring the possibilities of your own texts.
$45 registration required. Write hardscrabble@bell.net
Please pass it on to anyone in the Durham or Northumberland area. Thanks!
Over and out.
May 8, 2011
Good night, John Lavery.
JOHN LAVERY
31 December 1949 – 8 May 2011
"learn to live without, learn to live within"
May 6, 2011
New venue for ECW launch party next week!
OK, so mere hours after the ECW Spring Literary Party was announced a few weeks back, the venue closed down. The party was quickly relocated, over to the brilliantly named No One Writes to the Colonel (I guess they didn't want the word Cholera in their name) on College Street.
Have I already griped enough about getting to read for only three minutes? Probably not. Don't forget, for a modest fee I will also come and do a reading in your living room.
Here's the updated poster for the launch of my novel Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew, plus books by several other esteemed writers who ECW is publishing this season:
Over and out.
Have I already griped enough about getting to read for only three minutes? Probably not. Don't forget, for a modest fee I will also come and do a reading in your living room.
Here's the updated poster for the launch of my novel Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew, plus books by several other esteemed writers who ECW is publishing this season:
Over and out.
May 5, 2011
A Renga for Japan
I recently took part in an intriguing project. Twenty-seven poets were asked to contribute towards a renga to show support for the people of Japan and to raise money for Second Harvest Japan.
The project was coordinated by Sachiko Murakami, a member of the Toronto to Japan collective, a fine poet, and a host of the Pivot Readings at the Press Club series in Toronto.
After the renga was completed (I wrote the penultimate lines, and Larissa Lai finished the poem), Sachiko did the almost-impossible and got each contributor to submit a video reading of her/his lines. Here is the result, including lines by Paul Vermeersch, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Carey Toane, Jake Mooney, and many others. It's called Another Spring: A Renga for Japan:
To support Second Harvest Japan, you can buy a broadside of the entire poem. The broadside was designed and produced by The Emergency Response Unit, Leigh Nash and Andrew Faulkner's wonderful small-press publishing house.
Here's the info.
Over and out.
The project was coordinated by Sachiko Murakami, a member of the Toronto to Japan collective, a fine poet, and a host of the Pivot Readings at the Press Club series in Toronto.
After the renga was completed (I wrote the penultimate lines, and Larissa Lai finished the poem), Sachiko did the almost-impossible and got each contributor to submit a video reading of her/his lines. Here is the result, including lines by Paul Vermeersch, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Carey Toane, Jake Mooney, and many others. It's called Another Spring: A Renga for Japan:
To support Second Harvest Japan, you can buy a broadside of the entire poem. The broadside was designed and produced by The Emergency Response Unit, Leigh Nash and Andrew Faulkner's wonderful small-press publishing house.
Here's the info.
Over and out.
April 27, 2011
Launch info, plus the fall Mansfield books revealed at last!
The Cobourg launch for Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew was a success. The Human Bean was filled past capacity, and in addition to the locals (many of whom I didn't know), people came from Toronto, Whitby, Belleville, and Kingston. ECW editor Michael Holmes hosted, and he made me nearly weepy with his extremely generous words. I mean, ECW and I have had a relationship not without its bumps, but this experience of being back has been great. SDJ is my fifth book with ECW.
Shannon Siblock sang five original songs at the launch: his first public performance in many years. He's got this sweet and plaintive voice, and, as Ben Walker pointed out, he ends his songs perfectly: when there's nothing more to say, he stops. I had asked him to play one of the songs mentioned in the novel, but he wouldn't tell me which he'd decided on. Turned out to be "Eternal Flame," which, previous to last Thursday, I would never have imagined being sung by a male voice. Shannon did a great job all-round.
Steph from Bella's Bookshelves wrote a very thoughtful review of both the book and the launch. I met Steph last December when she came to the Grad Club in Kingston for my Real Resident Reading Series (man, I miss those days…) — an installment featuring readings by John Lavery, Anne McLean, and me, and music by Ben Walker. By coincidence, Steph wound up proofreading SDJ for ECW Press (and she made some great catches!).
In other news, it was a bit of a crazy weekend as I scrambled to finalize the "stuart ross book" selections for Mansfield's fall 2011 season. Already in the works was a brilliant and utterly entertaining quasi-memoir by George Bowering, called How I Wrote Certain of My Books, a nice spin on Raymond Roussel's book of the same title. To that, we're adding the debut poetry collection by Carey Toane — a fascinating and eclectic book called The Crystal Palace. Carey has been in Brooklyn for most of the past year, but before that she was very active in Toronto, doing a great hosting job on the Pivot at the Press Club Reading Series, acting as an operative on the Patchy Squirrel Lit-Serv, and collaborating with Elisabeth de Mariaffi on the Toronto Poetry Vendors project. As well, I'm really pleased to be edited Lillian Necakov's fifth full-length poetry book (and her second with Mansfield), Hooligans. Lillian's been steeped in mathematics and science reading the past few years, and the way she blends these new influences into her often-surreal poetry is fascinating. Rounding off the Mansfield fall list is a book that publisher Denis De Klerck is putting through, Lover Through Departure: New and Selected Poems, by Rishma Dunlop. I haven't read that MS yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
A final note: there is still some space around the table for Saturday's Poetry Boot Camp in Toronto. If you're interested, or know someone who is, I can be reached at hunkamooga [at] sympatico [dot] ca.
Over and out.
Shannon Siblock sang five original songs at the launch: his first public performance in many years. He's got this sweet and plaintive voice, and, as Ben Walker pointed out, he ends his songs perfectly: when there's nothing more to say, he stops. I had asked him to play one of the songs mentioned in the novel, but he wouldn't tell me which he'd decided on. Turned out to be "Eternal Flame," which, previous to last Thursday, I would never have imagined being sung by a male voice. Shannon did a great job all-round.
Steph from Bella's Bookshelves wrote a very thoughtful review of both the book and the launch. I met Steph last December when she came to the Grad Club in Kingston for my Real Resident Reading Series (man, I miss those days…) — an installment featuring readings by John Lavery, Anne McLean, and me, and music by Ben Walker. By coincidence, Steph wound up proofreading SDJ for ECW Press (and she made some great catches!).
In other news, it was a bit of a crazy weekend as I scrambled to finalize the "stuart ross book" selections for Mansfield's fall 2011 season. Already in the works was a brilliant and utterly entertaining quasi-memoir by George Bowering, called How I Wrote Certain of My Books, a nice spin on Raymond Roussel's book of the same title. To that, we're adding the debut poetry collection by Carey Toane — a fascinating and eclectic book called The Crystal Palace. Carey has been in Brooklyn for most of the past year, but before that she was very active in Toronto, doing a great hosting job on the Pivot at the Press Club Reading Series, acting as an operative on the Patchy Squirrel Lit-Serv, and collaborating with Elisabeth de Mariaffi on the Toronto Poetry Vendors project. As well, I'm really pleased to be edited Lillian Necakov's fifth full-length poetry book (and her second with Mansfield), Hooligans. Lillian's been steeped in mathematics and science reading the past few years, and the way she blends these new influences into her often-surreal poetry is fascinating. Rounding off the Mansfield fall list is a book that publisher Denis De Klerck is putting through, Lover Through Departure: New and Selected Poems, by Rishma Dunlop. I haven't read that MS yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
A final note: there is still some space around the table for Saturday's Poetry Boot Camp in Toronto. If you're interested, or know someone who is, I can be reached at hunkamooga [at] sympatico [dot] ca.
Over and out.
April 20, 2011
Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew — the Cobourg launch! the Toronto launch!
OK, I'm breaking the champagne bottle over the bow of my novel tomorrow. The first launch of Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew is happening in Cobourg, at 7 pm at the Human Bean on King Street West. ECW editor Michael Holmes is coming to town to host the event, and local singer-songwriter Shannon Siblock will be doing four or five songs. I'll read for about 15 or 20 minutes. I think it's going to be pretty full-up at the tiny Bean.
Then, on May 11, ECW is holding what it calls its Spring Literary Party. Seven books will be launched. Along with mine, there'll be titles by Frank Davey, Gil Adamson, Tony Burgess, Gillian Sze, Jonathan Bennett and Natalee Caple. Darn nice company.
Back when I did poetry books with ECW in the last decade, I used to grumble at the six-minute time limit at ECW launches. For this event, we each get three minutes (180 seconds!). So I'm hoping some series in Toronto will invite me so I can read more substantively. ECW likes their launches to have the emphasis on the "party" aspect. Fair enough!
Hoping also to launch the book in Windsor, Kingston, Ottawa, and Montreal, perhaps with the spring titles from Mansfield. And then I'll be heading out to launch in Vancouver — maybe in Clint Burnham's backyard — and in New Denver.
But I don't think it's a very good book. It's too literary.
Over and out.
Then, on May 11, ECW is holding what it calls its Spring Literary Party. Seven books will be launched. Along with mine, there'll be titles by Frank Davey, Gil Adamson, Tony Burgess, Gillian Sze, Jonathan Bennett and Natalee Caple. Darn nice company.
Back when I did poetry books with ECW in the last decade, I used to grumble at the six-minute time limit at ECW launches. For this event, we each get three minutes (180 seconds!). So I'm hoping some series in Toronto will invite me so I can read more substantively. ECW likes their launches to have the emphasis on the "party" aspect. Fair enough!
Hoping also to launch the book in Windsor, Kingston, Ottawa, and Montreal, perhaps with the spring titles from Mansfield. And then I'll be heading out to launch in Vancouver — maybe in Clint Burnham's backyard — and in New Denver.
But I don't think it's a very good book. It's too literary.
Over and out.
April 17, 2011
A Poetry Boot Camp on April 30 … and typesetting the Mansfield spring list
I haven't done a workshop in Toronto in ages. Feels like ages. Certainly not this year. Was it last summer I last led a workshop there? Last spring?
So I'm scheduling a Poetry Boot Camp for April 30. I pretty much always fill up my Poetry Boot Camps, but my presence in Toronto is a lot less these days. My Patchy Squirrel Lit-Serv lands in Toronto every week, but I no longer do. So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Here are the details:
Know anyone who might be interested? Please help spread the word!
Meanwhile, in the next 48 hours, I hope to finish typesetting the second of the two Mansfield Press spring releases, both of which will appear under my "a stuart ross" imprint.
I've already completed the typesetting on Robert Earl Stewart's second collection of poetry, Campfire Radio Rhapsody. It's following quickly on the heels of his first collection, Something Burned Along the Southern Border, which came out in 2009, but Bob is a very fast writer and a very good one. The new book has a very different tone than the first: and it's better, which is saying a lot. This is a dark book — sometimes darkly funny, too. Bob has been working on a novel for many years now, and I'm really curious about that. How does a guy who writes poetry like he does write fiction?
The book I'm wrapping up on the typesetting on now is Marko Sijan's first novel (and his first book), Mongrel. I guess I've read this about five or six times now. It still shocks me. I'm very curious to see how this book is received. And whether he'll have his key to Windsor (where he grew up and where the novel is set) taken away from him. Marko has a personal essay in the just-new issue of Canadian Notes & Queries; therein he tells the sordid and sorta jolting story of Mongrel's genesis, in particular its near-publication about a decade ago by the then-soon-to-be-defunct Gutter Press. It's almost as shocking as his novel.
I'm really proud to have a hand in getting these books into the world. There will be a Toronto launch for these two titles, and launches in Montreal and Windsor as well. Maybe Kingston. Maybe Hamilton. Maybe even Cobourg.
Over and out.
So I'm scheduling a Poetry Boot Camp for April 30. I pretty much always fill up my Poetry Boot Camps, but my presence in Toronto is a lot less these days. My Patchy Squirrel Lit-Serv lands in Toronto every week, but I no longer do. So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Here are the details:
STUART ROSS'S POETRY BOOT CAMP
Saturday, April 30, 10am-5 pm (w/ 45-minute lunch break)
Symington/Dupont area
$75 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 WORKSHOPS:
"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."
"Just what I needed!"
"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 pacing! The day passes quickly — it really is a boot camp!"
"You always get such interesting characters attending your workshops!"
"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!"
MY BIO: I am the author of six full-length poetry collections, including the acclaimed I Cut My Finger (Anvil Press) 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. I'm Poetry Editor for Mansfield Press 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. This spring, ECW Press released by novel Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew. For nearly 25 years, I've led writing workshops and I've brought my popular Poetry Boot Camp to venues across Canada.
Know anyone who might be interested? Please help spread the word!
Meanwhile, in the next 48 hours, I hope to finish typesetting the second of the two Mansfield Press spring releases, both of which will appear under my "a stuart ross" imprint.
I've already completed the typesetting on Robert Earl Stewart's second collection of poetry, Campfire Radio Rhapsody. It's following quickly on the heels of his first collection, Something Burned Along the Southern Border, which came out in 2009, but Bob is a very fast writer and a very good one. The new book has a very different tone than the first: and it's better, which is saying a lot. This is a dark book — sometimes darkly funny, too. Bob has been working on a novel for many years now, and I'm really curious about that. How does a guy who writes poetry like he does write fiction?
The book I'm wrapping up on the typesetting on now is Marko Sijan's first novel (and his first book), Mongrel. I guess I've read this about five or six times now. It still shocks me. I'm very curious to see how this book is received. And whether he'll have his key to Windsor (where he grew up and where the novel is set) taken away from him. Marko has a personal essay in the just-new issue of Canadian Notes & Queries; therein he tells the sordid and sorta jolting story of Mongrel's genesis, in particular its near-publication about a decade ago by the then-soon-to-be-defunct Gutter Press. It's almost as shocking as his novel.
I'm really proud to have a hand in getting these books into the world. There will be a Toronto launch for these two titles, and launches in Montreal and Windsor as well. Maybe Kingston. Maybe Hamilton. Maybe even Cobourg.
Over and out.
A Poetry Boot Camp on April 30
I haven't done a workshop in Toronto in ages. Feels like ages. Certainly not this year. Was it last summer I last led a workshop there? Last spring?
So I'm scheduling a Poetry Boot Camp for April 30. I pretty much always fill up my Poetry Boot Camps, but my presence in Toronto is a lot less these days. My Patchy Squirrel Lit-Serv lands in Toronto every week, but I no longer do. So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Here are the details:
Know anyone who might be interested? Please help spread the word!
Thanks.
Over and out.
So I'm scheduling a Poetry Boot Camp for April 30. I pretty much always fill up my Poetry Boot Camps, but my presence in Toronto is a lot less these days. My Patchy Squirrel Lit-Serv lands in Toronto every week, but I no longer do. So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Here are the details:
STUART ROSS'S POETRY BOOT CAMP
Saturday, April 30, 10am-5 pm (w/ 45-minute lunch break)
Symington/Dupont area
$75 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 WORKSHOPS:
"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."
"Just what I needed!"
"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 pacing! The day passes quickly — it really is a boot camp!"
"You always get such interesting characters attending your workshops!"
"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!"
MY BIO: I am the author of six full-length poetry collections,
including the acclaimed I Cut My Finger (Anvil Press) 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. I'm Poetry Editor for
Mansfield Press 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. This spring, ECW Press released by novel
Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew. For nearly 25 years, I've led writing
workshops and I've brought my popular Poetry Boot Camp to venues
across Canada.
Know anyone who might be interested? Please help spread the word!
Thanks.
Over and out.
