Book: Aphorisms, Fall 2010

I’m pleased to announce my next book will appear in Fall 2010 with ECW Press. It’s a book of aphorisms, which you don’t see too often these days, but they’ve been building up for a few years and the response to them at readings and such has been great. At some point I’ll post some here as a sample.

Publications: Riddle Fence and New Welsh Review

November will see the publication of three new poems in two new(ish) journals. Riddle Fence will carry “The Snails” and “Esau and I” and The New Welsh Review from the UK will carry “Song for Memory”. Two great examples of regional magazines that also maintain national and international points of focus.

Article: Summer Reading List in the National Post

The National Post asked a bunch of literary types to pick summer reading lists. Here’s mine! A few things got edited out after I filed it, but it’s largely a good list, and one I believe in.

There is no summer for me. When I move house, I plug my wires into new walls. When the seasons change, I change what I wear at the computer. It’s a terrible life, but it’s what I’ve made. Furthermore, I seldom have the luxury of choosing what to read. Between my blogging and critical obligations, as well as the stack of friends’ neglected manuscripts on my desk, I can barely even pay attention to what’s actually out there to read for fun.

That said, on those rare occasions when I do allow a few rays from the sun to fry my pale Scots-Irish skin — for the sake of vitamin D, I tell myself, or to help the environment by reflecting more sunlight back into space — I like to have a variety of books that will challenge and delight.

Which ones I choose are based on a simple formula: entertainment + compulsion + delight = good read. What makes a book entertaining? You don’t want to put it down. What makes a book compelling? It challenges you to think. What makes a book delightful? When you do put it down you can’t stop thinking about it. Of course, you can’t tell if a book qualifies until after you’ve read it, which makes deciding which books to pack a risk.

With that in mind, I have a few recommendations (all of which steer clear of conglomerate press blockbusters — you can find those at the front of your big-box bookstores, right next to the scented candles). All my choices offer serious entertainment along with healthy doses of literary inquisitiveness and love of language.

(con’t)

Audio: 30 in 30

The stalwart lass who runs Seen Reading (of which Bookninja was an early fan) has asked 15 poets to record themselves reading one of their own and a cover for the month of April, providing 30 poets in 30 days. I read “Crosses” from The Rush to Here and Geoffrey Hill’s “September Song” from King Log. My computer apparently can’t make good recordings for the life of it, so I had to get a pal to sneak me into CBC to do it on the sly. Hope you enjoy, and if you haven’t yet, buy The Rush to Here here.

Publication: Alhambra Poetry Calendar

Last year a poem from The Rush to Here appeared in the international poetry calendar from Alhambra, and I was pleased to be asked to be part of it. It’s always chock full of (350+) great poets writing in English (there are French, German and Italian versions of the calendar available also), so I was doubly pleased to be asked again this year. A poem I published last winter in London Magazine will be reprinted in this year’s calendar, but on what date I have no idea. Last year I was in mid-January. It was kind of fun to flip the pages day-by-day, all these great poems flying by, and then suddenly come upon one of your own. I urge you to buy it, or put it on your gift list, and enjoy it throughout 2009. It’s publication date is October 22.

Anthologies: Jailbreaks and Open Wide a Wilderness

A long while ago, Zach Wells contacted me about using a sonnet from The Rush to Here in his upcoming anthology of Canadian sonnets called Jailbreaks. Well, the anthology has finally up and come. And it’s not only a beautiful looking book, it’s a very interesting rattlebag of poetry more concerned with the poem at hand than the name brand of the poet. There are quite a few well known poets in here, but more than a few are new to me, and most of the sonnets are new to me as well. I’m pleased to be part of it, but moreso to simply have it. Go get it.

Also upcoming is a reprint of a poem from The Cottage Builder’s Letter in Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems. That one will be out in August.

News: Poem on Poet Laureate’s Site

John Steffler, Canada’s Poet Laureate, has chosen one of my newish poems, “Pareidolia“, as part of his “poem of the week” program at the Parlaimentary Poet Laureate’s website. I think it went up last week, but I missed it. This is how things go.