8th House, Odourless Readings

If this blog were a fish, it would’ve died, by now, of starvation. I’d have fish blood on my hands. Thankfully it’s not at all a fish.

Tomorrow evening, 8th House Collaborations is hosting a really cool event at CineCycle (the coach house at 401 Richmond St, near Spadina) that starts around 9. They’ve paired up a bunch of artists with each other and magic happens that way. I’ve been paired up with a musician named Colin Fisher, and what we’ve cooked up is going to be fun for everyone. There’s a saxophone. (Need I say more? No I need not.)

Later in the month, on Wednesday May 29 at the Ossington, Odourless Press is launching a broadside of my poem “Song of the Seventh Son of the Seventh Son.” Other Odourless authors reading at the event include Zani Showler, Matthew Walsh, and Mat Laporte.

Other things too. I’ve got a bit of a backlog to get through here. One new poem in an online mag called The Steel Chisel. Three new poems in the Winter issue of Arc Poetry Magazine, which is still in stores (like most Chapters locations, and Book City in the Annex, and other places). Three new poems in the latest issue of The Puritan, as well, and if you follow the link, there’s an audio clip of me reading the poem “Ox.” (How do you like your lisps? I hope you like them lateral.)

Anyway, whatever you’re doing on Friday, ditch it and come to CineCycle! It’s gonna be so, so good.

Reading List, January 2013

Here’s something: the new issue of Dragnet went up last week. (The launch was ballin’.) You’ll find a thwack of brand new poems from me, starting on page 27.

For that matter, earlier this month the new Ottawater came out, and I’ve got a poem there too, which is called “Printout Found in Bottle Found in the River Aare” (page 41).

It’s great to have lots of new stuff online. When people were just beginning to publish my stuff several eons ago (i.e., six years ago), it was mostly online magazines. Then, one day, print publications stopped thinking I sucked, and a lot of my more mature work has been featured in some very lovely magazines. The problem there is that, if a person only reads my online stuff, they’ll mostly find older work. I feel like this is a “good problem to have,” with which other writers around my age or career-stage can identify. In any case, the wonderful editors of Dragnet and Ottawater are solving it for me! So visit these magazines! They are just one click away (rather than a walk to your local magazine stand).

Peter Gibbon’s Conduit Canada blog has been posting a lot of fascinating stuff this past week or so. A remarkable new poem from Justin Million (who Ottawa is lucky enough to have regained); an interview with Bardia Sinaee; and the Highway Book Shop write-up I’ve already reblogged.

If that’s not enough reading for you, there’s an interview by Broken Pencil with rob mclennan. He discusses above/ground press, suddenly in its twentieth year. And finally I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to the fact that Amanda Earl thinks In/Words editor Chris Johnson is sexy. Atta boy, Chris.

Notes on the Highway Book Shop, Cobalt Ontario

Reblogged from conduitcanada:

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In July of 2012, Conduit Canada made a brief but memorable trip to our home country. Out of nostalgic obligation, we drifted to the once-great Highway Book Shop. What we found there: a few raspberry bushes, boarded windows and a shredded Canadian flag.

I had heard the store shut down in May 2011, but needed to see it to believe it.  

Read more… 970 more words

Fascinating piece about a place that you wish you had visited.

Pushcart, Dragnet, and other methods of transportation for quirky people.

My poem “Gran Vals” has been nominated by the editors of Prism International for a Pushcart Prize. Here’s a complete list of nominees from that publication. All this means is that I stand a (small) chance at being featured in the annual Pushcart Prize anthology, which comes out of the New York-based press. Prism will also be nominating the poem for a National Magazine Award.

It’s a neat little prose poem. Here’s the song it’s named after – feel free to have a dance party this minute. The ditty around the 00:16 mark will probably sound familiar unless you live in a time before cell phones:

Gran Vals.

In other great news, I’ll be the “featured poet” for the next issue of Dragnet, which will launch near the end of January. Details to follow. Go read Dragnet.

Here’s a photo of a small project I’m working on at the moment. I’ve never taken the post-it note approach. It’s a little fun. But also, it reminds me of that part in “Self” by Yann Martel where a writer spends years covering her entire office with post-it notes towards a novel she’s working on, and then later throws it all into an oil drum and sets it on fire. And it feels good. Whether this winds up becoming a decent collection of poems or a very small and satisfying fire remains to be seen.

Happy holidays! If you are reading this, Mayans don’t know shit.

Quick Zephyrs Blow

How was my weekend? Here are some Instagrams that will answer your question thanks for asking. This is how you blog, kids. Get your ledgers out. This is how it’s done.

Here we see a British person in a cage. What a great way to deal with those. It’s one of the readers from the Dragnet launch that happened Friday night at 2Ninety2. Read the new issue of Dragnet today! There’s a cycle of Patricia Young poems inspired by pangrams:

Quick! Morning kisses, mint tea, a swim across the lake, gentle
Zephyr’s wind: tail end of a hurricane.

Blow the goose shit off the wharf, you adorable
Vexing man, can’t you see I’m smitten, I’m dope-fiend-

Daft. (p. 37)

Then last night was my first Nuit Blanche. I kept to the U of T area, and wound up at a chapel where musicians and singers, stationed all around, could be turned on and off with light switches. The evening delivered.

Somebody activated the cellist.

Event: On Tuesday, October 9 at 8pm, at Duffy’s Tavern (1238 Bloor St West), I’ll be reading a set of poems as part of the monthly Emerging Writers series, organized by Jess Tay. The other readers of the evening include Allison LaSorda, Menaka Raman-Wilms, and Suzanne Sutherland. The bar has cheap PBR if that’s your thing. Show up on time or you’ll be one of many standing people.

Publications: The next issues of Prism International and Echolocation will both be featuring my work, and they’re both due out around now. Prism can be found at indie bookstores all over the place, and Echolocation can be ordered online, or found at the U of T bookstore at College and St George. Both are high-quality university-based magazines that deserve your money that you’re just gonna waste on video games anyway.

The $18 blog post

The new CV2 is out, in which you’ll find two of my poems. One of them is easily the most family-friendly piece of writing I’ve ever been responsible for; the other one is about as family-unfriendly as art gets, and makes me really glad my grandmother has murky comprehension of the English language. For better or worse, the issue is available on magazine racks nationwide. CV2 has posted one of my poems (the family-friendly one, thankfully) as part of the online issue sample. They mucked up the spacing a bit but who can complain. Go spend eight bucks to find out how the spacing is supposed to be!

And another thing, above/ground press is having a sale. Three chapbooks for $10. Because above/ground is so prolific, there’s lots to choose from, so go spend ten bucks. Yikes, I should stop telling you how to spend your money. You’re your own person. I feel just horrible. Disregard everything I have said.

That time I went to Toronto and stayed there.

Goodness me, I’m bad at blogging. I was sort of hoping my blog would become sentient by now and just blog itself, like those machines that build machines. That didn’t happen.

Last month I came to Toronto to see the opera “Einstein on the Beach” by Philip Glass. It’s this four-hour long piece that bankrupted its theatre company when it was first produced, or something. The songs are up to twenty minutes long, and the dancing is incredibly repetitive, and there are no intermissions, and there are snipers who kill anyone who tries to leave their seat. (One of those facts isn’t true.)

Not pictured: confused exchanges between audience members

This was the day after my convocation, and less than a week after my teaching job wrapped up. Aside from lots of awesome people, I didn’t have much keeping me in Ottawa, so what I did was I stayed here. I kept quiet about the plan because, on the off-chance that things went south, I didn’t want to return to Ottawa with my tail between my legs. Luckily things did not go south. After staying on my brother’s couch for a while, I scored a job and found an apartment and bought new shoes and saw a squirrel and blah blah blah. And I did a lot of knitting in front of the television.

What Ben Knits In Front Of: An Infographic

So that’s where my body and brain are currently located. But what about my poems? Obviously, they’re the primary concern. The new issue of The Malahat Review has three of them, and is available at most Chapters locations, as well as many independent magazine shops. Equally exciting, though not nearly as attainable, is the first issue of Conduit, a magazine that just launched in Ottawa a few days ago. Edited by In/Words alum Peter Gibbon from Australia, this magazine has no real online presence, on purpose. It’s part of Gibbon’s mandate to ensure that the contributing poets don’t lose their ability to publish their poems in other magazines that, in the editor’s well-argued opinion, obsess needlessly over printing never-before-seen material. The first issue of Conduit is also the twentieth issue of YES, and I won’t try to explain the legitimate historical significance of that. Or maybe I’ll get around to it but later.

As for the not-too-distant future: in September, Prism International (a Vancouver-based print quarterly with excellent taste in WordPress layouts) will be publishing three of my poems, and CV2 will be publishing two.

But if you’d rather not move your eyes from left to right over and over, and just sit in some room while poetry happens all over your ears, then come to The Ossington on July 31, where I’ll be reading alongside poet Andy Verboom, and fiction writers Jamila Alidina and Andrew Sullivan. It’s a midsummer literary party thrown collectively by Dragnet Magazine and U of T’s literary journal Echolocation. Those kids at Dragnet always deliver. Should be fun. Til then, eh.