Gala Signal Editions Launch in Montreal, April 4, 2014

Carmine Starnino

Jim Johnstone

Ed Carson

Jason Guriel

Catherine Chandler

Richard Greene

Friendly Talk

Norm Sibum sizes up the recent poet-critic panel discussion in Montreal (audio below)

I was told to smile and do friendly talk. Accordingly, I am smiling and doing friendly talk. Not that what follows is in any way important, literature not much more now than a spectator sport, as is any stand-off between barroom arm wrestlers. But even so, an evening vouchsafed to poetry by way of a panel of critics (who also write the stuff—poetry, that is); an evening consecrated to—what?—the explication of, the interpretation of, the bashing of, the treating with poems in some way or other; an evening devoted to the separating of stalwarts from dullards, was had at the Word Bookstore. It was had under the aegis of ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Poetry’. Alright then. The panel, moderated by one of this fair nation’s leading literary lights, when all the dust had settled, seemed to have acquitted itself well. The Moesian thought so, and because he can be a surly bastard, I was inclined to take his ‘take’ on the matter. But then the man might have been preoccupied by the antics of Putin and American neo-libs gadding about in their stretch pants and limos, not to mention our very own Clown Prince and our very own Dragon Lady and the cartwheels they were effecting. In light of such events, how earth-shaking was this panel?

Downtown Aplomb

Norm Sibum picks up Lazy Bastardism, and kinda, sorta, maybe likes it.

From what I have seen of the book, it appears to be written with uptown aplomb. Or perhaps it is downtown aplomb, with all the bravura of power drink venues and hot dog vendors and bored secretaries passing by (and poets even more bored, boredom being the acme of creative potentiality as per Mr Starnino in a philosophical moment): all that construction going on around Union Station, Toronto. It is written as if to speak of Canadian literature is the most natural of human acts, as natural an act as—you fill in the blank; as if there were to Canadian literature now a certain preeminence in much the same way as American literary critics of a by-gone time once accorded American authors of a by-gone time their God-given, constitutional right to preeminent centrality in the universe of literature: F Scott, for example, or Ernest or Mr Faulkner

The Rideau Boys

Richard and me at the GG awards presentation on Thursday night, courtesy of Max Middle who has assembled a slideshow here. I'll let you know as soon as more pics become available.

Hail to our editors!

We at Véhicule Press are very happy !
Felicitations to Carmine Starnino, author of This Way Out and editor extraordinaire of Signal Editions, on being shortlisted for the 2009 GG Literary Awards! and felicitations to Andrew Steinmetz, author of Eva's Threepenny Theatre and flash editor of Esplanade Books, on being shortlisted for the 2009 Rogers Writers Trust Fund.

Shag

Listen to Shag -- adapted and sung by Andrew Steinmetz -- from Carmine Starnino's This Way Out, published by Gaspereau Press.

Good-natured poet

In today's on-line Globe and Mail, Paul Vermeersch raves about This Way Out, Carmine Starnino's new collection of poems from Gaspereau. There is no question he likes the book: "infectious bounce and thwack of his lines," "a sensory-rich tour," "free-wheeling and playful," "adroit internal rhymes," "craftsmanship of profound dexterity."

However, Vermeersch strongly feels there is a contradiction between Starnino's public persona as a critic ("tenacious provocateur") and his work ("he puts his creative money where his critical mouth is"). Vermeersch asks, "Is this as it should be?" (What kind of question is that?) Vermeersch prefers the "good-natured poet, full of beans." to what he calls the critic of "stringent critical dogma." Without debating the merits of his comments, or detracting from his wonderful review of the book, from my point of view, who cares? Isn't it only the poetry that really counts?

A Bit of Self-Promotion

My new book.



What I looked like when I was reading from it in Toronto last Thursday at Ben McNally Books.



A few people who came to the launch.


(Left ro right, Charmaine Tierney, Matthew Tierney, Carmine Starnino, Lucca Starnino, George Varkonyi, Alex Boyd, Liz.)