Odds and Ends

All the talk surrounding today’s Governor General Award shortlist for poetry has finally prompted me to update my blog. I’ve been meaning to post for a while, but non-poetry related activities keep getting in the way.

I’m grateful, however, that one of my recent distractions was poetry related – I was invited to read at UNB’s annual Poetry Weekend, which Nightwood Editions graciously flew me out to participate in. Apparently Zach Wells will have audio footage of the readings uploaded on Career Limiting Moves soon, so I’ll post a link when he does. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed the weekend tremendously, and plan on going back next year (if Ross Leckie will have me).

But back to the GG’s. Earlier this week, Carmine Starnino posted a list of  GG recommendations on the Vehicule Press blog that I was honored to have been included on. Carmine’s opinion is one I value, and I felt strongly that his latest book, This Way Out, deserved to win last year’s award. So I was happy to see then, that two books Carmine edited for Signal Editions were included on this year’s official shortlist, which reads as follows:

Richard Greene, Boxing the Compass (Véhicule Press)
Michael Harris, Circus (Véhicule Press)
Daryl Hine, &: A Serial Poem (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
Sandy Pool, Exploding into Night (Guernica Editions)
Melanie Siebert, Deepwater Vee (McClelland & Stewart)

Congrats to all the nominees!