Nov. 25 | Jonathan Ball joins Spencer Gordon at the Winnipeg Launch of Cosmo
Winnipeg Launch of Cosmo
with readings by Spencer Gordon, Jonathan Ball and Chandra Mayor
Sunday, November 25, 2012
McNally Robinson Grant Park in the Atrium, 1120 Grant Avenue
Winnipeg, MB
2 p.m.
Free event
Coach House Books and McNally Robinson are pleased to present the Winnipeg launch of Spencer Gordon‘s Cosmo on Sunday, November 25. Gordon will be at McNally Robinson Grant Park in the Atrium to read from his debut collection of short fiction that mines pop culture and the surreal world of celebrity for its tales of existential inquiry. Cosmo is perhaps best described as “Camus meets Chamillionaire.”
An admirer of Miley Cyrus performs a three-thousand word sentence in defence of his passion. Actor Matthew McConaughey descends into a surreal, stupefying desert of the soul. An aging porn star dons a grotesque dinosaur costume to film the sex scene of his life. Such are the speakers and stars of a collection of stories that explode the conventions of short fiction. Though shifting wildly in tone, structure and perspective from one page to the next, each of these mercurial stories is drenched in pop culture, the distancing effects of modern communication and the malaise of solitary existence. At their core, these stories are a portrait of ordinary people (as well as celebrities – they’re just like us!) striving, thinking and suffering alone.
This free afternoon event will also feature readings by Jonathan Ball (The Politics of Knives, also released by Coach House Books this fall) and Chandra Mayor.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from Thompson, Manitoba, Spencer Gordon holds an MA from the University of Toronto. He is co-editor of the online literary journal The Puritan and the Toronto-based micro-press Ferno House. His own stories, articles and poems have been published in numerous periodicals and anthologies. He blogs at dangerousliterature.blogspot.com and teaches writing at Humber College.
PRAISE FOR COSMO: ‘…Spencer Gordon [is] one of the most daring writers I’ve ever come across. These stories read like collaborations between Stephen King and TMZ with Borges and Nabokov on the edits. Each short story sounds with the thunder of a novel. Enthralling, dark, gut-busting stuff!’ – Jeff Parker, author of Ovenman and Igor in Crisis: A Russian Journal
