Poetry Crashes

[From Wednesday's Gazette, page A7

The life of a poet comes with its fair share of danger, it seems. While poet Asa Boxer was in Toronto on a Signal reading tour, his 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass was being pursued by police across the Champlain Bridge. It did not end well, and our hearts go out to Asa, who as of today will be using public transportation.

If you would like to pass on your condolences, Asa can be found at Ye Olde Orchard Pub (1189 Rue de la Montagne, in Montreal) this Friday, November 2, at 7pm for the Montreal Signal launch party, along with George Ellenbogen, Anita Lahey, Christopher Patton, and Peter Richardson.

Oh, and if anyone has a car, Asa will be needing a ride to the event.

Poets on the road

[Top] The Véhicule manniquen modelling the Signal World Tour T-shirt.

[Bottom] Publishers Simon Dardick and Nancy Marrelli, Asa Boxer, Christopher Patton, George Ellenbogen, and Signal Editions editor Carmine Starnino.

The Signal World Tour--Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal--unfolded this past weekend to celebrate four new books. Four poets in Véhicule's Signal Editions poetry series (edited by Carmine Starnino) opened the tour in Ottawa. A warm crowd at Collected Works on Friday, October 26 welcomed readings by Peter Richardson (Sympathy for the Couriers), George Ellenbogen (Morning Gothic), Asa Boxer (The Mechanical Bird), and Christopher Patton (Ox).

Saturday morning, in Montreal, after a breakfast of St. Viateur bagels (with all the trimmings), the intrepid wordsters headed down the 401 to Toronto for a gala event at the Rivoli (334 Queen W.) to be emceed by Starnino. Joining the aforementioned will be Trillium and Ottawa book prize finalist (for Out to Dry in Cape Breton), Anita Lahey.

The Signal World Tour concludes with the Montreal launching at Ye Olde Orchard Pub (1189 rue de la Montagne) Friday, November 2 at 7pm.

The Garden in the City

You may be thinking of putting your garden to bed, but Mary Soderstrom, author of Green City: People Nature and Urban Places, still has greenery on her mind. She is giving a presentation this Saturday, October 20, at the Greenscapes: Sense and Meaning conference, which is held at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario. Greenscapes is an academic and community event which will explore social, cultural, and historical aspects of gardens in human societies.

Mary’s presentation will be on "Green Cities and the Green Paradox." Her book Green City covers similar territory, taking readers on a tour of eleven cities around the world to see how people and nature have interacted over the course of history.

Are you a believer?

Mary Dalton has graced this month’s issue of The Believer, the highly eclectic McSweeny’s magazine published out of San Francisco. It has reviewed her latest book of poetry, Red Ledger, which has been so successful that we are already going into second printing. Red Ledger was a finalist for both the Atlantic Book Award for poetry and the E.J. Pratt Poetry Award.

Read the review in full here: www.vehiculepress.com/believer-review.html

West Coasters will get to meet Mary next week when she flies across the country from her home in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She’ll be reading at the Railway Club in Vancouver on Tuesday October 9, and at the Planet Earth Poetry Reading Series at the Black Stilt Coffee House in Victoria on Friday October 12. She will also be interviewed on UVic’s CFUV Radio on Wednesday October 10, on “Women on Air” from 5-6 pm. Have a look at our events page for more information.