Gatherings | Issue 38
SMLTA Recommends Josiah Neufeld, Kim Fahner review of She, Andrea Long Chu on Rachel Cusk, Canisia Lubrin's Code Noir, Work in a Warming World Call for Submissions, and more!
Kathryn News
Here are some photos from the reading Kirby and I did at Another Story Bookstore! Kirby read from their new poetry book, She, and I read from Anecdotes!
It was our first time reading together ever!
Kirby made this sweet video about our friendship. Everyone should be so lucky to have such a dear dear friend.
It was a wonderful evening! Thanks everyone for coming out on such a hot day!
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Thanks to the Trillium Book Award judges Souvankham Thammavongsa, Donna Bailey Nurse, and Shawn Micallef for including Anecdotes (Book*hug Press) on the list of finalists!
Congrats to all of the finalists and winners.
I hate getting my picture taken, but I tried to be a good sport.
Hats off to these judges who read 321 books! Wow!
I got a nice unexpected finalist cheque from Ontario Creates which I will be donating to Amnesty International and RAVEN’s campaign for the Grassy Narrows First Nation lawsuit against Canada and the Ontario government and Human Concern International’s initiative to sponsor Palestinian orphans.
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I have an acid story (an excerpt from Anecdotes) in Issue 126 of Geist Magazine with an amazing group of writers Gary Barwin, Lisa Whittington-Hill, Evelyn Lau, and more amazing writers!
Fun fact! The last time Gary and I were in the same issue of Geist was during the Great Canadian haiku controversy which you can read about on Send My Love to Anyone.
Thanks to Nancy Guitar for interviewing me for her podcast Small Talk with Nancy Guitar!
Kirby News
Kim Fahner reviews, She:
“These poems sing not just of basic survival, but of a flourishing and kind of blooming, too, and that makes She a must-read book of poems.”
Read Kim Fahner’s review of She in periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics.
Kirby: Nestle In Words Like An Animal: The Poetic G/Rasp of Tongue, Throat, and Mouth in G. Review of G by Klara du Plessis & Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi in The Fiddlehead
SMLTA Recommends
New poetry podcast from Jody Chan and Sanna Wani
MAKTABA MOMENT: Nyla Matuk and Saeed Teebi
On July 9th Nyla Matuk and Saeed Teebi will read new and forthcoming poetry and fiction, followed by a conversation.
Tuesday, July 9 · 6 - 8pm EDT
Librairie Maktaba Bookshop - 165 Rue Saint-Paul Ouest Montréal, QC
I’m currently reading Code Noir by Canisia Lubrin! Blown away!
Listen to an excerpt.
A number of authors—among them past Giller winners, nominees, and jurors—have since decided to boycott the prize, saying they’ll withhold future books from consideration until there’s a move to divest. These writers include El Akkad, Naga, Thea Lim, Casey Plett, and André Forget. David Bergen dropped out of a Giller Book Club meeting because he couldn’t countenance his art being used to burnish the reputation of a financial institution that was profiting from war. “My longlisted book is an anti-war novel, and yet it’s being supported by an arms manufacturer,” he says. “If I didn’t say anything, my hypocrisy would be immense.” Longlisted author Erum Shazia Hasan also cancelled her Giller Book Club appearance because, as she wrote on Instagram: “My principles, my decades in the international development/aid community, my novel which explores the ethics of doing good, do not allow me, even tangentially, to be associated with weapons.”
Read about “How the Giller Prize Became Associated with Genocide” by Josiah Neufeld in the Walrus
Lee Henderson has a new novella out with Gordon Hill Press!
From the publisher:
Blasphemy and Other Ancestors is comprised of four novellas, in which authors Padgett Powell, Darius James, Lee Henderson, and Jean Marc Ah-Sen explore the tag end of existence and the abasements that memory holds in store for characters living "outside of their time."
Read an interview with the authors on Open Book
Inside Alice Munro’s Notebooks, The Paris Review
“Aid” by Gary Barwin
Interesting article on Rachel Cusk’s latest novel.
What Cusk really means is that women must make art about being mothers. If they refuse to do this, they are effectively neutering themselves, disavowing their “female biological destiny” in the doomed pursuit of “male freedom.” The latter appears to be identical with regular freedom in every way except that, when exposed in a woman, it is proof of a grotesque and self-defeating identification with men. One cannot, I think, have a high opinion of women if one is to believe this. It is like defining the air as male and bravely refusing to breathe.
Read Against ‘Women’s Writing’ Rachel Cusk’s gender fundamentalism fully surfaces in her latest novel, Parade by Andrea Long Chu
Watched Uptight (1968) film on Criterion!
UPTIGHT (1968) is a remake of John Ford's 1935 film The Informer, set in the gritty streets of 60's Cleveland and directed by Jules Dassin.
Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Tank Williams (Julian Mayfield) is an unemployed and itinerant steelworker who turns over his militant friend, Johnny (Max Julien) to the police for the $1,000 reward, resulting in an underground all-points bulletin to exact vengeance on the squealer.
Directed by Jules Dassin with a score by Booker T. Jones.
This is one of the best features I’ve seen in a long time. It follows the day in the life of an exploited Romanian production assistant. I saw it at the Revue in Toronto.
Send My Love to Anyone contributor Gary Barwin is now offering manuscript evaluations!
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