Grey Borders Reading Series

On Zorras recent mini tour

2012-01-10T14:41:00.001-05:00

Sandra Alland just posted a blog about Zorras Multimedia Troupe's recent September tour including their stop at Grey Borders Reading Series!

http://sandra-alland.tumblr.com/

Grey Borders Reading Series @ Mahtay Cafe by Amanda Ann

2011-11-06T14:05:00.012-05:00

Guests trickled into St. Catharines’ newest addition, a quaint and colourful café on St. Paul Street. After equipping themselves with a variety of hot and cold beverages, eats and treats, the audience quieted for the commencement of Grey Borders Reading Series’ third event of the season at Mahtay Café and Lounge.

The night began with a powerful performance by Liz Worth, author of Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond and Eleven: Eleven. Reading from a selection of works from her new book, and first poetry collection, Amphetamine Heart, she presented them in a strange, haunting and sexual persona with strong intensity and passion.

Tim Conley, author of Whatever Happens and Nothing Could Be Further and teacher English and Comparative Literature at Brock University, provided a second performance.

“The publisher of this book calls these things stories,” Conley began. “I’m not always entirely comfortable with that term, but I don’t know what else to call these things, so, you can decide.”

And with that, he dove into a humorous, sarcastic and enthralling presentation of one of these “stories”, called “It Is Hard To Be Different”, beginning and ending with the wail of a pocket whistle and often drawing the audience into a chorus of laughter.

After a brief intermission, rob mclennan, author of more than twenty books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, and editor and publisher multiple publications in his home city of Ottawa, approached the microphone for the final of three performances, and started by describing his last performance in the Niagara Region.

“I like coming here to read. Although, the last time I was through town, I read in Welland,” he said. “Imagine how that could’ve gone, and then lower that, and imagine – it was still fun – imagine it weirder, with fewer people.”

Once the laughter died down, he began his performance. He presented selections from his most recent poetry collections, A (short) history of l, and C, among others, with captivating voice and tempo and obvious fervor.

With a few final words and a round of thanks, the Grey Borders Reading Series’ third show of the season came to a close and, with one of the best turn-outs this season, proved to be a great success.

Photos and coverage courtesy of Amanda Ann.

Thanks to Mahtay Cafe for their generosity and allowing us to use their space for the evening.

Thanks to Jeremy Colangelo, Timur Inceoglu and & Indoor Shoes, The League of Canadian Poets, our readers, and our friends.

Videos from 01 October 2011

2011-10-20T12:47:00.002-04:00

NF Huth Reading at the Grey Borders Reading Series from Geof Huth on Vimeo.

Geof Huth Performing at the Grey Borders Reading Series from Geof Huth on Vimeo.

THIS FRIDAY

2011-10-11T10:45:00.001-04:00

Exactly 12 questions for rob mclennan; an interview by Cassie Leigh, October 2011

2011-10-07T14:38:00.013-04:00

Cassie: What does the Ottawa literary scene mean to you, and what do you think you mean to it?

rob: It's a difficult thing to get a proper perspective on one's own meaning. Still, I grew up in a farming community, and see elements of approaching the literary community in the same way. As Ondaatje paraphrased Spicer, the poems can no longer live alone than we can. The Ottawa community is one that keeps me sane and motivated. I feel truly lucky to live in such a varied, rich and supportive community that includes Amanda and Charles Earl and their Bywords.ca (and AngelHousePress and experiment-o), Monty Reid, Stephen Brockwell, Sandra Ridley, Gwendolyn Guth, Christine McNair and her cartywheel, Cameron Anstee and his Apt. 9 Press, David O'Meara and his Plan 99 Reading Series, Michael Blouin, the ottawa international writers festival, Ben Ladouceur, Karen Massey, Anne Le Dressay, Max Middle and his AB Series, Rod Pederson and The TREE Reading Series, Shane Rhodes, Marilyn Irwin, Elizabeth Hay, William Hawkins, Elisabeth Harvor, Pearl Pirie, The Dusty Owl Reading Series, John Metcalf, the late John Lavery and John Newlove, etcetera. There's a hell of a lot of worthy activity in this little town.

Much of my activity as an editor/publisher/events organizer over the past twenty years has been attempts to encourage, helping various individuals develop and continue; there are all sorts of examples of such running through above/ground press, The Factory Reading Series, ottawater and Chaudiere Books.

Cassie: What/who motivated you to start writing, and what/who continues to motivate you?

rob: For some time now, the motivation has been the work itself. I remember a quote from jwcurry, something he said a few years ago, that his main goal was to “remain interested.” It sounds simple, but it can sometimes be the hardest and most important part of any artist continuing to produce work.

My first poem was produced in grade two, for a pretty blonde girl in my class. I suppose, in certain ways, the motivations haven't changed much. I hear she's now married with three children, and living in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Cassie: You're an industrious writer. You usually publish several works a year, more than most writers. Can you explain your model for publishing?

rob: I don't really have any specific model, but early models included George Bowering, Margaret Atwood, bpNichol and John Newlove. I simply write, navigating and exploring as best I can..

Cassie: What is your most powerful memory?

rob: Various memories exist of being very small on the farm, including toddler memories. Escaping the front verandah, for example, easing myself through the slats on the side to go around the baby gate and down the steps. My mother had a number of stories of where she finally found me, after each escape. Who wants to be trapped on a verandah when there's so much open space, on such a nice day?

A few years ago, my mother and I had a conversation about some memories I had of us visiting her mother's cabin on a lake, somewhere. Apparently this shocked my mother, since the cabin (somewhere in the Gatineau Hills) was sold before I was two-and-a-half. Yet, memories remain.

Cassie: You have two new books coming out, A (short) history of l. (BuschekBooks, 2011) and grief notes: (BlazeVOX [books], 2011). Tell us about them. What are the unique traits of these collections and how are they different from previous collections?

rob: A (short) history of l., a collection of love poems, was originally composed as a sequel to wild horses. There is a lyrical tightness, a tautness, to the lines I'm quite pleased with; lines you could bounce a quarter off. There's a third in the trilogy, “wooden hearts,” that I'm still working to find a home for. grief notes: is a long poem that works much of the same subject matter and takes a far darker turn.

Cassie: What are you currently working on?

rob: I'm currently working to complete a novel, a collection of short stories and a poetry collection, as well as a number of other literary projects, some of which go back years. “The Last Good Year” is a creative non-fiction memoir I've been working on for over a year, since my mother died, and wouldn't mind finishing at some point, although it could be another year at least.

Of course, too, I'm working on the eighth issue of the Ottawa poetry pdf annual, ottawater, to release online in January, various above/ground press chapbooks by Fenn Stewart, Shannon Maguire, Camille Martin, Ken Norris, derek beaulieu and kemeny babineau, and the fall 2011 edition of the ottawa small press book fair, happening November 5. Just last night, as well, we had another meeting for the second edition of our annual poetry festival, VERSeFest, scheduled for the beginning of March.

The “wild horses” trilogy is long behind me. With the massive move recently, there are a number of projects that I simply haven't picked up again for months, but am hoping to return to, soon. The current poetry manuscript, tentatively titled “A halt, which is empty,” is a sequence of sequences, turning brevity around local history and this new apartment (and relatively new relationship) I am co-habitating.

Cassie: How do you think you have changed as a writer since the publication of your first book?

rob: That's a pretty good question. I think I'm far less in a hurry than I once was. I certainly have far more confidence, and take both success and failure far less personally (although still a little). I would like to think that after originally managing and mangling some basic forms, I've gone off in a bunch of interesting directions with some of it. I have tried to make each publication unique, attempting something different with the writing, something that hadn't previously seen.

I am trying to write the books I'd like to read, the ones I don't already see.

Cassie: You started a blog in 2003 – what can you tell us about its importance to you and the Canadian literary scene?

rob: I'm always amazed at the amount of traffic I receive on the site, and the responses I get from readers all over the world. I originally started such after writing a column for four-and-a-half years for our local weekly, The Ottawa X-Press. There was something compelling about reviewing three titles a week for so long, especially once I realized that I was often not only the first review for a particular title, but the only. It quickly felt as though it was necessary work, and something I wanted to continue, once the paper decided to go another way. I didn't want to spend 80% of my work on a review trying to place it in a journal or newspaper, only to have it appear months, or in some instances, years later. I wanted a review to be the news that was news, so to speak, and the blog allows for that. There is so much work that never gets discussed, or is discussed foolishly, without proper thought or consideration, and often with far too much agenda on the part of the reviewer.

It's a strange feeling to realize I've reviewed every title by a particular author, or that (as a couple of writers have told me), I'm the only review that “gets” their book. It's a huge compliment. I understand the mechanics of writing far better through my years of reviewing (a practice that has since developed into longer essays). It feeds directly into my own practice as an ongoing education into structure, form and the line. Why wouldn't any author clamour for the same?

I wonder why so few bother to review, and with venues for reviews disappearing over the past twenty years, I have no interest in being the only reviewer left. Unrelated to the fact that my own books rarely seem to get discussed.

Cassie: Wild Horses was written during your time as a writer in residence at the University of Alberta. What about your time in Alberta (or at U of A) influenced this collection and What did your time in Alberta teach you?

rob: My time in Alberta taught me that I didn't have to be the be-all and end-all for various Ottawa activities. I was allowed to do other things. My time in Alberta also forced me to re-think a number of paths I'd been following for some time, personally and professionally, a number of which I've changed, a number I've tweaked, and various I've returned to, with a better comprehension of what I'm doing and exactly why.

Cassie: What advice would you give any young writers/small press editors?

rob: It's pretty basic—read as much as possible, write as much as possible. Allow yourself to be ruthless as a self-editor, but only once the first draft has emerged. Send everywhere, but only after much research. It's foolish to send 200-page novel manuscripts to publishers who only produce 20-page poetry chapbooks (for example). Treat your reader, and potential editors/publishers of your work with respect.

Read the works of your contemporaries. Trade, if you can. Go to readings, including but not exlusively, open mikes. Know that if you are truly interested in writing, you should be interested in writing by folk who aren't you. And if you won't support others' works, why should they support yours? I've seen too many over the years appear and fade, despite some interesting work, through realizing their self-serving attitudes aren't effective.

And write reviews, dammit. It's a great way to learn about the craft (and for struggling authors to receive free books), but essential to begin with questions such as “what is the author doing, and how well are they doing it?” as opposed to “do I like this?” Opinion isn't critique; it is only opinion.

Cassie: What is the biggest struggle that you come across with your writing?

rob: Time, money. Comprehension. Keeping away from replicating my own work or other's. Sheer faith in the entire process.

Cassie: What thought(s) can you leave us with?

rob: Not sure. These days I'm thinking about fiction, including new novels by Helen Oyeyemi and Dany Laferrière, and about short short poems through works by Sarah Mangold, Pearl Pirie and Rusty Morrison.

I'm also, currently, ruminating on a line by British novelist Helen Oyeyemi, from an article she wrote for The Guardian: “What can I tell you about the behaviour of cities?”

***

Cassie Leigh is a writer and co-founder/co-editor of the soon to be unveiled Irregular Artifact Press. Cassie's short fiction has been published in lapse and looking for trees. She is the two-time winner of the Eleanor Abram Prize for Fiction (2010 & 2011). Cassie was also co-writer for the short film "Apollo Boy" which won People's Choice at the Render This Film Festival.

rob mclennan:
Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of more than twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles are the poetry collections A (short) history of l. (BuschekBooks, 2011), grief notes: (BlazeVOX [books], 2011), Glengarry (Talonbooks, 2011), kate street (Moira, 2011) and 52 flowers (or, a perth edge) (Obvious Epiphanies, 2010), and a second novel, missing persons (2009). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books (with Jennifer Mulligan), The Garneau Review (ottwater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

On 14 October 2011 GBRS presents...

2011-10-06T13:00:00.006-04:00

Grey Borders Reading Series presents...

Three book launches!

Featuring...
rob mclennan (launching A (short) history of l.)
Tim Conley (launching Nothing Could Be Further)
& Liz Worth (launching Amphetamine Heart)

Friday October 14, 2011 @ 7pm
at Mahtay (241 St. Paul Street, St Catharines, Ontario)
free event, donations encouraged

rob mclennan: Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of more than twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles are the poetry collections A (short) history of l. (BuschekBooks, 2011), grief notes: (BlazeVOX [books], 2011), Glengarry (Talonbooks, 2011), kate street (Moira, 2011) and 52 flowers (or, a perth edge) (Obvious Epiphanies, 2010), and a second novel, missing persons (2009). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books (with Jennifer Mulligan), The Garneau Review (ottwater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

Tim Conley is the author of Whatever Happens (2006) and Nothing Could Be Further (2011). He teaches English and Comparative Literature at Brock University.

Liz Worth is the author of Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, which has just been re-released in its fourth printing by ECW Press/Bongo Beat. She is also the author of a strange chapbook called Eleven: Eleven. Her new book, Amphetamine Heart, is her first poetry collection.

This event recognizes the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts and The League of Canadian Poets

GBRS Report - 01 October 2011

2011-10-06T11:39:00.029-04:00

GBRS presents... “Another damn poetry reading” @ NAC

Featuring Geof Huth, NF Huth, & Angela Szczepaniak + Laura Woermke's Sick Secret

With only one short week since the opening of the 2011-12 season, Grey Borders Reading Series was back at the Niagara Artists Centre for another splendid night of poetry featuring Angela Szczepaniak (Toronto, ON), NF Huth (Schenectady, NY) and Geof Huth (Schenectady, NY).

Generously sharing the space with GBRS, the night began with the opening reception of “Sick secrets” (Oct. 1-14), an exhibition featuring the captivating artwork of Laura Woermke (London, ON). The collection captures emotion during moments of trauma and struggle in hauntingly vivid colour, and a slightly abstract approach. With this brilliant backdrop thoroughly taken in by the roughly 30 who attended, people began to take their seats and poetry commenced.

Angela Szczepaniak, first to take the podium, began her presentation with a selection of works from her first book, Unisex Love Poems, whic endearingly explored humourous and unfortunate advice on dating. She concluded a few a poems from her upcoming book, The QWERTY Institute (annual report), which will be available from BookThug sometime this fall. These poems focused on the curious, sometimes bizarre fonts found within some the world’s most popular word-processing programs.

NF Huth, who introduced herself casually as Nancy, was next to present and began with selections from her first book, Radiator, which portrays everyday occasions with complex anxieties in a beautiful and intelligent flow of images. With the occasion also marking the launch of her most recent publication, 3 Words (published by serif of nottingham editions), she appropriately closed with selections from this collection.

After a brief beverage break, the night wrapped up with an stunning performance by Geof Huth, entitled “The Disappointments of Language” which included single-word poems and (un)intelligible and intricate sound poems that linked to visually projected words and photographs. This eclectic selection and Huth's keen improvisation collated into a confident, engaging and quirky performance.

Yet another dazzling final performance concluded Grey Borders Reading Series' second evening of the season. We capped off the night with casual conversation and many visits to the table donning publications of all performing artists. With two successful shows complete and another approaching (on Oct. 14 at Mahtay Café): the Grey Borders Reading Series 2011-12 season is on a roll!

(Photos and report courtesy of Amanda Ann Roth)

GBRS REPORT: 23 September 2011

2011-10-02T15:56:00.010-04:00

The unexpected sound of bagpipes caught the attention of those who attended The Grey Borders Reading Series inaugural event of the 2011-12 season, which took place at the Niagara Artists Centre in St. Catharines on Sept. 23. The source of that sound soon appeared with a procession of the night’s performers in tow. In its usual off-beat way Grey Borders Reading Series welcomed poets and authors from Southwestern Ontario, and a multimedia troupe from Edinburgh, Scotland and over 30 attendees for a night of poetry and music to kick off it’s new year of operation.

(Shannon Maguire)

The first presentation came from the emerging poet Shannon Maguire, a Toronto poet and playwright currently based in St. Catharines. Maguire read a number of her poems, displaying her unique style that got her shortlisted for the 2011 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Her experience as a playwright bleeds effectively into her poetry, with theatrical elements throughout.

(Aisha Sasha John)

Next to perform was Aisha Sasha John, author of The Shining Material (BookThug 2011) from Toronto. Reading a combination of works-in-progress and selections from The Shining Material, John provided a passionate and intimate presentation of her raw, emotional and, at times, humorous poetry.

(Camille Martin)

Camille Martin was next to take the podium. Also based in Toronto, Martin is a poet and author to a number of innovative and accredited works. She presented selections from a few of these collections, including her most recent publication Sonnets (Shearsman), as well as selections from more recent poetry projects. Martin’s quick-paced tempo led the audience through a whirlwind of intimate and surreal thought that was entirely engaging.

(Sandra Alland of Zorras)

After a short break, the night concluded with a high-energy performance by Zorras Multimedia Troupe, all the way from Edinburgh, Scotland. Scottish-Canadian poet Sandra Alland and Belgian-Venezuelan musician Y. Josephine teamed up to deliver a truly original mixture of spoken word, sound poetry, video, language and music. All of these elements were combined to provide a stirring display of human interaction and current events through fervor and humour.

(Y. of Zorras)

All of these elements were combined to provide a stirring display of human interaction and current events through fervor and humour.

Four presentations by five extremely talented artists, poetry, music, and an enthusiastic audience all came together to produce a brilliant start to The Grey Borders Reading Series’ 2011-2012 season.

(photos and article courtesy Amanda Roth)

Grey Borders Reading Series, 1 October 2011

2011-09-27T20:20:00.002-04:00

Grey Borders Reading Series Welcomes...

2011-09-24T09:31:00.001-04:00

Just a week after our inaugural event we bring you another night of stellar poetry featuring...

Geof Huth (Schenectady, NY),
NF huth (Schenectady, NY),
& Angela Szczepaniak (Toronto, Ontario)

Where?
Niagara Artists Centre (354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, Ontario)

When?
Saturday October 1, 2011 @ 8pm

How?
No cover, donations encouraged.

This reading will also be the launch of NF Huth's "3 Words" published by Gary Barwin's serif of nottingham editions!

AND if that isn't enough! There is also a reception for "sick secrets" by Laura Woermke in NAC's Members Gallery @ 7pm. Details here.

Geof Huth's poetry consists of one-word poems, poems written in unintelligible scripts, poems painted onto canvas or assembled within boxes, poems spoken or sung and audio- or videorecorded during the moments of their creation, poems created within nature and left to disappear back into it, and even syntactic text separated into lines. He writes frequently about poetry, visual and otherwise, at his blog, dbqp: visualizing poetics (dbqp.blogspot.com). Each of his poetry performances attempts to use his entire body fully to examine the limitations of poetry. His latest book is ntst: the collected pwoermds of geof huth, a book of 775 one-word poems. His forthcoming book of poetry is AUTION CAUTION, a set of found and manipulated photopoems due out from Redfoxpress of Ireland.
---
NF Huth’s poetry, both textual and visual, has appeared in Listenlight, The Literary Review, Philadelphia Poets, Syracuse Poems and Stories, CWM, The New Post-Literate, and others. sansound, a book of visual poetry, was published by dbqp in 2009.

In 2011 her chapbook, A Space for It, was published as part of the This is Visual Poetry series and uses photos she took in Finland, Manchester, U.K., on East Caroga Lake and in Schenectady, New York. Her first book, Radiator, has been published by Laughing/Ouch/Cube, an occasional imprint of Leafe Press, and serif of nottingham editions will publish her chapbook, 3 Words, this fall.

She publishes found sound at Click Buzz Chirp and photographic images that are both pointy and blue at Pointy Blue (both blogspot and tumblr).

NF Huth lives and writes in a strangely stone house in Schenectady, New York.
---
Angela Szczepaniak has conducted an enormous amount of imaginary research into the fonts of questionable usefulness that populate our most adored office suites. Her first book, Unisex Love Poems, records some of these efforts, along with some of the most ill-advised dating tips on the market. Her forthcoming book, The QWERTY Institute (annual report) is large and unwieldy, and will soon be available from BookThug (fall 2011).

What better way to spend a Saturday night?

GBRS in association with NAC presents...

2011-09-09T12:31:00.007-04:00

GBRS presents... A Q&A with Zorras

2011-09-06T08:36:00.006-04:00

Grey Borders Reading Series presents...a Q&A with Zorras.
Interview conducted by Phil Miletic over email (25 August 2011).

Zorras will be performing with Camille Martin, Aisha Sasha John, and Shannon Maguire on Friday 23 September 2011 at the NAC. Click here for more details.

Zorras Multimedia Troupe:
Scottish-Canadian poet Sandra Alland and Belgian-Venezuelan musician Y. Josephine formed the multimedia performance troupe, Zorras, in Edinburgh in 2007. They quickly became known for their unique bilingual mixture of text, sound poetry, percussion, singing, electric bass, guitar, megaphones and projected images. Zorras inject passion and humour into both personal experiences and cutting observations of our troubling times. The result is strangely alluring musical stories.

Q: For those who don’t know: what does Zorras mean? What does it mean to you? (Why did you choose it?), and how would you like the name Zorras mean to the audience?

“Zorras” is a Spanish word that has several meanings. The literal or primary meaning is “female fox” (or “vixen”). “Zorra” is also commonly used to mean “slut” – if you Google Zorras you’ll find a tonne of porn (though now you’ll also find poetry, music and film).

So you have, on the one hand, the male fox or “Zorro”, who is a superhero – and on the other hand, the dirty, sexually promiscuous female. We decided to call ourselves Zorras because we wanted to be our own superheroes, and to reclaim yet another word with a negative context. And also because on the night of our first rehearsal in Edinburgh we saw a beautiful fox just chilling in a park. Urban foxes lead high-risk and short lives in the UK – people hunt them down or run them over. But they are resilient. Zorras is made up of people who identify as queers, genderqueers, crips, women, migrants, poor and/or people of colour. So we feel a certain kinship.

Q: Sandra and Y: it says in the Zorras wikipedia bio that upon hearing each other at the Who’s Your Dandy event, you immediately took to each other and formed Zorras. What of each other’s performances drew you to form Zorras and what were you hoping to create out of each other’s respective creative talent?

Y: I’m a bit on the moon sometimes, so I didn’t know Sandra was a poet until she performed that night. The way she played with her breathing, and the shapes and textures of her poems was very rhythmic. As she was reading, I kept hearing percussion noises in my head, which hadn’t happened before while watching someone who wasn’t a musician. It made me think we should work together.

Sandra: I had a poetry band in the 90s in Canada (Stumblin’ Tongues, with Andra Simons and the Kien Brothers). It was a brilliant ensemble that only broke up because of immigration issues. I haven’t wanted to work with a musician since then, as I find poetry with music can be too random, the music just a way to fill in space. I don’t know, it’s like the French expression for falling in love: “un coup de foudre”. Lightning strikes. When I heard Y sing and play cajón, I was blown away by her skill. But also there was something about the way she interacted with the other musician that led me to believe she had a different kind of ear. I imagined true collaboration. And that’s what I got.

Q: Zorras initially began as a music duo. What motivation was there behind adding Ariadna to the roster transforming a “music duo” to a “multimedia group”?

Zorras were a duo but we were never really a music duo; we were always multimedia. Sandra performed or read text, and also created slides and video for live shows. Y made music and sang. The motivation for adding Ariadna’s visual work to Sandra’s in some of our shows was twofold: Ari’s art is superb, and we were overwhelmed with work (creative, technical and administrative). When possible, Ariadna operates our shows like a stage manager.

What Ariadna has also brought to the group, though, is fresh ideas and different ways of thinking. She’s more technical than us, has more of that kind of knowledge. And she’s really good at getting brilliance out of a shite piece of equipment. Also, with the extra person and therefore extra room to breathe, we were able to focus more on truly integrating the various aspects of Zorras.

Q: What artists have you collaborated with? Are there any artists you would like to collaborate with? Any specific Canadian?

Sandra and Y collaborate all over the place, but not that often as Zorras. Our collaborations besides Ariadna are with writer and oboist Nathan Gale for a live performance about (dis)ability in Edinburgh and Birmingham this autumn, with Glasgow’s thiscollection to adapt a poem by Edinburgh’s Brian McCabe, with Edinburgh’s Screen Bandita/Filmhouse for a super-8 stock-footage performance night, and with guitarist Holly Hayes for our recent short film shot in London, El Villano (“vi-ja-no”) / The Villain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw93-1SpyWM&feature=channel_video_title
Two of these were commissions, and two were accidental.

Wish list? Hmmmmm. Me'shell Ndegeocello. Camille, the French singer. She and her band make their music mainly with mouth-sounds. Miranda July. Bootsie Collins. Chavela Vargas. Maybe Tracey Emin, though she’s leaning nastily towards the right lately. Can we name dead people? Frida Kahlo. Lhasa De Sela. Tracy Wright. Janis Joplin. bp nichol.

Other Canadians (alive): Tagaq, LAL, Bluemouth Inc., Gein Wong, Naila Keleta Mae, Sook Yin Lee.

It’s hard to answer, as for us the best collaborations are things that spring up accidentally, with people we really trust. So even if someone is an amazing artist, it could turn out that we’re better off admiring them from afar ;-)

Q: With cultural backgrounds from around the world, what drew you to Edinburgh?

Ha! Well, Sandra is half-Glaswegian and wanted to go to Glasgow for a year – but ended up getting a job in Edinburgh. Y was running away from her then-girlfriend’s husband in England. In both cases it was supposed to be very temporary, but then a lot of rubbish happened (including Y ceasing to exist according to both her countries – but that’s a tale for another day). And here we are, more than four years later…

As for Ariadna, she is notoriously secretive, so she won’t say why she’s here.

Q: Kevin Williamson had said that you “have been like a breath of fresh air in Edinburgh’s poetry scene.” Call this a two part Q: Can you, for those like me who aren’t familiar with the Edinburgh poetry scene, describe the state of the Edinburgh poetry scene and why you might be considered a breath of fresh air?

Sandra: Edinburgh is a small place, despite being a UNESCO “City of Literature”. It also has a constantly fluctuating population – it’s a university city, and it hosts the Festival (which doubles the population every August); this means things get started, but then people leave.

There wasn’t much I could find when I first arrived, but now there’s poetry everywhere. One thing that you can view as good or bad, depending on your tastes, is that the UK in general is a bit obsessed with spoken word right now. I think people over here have been trapped by literary history, maybe more so than people on Turtle Island… by that, I mean it’s still really normal (and often expected) to compose your poetry in rhyme. Spoken word is seen as a nice break from that – it’s also viewed politically as a Screw You to the establishment.

But there are actually quite a few poets who are working in more (for lack of a better word) experimental forms on the page and stage. I can name about 20 poets in this vein who inspire and amaze me. I’m not sure what Kevin means exactly, but I think it’s mainly about the fact that there are simply very few of us here. So when someone new comes in – it’s not a statement on quality. It’s definitely not, “Thank Gawd you came here because everyone sucks”. It’s more like, “We’re thrilled you came here because we were just getting a wee bit bored with each other.” Artists need people to play with.

I think Kevin’s statement also maybe has to do with intermedia work, which is historically a bigger part of the landscape in Toronto than in Edinburgh. I grew up at Toronto’s Theatre Centre, Rhubarb! Festival, and SummerWorks Festival. It was a very unique education. Ariadna is a student of the recently-invented Intermedia Studies, and Y is one of those people who seems to have been born able to master all art forms. We come from different parts of the world and different cultures, so mash it all up and the art we make is bound to be a bit wacky.

Q: Any main inspirations that influence your work (film, music, poetry, fiction, photography, etc.) individually, and may there be a specific few for Zorras as a whole?

See answer to collaborative wishes. Add Samuel Beckett. Andra Simons. Karen Miranda Augustine. Rachel Zolf. d’bi.young. Virginia Woolf. Buster Keaton. Yoko Ono. bill bissett. Stuart Ross. Claude Cahun. Monique Mojica. Anna Camilleri.

Q: Tell me about Cachín Cachán Cachunga! What brought about the CCC?

Ah, the gay scene. Well, it’s just that. In Edinburgh, there are gay bars. There is very little culture associated with these bars, just uhn chicky uhn chicky music and karaoke, and money. Queer and trans people, people of colour, migrants, working class and people with disabilities don’t always feel welcome in a lot of these spaces. And then there’s the fact that Scotland is still a very religious place, where fundamentalist Christians protest outside plays written by trans people, where public art galleries censor queer work. Even in cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow.

So basically we wanted to create a space where people from our various communities felt welcome and safe. And to create a really great multimedia event that showcased the people we were meeting who had incredible talent – but were mostly being ignored because of their various differences.

Q: Could we see Cachín Cachán Cachunga! in Canada or something like it hosted by Zorras?

Sandra: Yes, most definitely. If someone pays us ;-) But to be honest, I’m not sure how much somewhere like Toronto, for example, needs a Cachín. Then again, when I think of the calibre of the work we’re presenting, maybe the original impetus for forming Cachín is less relevant in that context.

Q: What keeps Zorras going, what keeps Zorras together?

Love, art and whiskey.

Q: Are there any other projects planned for the future for Zorras or any one of you individually that the Niagara region should be keep their ears perked for?

Not yet, but we’re working on it.

Q: Why avocados?

Avocados are probably the most delicious food on earth. In places like the UK, avocados are among the most expensive foods. Even when you splurge to buy them, they are usually rotten or so unripe that they go rotten anyway. So we don’t get a lot of avocado action around here.

Grey Borders Reading Series Proudly Presents...

2011-08-24T18:30:00.005-04:00

The Grey Borders Reading Series is proud to announce the inauguration of the 2011-2012 Season...

Featuring...
Zorras Multimedia Troupe (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Camille Martin (Toronto, Ontario)
Aisha Sasha John (Toronto, Ontario)
Shannon Maguire (Toronto/St Catharines, Ontario)

Time: 7 pm

Date: September 23, 2011

Place: Niagara Artists Centre (354 St. Paul Street, St Catharines, Ontario)

Admission: Free! (donations are welcome)

Bios:
Zorras Multimedia Troupe:
Scottish-Canadian poet Sandra Alland and Belgian-Venezuelan musician Y. Josephine formed the multimedia performance troupe, Zorras, in Edinburgh in 2007. They quickly became known for their unique bilingual mixture of text, sound poetry, percussion, singing, electric bass, guitar, megaphones and projected images. Zorras inject passion and humour into both personal experiences and cutting observations of our troubling times. The result is strangely alluring musical stories.

In summer of 2009, Zorras were joined by Italian-Argentine photographer and filmmaker, Ariadna Battich, who together with Alland creates slides and video for Zorras. The images enhance the performance onstage, sometimes becoming the main focus of the show. Check this link for more info:
http://www.blissfultimes.ca/zorrasbio.htm

Camille Martin:
Camille Martin is the author of *Sonnets* (Shearsman), *Codes of Public Sleep *(BookThug), and *Sesame Kiosk* (Potes & Poets). Recent poetry projects: “Looms,” a collection of layered narratives, and “The Evangeline Papers,” a poetic sequence based on her Acadian/Cajun heritage and her participation in archaeological digs at an eighteenth-century village in Nova Scotia (finds: ancestral pipes and wine bottles).
Her website: <http://www.camillemartin.ca/>
Her blog: <http://rogueembryo.wordpress.com/>

Aisha Sasha John:
Aisha Sasha John is the author of The Shining Material (BookThug 2011) and curator of the online gallery BOOM FOR REAL (hugetime.tumblr.com). Currently, she’s working on a novel-in-verse called Anyone Else’s Velvet.

Shannon Maguire:
Shannon Maguire is a poet and playwright. She is the co-cultivator of AvantGarden, an experimental text and sound based performance series in Toronto. Her manuscript "Fur(l) Parachute" was shortlisted for the 2011 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Her work has appeared in CV2, Gulch: An Assemblage of Poetry and Prose (Tightrope) and Nightwood Theatre's 4X4 Off Road Fesitval among other places. Her new genres are the academic essay and scholarly digital editing.

For more information:
Blog: www.greyborders.blogspot.com

Twitter: @GreyBordersRS

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=263711223657750

GBRS Media Orientation

2011-07-26T18:05:00.014-04:00

Just a few weeks ago we revamped our web presence. We started by picking out a new and bold design for the blog.

The excellent Demetra Peppas designed us a brand new logo which you can see on the left. To see more of her work you can take a look at her website here.

Then we started a Grey Borders Reading Series facebook page which you can find here or "Like" on the left. Here we'll share content from our upcoming readers, news of local and other interesting literary events, and whatever else we think might be relevant to those who "Like" our page.

We also have a new twitter account. Follow us @GreyBordersRS for updates on our upcoming events, blog updates, Q&As, and other news.

Lastly, we'd like to welcome our two new correspondents, Cassie Leigh and Phil Miletic, who will be writing for the blog, doing Q&As with incoming writers, covering events and more!

Photos from 26 June 2011.

2011-07-06T12:01:00.005-04:00

On 26 June 2011 the Grey Borders Reading Series teamed up with the Niagara Artists' Centre to coordinate a night of poetry accompanied by live video and sketch art. The following are photos from the evening. You had to be there for the video work.

Penn Kemp

Stan Rogal

Marinko Jareb, our night's video and sketch artist

Andy Weaver

Erin Knight

The editor of dead g(end)er and the kooky florist of local art Lindsay Cahill was onsite to document the event. Link to article here.

Thanks to the organizers of the Niagara Literary Arts Festival for promoting the event.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

GBRS & NAC present A Night of Poetry and Video Performance

2011-06-19T17:44:00.002-04:00

Penn Kemp

Stan Rogal

Andy Weaver

Erin Knight

and this time we're adding a live video component by

Marinko Jareb

Location: Niagara Artists Centre (354 St. Paul Street)

Time: 7pm

This event is part of the Niagara Literary Arts Festival.

The Bird is the Word (March 9-June 4 2011)

2011-06-19T12:45:00.013-04:00

On 9 March 2011 The Bird is the Word exhibition opened to the public. The exhibition featured Visual Art and Visual Poetry installations by derek beaulieu, bill bissett, Judith Copithorne, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Marinko Jareb, Travis Kirton, Kelly Mark, Steve McCaffery, a.rawlings, Laurel Woodcock and Hallie Siegel & Matthew Donovan & Gregory Betts. It came together after months of tremendous effort put forth by the Niagara Artists' Centre and the Grey Borders Reading Series. The exhibit not only showcased many talented artists and poets, but sought to explore the territory where language and visual art intersect.

The weekend following March 9, 2011 was a tremendous weekend for the Niagara Community. The opening reception took place on Friday March 11, 2011. The night featured poetry readings by derek beaulieu, bill bissett & Honey Novick, a.rawlings (via Skype from Iceland), kevin mcpherson eckoff, Steve McCaffery & Jeremy Lessard and a musical performance by Gary Barwin. Even Jay MillAr came out with a portable version of Appollinaire's Bookshoppe. Meanwhile, just up the street, Cram Gallery had an exhibition of bill bissett's paintings for display and purchase.

The next morning Gregory Betts hosted a roundtable discussion on poetry and poetics at the NAC. The conversation was brilliant. We discussed issues of improvisation, sound poetry, narrative and more. Keep an eye out for the transcription of that discussion.

For those of you who couldn't be at any of the events or simply want a reminder of what the show looked like I have posted pictures of most of the pieces in the exhibit. Unfortunately, I've had to omit the video art, as I don't have access the videos at this time.

Crvena Zvijezda by Marinko Jareb

Fleur by Judith Copithorne

entrance to th embrace booth by bill bissett

Rule of Three by a.rawlings

Haikube by Matthew Donavon & Hallie Siegal with poems by Gregory Betts

Babel by Steve McCaffery

abbreviations by Laurel Woodcock

Instructions to Wording the Birds by Kevin Mcpherson Eckoff

1. Sense up + down your arms to find a feather.

2. Do not pluck it.

3. Cover your foveae with your eyelids + imagine flying… in the sky… far above here.

4. Conjure up your most impossible, most beautiful hope for yourself or a loved one or the world.

5. Touch the beak of your nose with one finger + your eyelid with another.

6. Allow your hands to return to their normal, boring positions at your side + open your eyes.

7. Now, use your wing-hands to select a pencil.

8. Focus on a bird. One of the drawing-birds in the projection.

9. Pretend the pencil is a quill + the bird is a kite.

10. Write your most impossible, most beautifully unlikely dream inside your chosen bird.

11. Make the pencil fly gently back into its nest.

I don't need a therapist... by Kelly Mark

kern by derek beaulieu

INK by Marinko Jareb

*Sadly omitted: MAR INK CO. by Marinko Jareb, Possibilities Exceed Nine by Travis Kirton & Kurt Lesick, th embrace dvd by bill bissett and the projection of wording the birds by kevin mcpherson eckoff

Thank you to all who put their hard work into the show and to all the artists who were part of the events. Videos of the readings will be available sometime in the future.

GBRS & NAC present A Night of Poetry and Video Performance

2011-06-08T22:11:00.007-04:00

The Grey Borders Reading Series and Niagara Artists' Centre have teamed up again to bring you another stellar night of poetry in performance featuring...

Penn Kemp

Stan Rogal

Andy Weaver

Erin Knight

and this time we're adding a live video component by

Marinko Jareb

Location: Niagara Artists Centre (354 St. Paul Street)

Time: 7pm

This event is part of the Niagara Literary Arts Festival.

***PLEASE NOTE WE HAVE CHANGED VENUES. THIS EVENT IS NO LONGER BEING HELD AT CENTENNIAL PARK***

Bios:

Marinko Jareb:

Marinko is a multidisciplinary artist living in St.Catharines and he is best known for his work as a street artist, DJ & VJ, first embracing and nurturing his creativity through involvement with the Toronto rave and warhouse loft party scene in the early 90's. Marinko is a member of NAC, CRAM International, and runs The Disco Gallery. His work has been published by Mono Records, Helsinki, Finland and in "Toronto Graffiti" (Farkas, 2011)

Erin Knight:

Erin Knight's first book of poetry, The Sweet Fuels (Goose Lane Editions, 2007), was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award. Her second collection is forthcoming from Anansi in 2012. She works as contributing editor for the literary publicity sites Open Book: Toronto and Open Book: Ontario. Erin lives in St. Catharines.

Andy Weaver:

Andy Weaver’s first book of poetry, Were the bees (NeWest Press, 2005), was shortlisted for Alberta’s Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. His second book, Gangson, was published by NeWest in 2011. Weaver teaches contemporarypoetry and poetics at York University.

Stan Rogal:

Stan Rogal was born in Vancouver and has lived in Toronto for the past 20 some odd years. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies in Canada, the US and Europe. He is the author of 16 books including 3 novels, 3 story and 10 poetry collections (the latest being a Selected Works, "Dance, Monster" from Insomniac Press). A fourth novel, "Bloodline", will be published in the Fall 2011, by Insomniac Press. He is also a playwright with several productions to his credit in various venues across Canada. To pay the rent he works for the University of Toronto, Standardized Patient Program.

Penn Kemp:

London Ontario activist poet, performer and playwright Penn Kemp has published twenty-five books of poetry and drama, had six plays and ten CDs produced as well as Canadas first poetry CD-ROM and award-winning videopoems. As Londons inaugural Poet Laureate, she initiated Poetry in Motion, http://www.heartlondon.ca/, and National Haiku Competition,www.homecounty.ca. As Westerns Canada Council Writer-in-Residence (2009-10), her project was the DVD, Luminous Entrance: a Sound Opera for Climate Change Action. Since her first book was published by Coach House Press in 1972, she has pushed textual and aural boundaries, often in participatory performance work. Her "Sound Operas" are poetic narratives weaving sound, imagery and music in counterpoint. Working across a variety of cultural practices to engage her audience, she hosts an eclectic literary show, Gathering Voices, archived on CHRWradio. Having performed in festivals around the world, most recently in Britain, Brazil and India, Penn has returned to live in London, where she edits poetry for Pendas Productions, the small publishing company she and husband Gavin Stairs run. Penn has been heralded by the Writers Union as a one woman literary industry and by the League of Canadian Poets as one of ten foremothers of Canadian Poetry. For updates, see www.mytown.ca/pennletters, http://www.poetrymap.ca/pr ofile.php?PoetID=42.

The Grey Borders Reading Series recognizes the financial support of the Canada Council of the Arts.

Obvious Flap book launch + Jaap Blonk

2011-05-18T20:42:00.006-04:00

The former curator of the Grey Borders Reading Series (or GBRS II), GREGORY BETTS, is launching his collaboration with GARY BARWIN entitled The Obvious Flap.

Also featuring a performance by world renowned sound poet JAPP BLONK.

23 May 2011, 7:00pm

Niagara Artists Centre, 354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines

**this event has not been planned by the GBRS***

In the Soil, 2011

2011-04-21T18:02:00.004-04:00

Niagara's Homegrown Arts Festival, In the Soil, has teamed up with Grey Borders Reading Series to bring you a night of local literati and musicians.

The night will feature poets and writers from the

Brock University Creative Writers' Club

and

Adam Dickinson

with two music acts

Taylor Made

and

THUNDERCLAP

Where? Pan Cafe -- 120 St. Paul Street

When? 6pm, April 29, 2011

$5, All Ages

For more information on the festival and other events click here.

Adam Dickinson – Adam Dickinson's poems have appeared in literary journals and anthologies such as Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets. His first book Cartography and Walking was short listed for an Alberta Book Award in 2003. His second book Kingdom, Phylum was a finalist for the 2007 Trillium Book Award for Poetry.

Taylor Made – is a two-piece, up-and-coming folk group, based in the heart of Niagara. Planted and harvested in Vineland and Jordan, they have been actively involved in the music scene all over the region and look forward to playing In the Soil. Members: Taylor Davison, Nathaniel Rustenburg, Tim Saylor

Brock University Creative Writers' Club – has been running out of Brock University for the last four years and has been providing a sense of community for many of the creative wrtiers there since. The club provides weekly workshops for its members and poetry readings throughout the year.

THUNDERCLAP – Is a Canadian singer-songwriter, muralist and actor. Thunderclap has a distinctive and original voice, describer by journalist Garreth Vierra as sounding like “Sammy Davis Jr. singing show tunes in the rec room with Bon Scott, whilst Jack Kerouac rewrites the lyrics on the fly.” He is as hooky and timeless as the Beatles and as cutting edge as Bjork, Beck, or Buck65. With his intuitive way of involving and commanding an audience, his storytelling monologues and oddly mannerisms create an unforgettable ‘guerilla folk’ experience.

Photos from last night's GBRS event...

2011-04-02T14:08:00.003-04:00

Thanks to everyone who could make it out last night. Unfortunately, Karen Solie was unable to make it to last night's event, but we hope to have her soon.

Here are a couple photos from last night's event:

M. NourbeSe Philip reads from Zong!

NourbeSe and Zong!

A special thanks to the students who read their contributions to On Zong! a small press anthology of student responses to NourbeSe's Zong! Thank you to Dani's Bistro for welcoming us into their space or the evening.

The Grey Borders Reading Series acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

GBRS PRESENTS...

2011-03-24T19:56:00.001-04:00

The Bird is the Word - Photos

2011-03-21T10:57:00.007-04:00

Here is a handful of photos that were taken at the reception of The Bird is the Word. The reception for the exhibition included a poetry reading that featured a number of enormously talented poets and performers.

kevin mcpherson eckhoff flew all the way from British Columbia and he figuratively brought down the house. In the background there is a blurry Jay MillAr who was onsite with Apollinaire's Bookshoppe.

a.rawlings performs via webcast while in Iceland.

Stephen Remus, Minister of Energy, Minds and Resources says a few words about the show.

The talented and provocative derek beaulieu (from Calgary) reads from his latest "How to Write"

derek beaulieu

Gary Barwin plays an excerpt from a score inspired by beaulieu's Local Colour.

A shot of the crowd early in the night featuring local poets, editors, publishers and enthusiasts.

th xcellent nd raging bill bissett dewing th 20 min. "embrace" poem

Honey Novick performs the "embrace" poem with bill bissett

mstr bill bissett keeps raging

The young and talented Jeremy Lessard performing Carnival III with Steve McCaffery.

The amazing Steve McCaffery performs Carnival III.

Steve McCaffery and Jeremy Lessard performing.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this event possible. Thanks to the poets and artists who travelled from far and near to be with us for the night. Thanks to the NAC for involving the GBRS in the whole process.

A special thanks to photographer and film maker extraordinaire Barsin Aghajan for capturing images of the night. For more work by Barsin you can check him out here.

For more information on The Bird is the Word exhibition click here.

GBRS -- M. NourbeSe Philip and Karen Solie

2011-03-13T19:53:00.003-04:00

The GREY BORDERS READING SERIES IS PROUD TO PRESENT....

M. NourbeSe Philip and Karen Solie

Location:
176 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, Ontario

Date: April 1, 2011

Time: 7 pm

No Cover

Bios:
M. NOURBESE PHILIP is a poet, writer, and lawyer whose collections of poetry include Zong! (2008) and She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks (1988). Born in Tobago, she now resides in Toronto, Ontario. M. Nourbese Philip has been the recipient of Canada Council
awards and numerous Ontario Arts Council grants. In 1990, M. NOURBESE PHILIP was made a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry and in 1991 became a McDowell Fellow. A more complete biography can be found here:http://www.nourbese.com/biography.htm#Tobago

Karen Solie:
KAREN SOLIE's first collection of poems, Short Haul Engine, won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the ReLit, and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her second, Modern and Normal, was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in numerous North American journals. In 2007, Solie was one of the judges for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is a native of Saskatchewan and now lives in Toronto.

Facebook event.

Grey Borders Reading Series acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

The Bird is the Word

2011-03-12T08:31:00.002-05:00

Many thanks to all who came out to The Bird is the Word last night, it was a tremendous evening. A special thanks to everyone at NAC for getting Grey Borders Reading Series involved in the show and to all of the poets who came from all over to be in St. Catharines for the event.

The exhibition will be up from now until June so if you didn't get a chance to take a look please do so.

The Bird is the Word and Post-Poetry Roundtable discussion

2011-03-09T18:39:00.006-05:00

The Bird is the Word reading begins at 8 pm on March 11, 2011. The night will feature performances by a.rawlings, kevin mcpherson eckoff, derek beaulieu, bill bissett w/ Honey Novick and Steve McCaffery w/ Jeremy Lessard.

There will be a musical performance by Gary Barwin and Jay MillAr will be onsite with a portable version of Apollinaire's Bookshoppe.

All of this is happening at the Niagara Artists' Centre (354 St. Paul Street) in St. Catharines, Ontario.

For more information on the show and NAC click here.

IN ADDITION

there is a post poetry round table discussion that has been organized by local poet and scholar Gregory Betts.

Here are the details:

Please join us in St. Catharines, ON for a Roundtable Discussion on

Contemporary Poetics, led by Steve McCaffery (Buffalo, NY), Karen Mac Cormack (Buffalo, NY), derek beaulieu (Calgary, AB), kevin mcpherson eckhoff (Kelowna, BC), Gary Barwin (Hamilton, ON), bill bissett (Toronto/Lunaria, ON/?), and Honey Novick (Toronto, ON), and hosted by local poet and professor Gregory Betts. Coffee and snacks will be provided.

Where: The Niagara Artists' Centre, 354 St. Paul Street

When: 10am Saturday 12 March 2011

Cost: Free, courtesy the Department of English Language and Literature,

Brock University

The Bird is the Word in the news

2011-03-01T17:30:00.002-05:00

The excellent Nathan Heuvingh wrote a piece on The Bird is the Word for the Brock Press. Many thanks to Nate and the rest of the press.

You can take a look at the article here.

Grey Borders Readings Series Presents... a Q&A with derek beaulieu

2011-02-28T10:00:00.010-05:00

About derek beaulieu

Author of five books of poetry (most recently the visual poem suite silence), three volumes of conceptual fiction (most recently the short fiction collection How to Write) and over 150 chapbooks, derek beaulieu’s work is consistently praised as some of the most radical and challenging contemporary Canadian writing. In 2011 beaulieu was named by Broken Pencil Magazine as one of Canada’s “Top 50 indie artists of the last 15 years” and in 2007 was the Alberta Magazine Publishers’ Association’s Volunteer of the Year. He has also been nominated as part of The Calgary Herald / Calgary Public Library 10 Calgary Mavericks (2010), Avenue Magazine’s Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40 (2009) and the Alberta Magazine Publishers’ Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2009). beaulieu is the youngest writer in Canada to have his papers collected in extensio by Simon Fraser University’s Contemporary Literature Collection. Publisher of the acclaimed smallpresses housepress (1997–2004) and no press (2005–present), and former editor of filling Station, dANDelion, endNote, Speechless and The Minute Review, beaulieu has spoken and written on poetics nationally and internationally. His first volume of criticism, Seen of the Crime, is forthcoming from Snare Books. beaulieu has taught at the University of Calgary and with the Calgary Board of Education and currently teaches at Mount Royal University. He can be found online at www.derekbeaulieu.wordpress.com.

Eric Schmaltz: "The Bird is the Word" is a group exhibit of visual artists who work with text and poets who work within visual and concrete poetry practices. There is some overlap. For example, Kelly Mark (one of the visual artists in “The Bird...”) and yourself both work with letraset and at first glance look quite similar. Are there differences between the disciplines or are the two worlds more similar than we may think?

derek beaulieu: Kelly Mark and I do have a medium in common -- she and I are both using letraset on a regular basis, and have both published books featuring that material. That said, I think that she and I are using the material from different aesthetic backgrounds (though I would not presume to talk for her, these are my impressions). There are a lot of commonalities between the literary and artistic communities; what intrigues me is how these different communities approach issues of literacy (who can read, where and to what end), meaning (what meanings are aligned with what texts), and where reading is appropriate - that is: where do we, as readers and gallery attendees, draw the line between looking/gazing and reading?

Eric Schmaltz: Much of your visual poetry is created using letraset. Letraset, however, has sadly become a somewhat outmoded technology, or so the waning market implies. Why are you drawn towards letraset?

derek beaulieu: I am drawn to letraset for several reasons. I appreciate the manual application of this outmoded technology. Like rubberstamping or handwriting, letraset much be applied a single letter at a time -- and this practice, to me brings an increased awareness of the physical attributes of each letter. There are no encoded messages or suggested readings in my letraset pieces, but I do see them functioning as texts (as opposed to drawings or paintings) -- and therefore scores for potential readerly processes. Letraset is an outdated technology most typically associated with graphic design and drafting. Now that those fields have moved to more computerized, digital means of creation, their refuse has become more accessible for artistic output (where it can be found at all). Art -- and especially writing -- is something done with capitalism's discarded tools.

Eric Schmaltz: Visual and concrete poetries demand the artist and the viewer to approach language in unconventional ways. How do you approach your letraset creations?

derek beaulieu: One letter at a time. The application of each letter suggests potentialities for the next, much as the alphabet and traditional orthography suggests the same.

Eric Schmaltz: Visual poets are sometimes thought to be mischief makers in literary culture, a group that is challenging the language system and forcing their audience to rethink language and its utility. Do you come to your visual work with any sort radical intention? Are you one of these mischief makers?

derek beaulieu: In my opinion that mischief should not be applied solely to visual poets -- it should be a blanket application to all poets. Poets should constantly critique language and its utility. We expect cutting edge researchers in other fields to be pushing the accepted methods in their fields -- and we should expect nothing less of our poets. "Poet" should be the accepted designation for the mad scientists and crackpot engineers working in the field of language.

Eric Schmaltz: Where do you expect visual poetry to head in the future?

derek beaulieu: Hopefully in every direction but "poetry." Poets -- all poets -- should be looking outside of their millieu for the "future."

Eric Schmaltz: Your work predominantly straddles two ongoing dialogues in contemporary poetics. You recently published How to Write a book of conceptual writing and then you have your visual work which is cropping up online, in print, in bookstore windows etc. Local Colour, however, seems to straddle both spheres. Do you think of conceptual writing and visual poetry as separate practices, or do you see these two practices overlapping in anyway?

derek beaulieu: In both cases I am interested in the materiality of language and the processes of reading. For me, concrete and conceptualism are not so disparate.

Eric Schmaltz: Lastly, in your interview with Helen Hajnoczky you state that “Conceptual Writing is the application of theories from the visual arts which have been ignored (or at least under-represented) in the literary arts and you go on to discuss the Gysian claim that “writing is 50 years behind art.” Conceptual writing seems to be a response to Gysin's proclamation. It is writing's way of making it back to the cutting edge, catching up to art theory. Do you find it problematic that writing needs to draw from theories of visual art to maintain relevance or to even be at least somewhat intriguing? Is writing unable to develop with the same sort of trailblazing quality that the visual art world reputedly has?

derek beaulieu: Poetry continues to suffer under the baggage of accessibility. While it was once one of the highest of forms, it has degraded into a series of banalities. Conceptual Writing does not actually do anything "new" to language, it is simply a discussion around accepted art practices (that are not without precedent in the literary community either, as Kenneth Goldsmith & Craig Dworkin's AGAINST EXPRESSION so deftly demonstrates) and how they challenge our understanding of writing and creativity. Writing IS 50 years behind art -- and is still coming to terms with basic artistic practices, most specifically with collage. Writers who continue to seek out 'originality" and "uniqueness" seem to operate without an understanding of the import of collage, sampling, and that the entire our contemporary culture is formed around repetition, homage, "fakes" and sharing (from DJ-ing and fanflicks to fake Vuitton bags to P2P sharing) ... I don¹t find it problematic that poetry needs to draw from artistic practice; I think it odd that it hasn¹t earlier.

You can check out more on derek beaulieu at his blog here.

derek beaulieu will be performing at the Niagara Artists' Centre (354 St. Paul Stree, St. Catharines, Ontario) at the reception for "The Bird is the Word" on March 11, 2011. Readings begin at 8pm.

The Bird is the Word

2011-02-16T22:13:00.007-05:00

The Niagara Artists' Centre in collaboration with Grey Borders Reading Series Presents...

The Bird is the Word

featuring Visual Art and Visual Poetry installations by

derek beaulieu • bill bissett • Judith Copithorne

kevin mcpherson eckhoff • Marinko Jareb • Travis Kirton

Kelly Mark • Steve McCaffery • a.rawlings

Laurel Woodcock • Hallie Siegel & Matthew Donovan & Gregory Betts

On display from 9 March - 4 June 2011

OPENING RECEPTION ON FRIDAY 11 MARCH 7pm

Readings beginning at 8pm by

derek beaulieu, bill bissett & Honey Novick,

a.rawlings, kevin mcpherson eckoff and Steve McCaffery & Jeremy Lessard.

Musical Performance by Gary Barwin

facebook event.

Niagara Artists' Centre

This exhibit explores the territory where language and visual art intersect through the work of writers and artists. This common (play)ground has been covered by Concrete Poets, Cubists, Dadaists, Futurists, and Surrealists among others. Expanding semantic expression beyond the conventional structures of language includes the exploration of typography as imagery and engages philosophy, semiotics, and political and social commentary. The Bird is the Word will feature poets and visual artists from across Canada delving into the conceptual, spatial, and material presence of the written word. It showcases a multiplicity of media and disciplines including video projection, onsite installation, collage, sculpture, and micrography.

This project is supported Grey Borders Reading Series.

Laurel Woodcock gratefully acknowledges the support of the Toronto Arts Council.

Photos from GBRS #5 - Adam Seelig, Kemeny Babineau, Beatriz Hausner

2011-01-27T00:14:00.009-05:00

Here are photos from the most recent Grey Borders Reading Series event. Many thanks to Pan Cafe for having and to cool guy Justin Morabito for taking the photos.

Beatriz Hausner reads from Sew Him Up

Beatriz Hausner

Kemeny Babineau

The Right Honourable Kemeny Babineau

Adam Seelig reads from Every Day in the Morning (Slow)

Adam Seelig

Here's a link to Justin Morabito's flickr for more photos.

Thanks to...

2011-01-21T10:30:00.006-05:00

Thanks to Kemeny Babineau, Beatriz Hausner and Adam Seelig for coming to St. Catharines for the 5th GBRS event of the 2010-2011 year.

Thanks to Pan Cafe for lending us there space for the evening.

To Cassie Leigh and Emi Morimoto for their fine volunteer work.

(Emi is leaving for Japan in just a couple of days. GBRS will miss her. Thanks for all of your excellent assistance.)

Lastly, thanks to all of those who took the time to come out and share the night.

Photos up soon. The next event is on March 11, 2011. Make a note in permanent marker, its a night you won't want to miss.

White Snails on GBRS

2011-01-21T10:25:00.002-05:00

Guarav, the excellent man behind www.whitesnails.com speaks kindly of poetry, poetry in performance and last night's Grey Borders Reading Series Event.

You can read his review of the night. Here.

The First Grey Borders Reading Series Event of 2011 (The Future!)

2011-01-07T13:23:00.002-05:00

The Grey Borders Reading Series Presents...

Adam Seelig
Beatriz Hausner
Kemeny Babineau

Date:
Thursday January 20, 2011

Time:
7pm

Location:
Pan Cafe, 120 St. Paul Street
St. Catharines, Ontario

Check out the GBRS facebook event here.

Bios:
ADAM SEELIG is a poet, playwright, stage director, and the founder and artistic director of One Little Goat Theatre Company in Toronto. He is the author of Every Day in the Morning (slow) (Vancouver, New Star Books 2010) and his plays include Talking Masks (Toronto, BookThug 2009), Antigone : Insurgency (Toronto 2007) and All Is Almost Still (New York 2004). He is the recipient of a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship for drama, and of a Stanford University Golden Award for his study of Samuel Beckett’s manuscripts (published in Modern Drama). Seelig’s writings have appeared in various journals, including World Literature Today, Poetics.ca and Poetry.

BEATRIZ HAUSNER is a Toronto poet, whose work is rooted in the legacy of international surrealism, especially its Spanish American expression. Most of her extensive translation work focuses on the writers of that literature. She has published her poetry in journals, both in Canada and internationally, in Spanish, French and Portuguese translation. Hausner has published many chapbooks and two poetry collections, of which Sew Him Up is the latest (2010). Hausner is one of the four publishers of Quattro Books and works as a public librarian in Toronto.

KEMENY BABINEAU lives outside Brantford Ontario with his wife and two daughters. He edits an independent literary wag called The New Chief Tongue that appears courtesy of Laurel Reed Books. Babineau's most recent work is After the 6ix O'Clock News published by BookThug.

GBRS #4 - Photos & Thanks

2010-12-02T16:02:00.007-05:00

November 25, 2010 -- Pan Cafe, 120 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, Ontario

Mat Laporte

Domenico Capilongo

Lia Pas

Sachiko Murkami

Thanks to everyone who could make it out on the dreary eve in busy November. It was the last event of the 2010 year for GBRS. We'll be taking a break for December and returning in January 2011.

A special thanks to our volunteers (Cassie Leigh, Emi Morimoto, Justin Morabito and Barsin Aghajan), the NAC, Pan Cafe, the Brock University English Department, the Brock University Creative Writers' Club and everyone else in the St. Catharines community and beyond who helped make the first four months of GBRS 3.0 a success.

Keep in touch for more events in the New Year. Until then...

with love and best wishes,

eric schmaltz

Grey Borders Reading Series Presents... a Q&A with Mat Laporte (conducted over email (November 21, 2010)

2010-11-21T18:09:00.006-05:00

Don't forget to come see Mat Laporte perform with Lia Pas, Sachiko Murakami and Domenico Capilongo at Pan Cafe (120 St. Paul Street) on November 25, 2010. 8 pm.

Mat Laporte just released Demons, a chapbook published by Ferno House. He is presently doing an independent study of chance poetics at York University. He lives in Toronto.

Eric Schmaltz: You’ve just released your first chapbook with Ferno House, DEMONS. I understand that you are one of the co-founders of the press. DEMONS is the first publication by a single author. Tell me a little about the press. Is their a particular vision behind the press? Is there an intention to expand Ferno House in the future?

Mat Laporte: Hi Eric, Ferno House is a strange little demon. Ferno House has a long history for me which is too boring to recount here. There is no particular vision however, I think each of us involved is pretty unique. I think it’s better, in our case, not to have a set trajectory. One time I thought we should have a manifesto or something, but right now it functions best as a decentralized non-hierarchical demon-unit (we’re making it up as we go). I would love to expand and gather more people and influences. I’d like to live on in the glorious stories they tell about us in the future, however, the future is unknowable and I haven’t even had dinner yet.

Eric Schmaltz: There’s also a casual writing workshop “Its OK, Honey” that you are a part of. I got wind of it online. Gathering like-minded people to simply write is a great idea. What’s the motivation behind this idea? Have your meetings start yet?

Mat Laporte: 'It’s Ok, Honey' is so casual it hasn’t happened yet. Spencer Gordon and I have wanted to do this for a while, but so far we have not had enough free time. Q: is this only a problem in Toronto or is business an epidemic that is sweeping the globe? I could personally use more friends and I want more people to like me and I want to have fun. This is the impetus for It’s Ok Honey. Q: Could you love someone that’s addicted to dental floss?

Eric Schmaltz: Are there any other projects or communities that you are a part of?

Mat Laporte: Oh ya, I seem to be drawn to projects and communities. In fact, that reminds me, one time I set out to do one of those positive manifestation exercises from The Secret where you write down exactly what you want your future to look like in the active tense. I think I wrote: “I am part of a creative community that I support and which supports me and we make beautiful-amazing things together.” Now I feel capable of achieving that in different settings. A community (just a few people I guess) for me is the most essential part of living and creating. I need to be in a constant state of talking and learning to feel alive. If my head’s not exploding I’m doing something wrong. I co-founded a reading series and artist collective in Edmonton with Alessandra Loro called SPZW. I used to live in a communal punk house and have been in a few bands. Right now I live with a couple that are part of the improvising musicians community (AIM Toronto) in Toronto and I’m collaborating with them on some things. The first time I ate mushrooms I wrote in my notebook: FIND COLLABORATORS. I interpreted this as a message from some demon or a subliminal message I picked up by proxy from a Colgate commercial, either way it’s become my mantra. Right now I’m part of the student body at York University which is this incredible roving decentralized unit of INSANE. Seriously. Life is not a highway, it’s three subway rides and a woozeebus to the moon.

Eric Schmaltz: What has your experience with the Toronto literary scene been like?

Mat Laporte: Great! I moved here one year ago from Edmonton. I was looking for something and I found it.

Eric Schmaltz: What writers might you say have influenced your writing of DEMONS? Are there particular practices or methods you have at work in the book?

Mat Laporte: That question is easy. Ted Berrigan. All summer I read Ted Berrigan. I would wake up early to read Ted and I would go to bed reading Ted. I think his life and work are a great gift. Everyone should read him. There’s a collection called On the Level Everyday which is a collection of transcripts of talks that he gave at different writing workshops (they read curiously like David Antin talk-pieces only they are punctuated) and within these talks he constantly uses the word amusing to praise poetry. It’s like his highest level of praise he bestows on a poem, that it be amusing. If it’s bad and amusing then it’s good. One of the transcripts is called “Incredible Masterpieces” and you can read it online here: http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/berrigan/incredible.html I think at one point he says that all he requires of a poem is that it be amusing. That might seem anticlimactic or something, but this summer when I was reading everything by him and feeling excited every day about writing poems and being alive because of him that was the greatest thing I ever heard. I started to feel ok about writing things which were not brilliant and that I hoped would make people laugh and feel amused. This isn’t much of a poetics, I guess and my poems don’t look or read much like Ted Berrigan poems, but this was really a gift I got from him and it has made my life much more amusing. I can’t say enough about Ted Berrigan. There’s a really great Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan from University of California Press that Alice Notley edited with Edmund and Anselm Berrigan. It is the most consulted object in my bedroom.

Eric Schmaltz: What sort of thinking (or feeling) went into the chapbook? What’s the fascination with the word/idea ‘demon?’

Mat Laporte: I would say more feeling than thinking. For good and ill, I am a feeling animal. Demons come at me from all angles. It is a catch-all and ever-changing word and I wouldn’t want to ruin it by overdetermining it for anyone. I call things animate, inanimate, myself and others demons all the time. I like the way Daniel Johnston refers to demons in his song lyrics but it has nothing to do with that. Someone asked me why some of the poems are “negative” and I couldn’t really answer...after the fact I thought that of course, part of everything is negative and I want people to like me in my day to day non-poem life so I put that negative part into the poem sometimes. Demons aren’t negative, not at all. Demons are everywhere so they must be necessary. John Cage was asked if he wanted to minimize suffering in the world and he said, no. The person said, don’t you think there is too much suffering in the world? John Cage said, no I think that there is just the right amount.That’s curious. I want to say something like that.

Eric Schmaltz: There are a number of illustrations by Pat Larkin included in the work– very strange, very beautiful. At first glance they reminded me of Jean-Paul Mousseau’s drawings in The Sands of Dream by Therese Renaud, but these are more ornate and elaborate. They don’t strike me as something that is coming out of the Automatiste tradition, but there is definitely a surreal quality to them. Is there a connection between the drawings and the poetry? If yes, what is it?

Mat Laporte: I love Pat’s drawings. We both grew up in Sault Ste. Marie and we both went to the same high school. There’s an unconscious connection. We’re spiritual brothers and demons of different stripes, but I knew that whatever he did would suit this book.

Eric Schmaltz: Are there any other projects in the works at the moment?

Mat Laporte: TONNES. I’m doing this independent study starting in January with Marc Coroux, a professor and intermedia artist who teaches at York. It’s called Chance Poetics and very broadly it’s going to be a study of the historical use of chance operations in art making in every media and then a number of creative responses, also in various media, that address the poetics of chance. This is very exciting to me. I have more project ideas then there is time. Actually a key factor in sucessful chance operations is collaboration so if you want to join in, write me at matlaporte@gmail.com. I want to do things like a collaborative psychogeographic journey over the course of which will be determined by the I-Ching and a blog which destroys itself. More on those and other chance-y poetic adventures to come. Stay tuned.

Eric Schmaltz: Lastly, Mat, how are you?

Mat Laporte: My head’s exploding.

For more information about It's OK, Honey click here.

For more information about Ferno House click here.

Pearl Pirie launches 'Been Shed Bore' and an assortment of beans at GBRS

2010-11-18T13:07:00.003-05:00

Here's a video of Pearl Pirie and her catapult at the Grey Borders Reading Series in St. Catharines, Ontario. What a surprise it was to find out Pearl had traveled all the way from Ottawa with a catapult in her backpack.

Grey Borders Reading Series Presents #4

2010-11-14T10:40:00.006-05:00

Grey Borders Reading Series Presents....

Lia Pas

Sachiko Murakami

Domenico Capilongo

Mat Laporte

Date: November 25, 2010

Time:
8pm

Location:
Pan Cafe - 120 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, Ontario

Facebook event, here.

Bios:
Lia Pas is a multidisciplinary creator-performer who has worked in the fields of music, writing, and theatre. Born and based in Saskatoon, Lia studied music at York University, Toronto (BFA 1995) and completed her MA in Devised Theatre at Dartington College of Arts (October 2006) in Devon, UK. Lia has written poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and scripts. In addition to her volumes of poetry: Husk (JackPine Press, 2008, with artist Ed Pas, awarded second place in the limited editions category of the Alcuin Awards), what is this place we have come to (Thistledown Press, 2003) and vicissitudes (Underwhich Editions, 2001), her literary work has been broadcast on CBC Radio and widely published in literary periodicals. Lia’s current project-in-progress, splanchnologies, is an interdisciplinary performance and text piece exploring anatomy as image. She recently completed her videopoem, susurrations, as part of this project.

Sachiko Murakami's first collection of poetry, The Invisibility Exhibit (Talonbooks 2008), was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for Poetry and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. She has been a literary worker for numerous journals and organizations and is a past member of the Kootenay School of Writing collective. A second collection, Rebuild, is forthcoming with Talonbooks. She lives in Toronto where she cohosts the Pivot reading series.

Domenico Capilongo lives in Toronto, with his family. He teaches high school creative writing, alternative education and karate. He has had work published in several literary magazines including Descant, and Geist. He was short-listed for the 2009 gritLit poetry award and his first book of poetry, I thought elvis was Italian was published in the spring of 2008 with Wolsak and Wynn. His second book of jazz-inpired poetry, hold the note, was published this fall with Quattro Books.

Mat Laporte just released Demons a chapbook pubilshed by Ferno House. He is presently doing an independent study of chance poetics at York University. He lives in Toronto.

Many thanks to Demetra Peppas for making the poster. Check out her website here.

Photos from GBRS #3 - November 10, 2010

2010-11-14T10:23:00.002-05:00

Here's a set of photos from the latest GBRS Event.

Many thanks to everyone who made it out. It was an excellent evening.

Pearl Pirie, reading from her new been shed bore

rob mclennan

some of the event goers

Gregory Betts, former curator of the series

James Millhaven, illuminated

The night's gang

Photo credit to the wonderful Emi Morimoto.

For more lovely photos, check out Pearl Pirie's flickr here or at picture i, here.

Photos from GBRS #2 - October 21, 2010

2010-11-08T11:34:00.005-05:00

Photos from the bookthug invasion that took place at the NAC on October 21, 2010.

The book table.

Victor Coleman.

Michael Boughn.

Jay MillAr.

Meredith Quartermain.

Mark Goldstein.

Many thanks to the readers, the NAC, the volunteers, and all of those who could make it to the event.

Photo credit to the talented Barsin Aghajan.

Grey Borders on the Radio

2010-11-08T10:31:00.001-05:00

Grey Borders Reading Series will be on the air with Nathan Heuvingh at 6pm tonight (November 8, 2010) talkin up the Series and the like.

Tune in to 103.7 fm or listen online at http://www.cfbu.ca/

The GBRS reminder...

2010-11-03T11:42:00.009-04:00

The Grey Borders Reading Series Presents...

rob mclennan

Pearl Pirie

Gregory Betts

James Millhaven

Date:

November 10, 2010

Time: 7:30 pm

Location:

Niagara Artists Center

354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines

905.641.0331

Licensed, pay what you can

Check out the GBRS Q&As with rob and Pearl below.

Q&A w/ Pearl Pirie

Q&A w/ rob mclennan

for more information email Eric Schmaltz at:

es06sg@brocku.ca

Grey Borders Reading Series Q&A with rob mclennan

2010-11-03T11:27:00.005-04:00

Grey Borders Reading Series Q&A with rob mclennan

Conducted over email, November 2, 2010;

Born on the Ides of March in Ottawa’s Parkdale neighbourhood in 1970, rob mclennan is an Ottawa-based writer, editor and publisher, and author of more than twenty titles of poetry, fiction and non-fiction in Canada, Ireland, England and the United States, with work appearing in over two hundred journals in fourteen countries. He has published a travel book on Ottawa (Ottawa: The Unknown City) and a collection of literary essays (subverting the lyric: essays). More recently, he is the author of a second novel, missing persons (Toronto ON: The Mercury Press, 2009), and two forthcoming poetry collections—kate street (Chicago Il: Moira, 2010) and Glengarry (Vancouver BC: Talonbooks, 2011)—as well as the recent wild horses (Edmonton AB: University of Alberta Press, 2010). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books (with Jennifer Mulligan), The Garneau Review (ottwater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). He spent the 2007-8 academic year as writer in residence at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and blogs regularly at robmclennan.blogspot.com.

Eric Schmaltz: Judging from what I've picked up on the internet, you seem to have a bunch of projects on the go at all times. On average, how many projects do you work on at one time and how does it impact your approach to writing?

rob mclennan: Usually a number of things at any given time, certainly. I multi-task pretty well; at least, much of the time. Currently there are a couple of novels at various points of completion, including “boy and girl and man and woman,” various essays and reviews, a couple of poetry manuscripts, including “Miss Canada” and “wooden hearts,” two collections of literary essays, a collection of short stories, and two or three creative non-fiction manuscripts. There are probably others.

There are always a few older projects, too, long started I haven’t necessarily abandoned, despite not actively pursuing. There is the genealogical project of all the McLennan and MacLennan lines throughout Stormont and Glengarry Counties going back nearly twenty years, some three hundred and fifty-plus pages of main document, some forty-five unrelated threads. It all comes, in its own time.

How does it impact? Every work is its own intricate study in form, every project a continuation of this life-long engagement with how to make books. Sometimes the best way to gain perspective on the shape of a particular form is to work completely outside of it. My poetry became much more interesting once I started writing fiction, for example; it removed much of my direct storytelling.

ES: You don’t seem to shy from away from any approach to writing. You write (and have written) fiction, poetry, creative-nonfiction, reviews etc. Do you have a particular genre you prefer to write in? Why?

rm: I have no specific favourites, but simply want to try different things, to keep myself moving forward, and further out. From the late 80s onward, I was focusing specifically on poetry, expanding my gaze to the novel during the mid-1990s, expanding further into creative non-fiction about five years ago. Current projects weave in and out of each genre, and each have their own considerations, restrictions and options, each their own lessons to learn, secrets still to impart; so much about form can also take months or years to gestate before I am able to properly begin on any particular project. Over the past few years, I’ve been more interested in the possibilities of the long and/or straight poetic line, reading Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Lisa Robertson, Sina Queyras, Monty Reid, Rachel Zucker, Catherine Wagner, Sarah Manguso and various others to get a sense of their individual takes on the same. I’ve also been intrigued by the possibilities of the prose poem, but I need to wait until some other projects are completed before I can properly approach that. What is required is a deeper, engaged attention, which I am currently giving to other projects and haven’t yet for the prose poem, among whatever else is rattling still at the back of my head. I have much more reading to do, as well, first.

ES: I understand that you are working on a fairly personal post-grief creative non-fiction project. I think writers, at times, might shy away from such deeply personal projects, you however, have not and that is admirable. What is the motivation behind the project?

rm: Quite simply, I am working my way through grief, nowhere near the post-grief you suggest. But non-mum, certainly. How am I supposed to understand and process such an important period unless I dig as deep into it as possible? And deep grief is not something one wants to carry for too long; it is essential to move through to be able to move on.

I write as a way to try to understand. I am trying to understand.

ES: In a previous GBRS interview Pearl gave us her impressions of the Ottawa writing scene. Could you describe your impressions of the scene and maybe describe how you are involved?

rm: I’ve been running literary readings in Ottawa since 1991, publishing chapbooks, broadsheets and small magazines through above/ground press since 1993, reviewing since 1993, running the ottawa small press book fair since it was founded in 1994, running writing workshops since 1995, participating in various ways in the Ottawa International Writers Festival since it started in 1997, editing book-length projects for other publishers since 1998, blogging since 2003, editing/publishing ottawater since 2005, and editing/publishing Chaudiere Books since 2006. I’d say that’s pretty involved.

The Ottawa literary scene, as I’ve been aware, used to have these massive periods of exodus, considering our lack of publishing, funding, media and other opportunities. During the 1990s, we lost such as Rob Manery, Louis Cabri, Tamara Fairchild, James Spyker, Catherine Jenkins, Warren D. Fulton, Stephanie Bolster and a whole bunch of others. Through the invention of the writers festival and other considerations, writers have had a few more reasons to continue, a few more reasons to stay, and it makes it far easier to sustain a community when there is a real sense of continuity. Any city would be proud to have encouraged and developed the works of such as Pearl Pirie, Max Middle, Ian Roy, Stephen Brockwell, Gwendolyn Guth, Marcus McCann, Michelle Desbarats, Nicholas Lea, David O’Meara, Elisabeth Harvor, Craig Poile, William Hawkins, Roy MacSkimming, Clare Latremouille, Anita Dolman, Amanda Earl, Sandra Ridley, Cameron Anstee and the late Norman Levine, as well as those others who have appeared from other points over the years, including Monty Reid, John Metcalf, Elizabeth Hay, Chris Turnbull, Karen Massey, the late John Newlove, Shane Rhodes and jwcurry.

I’d say we’re thriving. Where might we go next?

ES: Recently, I was in a conversation about alternate spellings of writers’ names, or how certain letters are preferred to be lowercased/uppercased. Why do you choose to have your name presented in lowercase lettering?

rm: I think it looks better, and it was a way to differentiate myself from the rest of the clan in my early 20s. Originally it was meant as a way to make all of this writing less about me as the author and more about the writing itself, so I have been frustrated that, for others, it so often becomes a distraction; these days, I figure I haven’t any reason to change it back, so it stays.

ES: You are also co-founder of Chaudiere Books which is based in Ottawa. Can you tell me about the vision behind Chaudiere? Is there anything that makes the project particularly unique?

rm: Chaudiere Books, run by poet and screenwriter Jennifer Mulligan and myself, works to counter so many other publishing enterprises in Ottawa that appear to be national in scope, overlooking so much of the local. Publishers that paid attention to the local over the years—and I’m specifically thinking, as I did as we founded the press, Turnstone in Winnipeg, Vehicule in Montreal and Arsenal Pulp in Vancouver—have not only helped showcase the cities in which they live, but encourage and shape such as well. I think as the capital, we should be allowed the same options. Chaudiere works to focus on the local, but not ignore other writing, either. Otherwise we would be the same problem but in an opposite direction. I’d say, with books produced and forthcoming by Monty Reid, Andrew Suknaski, Pearl Pirie, Joe Blades, Marcus McCann, Anne Le Dressay, Nicholas Lea, Clare Latremouille and Michael Bryson, as well as a couple of Ottawa-specific anthologies, we’ve done pretty well so far. So far.

ES: Are there any other major (or not so major) publishing projects you are involved in? Can you tell us about them?

rm: Other projects? I’ve been editing three titles for Guernica, the perpetually-forthcoming John Newlove: Essays on His Works, George Bowering: Essays on His Works and Andrew Suknaski: Essays on His Works, as well as a collection of essays by Andrew Suknaski still seeking a home. This past June, Swiss online pdf journal Dusie released an issue I edited of Canadian poetry, which was pretty cool. There are a couple of other irons in that fire, but most are too early to talk about. Let’s get them Guernica manuscripts out of my apartment first, and then we’ll talk.

For above/ground press, I recently took on some chapbook manuscripts from Monty Reid, Chris Turnbull, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Lary Bremner and Ross Brighton I’m pretty excited about. That should keep me busy for the next couple of months. I’ve also been wanting to do a chapbook by Natalie Zina Walschots for a while, currently waiting on a manuscript from her.

ES: Your blog, http://robmclennan.blogspot.com/, is maintained quite rigorously and it seems to be an outlet for many literary things. Does your blogging impact your writing in any way?

rm: I’ve always considered reviewing and writing essays an essential part of my writing practice. Apart from working directly on my own compositions, it’s a way of learning about writing on a deeper level, digging further into someone else’s work; to understand, in order to be able to discuss in any constructive or meaningful way. It helps me become a better reader.

ES: Lastly, rob, do you have a favourite kind of chocolate?

rm: My answer wouldn’t be nearly as detailed as Pearl Pirie’s. I favour the low-end chocolate bars found in drug stores or convenience store shelves. Mr. Big. Coffee Crisp. Nothing terribly fancy, really. I love those waxy Easter confections, they remind me so much of sweet youth.

photo credit to: jenn farr

Don't forget to check out rob mclennan's performance at NAC on November 10th with Pearl Pirie, Gregory Betts and James Milhaven. For Details, click HERE.

Q&A with Pearl Pirie

2010-10-30T09:40:00.012-04:00

Grey Borders Reading Series proudly presents...

A Q&A with Pearl Pirie

Don't forget to come check out her performance at NAC on November 10th with rob mclennan, Gregory Betts and James Milhaven. For Details, click HERE.

Eric Schmaltz: Something general to start: A lot of Canadian poets usually have to supplement their income with a “job” on the side. How long have you been writing for and is there anything you do aside from writing?

Pearl Pirie:

I've been writing part-time and in the cash economy part-time since the early 90s, and for the last 5 years, writing blogs, poetry, short stories (which may never see the light), and doing photography full time. I organize facilitators for Tree workshops. I give workshops (next set in January and February with the Tree reading series). My patron is my partner.

ES: Can you tell us a bit about the Ottawa poetry scene? What’s it like? What sorts of events should people check out if they get the chance?

PP: It's particularly rich and increasingly interconnected city and getting more so with a poetry festival being organized among various reading series.

If you're coming to town, the first course of action is to check out www.bywords.ca for a calendar of area literary readings. There are often a couple a day and sometimes over a dozen listed.

There are loads of workshops and writers circles. There are several literary journals and zines, paper and digital, based here.

The AB Series likes to draw from international banks of sound poetry and have several events a year. The Haiku North America conference was here and the haiku group is lively. There's a spoken word scene that's hopping. The Ottawa team won the national competition and an Ottawa man won the international spoken word prize. There are a few reading series that sample from lyrical poetry and some from more experimental. There's some slam and some storytelling and places where you can recite classics with your airtime.

I sometimes wonder if there are more writers than politicians in the capital.

ES: Who are you reading presently?

PP: I tend to read a dozen books at a time, switching between so each is fresh and foreign to itself. Today, Sweet by Dani Couture, The Punctuation of Thieves by Gary Barwin, Eve in the Garden of Armageddon by Amanda Earl, Poems of Fernando Pessoa translated by Edwin Honig and Susan M Brown, This by Patrick Kelly, Objectionable Perspectives by jwcurry, Acts of Barbarity and Vandalism from daniel scott tysdal, Nobody Move by Susan Stenson, The Niagara River by Kay Ryan, Sandra Beck by John Lavery, Judge Sewall's Apology by Richard Francis, the current issue of Frogpond, and online, some Fosfeni, the Digital Photography School, Jacket, CBC, Vox Populism, Lemon Hound and a couple dozen other windows of sites and blogs.

ES: You have a number of blogs online, all of which have different functions. There is Humanyms which seems to be a space for personal thoughts and traveling and photography. Then you have your poetry journal and a couple others. What motivated you to start blogging in the first place? Has blogging impacted your approach to writing poetry? How?

PP: I have several active blogs, each with a niche. Humanyms was the first one. I started it in 2002 before I knew other people were publicly journalling and posting things. It's a generalist personal blog. I added games of photo of the day, word chains, glad game, quotes and memes and could connect with people without barriers of geography and demographics.

Why? It was, and is, a great way to connect with people who share resonances. Plus, it is easier to google than to physically search for a diary. I have yet to mislay The Internet, but pens and paper dance around and the logistics of photos fit into paper books and needing to be attached...argness.

How they multiply. To see a friend's livejournal I needed to be a member, so in August 2005 I used that opportunity to make a place for only thoughts about poetry, reading notes, drafts where I didn't have to search through the general stuff. I have several hundred posts there now.

I started doing regular food photography as a sidebar at Humanyms there until people said they only wanted to see the food things so in April 2006 I made EatenUp just for that.

This year I decided to explore photography more methodically so am doing a self-portrait a day for a year at picture i, 365-pearl.blogspot.com

Dan Weber, for his 40th birthday, decided to do a year of gratitude of appreciating 365 people in his life with 40 words each. It fit well with my habit of glad game but swiveled the periscope. At 40wordyear.blogspot.com I've done nearly 900 posts and plan to do it until I am 40. It has been a wonderful clearinghouse for the boxes in my head, for reconciling and parsing all the influences of people, characters, animals and moments which have impacted me. The necessity of it being succinct and true and public is useful.

Each blog has a mandate and list of objectives and constraints, and for the most part, separate readerships.

Blogging has shifted my communications generally to be more audience-oriented. I parse things out in smaller chunks, being conscious of what the hook is for the entry point, aware of inclusions and omissions for space or zing constraints. The medium demands more compression (which my biases naturally lean to) and more comprehensible through-line (which my biases need training in).

If you're blogging and boring, people are fickle and don't have an investment to stay. People are just gone and irretrievable to your message. Which also can be true in poetry and in face-to-face, but with blogging it's more visible. There are statistics and comments so you can see the impact of poor writing immediately.

ES: Could you tell us a bit about where Been Shed Bore has emerged from? From what sort of thinking or feeling did the book emerge?

PP: It isn't a book that emerged from one formative experience such dealing with a death book, or remembering childhood. It's not a travelogue of poems, nor of talking around an issue. The poems aren't as diverse as the Between Stations manuscript that I'm finishing up, but they're pretty divergent. Been Shed Bore poems are between months old and several years old. They were organized around the feeling of "red" and poems that migrate and play together.

ES: Were there any major differences between putting together a trade book compared to the chapbooks you have you done in the past? How did the experiences differ?

PP: A chapbook I can do in my timing or pass over and it becomes someone else's timing. The last chapbook used about 10 hours of debating of layout and papers, but the final cut was up to me. This book has so many players in the game that it is more of a collaboration at each stage and a lot more back and forth. There's more to try to make jibe together. It's more like rendering a 3D animation instead of doing a comic strip.

ES: I haven’t had the opportunity to read from Been Shed Bore, but the poems that I have read in journals and online employ humor at times. Some poets seem wary of using humor in their poetry, but it makes your work a delight to read and doesn’t dilute the art at all. Is there a reason you use humor in your work?

PP: Thank you. Glad you've liked.

Anything can devalue art. Too much earnestness. Too consistant. Too inconsistent. Squishy. Why should poetry not include it? As well as everything else, life is absurd and a dark comedy.

ES: Lastly, what’s your favourite kind of chocolate?

PP: Over 75% cocoa and available, or more ideally, balanced with layers of flavours so there's a shift over the tongue. A bit bitter but mellow. Not too much caramel nor smoke from the burnt floater beans. Not tasting of coconut oil. Not: gummy, saccharine, milky, chalky, chemically harsh nor acidic. No berry inclusions. With a melting point close to skin temperature. Shiny, dark. Shade-grown. I would like to try to delicacy of Criollo at some point in my life.

GBRS Presents #3

2010-10-25T08:48:00.006-04:00

The Grey Borders Reading Series Presents...

rob mclennan

Pearl Pirie

Gregory Betts

James Millhaven

Date:

November 10, 2010

Time: 7:30 pm

Location:

Niagara Artists Center

354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines

905.641.0331

Licensed, pay what you can

Pearl Pirie:

Pearl Pirie's forthcoming trade collection is been shed bore (Chaudiere Books, 2010). www.beenshedbore.com. Her chapbooks include over my dead corpus (AngelHouse, 2010) and boathouse (above/ground, 2008). She blogs at pesbo, Humanyms, and a few other places. Poems have appeared thru dandelion, ditch, PRECIPICe, 1cent, Ottawater, unarmed, Peter F Yacht Club, Dusie and 17 Seconds, pooka press and gar. She writes in Ottawa and lives in her head (with outings for chocolate).

rob mclennan:

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of some twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles are the poetry collections gifts (Talonbooks), a compact of words (Salmon Poetry, Ireland), wild horses (University of Alberta Press) and a second novel, missing persons (The Mercury Press). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books (with Jennifer Mulligan), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeense

conds), The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaurevi

ew) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com.

Gregory Betts:

Gregory Betts is a poet, editor, essayist, and teacher born in Vancouver, raised in Toronto, now living in St. Catharines, ON. He is the author of four books of poetry including If Language (BookThug 2005), Haikube (BookThug 2006), The Others Raisd in Me (Pedlar Press 2009), and Psychic Geographies and Other Topics (Quattro Press 2010; also as ane-book) as well as several chapbooks and various bits of ephemera.

James Millhaven:

James Millhaven was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, in 1987. His first chapbook, Edges, was released by Grey Borders Books in July 2010. He is currently working on his second chapbook and a one-act play. He would generally include a witty (or at least half-witty) remark at the end, but this was written at the last minute. Sorry.

GBRS presents Victor Coleman, Michael Boughn, Meredith Quartermain, Jay MillAr, Mark Goldstein

2010-10-06T13:32:00.006-04:00

After a successful start to the season

Grey Borders Reading Series is proud to present a night of (book)thuggery featuring...

Victor Coleman

Michael Boughn

Meredith Quartermain

Jay MillAr

Mark Goldstein

Date:

Thursday October 21, 2010

Time:

7pm

Location:

The Niagara Artists’ Centre

354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines

905.641.0331

Licensed, pay what you can

Link to the GBRS blog:

http://greyborders.blogspot.com

Link to the facebook event:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101061936626482&ref=mf

Author Bios:

Victor Coleman is the author of numerous books of poetry, starting with the 1964 publication of From Erik Satie’s Notes to the Music, throughCORRECTIONS (1985), LAPSED WASP (1994), and ICON TACT (2006). He was a founding editor of both Coach House Press (in 1965) and Coach House Books (in 1997) and has laboured as a film programmer at Queen’ University, the Executive Director of A Space, and co-director and programmer for The Music Gallery in Toronto. He was the editorial director for the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art (www.ccca.ca) and currently toils as a semi-retired free-lance editor. His latest non-BookThug publication, from Shuffaloff/Eternal Network is How To Become A Good Dancer. Early in 2011 The University of California Press will release his (and Michael Boughn’s) edit of Robert Duncan’s The H.D. Book.

Born and raised in Riverside, California, Michael Boughn moved to Canada in 1966 because of his opposition to the war against Viet Nam. In Vancouver he met and studied with Robin Blaser who introduced him to the work of William Blake, Charles Olson, H.D., Jack Spicer, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams and other crucial writers. He spent nearly 10 years working in the Teamsters before returning to school to study with Robert Creeley and Jack Clarke in Buffalo, N.Y. where he received his PhD in 1986. Since 1993 he has lived in Toronto. He is the author of Iterations of the Diagonal, Dislocations in Crystal, Into the World of the Dead, One’s own Mind, and 22 Skidoo/SubTractions. With Victor Coleman, he edited Robert Duncan’s The H.D. Book for the University of California Press. His detective novel, Business As Usual, is forthcoming.

Meredith Quartermain was born in Toronto but grew up elsewhere in Ontario and in rural British Columbia. At UBC she was intrigued by the poetry of Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan. She also delved into Biology, Latin, Math, Philosophy and Linguistics. For a while she practiced law. She is the author of several books of poetry including Matter, Nightmarker (finalist for the Vancouver Book Award) and Vancouver Walking (winner of a BC Book Award). She runs Nomados Literary Publishers with husband Peter Quartermain.

Toronto writer Mark Goldstein has suffered no visible education. An avid small presser, he issues limited editions under the Beautiful Outlaw imprint. After Rilke, his first collection, was published in the summer of 2008. Tracelangage is his second book.

Jay MillAr is a Toronto poet, editor, publisher, teacher and virtual bookseller. He is the author of several books, the most recent of which are esp : accumulation sonnets (2009) and Other Poems (2010). He is also the author of several privately published editions, such as Lack Lyrics, which tied to win the 2008 bpNichol Chapbook Award. Millar is the shadowy figure behind BookThug, a publishing house dedicated to exploratory work by well-known and emerging North American writers, as well as Apollinaire's Bookshoppe, a virtual bookstore that specializes in the books that no one wants to buy. Currently Jay teaches creative writing and poetics at George Brown College and Toronto New School of Writing.

Photos from the Grey Borders Reading Series kick off

2010-09-28T19:31:00.007-04:00

bill bissett

Catherine Owen; the gbrs was the first date of her cross Canada tour for 'Seeing Lessons'

Phil Hall

Terry Trowbridge, a local poet

eric schmaltz, curator and emcee

some of the local literati

the NAC and some of the crowd

Photos courtesy of Justin Morabito. You can check out more of his work here.

Thanks from the GBRS

2010-09-24T17:40:00.003-04:00

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it to the reading last night. Thanks to the readers. It was a great event, really exciting stuff. Photos will be posted on the blog soon.

Be sure to clear your calendar for the next reading on October 21, 2010. Details will be released very soon.

Grey Borders Reading Series presents... bill bissett, Catherine Owen, Phil Hall and Terry Trowbridge

2010-08-29T18:07:00.012-04:00

Grey Borders Reading Series 3.0 is proud to present...

bill bissett

Catherine Owen

Phil Hall

Terry Trowbridge

Date: Thursday September 23, 2010

Time: 7:00 pm

Location:

The Niagara Artists’ Centre

354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines

905.641.0331

No Cover, Licensed

Facebook Event page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143256639046821&ref=ts

~ ~ ~

A new feature of the Grey Borders series is to conduct an interview with at least one of its invited writers each month. Recently, Grey Borders curator, Eric Schmaltz, interviewed bill bissett. The interview and some of bill bissett's paintings have been posted here on the GB blog.

Scroll down to read or, click here.

~ ~ ~

The Readers:

bill bissett

originalee from lunaria transportid 2 erth on th first shuttul from lunaria 4 childrn it was veree xciting voyage bin heer 4oo yeers in lunarian time still hoping 2 undrstand erthling wayze undrstanding is what it is love writing n painting my nu book time from talonbooks n nu cd ths is erth thees ar peopul from blu loon prod wanting 2 xploor all th availabul konstrukts both 4 upliftment n analysis 2 dekonstrukt 2 keep going words n image is meening langwage in self defens love dewing sound poetree

CATHERINE OWEN is the author of seven collections of poetry, her latest Seeing Lessons from Wolsak and Wynn (2010). Frenzy (Anvil Press 09) recently won the Alberta Literary Award. Catalysts, a compendium of essays, is due out in 2011. She plays bass and works as a tutor-editor in Vancouver, BC.

PHIL HALL published his first book of poems in Mexico City in 1973. He has published many titles since then, often with Brick Books. Trouble Sleeping was nominated for the Governor General's Award in 2001. An Oak Hunch was nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2006. A long poem, White Porcupine, was published by BookThug in 2007. His most recent book, The Little Seamstress, is from Pedlar Press, 2010. He lives near Perth Ontario, and is a member of the Writers' Union of Canada.

TERRY TROWBRIDGE is a community activist and poet. He is mostly published through Cubicle Press in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

An interview with bill bissett

2010-08-29T17:14:00.011-04:00

Grey Borders Reading Series proudly presents...

An interview with bill bissett

es - I admire your dedication to your work. You’ve published well over 70 books by now and have remained a relevant and influential figure in the Canadian poetry scene for years. Where do you find the motivation?

bb - motivaysyun i wantid first 2 b a dansr n hockee playr n figur skatr whethr i cud have sustaind aneething reelee in thees fields i dont know but at 10 n 11 yrs i xperiensd a sereez uv operaysyun 4 peritinitis n no longr had strong enuff abdominal musculs espeshulee 2 b a dansr with th freqwent lifting sew in th oxygen tent wun day i decidid 2 b a writr n paintr n that way i cud still xperiens th line mooving thru space n in th oxygen tent i wrote my first storee abt a boy who wantid 2 swim in th ocean byond th powr uv th brekwatr wch his parents wer alwayze warning him abt i undrstood thees warnings 2 b abt th convensyuns uv societee n theyr importans i reelee did want 2 go byond th convensyuns in th storee th boy survivs tho i think he was shunnd by sum familee membrs sum valued him 4 his diffrens whn i rtnd 2 junior hi school aftr almost 2 yeers out uv school n i still had a kalostomee bag 4 a whil aftr nowun wud play with me n i startid making history n geographee books th onlee school work 4 wch i wun anee prizes i lovd dewing thees sew i think ther ar all th bases 4 th motivaysyun what keeps me writing n painting n whn i got 2 vancouvr from halifax n 4 a coupul yeers b4 ye approx 14-18 i was in 4evr awe uv gertrude stein n picasso modigliani edith sitwell ee cummings modigliani manet monet chagal kandinsky matisse allen ginsberg robert duncan denise levertov n manee manee othrs walt whitman earle birney carl sandberg we studied birney n sandburg in middul school n th idea uv being a life long artist was bcumming totalee groundid in me n 2 follow my own path paths uv undrstanding s in my work combine all that with being from nova scotia home uv profound work ethik n my original lunarian home b4 erth that far distant planet from ours n with all th othr yerning strivings n awarenesses that go up in2 th making uv a prson how disapointments ar delt with in manee areas how sucesses ar delt with in manee areas n th kontradicksyuns n smooith glidings n yu get me inside th tarot card uv th artist th pentaculs yes wch opns up th mysteree n th wundr am i th orchestrator uv myself reelee totalee dew circumstances trump evreething we also live in th unknown yes n what dew i know all i know is sew far th motivaysyun 2 make paintings n books uv poetree has nevr left me will it evr i dont know thees ar my self gesses tho in th motivaysyun dept its 4 me not abt will but uv a deep urge i cant n dont want 2 shake off deepr thn th konstrukt we all call me n as th screenwritr dorothee kingsley wrote in th great caruso starring mario lanza n ann blyth mgm th vois has th man th man dusint have th vois sew i feel veree humbul reelee abt what ium allowd 2 dew n that ium reelee abul sew far 2 dew what i reelee love n thats great motivaysyun as well 4 me love uv th all above n mor

es - Do you think of your practice as a painter to be separate from your practice as a writer? Do they work together or is there some sort of balance between the two?

bb - eye think uv painting n writing vereemuch as flames uv th same fire th pickshur in th lettr n th lettrs in th pickshurs th drawing part uv both is veree similar a stroke or line mooing thru space a continuaysyun uv th original wishing langwages originalee piktographik wev seen in th 20th centuree china pictographik writing change from that 2 how it bcame agreed upon strokes representing abstrakt ideas rathr thn pickshur representaysyun assemblage ideas uv looks like ths elephant harvest prson wheet A hous dwelling place proteksyun s th sibiliant serpent 0 0 u hull uv a ship boat yu name it iuv dun kaligraphik images imaging th line in th paintintg th lettrs moan can we get bettr send th lettr o honouree doktor uv lettrs wch how manee all also iuv dun konstruksyun skulpturs lettrs uv longing bleechd by th sun rain n snow naild on thik wood if yu stare at a lettr long enuff yu see th image pickshur uv that gave birth 2 it bore it themselvs elves shelving th parade uv oral sounds caskading n embracing how it is how they ar monstrous n angelik th nuances uv plesyur n aversyun adoring distansing objektifying th soaring refind n raw objektifikaysyuns uv subjektiviteez strokes pickshurs narrativs

ekstatik n meta or non narrativ seeminglee n is ar transe state beings

meditaysyun objekts spirit centrs on th wall in th book similarlee

enchanting each othr th naming n showing n telling n drawing in around n uv kours out 4 th viewr th reedr n in konkreet vizual poetree

yu xperiens overt blurring alianses blurring in folding in n out uv withing n with layring juxtaposishyuning n palimsesting mergers merging uv th disciplines pickshur n word colour paint image n lettr

word phrase vois n eye mouth sound drawing breth

es - In regards to your poetry, you seem to have always approached writing with a unique orthography which has changed slightly over the years but, still maintains the same concept. Your subject matter, on the other hand, has always included a wide range of ideas and topics. Where do you find the content for your poems? Have your sources of influence changed over the years? Also, the orthography you employ privately and publicly appears blurs the boundaries of life and art, our correspondence reflects this. To me, it suggests that you see little difference between life and art. Is this true?

bb - sources uv influens ar always changing th routeen uv aneething helpful guides n can b xcellent n yet uv kours it like evreething is alwayze changing n flux n th routeen can show ths watch fred astaire gene kelly gregoree hines in cotton club ann miller in aneething bach kraftwek konstant kraving kd lang th theem n variaysyuns on a theem uv paginini th storee uv three loves oscar peterson i got th horse rite heer frank loesser guys n dolls variaysyun on th theem s in th routeen how life is n without th routeen th digestiv system can fail art writing can announs ths n also show sum thing byond routeen as our lives centres uv attenshyun homage 2 ideas that reflekt our ideas 4 wishd 4 permanens we clain is n or ar yet thees ar our rorshach projeksyuns i herd recentlee ther may b taste buds in hevn ium sew 4 ths life is alwayze influensing writing n art 4 me also writing n art ar veree hugelee influensing art n writing both ar our approaches 2 undrstanding themselvs n whats inside them n outside them ther is no inside n outside thees ar self protektiv covr storeez konstrukts we go thru th journees uv beleef without art n writing we wud not b abul 2 show n tell thees i like spelling phonetikalee eye alwayze have lovd dewing ths 2 show th sound s uv evreething as veree important part n parts uv th meens meenings uv n stating evn tho all th sacrid categoreez dissolv n evn th reptilian fold may trembul lukilee at times b4 theyr assersyuns sew manee approaches 2 writing n painting think uv them all all viabul

politikul lyrikul narrativ non narrativ vizual sound metaphysikal spiritual naytur his her storikal sew manee ways sereen turbulent rocking ceremonial private evreewher chanting mooving thru how in manee wayze with sew temporaree dwellings we bcum mor n mor

nomadik n evreewher all oftn at th same time time s all th arts moovees danse operas jazz writing books mewsik songs roads air

wayze philosophee states ideas uv countrees langwages culturs religyuns wayze behaviours all kinds uv image makings storee tellings dropping in 4 th banquets pikniks streems magik carpet dreem carpets rides as our guides we moov thru n evreething alwayze changing mooving on

es - A lot of the poets that came out of the 1960’s such as bpNichol and Steve McCaffery are usually categorized by scholars as radical poets or even poets of the avant-garde. Your work always seems to have an unorthodox edge, and the language you use appears to be a means of rejecting the systems we live in, actions like these are usually associated with avant-garde practice. Have you ever (or do you) consider your work to be part of an avant-garde movement?

bb - uv kours ther is onlee no inside n out in an ideel world we ar all living in th reel world th deel world inside has 2 b protektid sew th outside dusint cum klomping in on us with frenzee reptilian fold intolerans uv whatevr human individual freedoms n rites legislaysyun protekting th us from th them thees ar th dualistik binaree nosyuns in th deel world n iuv alwayze wantid poetree 4 me 2 b politikul overtlee in manee wayze whn it wants 2 talk abt thees issews n speek out n up on them sex identitee assemblee gathrings protekting th separaysyuns uv church n state n improoving living condishyuns 4 evreewun iuv alwayze wantid poetree 4 me 2 speek uv thees life or deth concerns 2 b abul 2 speek out abt war b against war ther is no sane govrnment as long as ther is war hurtful xklewsyuns ethnik klensing th condishyuns uv th roma peopul now in france slovakia re canada condishyuns on reservs heer 4 nativ peopul residenshul shools onlee yeers bhind in th past thats still a stain uv disturbans n tragedee poetree reelee needs 2 talk abt all thees things mor oftn without feer n reprisals uv kours ther can b issews uv censorship during th vietnam era ther was a lot uv that n a lot uv push back during th bush era equalee ths is th deel world n life is sew tendr

influensd by wanting 2 breeth freelee on ths planet

poetree can also b abt that tendrness whn love happns ther can b nothing as gud all its attendent mirakuls uv consciousness n all th terribul thngs that can also happn whn it goes in2 veree diffikult n challenging places also poetree evreething can b poetree mattrs

th avant garde alwayze is what postulates bettr evreething soshulee politikulee aesthetikalee mor reeching mor accepting mor enlarging equalizing mor inklewsiv letting evreewun in sew thr is no in in is wherevr we ar th word avant garde has not much ocurrd 2 me as me or peopul iuv workd with its a great idea n is great iuv probablee bin part uv it n peopul iuv workd with its just as a word nevr cums eezilee 2 me in self deskribing we work 4 eqaualitee in all forms all xpressyuns all journeez nevr taking th affluens uv anee elite as god givn or deservd if it is ocurring at th xpens uv th lessning uv anee othrs its taking millyuns uv yeers 2 get wher we ar n thers sew farthr 2 go yes look at all th homeless peopul still in canada wun uv th best countreez in th

world sew thers stil a alog wayze 2 go

all th life skills we all grow tord n need 2 keep on th lites all th rules we need in place 2 guarantee human rites n safetees ths is th arena uv laws enforsment soshul working hospials medcares universal n publik all thees networks 2 help peopul n 2 beleev in th end goals th peesful improovments uv evreewuns lives all th diversitee n approaches 4 enjoyment serch n fulfillments in evreewuns lives being happee produktiv lessning all th frustraysyuns

poetree is also delite in langwage langwage play turning meenings on theyr heds working 4 worlds byond dualisms binaree opposits langwage xpressing th manee levls uv being bcumming infinit changing s image lettr play romans btween us passyun lettrs as objekts evreething we can dewing all thees or wanting n trying 2 can marginalize praktishyunrs practise makes us lukilee imperfekt ther ar times whn onlee th mor normativ voices at anee givn time bcum rewardid n thats 2 also realize th onlee reelee best rewards ar th praktise uv th imprfeksyuns howevr thees ar preseevd or describd 4 in themselvs th love uv th dewing th art paintings drawings writing seeing feeling th taktilitee uv working th materials whethr whatevr its calld wch is alwayze changing n societee or th othrs definishyuns uv us wch nevr reelee describe us ar also always changing ar within evreething alredee always in changing s

es - In an essay by Pauline Butling she writes, “[b]isset also became famous later in the decades as one of the bad boys of Canadian poetry when parliamentarians declared his work obscene.” Do you still find that people react to your poetry/paintings with the same “horror” or are you finding the contemporary art world more supportive of your work? If supportive, why do you think there has been this shift? Also, do you consider yourself a “bad boy?”

bb - th contemporaree art world 2011 is mor accepting n less burdnd by th baggage uv th previous time zones such as whats it gud 4 n wanting kontrol uv th depiksyuns in th works ium using th words mor n less reelee its not all ther yet thers a long way 2 go as with evreething nd manee amayzing advances ar being made in all fields

ium not what yu say bad boy nevr saw myself as that who knows sew manee things ar sd n sew oftn helpful n sew oftn represent onlee th view uv kours uv sumwun saying them how rorshach is evreething yes evreewuns view th thing or prson being describd is nevr statikk 2 b ths or that as undr a scope me iuv alwayze n now onlee wanting 2 write what ium feeling whats pulling me whats bringing me thru in2 th art kraft skill living beleeving 4 that day sew its mor momet 2 moment 4 re myself

it was shocking whn th rite wing politishans wer criticizing my work uv all partees they wer but mostlee conservativs it did affekt th work i was getting it was a lot 2 dew th necessarree push back it tuk th enerjeez uv a lot uv xcellent peopul they did seem evenshulee 2 back off but th stain was ther affekting school bords chois uv books wher placed in th librarees th fundamentalist christyan n othr xtreem rite wing running a lot uv that show thees wer 4shadowings uv futur dangrs n th dangr is still cumming thru shutting down diversitee xpressyns lives i akshulee was nevr n am still not writing pornographee its amayzing that peopul cud evr think that isint it th witch hunt at that time c 1979-80 they went aftr margaret lawrences use uv charaktrs in her books using sweer words well dont peopul literatur is not proscribd reeding 4 sunday school tho at that time they wer politishyans who thot they cud grow sum support 4 themselvs n makeing an unsafe world uv censure n punishment by thinking sew ths probablee nevr reelee goez aways as it seems 2 b subsiding it can b rising

th artist n writr we keep on writing n painting n dewing th art s

es - Any thoughts on contemporary poets in Canada right now? Is anyone catching your interest?

evree writr ium reeding moovs me ther ar sew manee all th time its a whol world n helps sew tendrlee n wundrfulee howevr its xpressd 2 illumine dark nies n dayze uv anee soul qwestyun evreething n undrstand as much as yu can evreething that dusint hurt aneewun its an infinit world uv human respones undrstandings gifts sew maner dimensyuns uv conscousness xpressyuns beings changing s alwayze tho thr may not b anee 4evr reelee evreeting s is ar 4evr changing yes n art can n duz xpress that in sew manee wayze

For more information on bill bissett's poetry or painting check out his official webpage here.

Interview conducted by Eric Schmaltz.

Images created by bill bissett