MM13 Available Now!

I’d like to thank everyone who attended the MM13 launch on Thursday, February 4. It was our biggest launch yet, and I was thrilled with the turnout. Thanks also to Julie Crawford (and her husband Guy) who manned the merchandise table with resolve in the face of chaos.

MM13 is available for order online (send me an email at jim.johnstone@utoronto.ca) and at This Aint The Rosedale Library. Its a steal at $3.00. Below I’ve posted Nyla Matuk’s The Kiosk-Attendant, one of my favorite poems in the issue.
 

The Kiosk-Attendant

He cleared out his hut one rainy Tuesday in March
while the water of the rushing world
arrived as a strange Superior inside the station entrance.
He’d been selling Paris Matches and gum for fourteen years
at St George’s grimy, hospital green end; he’d cut his teeth on
Goodge Street’s Beeb crowd, their politesse for a W.O.G. always
on the wane by the time it was time.

Evenings, you heard his muezzin call
as you rose from the escalator knowing
why the caged bird sang.
You’d make the call from the telephone booth,
saying you need one true thing,
then remember that old uncle on Valparaiso’s funicular,
a beer gut on him a treasure as vast as a carny’s smile,
a shining iceberg melting like a memory:
the Mermaid Bar, the Dolphin Show,
the House of Mirrors with a laugh track.

Your gaze fixes above that disappearing silver riser,
and the day’s wonder is deep in your briefcase.
You did it every night on the way home:
like the cobra
charmed out of its basket, forgetting
the lynxes, lunacies, rote financial digital parades
at Bay and King.

You thought (you said so when you got home)
that his kiosk was better than the elevator attendant’s,
the parking lot paymaster’s,
the valet guys’ at the psychoanalyst’s up on St. Clair.
In the subway, we’re all individuals.

 
  Nyla and I at the 2009 Best Canadian Poetry in English launch, Novemeber 2009.

“Linda Rogers, you’re a bully.”

Thanks to both Zach Wells and Jacob McArthur Mooney for their blog posts highlighting Linda Rogers’ response to Candace Fertile’s review of Rogers’ recent poetry collection Muscle Memory in the Times Colonist. All of these links are well worth reading (Rogers’ response is so outrageous it borders on hilarious), and highlight the extreme lengths some writers will take to undermine critical discourse in the name of self-interest.

Especially laughable is Rogers’ assertion that she should be immune to negative reviews because this was “the first negative poetry review in a lifetime of writing and most of [her] poems have been published elsewhere and won national and international awards”.  Never mind that Rogers goes on to evoke hate-mail and Haiti, or that she attempts to use her position as poet laureate to throw her weight around.

It says here that Linda Rogers should be stripped of her laureateship for what Mr. Mooney describes as bullying.

Covers

As we move deeper into 2010, the covers of some of the year’s most anticipated Canadian books have been leaked. Here are some shots of the releases I’m looking forward to the most. 
 

Ray Hsu – Cold Sleep Permanent Afternoon
Nightwood Editions
Spring 2010

 

 

Shane Neilson – Complete Physical
Porcupine’s Quill
Summer 2010

 

 

Michael Lista – Bloom
House of Anansi Press
Spring 2010 

 

 

Evie Christie – The Bourgeois Empire
ECW Press
Fall 2010 

 

 

Ian Williams – You Know Who You Are
Wolsak and Wynn
Spring 2010 
 

Blair Trewartha’s Break In

On Feb 4 Cactus Press will be launching Blair Trewartha’s first chapbook, Break In, along with MM13. As a preview you can read Procedures for Escape here. I’ve also posted the cover below. 

Almost everything I’ve written involves equal parts staring at the wall, googling, wishing I still smoked, writing and playing youtube deejay.

Evie Christie behind the 8-Ball. 

Misunderstandings Magazine Issue 13

Cactus Press is pleased to announce the launch of Misunderstandings Magazine Issue 13, on February 4  at 8 pm. Join us at the Black Swan Tavern (154 Danforth Ave., Toronto) to celebrate. Readers will include:

Liz Howard
Matt Leslie
Michael Lista
Andrew McEwan
Nyla Matuk 
Robin Richardson

+ Blair Trewartha launching his new Cactus Press chapbook, Break In.
 

Patternicity

A change in blog name to reflect my next collection of poetry. Details to come…

Top 5 of 2009

In the spirit of other poetry related blogs counting down their favorite collections of 2009, I thought I’d add my own top 5. Technically, this is a list of Canadian collections, as I’m unqualified to rank 2009’s international poetry releases (having read few of them). Without further ado, my preferences:

1. Carmine Starnino – This Way Out (Gaspereau Press)
2. Jason Guriel – Pure Product (Vehicule Press)
3. Shane Neilson – Meniscus (Biblioasis)
4. Tonja Gunvaldsen Klassen – Lean-To (Gaspereau Press)
5. Zach Wells – Track & Trace (Biblioasis)

Honorable Mention: Joe Denham – Windstorm (Nightwood Editions)

ARC 63

Swing over to ARC Poetry Magazine’s website to check out my Readers’ Choice Award winning poem Canadian Gothic. While I’m not huge on the Readers’ Choice Award concept, I’m delighted that Canadian Gothic was also picked as an editor’s choice by Anita Lahey. 

It’s a pleasure to be a part of ARC 63 as it includes poems from some of my favorite Canadian writers: Shane Neilson, Ian Williams and Patricia Young. It also features a review of my favorite book of 2009: Carmine Starnino’s This Way Out, and an essay by the always dynamic Zach Wells on Robyn Sarah.

 

Sandy Pool’s Exploding into Night

Some pre-press on Sandy Pool’s first collection of poetry, Exploding into Night, was recently added at Open Book Toronto. She discusses the new book, her penchant for murder and spending romantic evenings with her writing!

Join her for the official launch of Exploding into Night at 2 pm on Sunday, December 6th  at Bar Italia.