Annus Mirabilis

Check out the summer issue of Maisonneuve for a interesting sequence of prose poems by Mary Dalton (not online). They were written to accompany an exquisite photography project called All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus, the result of Scott Walden visiting the clubs and legion halls along Newfoundland's Route 60.

Thus far, Dalton is having one hell of a year. She’s the only Canadian (not counting fellow Atlantic poet Elizabeth Bishop) included in anthology The Art of the Sonnet, she’s in Carcanet’s Modern Canadian Poetry Anthology, and Lorna Crozier picked her suite of centos (first published in Riddle Fence) for Best Canadian Poetry 2010.

"Three Brave Adjectives"

Very happy to see this smart interview with Jeff Latosik, the author of a book of poems I'm just crazy about.

Animals in Boston Globe

The Boston Globe has picked up the US release of Don LePan's Animals by Soft Skull Press. Originally published by Esplanade Books in 2009, J. M. Coetzee called Animals, “A powerful piece of writing, and a disturbing call to conscience." Now, Animals is getting an interesting chew south of the border:

There is something admirable about a novel that does not want to be loved, that simply wants to be read and discussed...There are not too many authors who can pull off a novel that is essentially about adults feeding on their human young. But LePan has an affectless, dispassionate writing style, and he convincingly paints a picture of a callous, self-serving, dystopian world.

Joyce, rebooted

Damned comic artists can't leave anything alone. Here's Ulysses, the panels-and-speech-balloon version. (Ht: Ian Letourneau.)

Coming Attractions

The covers above belong to the Signal Editions fall list. On the left is Meridian Line by Paul Belanger (translated from the French by Judith Cowan). On the right is Where We Might Have Been by Don Coles.

Belanger is publisher of Les Éditions du Noroît and one of Quebec's premier poets. I am immensely pleased to finally be able to include a translation of his poetry in the series.

Coles requires, I think, no introduction (though if you need one, this is a good place to start). With the recent death of P.K. Page, we might arguably call him Canada's greatest living English-language poet. But there is no argument about this: his upcoming book is a stunner.

John Smith

I know, I know, I should have mentioned this months ago, when it might have done some good. But while boxing up my copies of CNQ last night (we move into a new house next week), I reread the recent special issue on the lamentably underappreciated PEI poet John Smith. I want to express how excellent the entire number is -- guest-edited by poet David Hickey -- and how proud I am to be associated with a magazine that devotes considerable resources to celebrating someone who, to date, is read by only handful of cognoscenti. I hope the special issue changed that a little. Anyway, I urge you to contact CNQ directly to get a copy. You can check out Hickey's essay here.

UPDATE: some info on the amazing-looking new issue of CNQ, which will include poems by Linda Besner, who publishes her first book (The Id Kid) with us next Spring.

Sea Legend

I'm a little late getting to this, but I want to congratulate Mark Callanan and the increasingly indispensable Frog Hollow Press for their good news: Mark's chapbook Sea Legend has been shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award. The 2,000$ prize will be handed out on June 23rd.

Signal Editions will be publishing Mark's second book next year. Many, if not all, of the poems in the chapbook will be included in the collection. A few copies of Sea Legend, however, are still available. It's a lovely little object and really worth owning.

Circus in The Montreal Gazette

In last Saturday's Montreal Gazette, Harold Heft raved about Michael Harris' new collection of poems, Circus, and lauded him as a mentor to a generation of young poets.

"Circus is [Harris's] first collection of verse in 18 years, and the years between publications seem to have propelled him to a new creative plane. The volume, which begins by exploring the world of eccentric circus performers and proceeds to contemplate the absurdities and the carnivalesque in more commonplace life, reveals a degree of humour, playfulness and insight that I had not witnessed in Harris's earlier work."

Polish, Polish

Susan Briscoe speaks to Rob McLennan about her debut poetry book, The Crow's Vow.

"My first drafts are crude things, like small lumps of clay. Then I do lots of carving away, add a few little bits, carve away some more, and polish, polish. I let them sit, and then go at it again. This can go on for years. I just hope the final piece has a more elegant form and interesting texture than that initial lump."