matrix feed

But I've been on the picket line at Con U, and busy being generally happy. ECW Press has accepted my novel, Stripmalling, for publication and they are going to produce a beautiful hardcover edition with Evan Munday's art on the cover. I made a mockup. But Evan's final will be waayyyyy nicer.

Also, the winner of this year's Robert Kroetsch award is Geoffery Hlibchuk's Varations on Holderlin. Elizabeth Bachinsky was the judge. Snare Books will publish this book along with Pasha Malla's All our grandfathers are ghosts. and Mike Spry's Jack in the fall.

Finally, come say hi at Blue Metropolis:

I will be hosting the SOIRÉE DE POÉSIE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 2008 @ 9:00 PM
Readings by prominent Montreal poets.
Joshua Auerbach
Jason Camlot
Endre Farkas
Susan Gillis
David McGimpsey
Carolyn Marie Souaid

Quebec Writers' Federation

and I will be part of a panel discussion on literary publishing
FRIDAY, MAY 02 2008 @ 8:30 PM
FROM MANUSCRIPT TO BOOK: THE PUBLISHERS HAVE THEIR SAY
So how does that manuscript you're been working on finally get published? This is your chance to find out at our publishers` event, back by popular demand. - Hosted by Carolyn Marie Souaid. Duration: 1:15

Robert J. Sawyer
Kim McArthur
Patricia Aldana
Jon Paul Fiorentino

I love Colin Smith. And I love Colin's writing.
Please find a way to get his new book.
You will not regret it.

It's done. My novel is done!! My dream publisher is looking at it and if they accept it, then my life is complete.

Here are some panels from the novel. Illustrated and improvised by the brilliant Evan Munday.

Click here

here.

When I read Stephen Henighan's article, "A Traitor's Dirge", I was too upset and too emotionally distraught to fashion an appropriate response. I have been thinking about it again recently: Henighan's misreadings and misconceptions about Robert Allen and his work and Henighan's misrepresentation of Matrix Magazine in the article.

I was comforted greatly by Anne Stone's response. Anne says it perfectly. Here is that response.

And here it is below:

Stephen Henighan has a piece in Geist about Rob Allen, his one-time teacher, my good friend. The direction of the piece is pretty much apparent in the title, “Traitor’s Dirge,” and byline (Henighan’s name has been made less for his literary fiction than for the way, in short essay style, he strafes Can Lit’s no-fly zones.) It’s not that Henighan doesn’t have a point. He does. Rob did love America and pop-culture and he loved a good literary line, however long. At times, the esoteric quality of his writing landed its punches far from the gut. Preferring the eye, say. Or what’s behind it.

For a study in the local, emotional power, and quiet perfection, I’d recommend Henighan play catch up by reading the sonnets in Standing Wave, a collection that’s among Rob’s best.

While Henighan does have his point, it’s trivial and expressed meanly: the form Henighan’s dirge takes is a funnel, and all of the broad and generous observations he has about Rob spiral down into a final dismissal of much of Rob’s work. “Traitor’s Dirge” doesn’t strike me as particularly honest or fair. Reading it, I get the same sense I do when reading much of Henighan’s work. Whatever Henighan looks at is an excuse for him to further elaborate himself.

It’s unfortunate that Rob died early. If he’d lived longer, maybe Henighan would have had the chance, and the grace, to kill his mentor off before the man himself died.

Thanks, Anne. You always come through.

So... I Wanna Be Your Alpha Male, an animated short film by Farzin Farzaneh, written by Jon Paul Fiorentino will make its big screen debut at the Montreal World Film Festival!

Screening will take place on the following days:

28 aug. 19h40 L14.28.6,

29 aug. 9h10 L14.29.1,

1 sept. 13h20 L14.01.3,

at the Complex de cinema Quartier Latin / Quartier Latin Cinema Complex,
350 Emery (near St Denis)

Hope to see you there!

http://www.popmontreal.com/site/en/node/1323

Some time well spent in Russia...

Hello.

I am smoking Peter the Great cigarettes with my new friend Sam Pitchel, who is an editor for Post Road -- a really cool US magazine.

I have been writing like a bastard and drinking like, well, like a bastard.

My lecture on bpNichol, Robert Kroetsch, Nicole Brossard, the experimental tradition in Canada and the problematic imperatives of Canadian publishing went surprisingly well. Very well attended and a lively discussion ensued. Thanks to Steven Heighton and George Elliott Clarke for attending and contributing to a wonderful discussion.

I also did a panel on literary periodicals with Radhika Jones (Paris Review), Jeremy Keehn (Walrus) and Bill Pierce (Agni). This was a great opportunity to share ideas and experiences with fellow editors. And the crowd was lovely and equipped with thoughtful questions.

Now, back to the vodka....

My next collection of poems is called Mentholism. I'm surprised that it's almost sappy in parts (or at least emotionally available). But the poems are most interested in creating new patterns, new locutions. I've been feverishly writing and rewriting it these days. I'm very pleased.

Mentholism refers to a set of assumptions, values and beliefs based on the practices of smoking menthol cigarettes and moping about.

May 7 – The Coach House Spring Launch takes Montreal

On Monday, May 7, Coach House will take over Boa to launch 5 new books
at a swinging good party! So round up your pals and drop by for
literature, libations and levity.

with readings by
Sean Dixon (The Girls Who Saw Everything),
Andrew Wedderburn (The Milk Chicken Bomb),
Rachel Zolf (Human Resources),
Amiel Gladstone (Hippies and Bolsheviks & Other Plays)
and the triple threat of Nicole Brossard and translators Erín Moure and
Robert Majzels (Notebook of Roses and Civilization).

Boa Bar, 5301 St. Laurent
Monday, May 7
8:30 p.m.
Free admission

hosted by Jon Paul Fiorentino
music by Ian Orti

* * * * *

The Girls Who Saw Everything chronicles the fall of the Lacuna Cabal
Montreal Young Women's Book Club. Not content to simply read and

Seeing Dennis Lee at Blue Metropolis.
Meeting Jessica Johnston.
Seeing Stuart Ross and Kate Sutherland launch their books.
Road trip with Gilly Savigny.
Hosting Anne Stone's launch.
Writing weird new poems.
Designing the 2007/08 Snare Books Catalogue.
Meeting Sandra Alland.
Surviving the hospitality suite.
Not quite surviving a night of vodka shots with Parker, Burke and Goldbach.
Working on Stripmalling.
Hanging out with Lia.

Attend this:

Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival
Wed, April 25th, 8 p.m.
DELTA CENTRE-VILLE Hotel
777, University Street, Square-Victoria Metro.
(Room: La Terrasse; free!)

Anne Stone's Delible is a novel I edited for Insomniac Press. It's one of the best books I've read in the last ten years. I am thrilled to be associated with this stunning novel.

Here's a description:

Click here to listen: http://www.cbc.ca/allinaweekend/listenagain.html

Robert Allen Memorial Tribute Event at Concordia
Friday, March 30, 2007
5-7 p.m.
Room EV2.260
Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex
1515 St. Catherine West

For Information Call: 514-848-2424 x2340

Reception & Readings from the works of Robert Allen by his fellow writers, colleagues, friends and family. Sponsored by the Concordia University English Department.

Matrix, Delirium Press and the Quebec Writers’ Federation proudly present…

A PILOT AND DEPARTURE READING SERIES SPECIAL

Starring
Zac Schnier
Sophie Caird
Greg Seib
Dimitri Nasrallah
Stephanie Bolster
Roy Miki

Hosted by
Jani Krulc
Gillian Savigny

March 25, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
Blizzarts 3956-A St-Laurent Blvd
www.matrixmagazine.org
www.deliriumpress.com