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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

Sachiko Murakami's Launch of Rebuild in Toronto

(Photos by Ralph Kolewe; Launch Report by Jim Johnstone)


In front of a packed house on September 7, 2011, Sachiko Murakami (pictured above) launched her second book of poetry, Rebuild at The Press Club in Toronto. After months of inviting poets to renovate poems from Rebuild at projectrebuild.ca, the physical manifestation of Murakami’s vision is at once satisfying and noteworthy for its clarity and formal mastery.

Hosted by Elisabeth de Mariaffi (pictured above), the evening opened with Murakami reading “Vancouver Special”, a poem modeled after the box-like houses that have been pervasive in Vancouver since the 1970’s. This poem is the architectural foundation of projectrebuild.ca, and serves as a template for prospective “tenants” to rebuild and inhabit.

Murakami invited several participants to read their reconstructions of “Vancouver Special” following her recitation, including Spencer Gordon (pictured above), Melanie Janisse, Mat Laporte and Paul Vermeersch, all of whom served to illustrate the innate flexibility at the heart of the project.

(Kimiko Murakami, the poet’s sister, listens attentively)

The second half of the evening focused on Murakami reading her own work. Foreshadowed by the guest readers before her, Rebuild evolves and builds upon itself to create a fascinating linguistic sprawl. At one point, Murakami even involved the audience, soliciting nouns and substituting them in a stripped down version of “The Form of a City”.

Though primarily set in Vancouver, Rebuild transcends its direct subject matter to form an accessible portrait of urban life. This extends to Toronto, Murakami’s surrogate home for the past several years, which warmly embraced its release.

• Enter "The Real World?"
• The Capilano Review is 40!
• Daphne Marlatt Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
• BC Book Prize Finalists at the VPL!
• Buzzzzzz!!!
• May is Talon Poetry Month!
• bill bissett reading at Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
• Laurence Anyways
• Découvrez Montréal à la Galluccio
• Margaret Reynolds Speaking About Support for B.C. Creative Sector
• Fred Wah at Charles Olson Centenary
• Ghosts of Violence in Halifax
• Down Dangerous Passes Road - Featurette
• Jerry Wasserman to receive Sam Payne Award for 2011
• Megaphone's Voices of the Street (2012)
• L'Enfant matière de Larry Tremblay
• Joanna Skibsrud, Jessica Moore, and Jean-François Beauchemin!
• Poetry is Dead - Issue Five!
• bpNichol - "Love poem for Gertrude Stein"
• Commons 2012 Plunder of the Planet 1 - Stephen Collis
• Monodrama!
• Kind of a Drag!
• Merritts for MacDonald and MacIvor!
• Vigil is at Montreal's Segal Theatre
• Raven Stole the Sun is at SteppingStone Theatre
• NAC English Theatre 2012-2013 Season
• Jane Rule's Taking My Life Receives Lambda Nomination!
• Bryden MacDonald to Adjudicate One Act Play Festival
• Commentary Upon Vancouver Playhouse Closure
• Zsuzsi Gartner on Studio 4 with Fanny Kiefer
• A Celebration of Robert Kroetsch in Edmonton
• The World of Michel Tremblay!
• Chalk It Up to City Hall‬!
• Shortlists for 2012 B.C. Book Prizes Announced!
• Poet Laureate Nominee derek beaulieu
• 400 Kilometres to Magnus
• An International Celebration of Sharon Pollock
• Poet Laureate Reads in Ottawa!
• Confessions of the Other Woman Premieres at Performance Works
• Warren Cariou and Marie Clements at Play Chthonics
• Drew Hayden Taylor on Studio 4 with Fanny Kiefer
• FRESCO - A Question of Loyalty
• Les Belles Soeurs in Utah
• Carmen Aguirre on Being Called a Terrorist
• Something Fierce Wins Canada Reads!
• Who Will Be Calgary's First Poet Laureate?
• Canada Reads 2012: Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre Trailer
• Jerry Wasserman on Studio 4 with Fanny Kiefer
• Whale Riding Weather Hits the Sex Festival!
• A Preview of Chris Craddock's Moving Along
• Jeff Derksen reading from Dwell at Capilano College
• 8th Fire: Drew Hayden Taylor
• Promo Video for Carmen Aguirre's Blue Box
• An Interview with Fred Wah
• Jillian Fargey In Absentia
• Ryan Beil, Classically Trained Actor DVD Intro
• Eric Peterson Nominated for ACTRA for Billy Bishop!
• Librettist and Playwright John Murrell Returns to the Stage
• Meg Tilly Hailed By Critics' Choice Spotlight Awards
• The Rap Guide to Evolution! on MSNBC
• All Is Flesh! Is Here!
• The Leisure Society In Vogue
• Fred Wah Is Our Poet Laureate!
• Adeena Karasick at post_moot
• Real Vancouver Writer's Series - 2nd Anniversary!
• Support Your Indie Bookshop This Sunday!
• The Poets are Coming to Pages in Calgary!
• Meredith Quartermain and Daphne Marlatt at Play Chthonics
• Cecily Nicholson at Play Chthonics
• A B Series Launch For Two New bill bissett Books
• Talonbooks Presents Karl and Christy Siegler's Farewell Bash
• Carmen Aguirre Tours Blue Box in 2012
• Fangtastic News for Josh MacDonald's The Corridor!
• Ride the Cyclone is Sold Out!
• Endre Farkas lauded by Quebec writers
• Joan MacLeod wins the 2011 Siminovitch Prize!
• Shadow Catch - Daphne Marlatt Pens Libretto for Local Opera
• Talk About David French's Salt Water Moon on CTV
• George Bowering - Memories of Victoria College
• Judith's Sister, Miss Take, and Then We Were One Have Arrived!
• Billy Bishop Goes to War - Official Movie Trailer
• textual vishyuns is here!
• Stuart Aikins and Jerry Wasserman on Urban Rush
• B.C. and the GGs in 2011
• Jeff Derksen - Vector Association Round Table Conversation
• The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi at NAC Studio
• Siminovitch Prize Short List Announced!
• Post-War Apology and Reconciliation
• Inside the Mind of Lucia Frangione
• 100 Thousand Poets for Change: Vancouver, BC
• Karl and Christy
• Daniel MacIvor on His Greatness
• The Four Horsemen Get All Emotional
• Jane Rule Upon Receiving Her Degree
• Sachiko Murakami's Launch of Rebuild in Toronto
• Lorne Cardinal to play Norval Morrisseau and Michel Tremblay's 'Narrator'
• Word on the Street Vancouver, 2011
• They Rule!
• Working in a Bookstore: The Virtual Experience
• Uniform Landscapes / Hybrid Dialogue

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...

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...

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...

“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...