RECENT RELEASES

Upcoming Events

May 2012: Saturday May 19, 2012
UPROOTED AGAIN book launch - National Nikkei Heritage Centre; Wednesday May 23, 2012
The eh List Author Series: Michel Tremblay and Sheila Fischman; Wednesday May 23, 2012
Talon Poetry Night - Weyman Chan, Colin Browne, and Daniel Zomparelli at Audreys Books; Thursday May 24, 2012
Talon Poetry Night - Weyman Chan, Colin Browne, and Daniel Zomparelli at Pages; Saturday May 26, 2012
Ghosts of Violence - Sharon Pollock - Bluma Appel Theatre
June 2012: Tuesday June 5, 2012
B.Someday Presents Suburban Motel in June - Walking Fish Theatre; Wednesday June 20, 2012
Wanderlust - Morris Panych - Stratford Shakespeare Festival; Tuesday June 26, 2012
The Best Brothers - Daniel MacIvor - Stratford Shakespeare Festival; Thursday June 28, 2012
George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award - Presented to Daphne Marlatt
July 2012: Thursday July 5, 2012
Twisted Poets Literary Salon - bill bissett - Prophouse Cafe; Thursday July 19, 2012
Denman Island Readers & Writers Festival - 2012; Thursday July 26, 2012
Schoolhouse - Leanna Brodie - Stone Fence Theatre
August 2012: Monday August 20, 2012
KlezKanada Poetry Retreat: Three Millennia of Poetic Subversion - Adeena Karasick
September 2012: Tuesday September 18, 2012
Chickens - Lucia Frangione - Chemainus Theatre
October 2012: Thursday October 11, 2012
Where the Blood Mixes - Kevin Loring - Sagebrush Theatre
November 2012: Saturday November 3, 2012
Tom and the Coyote - Michel Marc Bouchard - Factory Theatre
January 2013: Tuesday January 15, 2013
Carmen Aguirre's Blue Box - Great Canadian Theatre Company; Friday January 25, 2013
Leave of Absence - Lucia Frangione - Pacific Theatre
February 2013: Tuesday February 26, 2013
The Glace Bay Miners' Museum - Wendy Lill - Neptune Theatre
March 2013: Thursday March 14, 2013
Dead Metaphor - George F. Walker - Factory Theatre
April 2013: Thursday April 4, 2013
My Turquoise Years - M.A.C. Farrant - Arts Club Theatre; Tuesday April 30, 2013
Le Chant de Sainte Carmen de la Main - Théatre du Nouveau Monde

Posted: Wednesday July 6, 2011

Move into Project Rebuild - A Poetry Project Initiated by Sachiko Murakami

Here is an invitation from Sachiko Murakami to join Project Rebuild, a new collaborative poetry project:

Project Rebuild began with a single poem about a Vancouver Special. I was interested in their “ugliness” and the strong reaction Vancouverites have to them. And what about replicating or blueprinting – how can that be played with in poetry? I altered the first poem through mechanical means, and the result of these flash inhabitations was a sameness with subtle differences.

These four poems appear in Rebuild, my upcoming collection, which takes up the project renovation in poetry and considers the tendency of Vancouver, its site of inquiry, to tear down and rebuild every few decades.

But what is a poem but a rental unit of language?

I grew interested in the idea of renovation in language, our brief inhabitations, and was also growing interested in collaboration. I sent the Vancouver Specials to some poets, and invited them to move in as tenants, to paint the walls, change the faucets, knock down whatever walls didn’t fit their visions. These poems became the first houses in Project Rebuild’s neighbourhood.

But the idea of extending the community persisted.

Project Rebuild allows visitors to move in to any poem/house in the neighbourhood. On the page of any poem, click on “renovate” and the poem becomes editable in a textbox. Change the nouns. Throw out the verbs. Bring in the big delete-button bulldozer and start fresh. Your poem will become a new house in the neighbourhood.

Project Rebuild challenges the notion that the poems we write belong to us, that we are anything but temporary residents in the tenement house. Poetry is a community project in which we are all participants: poems are written in context and in conversation. Project Rebuild hopes to extend an invitation to that conversation, to you.

The door is open. Come on in. Read. Write. Renovate.

Recent news Articles

Thursday May 10, 2012 in Meta-Talon

A Conversation with Martine Desjardins

A Conversation with Martine Desjardins about her novel Maleficium:

Maleficium is a shift for me, because I have left that realm to venture a little more toward the unreal. Thus the main female character has physical attributes that make her appear foreign, almost monstrous and alien. She has a harelip, but is also described as having a long tail, vulvar stamens, perfumed earwax, thorns growing from her scalp; she is seen carrying a larva in her navel, shedding tortoiseshell tears, extracting iridescent oil from her skin.

> Go to story...

Thursday May 10, 2012 in Meta-Talon

The Long Goodbye: A Review of Morris Panych's Vigil

Morris Panych’s Vigil is reviewed by James MacKillop:

Once playwright Panych has won us over with the audacity of his concept, Kemp’s outrageous lack of compassion, he has given himself the problem of making this increasingly interesting for nearly two hours. Ratcheting up the zingers works for a start: “I’m concerned about your health these past few days: It seems to be improving.” This escalates until Kemp introduces a do-it-yourself suicide machine, with a lethal brick and an electrocutionist’s helmet.

> Go to story...

Wednesday May 9, 2012 in Meta-Talon

Do You Pass the Empathy Test for Conceptual Writing?

Does Adeena Karasick consider herself a “conceptual” writer? Here is her response:

So, in asking “Do you consider yourself a Conceptual Poet”, one has to ask – where do the aesthetics begin and the friendships end? How do you continuously (contiguously) belong without belonging in an ever-widening circle of language, production, filiation, power and desire.

> Go to story...

Monday May 7, 2012 in Meta-Talon

“Living the Border” with Guillermo Verdecchia

Steve Fisher interviews Guillermo Verdecchia about returning to Fronteras Americanas:

It’s a deeply Canadian play, and while I think it makes sense in other places—you could take this play to Mexico, or Argentina, or anywhere, because these borders and bi-cultural negotiations take place all over the world—it’s of ongoing interest to Canadians. It’s another way of looking at our nation; there are plays that have been produced in Canada that hold up an image that I don’t believe ever existed, but we like to think did…

> Go to story...

RECENT TALON TWEETS

Spring 2012 Catalogue

CURRENT FRONT LIST

All Is Flesh
Yannick Renaud
Translated by Hugh Hazelton
Poetry

Bolsheviki cover

Bolsheviki
David Fennario
Drama

Chinese Blue cover

Chinese Blue
Weyman Chan
Poetry

Cold Comfort: Growing Up Cold War cover

Cold Comfort
Gil McElroy
Non-Fiction

Crossing the Continent cover

Crossing the Continent
Michel Tremblay
Translated by Sheila Fischman
Fiction

Davie Street Translations cover

Davie Street Translations
Daniel Zomparelli
Poetry

Imperial Canada Inc.

Imperial Canada Inc.
Alain Deneault
Translated by Fred A. Reed & Robin Philpot
Non-Fiction

Maleficium cover

Maleficium
Martine Desjardins
Translated by Fred A. Reed & David Homel
Fiction

Modern Canadian Plays, Volume I, Fifth Edition cover

Modern Canadian Plays, Vol. I - 5th Edition

Edited by Jerry Wasserman
Drama

Specks cover

Specks
Michael McClure
Poetry

Taking My Life cover

Taking My Life
Jane Rule
Non-Fiction

textual vishyuns

textual vishyuns
Carl Peters
Non-Fiction

The Book of Esther cover

The Book of Esther
Leanna Brodie
Drama

The Properties cover

The Properties
Colin Browne
Poetry

Tombs of the Vanishing Indian cover

Tombs of the Vanishing Indian
Marie Clements
Drama

Turkana Boy cover

Turkana Boy
Jean-François Beauchemin
Translated by Jessica Moore
Fiction

Vigil, Second Edition cover

Vigil - 2nd Edition
Morris Panych
Drama

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts; the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program; and the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council for our publishing activities.

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