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.

The finalists for the GGs (kind of like a Canadian version of the Pulitzer) in Poetry were announced this morning. I served as a juror for the process and am quite proud of the list. Of course there were many more I would like to have included, but I did what I could. Good luck to all the finalists. Results announced in November.

Poetry

• David W. McFadden, “Be Calm, Honey” (Mansfield Press)
• Philip Kevin Paul, “Little Hunger” (Nightwood Editions)
• Sina Queyras, “Expressway” (Coach House Books)
• Carmine Starnino, “This Way Out” (Gaspereau Press)
• David Zieroth, “The Fly in Autumn” (Harbour Publishing)

I’ve been working away on my new books, so I’ve not kept up much here, but two things could stand with some notice:

For librarians in Ontario:

I’ve been asked to speak on blogging and e-writing by the Ontario Public Library Association for something called “RA in a Day”. You can sign up online here. I’m in the morning session.

When:

Friday, October 23, 2009
8:30 am – 4:30 pm ET

Where:

Ontario Bar Association,
20 Toronto Street, 2nd
Floor, Toronto

For writers in Newfoundland:

I’ve been asked to speak to the Writers’ Alliance of NL AGM about… internet writing, I think. You can register here.

When:

Friday, October 30 – Sunday, November 1

Where:

Battery Hotel & Suites
100 Signal Hill Road
St. John’s

I’m reading on Wednesday in hometown St. John’s as part of the Writers’ Alliance’s reading series. I’ll be reading with young buck Stephen Rowe, whose first book I edited for Nightwood Editions, so it should be a nice family affair. Please come out if you can.

Writers Alliance Monthly Readings Featuring: George Murray and Stephen Rowe
Wednesday, July 22, 7:00pm

Railway Coastal Museum
495 Water Street
St. John’s, NL
email: wanl@nf.aibn.com
Phone: (709) 739-5215

Well, I’m back from Ireland where the reading at Fighting Words went swimmingly. It was a good crowd and there were some people I admire deeply in attendence. Below is a picture of yours truly at the brilliantly realized Fighting Words Centre with Irish novelist Roddy Doyle and poet Paul Durcan.

Roddy Doyle, George Murray, Paul Durcan

If you’re in Ireland, I can’t recommend the Fighting Words program enough. Check it out and get involved. The people are fantastic and the facilities are top notch. I wish we had something like this in Canada! Perhaps we do and I don’t know. Regardless, I was happy to be asked and pleased to meet such an attentive, intelligent audience. Thanks to Roddy and Sean Love for inviting me!

Just a reminder (typed from a hotel in Belfast) that I’ll be reading in Dublin a week today. All the details below. If you’re in Dublin, or anyone you know who likes poetry is, please note the info below:

George Murray at Fighting Words
(Fighting Words is the charity creative writing centre run by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love)
July 14, 2009

Fighting Words
Behan Square
Russell St.
Dublin 1
Ireland Email: info@fightingwords.ie and
Phone: +353-(0)1-894-4576

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)

I’ll be reading twice in July, first in Dublin and then back here in St. John’s. Info below. If you happen to be in one of these two places near those dates, I’d love to meet you!

George Murray at Fighting Words
(Fighting Words is the charity creative writing centre run by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love)
July 14, 2009

Fighting Words
Behan Square
Russell St.
Dublin 1
Ireland Email: info@fightingwords.ie and
Phone: +353-(0)1-894-4576

and

Writers Alliance Monthly Readings Featuring: Stephen Rowe and George Murray
Wednesday, July 22, 7:00pm

Railway Coastal Museum
495 Water Street
St. John’s, NL
email: wanl@nf.aibn.com
Phone: (709) 739-5215

I am reading with Toronto poet David Seymour this coming Monday, May 18 at 8:00pm at the Ship Inn in St. John’s. David is in town getting some peace and quiet and working on a new ms., so of course the locals have forced him into a reading. We need to take our opportunities when they come. I was pleased to be asked to partner with him for this event and hope to provide a nice opening act for a very solid poet opening into the prime of his work.

GEORGE MURRAY and DAVID SEYMOUR
“A Brace of Poets” reading

Monday, May 18th, at 8 p.m.
The Ship, Duckworth Street, St. John’s

Reading sponsored by Birch-Broom-in-the-Fits. These two writers are among the rising generation of poets in Canada today. Come to listen; stay to chat. (This will be a great evening of poetry—and wild-haired people are especially welcome to come celebrate this new reading series, Birch-Broom-in-the Fits.)

George Murray’s most recent book, The Rush to Here, was shortlisted for the E.J. Pratt Award (the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Poetry) and is also shortlisted for the Atlantic Poetry Award. Currently Executive Director of the Association of Cultural Industries of Newfoundland and Labrador, Murray is the author of several books of poetry which have received wide acclaim. He has served as the poetry editor of the Literary Review of Canada, and is the creator of bookninja.com, a lively web forum for literary discussion.

David Seymour’s book Inter Alia, published by Brick Books, was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award (for best first book in Canada). He has just completed a second collection of poems for Brick. He was a finalist in the 2009 CBC Literary Competition. Born in Campbellton, New Brunswick, Seymour grew up in Milton, Ontario. He now lives in Toronto where he writes and works in film. (Among the many tantalizing details of his bio note in Inter Alia are these: he has sailed on a tall ship, photo-doubled for Russell Crowe, worked as casting director for several films.)

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.