Three-hole punch and a ribbon

Another catch-up post. Signal poet Susan Glickman (Running in Prospect Cemetery: New and Selected Poems, 2004) was interviewed last October on the increasingly indispensable Desk Space.

Glickman on her dog: "Toby has been a crucial contributor to my writing life for the past three years. While I work, he lies on a yoga mat you can’t see beside my desk, waiting for me to hit a snag so we can go out for a walk. How many walks he gets each day is directly related to how well my work is going."

The cartoon above is a part of a series called "The Write Stuff" by Glickman (aka Lotus). You can see more of them at Bitstrips.

Effin' good

I'm a little late with this, but want to put in a good word for the second issue of Riddle Fence, the smart new Newfoundland literary magazine. A couple of Signal poets make an appearance. Jason Guriel (whose Pure Product is slated for Spring 2009) reviews George Murray's The Rush to Here, and John Steffler (Helix: New and Selected Poems) has four poems.

Highlights also include poetry by the now Montreal-based Danielle Devereaux ("You'll know me when I'm / an old woman. I'll be the one with ratty / fingernails. Jowls."), David O'Meara ("The numbers predict tomorrow / will be cold, with a chance of rain") and David Hickey's hilarious baker ditty ("Even the baker hates me now / Even the baker hates me / Even the baker hates me now / For sins against Lord Bread").

The standout piece, however, is novelist Joel Thomas Hynes' torrentially abusive manifesto, "God Help Thee." Maisonneuve has bravely reprinted it on their website. Or you can hear Hynes' recitation of it -- as well as purchase the MP3 download -- at Riddle Fence.

Manicom and Steinmetz launch party pics

A rather manic David Manicom holding Lucca Starnino

The Vehicule Family (Nancy Marelli, David Manicom, Andrew Steinmetz, Simon Dardick, Carmine Starnino and son Lucca)

Simon Dardick and Andrew Steinmetz

Marketing manager Maya Assouad and Maisonneuve editor Derek Webster

Buffalo Runs Press publisher Correy Baldwin.

Twofer

Not sure how I missed this, but back in October poetryreviews.ca reviewed two of our poetry books, Red Ledger by Mary Dalton and Standing Wave by Robert Allen. Money quotes below.





"[Dalton] displays a wonderfully unstodgy maturity in tackling the erotic, the historical and the socio-political environment of her home province in stanzaic poetry, rants and folkloric parables...This collection is entirely enjoyable, thought-provoking and well told."














"[Allen's] references favour present culture—including CNN, Tinkerbell, Satie, Billy Collins, Davey Crockett, and the Titanic—over the past. Yet there are echoes of Shakespeare in the repetition of the north-north-westerly wind direction, with traces of nursery rhymes and the Bible."

Hood on Baseball and the Canadian Disposition

Andrew Hood talks to Ghostrunner on First in this exchange on baseball, the Canadian disposition, our inner monsters, violence in sport, John Olerud and Samantha Fox. About Pardon Our Monsters, Ghostrunner says, 'The collection reads like a veritable roadmap of the maturation-with-great-reluctance process. Various stages and ages are represented, but the interactions and feelings always ring true. ' Read more here.

Double Launch

Véhicule Press & Gaspereau Press invite you to a double launch on Thursday, November 27 at 6:30 pm. Paragraphe Bookstore, 2220 McGill College Avenue, Montreal 514.845.5811



























Andrew Steinmetz is the author of Eva's Threepenny Theatre (Gaspereau Press). His work has been shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Award, the Quebec Writers Federation (QWF) First Book Award, the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, and the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Steinmetz is the editor of Esplanade Books / Véhicule Press. He lives in Ottawa.




























David Manicom is the author of Anna's Shadow (Véhicule Press). He is the winner of the 1998 Quebec Writer’s Federation’s Non-Fiction Award and his work was shortlisted for the National Writer’s Trust Viacom Award for Non-Fiction, and the 2004 Governor General’s Award for Poetry. A Canadian Foreign Service Officer, he has worked in Moscow, Islamabad, Beijing, Geneva, and is presently posted in New Delhi, India.

Runaway Jury

Evie Christie, Alex Good, and rob mclennan duel in the fifth edition of Good Report's shadow poetry jury for the Governor-General's Award. Some interesting discussion of Al Moritz and his book The Sentinel and, of course, the ongoing controversy surrounding Jacob Scheier's "tainted" win.