news | Wednesday April 27, 2016

Photos from our big launch last night


Launch guests and authors mingle, chat, and partake of wine and cheese

Last evening Talonbooks held its big Spring 2016 poetry launch in downtown Vancouver. The Vancouver School of Music’s Pyatt Hall made for a classy venue – and it was a full house, with about 100 people in attendance!

Four new books of poetry were launched, as well as one scholarly collection of annotations on Gertrude Stein. Emcee and fellow poet Stephen Collis sparkled and gave sparkling introductions, and he took care to point out that, while the evening’s line-up comprised all male readers, Talon’s forthcoming Fall 2016 list includes a number of excellent women poets (stay tuned!).

In case you missed the event, have a look at a few photos below.


Carl Peters reads from Studies in Description: Reading Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons – first a short Stein poem, then his own annotation of it


Clint Burnham, unafraid to call out everyone who indulges in self-satisfied political correctness, reads his poem “No Poems On Stolen Land” from Pound @ Guantánamo


Jordan Abel, wearing his green-lit mask and creating his signature sound-based atmosphere, performs a piece from Injun and disintegrates the linguistic constructs of colonialism before our very ears


After a brief intermission – and more wine and cheese! – the audience members find their seats again in Pyatt Hall


The cover of Human Tissue is projected just before its author’s reading – how nice it was to see each book that way, big and beautiful!


Weyman Chan reads from Human Tissue, delighting the audience with his clever and insightful mash-ups of scientific terminology and philosophy


The grand finale of the evening was a reading by bill bissett, “the godfather – and fairy godmother – of Canadian poetry,” from his latest book, th book


And everyone went home with books. The sign of a good night! Thanks to our friends at the Paper Hound Bookshop for manning the busy book table, amidst cheese-eating and book signing!

Thanks also to everyone who came out last night for the launch! We couldn’t do this without you, and we hope you had a wonderful time.

If you’re in or near Calgary and you’re feeling envious, fret not! We have a launch for you too, tomorrow night!