I’ll be launching Clockfire in Calgary this weekend. Come on out! The event takes place Sunday, Nov. 21, at the Auburn Saloon, 7 p.m. Natalee Caple will also be there, co-launching her also-theatrically tinged poetry book, The Semiconducting Dictionary (Our Strindberg). Joining us will be musical guests The Ogden Owls and The Huntress, and special […]
Author: Jonathan Ball
Jonathan Ball is a writer, filmmaker, and scholar living at www.jonathanball.com.
Montreal launch of Clockfire
Here’s the press release for my forthcoming Montreal event: On Sunday, November 14, Toronto’s Coach House Books teams with Montreal’s Snare Books to unleash the fall’s most exciting poetry books! Taking place at the Sparrow (5322 Blvd. Saint Laurent), the night will launch new books from Gary Barwin (The Porcupinity of the Stars), Jonathan Ball […]
Some Macabre News
A recent news article was brought to my attention by a reader of Clockfire. Read the poem and then click for the “real” story: They Come Back The actors take the stage, bow to the audience, then slit their own throats. The audience is horrified. They shriek, call ambulances, flee. But they come back the […]
A former student covers Clockfire‘s Winnipeg launch
Here’s Daniella Ponticelli, on Clockfire‘s recent Winnipeg launch: Any wonder why I can’t put it down? Or take the creepy smile off my face…
Uptown interview about Clockfire
Winnipeg’s Uptown magazine interviewed me for an article on Clockfire. Click the quote to read the article: “Great art takes us by the throat and does violence to preconceived notions, ideas about what constitutes the possible.” Below, you can read the full interview, not available elsewhere. Why write about theatre, and play scenarios that are […]
The Uniter reviews Clockfire
Some more praise for Clockfire, this time from The Uniter: The twisted words of Jonathan Ball are going to give you nightmares, and you’re going to love it. . . . The horror of this book is intoxicating.
Saint John Telegraph-Journal reviews Clockfire
A brief review of Clockfire in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal: … darkly comic, mysterious, horrifying, shocking and so postmodernly provocative you can’t read them quick enough. The limits of Ball’s imagination are unimaginable.
Clockfire reviewed by Zach Hudson on New Poetry blog
Another positive Clockfire review, this time by Zach Hudson in the New Poetry blog. My favourite line: Recommended if you like unpretentious lyrical theatric phantasmagoria. Who doesn’t?
Clockfire review in NewPages
Another review of Clockfire, very astute, some strong and smart comparisons: The collection appropriately opens with an epigraph from Artaud, and the prose pieces that follow fall under the umbrella of his theatre of cruelty: plays where the spectators are at the center of the spectacle, where they must engage the performance. . . . […]
Clockfire a Calgary bestseller
Clockfire made the bestseller list in Calgary, which is surprising because usually that doesn’t happen for poetry unless you hold an event at the venue (I didn’t). Go Clockfire! And go independent booksellers! Pages On Kensington’s Bestseller List (September 26, 2010) * Original Edition Fiction and Poetry 1. Room – Emma Donoghue 2. Player One […]