Send My Love to Anyone | Issue 21

with Tara McGuire and Kirby

Nov 24, 2022

Hi Friends,

Welcome to Issue 21 of Send My Love to Anyone!

In this issue, author Tara McGuire shares an excerpt from her hybrid book Holden After & Before: Love Letter to a Son Lost to Overdose (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), which explores grief, motherhood, and the opioid crisis through a blending of memoir and fiction.

Send My Love to Anyone columnist Kirby talks to Don Pyle about his new photography book Shot in the Mirror (Midnight Mass Press) which launches in Toronto on Saturday, November 26 at Two Two’s (296 Brunswick Avenue). Doors 7pm, Talk 8pm.

This amazing kind of energy moment. The First Time: Kirby and Don Pyle discuss Pyle's new photography book.

ICYMI, in Issue 20, SMLTA presents Lisa Robertson’s tweet memoir, a valuable archive especially since the fate of Twitter is uncertain. And Samantha Jones reads “Crybaby” from Issue 16. Have a listen.

Past contributors of Send My Love to Anyone are invited to send in a recording of their work. Just drop me a line!

Finally, enjoy Issue 21’s Gatherings where I share my recent internet finds: a job opportunity at This Magazine, an essay about Colette, a profile and review of Jason McBride’s new Kathy Acker biography, a feature film by Renuka Jeyapalan (in theatres until Dec 1), an interview with Lisa Robertson, and more.

I just finishedThe Childhood of Jesus by JM Coetzee, a very odd and experimental book both narratively and thematically. The dialogue is captivating as well. What are you reading?

Drop a note in the comments to share your own gatherings or share what you’re reading.

What I’ve been Up To

For Catapult Magazine, I wrote a deeply personal essay about not wanting children and how the childfree are treated by society.

This was a very difficult essay to write, and I’m grateful to Tajja Isen for giving me the space to write about it, and for the wonderful edits. The response so far has been supportive and validating. Many have experienced the very things I talk about here.

When you tell people that you don’t want children, they often look for a reason for it to make sense to them. You must hate children or you must have something very wrong with you. Sometimes they’ll take your declaration as a criticism of their own life choices or circumstances and become defensive. If you are still in your childbearing years, things get even more personal: Many people will tell you that you’ll change your mind or you’ll feel differently about your own. Others love to share their story about how they once felt like you but their lives changed for the better when they had children. Consequently, for most of my life, I’ve not talked about it.

In other news, on Friday November 25, 2022 at 11:00am (PST), I’m doing a workshop on author newsletters for the Federation of BC Writers.

Although it says “build your career and market your book” which is a theme of the summit, I’m going to be talking about doing newsletters for the sake of doing newsletters — not just as means to an end.

If you’re interested, sign up for this virtual BC Writers Mini Summit. I believe you have to sign up for the full summit, but all sessions will be recorded and available to registrants for a one month period after the Mini Summit.

In this session with Kathryn Mockler, author and creator of the newsletter Send My Love to Anyone, attendees will get an introduction on all things literary newsletter such as how and why to start one, what to consider before you begin, sustaining and building an audience and community, using social media to grow, avoiding burnout, platforms, monetizing and more.

Attendees will gain a greater understanding of what goes into creating a newsletter and come away with some idea about starting their own.

Don Pyle launches Shot in the Mirror on Saturday November 26, 2022 in Toronto.

midnightmasspress

A post shared by Midnight Mass Press (@midnightmasspress)

So sad to learn of the passing of Bernadette Mayer. You can read some of her early chapbooks on the Eclipse website. And her journal ideas at UPenn which I have used in my teaching for years.

derek beaulieu @derekbeaulieu

Sad to hear of the passing of BERNADETTE MAYER (1945-2022). Read her, read her, read her, and start with her list of journal ideas and writing experiments: writing.upenn.edu/library/Mayer-…

Donate to the Club Q victims, their families, and the survivors (from the Denver Post)

Elizabeth Hernandez @ehernandez

Here’s where you can donate to Club Q victims, their families and survivors dpo.st/3TSgQ2O via @denverpost

dpo.stHere’s where you can donate to Club Q victims, their families and survivorsIn the wake of the mass shooting at Colorado Springs gay nightclub Club Q that left five dead and at least 25 injured, the community has stepped up to provide funds to victims and their families.

Stay the Night a feature film by writer/director Renuka Jeyapalan gets another week in Theatres. Now playing in Toronto and Vancouver!

staythenightmovie

A post shared by Stay the Night MOVIE (@staythenightmovie)

Congratulations to Suzette Mayr on winning the Giller Prize!

This Magazine is looking for an editor!

This Magazine @thismagazine

We're hiring an Editor! Applications are due Friday, December 2 by 5:00 p.m. (EST). Full details are in the posting. If you have any questions about the role, email publisher@this.org

this.orgThis Magazine is Hiring an Editor!Does it make your day to discover new and exciting Canadian writers? Can you edit magazine features with flair? Is finding misplaced commas your calling? Can you make editorial miracles happen on a shoestring budget? Now in its 56th year, This Magazine is an award-winning, bi-monthly magazine of

Deadline for the University of Calgary’s Canadian Writer-in-Residence Program is January 11, 2023:

I’ve been looking forward to this book about Kathy Acker for a long time.

Steven W. Beattie writes about Jason McBride’s Eat Your Mind: The Radical Life and Work of Kathy Acker for Quill and Quire.

And the LA Times reviews it.

Jason McBride @jasonmcbride68

"'Eat Your Mind' does everything a good biography should and more.' Thank you, @JessicaAFerri, for this amazingly kind review in the @latimes

latimes.comKathy Acker, late punk empress of radical lit, gets a fitting biographyIn ‘Eat Your Mind: The Radical Life and Work of Kathy Acker,’ Jason McBride follows a writer who was easy to romanticize, hard to read, impossible to know.

Fascinating article by Michael LaPointe about Colette

Michael LaPointe @MWLaPointe

I wrote about Colette for @NewYorker:

newyorker.comThe Brilliance of Colette, a Novelist Who Prized the Body Over the MindTwo new translations of her Chéri novels deftly render her devastating portrait of beauty, seduction, and the ravages of time.

New book I’m excited to read from Matthew Salesses is available for pre-order

m.salesses

A post shared by Matthew Salesses (@m.salesses)

Book cover reveal from Aaron Tucker designed by the amazing Ingrid Paulson!

aaron_tucker___

A post shared by Aaron Tucker (@aaron_tucker___)

Draft Reading Series on November 27, 2022 PWYC tickets. Virtual event! Support this great reading series

DraftReadings @DraftReadings

Save the date! Draft's next reading is on Sunday November 27 from 3-6 pm. Many thanks to @TorontoArts, as well as our generous audiences, for funding this reading. To RSVP for PWYC tickets (starting at $0) & for full event details, visit:

eventbrite.caDraft 17.4Authors share new and unpublished work with an appreciative audience in this longstanding reading series.

Contributor News

Louis Klee interviews Lisa Robertson

asil nostrebor @ANostrebor

sydneyreviewofbooks.com/interview/lisa… Louis Klee asked me "In what way is reading like dreaming"

sydneyreviewofbooks.com‘Reading is Like Dreaming’ | Louis Klee interviews Lisa Robertson‘What is most important to me is to write a strong text. My intentions are aesthetic, not therapeutic. The work of research, composition, revision, structuring, is what absorbs me utterly and what brings me repeatedly to the page.’

KFB fall book launch Sunday November 27, 2022.

PAOLA FERRANTE
MAUREEN SCOTT HARRIS
2 PM

LANNII LAYKE
DALE MARTIN SMITH
4 PM

Sunday November 27
Remote Gallery 568 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON

knifeforkbook

A post shared by KFB (@knifeforkbook)

From the Archive

Excerpt from Permanent Revolution by Gail Scott

Send My Love to Anyone

Introduction and Virginia + Colette | Issue 11

Excerpt from Permanent Revolution INTRODUCTION [2020] I love the immediacy of the essay form, its way of intersecting with the period in which it is written. These essays from Spaces Like Stairs [1989] accompanied the writing of Heroine + Main Brides…

3 years ago

Read or listen to Samantha Jones’ poem “Crybaby” from Issue 16

Send My Love to Anyone

Samantha Jones | Issue 16

Dear red-rimmed eyes, squint shut and let those crow’s feet grow a little deeper. Trenched into this delicate skinscape— a diversion, canals that carry water and salt and fat and proteins over the rise of my cheek. Lay out a shimmering strip reaching for my ear: In the morning I’ll try to mine it for potash. I’m a cryba…

3 years ago

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Issue #21 of Send My Love to Anyone

November 2022 Gatherings

Excerpt from Holden Before and After: Love Letter to a Son Lost to Overdose by Tara McGuire

The First Time: “This amazing kind of energy moment” by Kirby

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