Leonard Cohen
April 30, 2009
Mandy and I went to see Leonard Cohen in Saskatoon on Tuesday. An incredible show. He played for 3 and 1/2 hours and I’m pretty sure I counted 4 encores. Skipping on and off stage like he was 25 and not 74. A great performer, always in command and quite jovial. The band is excellent too, much better than I’d expected. Every time somebody had a solo of any length Cohen would step back into the shadows, take off his hat out of respect, and just watch and listen without drawing any attention to himself. Pure class. I would go on but everybody writes about Cohen and so I’ll be the contrarian and stop. But if you get the chance, pay the money for the ticket, it is well worth the steep price.
The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets
April 27, 2009
In 2006, L’Atelier National du Manitoba (a filmmaking co-op of genius funnymen) released a phenomenal piece of docu-fiction. The film was banned due to copyright violations, as it is made primarily of stolen television footage. A few copies are floating around (I may or may not have one, since I know the good folk of the L’Atelier, whose identities I will never reveal), but now you can watch the entire 60-minute movie (an epic tragedy and a masterful comedy rolled into one) at the glorious UbuWeb: so do yourself a favour, pop some popcorn, and sit back for the best hour you’ll spend today, with The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets.
Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story
April 16, 2009
Exciting news: I’ve been shortlisted for the Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story! This is one of the 2009 Alberta Literary Awards, administered by The Writers Guild of Alberta.
You can visit their website for the full list of awards and shortlisted authors, which includes my friend Weyman Chan (his GG-shortlisted book Noise from the Laundry is up for the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry). Most of the awards shortlists are summarized in this article from The Edmonton Journal as well.
Congratulations to everybody who’s shortlisted for anything, especially my competition, Andrea Beca (of Edmonton) and Barb Howard (of Bragg Creek), and Betty Jane Hegerat (of Calgary) who received an honourable mention. My shortlisted story is “Costa Rican Green” which was originally published in Australia’s Etchings.
The award winners will be announced at the Literary Awards Gala on May 23, as part of The Writers’ Union of Canada and the Writers Guild of Alberta Limitless Sky Conference.
Work, work, work….
April 12, 2009
Easter is a workday this year, I am home and writing, not able to travel for the holidays due to the horror class I am teaching right now. Also, I am working feverishly to finish up the first full draft of my thesis. It is going very well as of late. I expect to have that draft done this week.
Finished up, after ryan’s wonderful editing suggestions on the title poem, a collection of the chapbooks and other poetic series I’ve been working away at over the last few years, a collection I am calling The Politics of Knives. Mailed it off to a publisher today. This makes five (count ‘em) full-length poetry books that I have finished work on in the last four years. I should note that these books were not written in a hurry, rather I have been steadily picking away at all of them over a long period of time. Still need to do some work on two of them. For those counting, this means I have two books forthcoming and three more sitting at presses who aren’t done considering the manuscripts yet.
I figure that’s enough poetry backlogged. It’s fiction for the foreseeable future. Starting with The Crow Murders. First draft this week? It looks likely. Here’s another instance where I expect to finish quite a few books over the next few years. Books I have been working on for a long, long time… like a short story collection I began in 2001. And another novel I began in 2005. And a graphic novel I started in 2004.
In the meantime I have written and discarded another two collections of poetry. Seriously. Wrote and discarded. That’s how it goes. Also wrote most of another novel, which I also discarded. I guess that’s what’s called “paying your dues”? Annoying and feels like a waste some days, but of course it’s not a waste, you get better by writing. If only it wasn’t so hard and time-consuming and there were more rewards. I am reminded of a quote from Farley Mowat, which I think I will use to end this post:
“If someone tells you writing is easy, he is either lying or I hate him.”
Franz Kafka International Airport
April 10, 2009
An Onion News Network report after my own black heart.
Prague’s Franz Kafka International Named World’s Most Alienating Airport
Someone struggles
April 9, 2009
Lars Palm and his Ungovernable Press is releasing my chapbook Someone struggles as a free eBook. You can download it and all of the press’s other eBooks here.
Someone struggles is an excerpt from my book INBOX, which is currently under consideration with publishers. The book is the third (and final) in a trilogy of poetry books, which I’m called my Machine Trilogy since they all concern machines or are composed with the help of computer software. The other two are my forthcoming BookThug titles, Ex Machina and The Words of the Book (the latter co-written by kevin mcpherson eckhoff). Kevin has some eBooks for download at Ungovernable Press as well.
Essay in Open Letter
April 6, 2009
For those interested, I’ve published an essay on derek beaulieu and bpNichol in the new issue of Open Letter, 13.8, the special issue “bpNichol+21.” Lots of great stuff in that issue for anyone interested in Nichol.
Ex Machina
April 4, 2009
BookThug has swapped the order of my forthcoming poetry books, which works out a little better for everyone involved and allows Kevin and I to do another draft of The Words of the Book. Now Kevin and I will both be putting out first books on our own before the collaborative book comes out.
So my experimental long poem Ex Machina will be my first book, due out December 2009. You can still subscribe to the 2009 BookThug season, which now ends with Ex Machina. Lots of great stuff in there, including a collection of essays by Sina Queyras and Expeditions of a Chimæra by Oana Avasilichioaei and Erín Moure.
