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May 2013

Wednesday May 22, 2013
Marcus Youssef’s Winners and Losers in Brighton, UK

Thursday May 23, 2013
Chief Bev Sellars’ They Called Me Number One Launch in Vancouver

Friday May 24, 2013
Guillermo Verdeccia at Canada-U.S. Border Issues and Culture Conference, Sault. Ste. Marie

Friday May 31, 2013
Adeena Karasick - BookExpo America 2013

Friday May 31, 2013
Baba Brinkman’s Ingenious Nature in NYC

June 2013

Saturday June 1, 2013
Baba Brinkman’s Rap Guide to Evolution in NYC

Sunday June 2, 2013
Baba Brinkman’s Canterbury Tales Remixed in NYC

Thursday June 6, 2013
Cecily Nicholson at 2013 Virginia Woolf Conference, Vancouver

Thursday June 6, 2013
Kafka’s Hat Book Launch with Patrice Martin

Friday June 7, 2013
For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again - Michel Tremblay - Magnetic North Theatre Festival

Tuesday June 11, 2013
Marcus Youssef’s Winners and Losers in Ottawa

Thursday June 20, 2013
Adeena Karasick - 14th Annual Convention of The Media Ecology Association

Thursday June 20, 2013
The 2013 Whitehorse Poetry Festival

July 2013

Thursday July 18, 2013
The 11th Annual Denman Island Readers and Writers Festival

Tuesday July 30, 2013
Taking Shakespeare - John Murrell - Stratford Festival

Tuesday July 30, 2013
Taking Shakespeare - John Murrell - Stratford Festival

August 2013

Monday August 19, 2013
KlezKanada 2013 - KlezKanada’s Poetry Retreat - Adeena Karasick and Jake Marmer

Wednesday August 21, 2013
Marcus Youssef’s Winners and Losers at Noorderzon Festival, Netherlands

October 2013

Tuesday October 1, 2013
The St. Leonard Chronicles - Steve Galluccio - Centaur Theatre

Tuesday October 29, 2013
Seeds - Annabel Soutar - Centaur Theatre

November 2013

Sunday November 10, 2013
Marcus Youssef’s Winners and Losers in Toronto

Thursday November 21, 2013
Adeena Karasick - National Communication Association 99th Annual Convention: in the Applied Semantics and Practical Communication Across the Disciplines Session

Tuesday November 26, 2013
Adeena Karasick - Art Bar Series

December 2013

Saturday December 14, 2013
Adeena Karasick - Annual Christmas Party AB Series

Saturday December 14, 2013
Adeena Karasick - Annual Christmas Party AB Series

Stranger Than Fiction?

On Friday, October 19, 2012, authors M.A.C. Farrant and Garry Thomas Morse will appear at the 2012 Vancouver Writers Festival.

M.A.C. Farrant’s latest book The Strange Truth About Us: A Novel of Absence was described in The Globe and Mail as

a full-bodied incarnation of the vitality and the gravity of the fragment as literary form. It fairly vibrates with what Paz calls the “contrapuntal unity” of fragments connecting, reflecting and deflecting in variable relation to each other.

Recently on the Lemon Hound blog, Steven W. Beattie of Quill & Quire included the “frank surrealism” of Morse’s Minor Episodes / Major Ruckus among a handful of books that

are not the kinds of books that would appeal to the cozy sensibilities that seem to be driving so much of our literary culture these days.

With ever shrinking space available for book news and reviews, and in the wake of rumours that The National Post is scaling back its arts and books section, Beattie goes on to ask an interesting question that may or may not pertain to both of these books of unconventional fiction.

[If] the major media outlets and award juries tend to focus solely on predictable, easygoing fare, where does that leave writers who have ambitions to do something different or less familiar?

An interesting thought indeed. Discuss.

• Baba Brinkman’s Evolutionary Tales Series in NYC
• They Called Me Number One on B.C. Bestsellers List!
• Two of Talon’s Translators Recently Celebrated in Montreal
• Stephen Collis on Co-op Radio
• Montreal Celebrates Fifty Years of English Theatre!
• Interurban Launch for the Monument Cycles!
• Michel Tremblay and Magnetic North!
• This Poem in May 2013!
• They Called Me Number One Is Now Available!
• Cliff Matias and Vassar Students in The Rez Sisters!
• Le Chant de Sainte Carmen de Michel Tremblay!
• Wanda John-Kehewin in Port Hardy!
• Stephen Collis and Margaret Christakos at A B Series!
• Haute Créature - NatPoMo Tours in Toronto and Montreal!
• Girl in the Goldfish Bowl Down Under!
• Drew Hayden Taylor on Urban Rush
• Can Hardly Wait For Vigil!
• A Trailer for My Turquoise Years
• Monuments, Dog House, Otters!
• Wanda John-Kehewin For World Poetry Canada
• Interview with Stars of My Turquoise Years
• David W. McFadden Up For 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize!
• Legoland: The Lambs Sing Eminem
• God and the Indian at the Firehall Arts Centre
• Coping with Emotions and Otters - A Book Trailer
• Talonbooks Launches Five New Poetry Titles for Spring!
• Seeds Announced For NAC's 2013-14 Season
• What's Wrong With Our Food System?
• Ricepaper Magazine Double Issue Launch at Historic Joy Kogawa House
• Catch the Wave at the Arts Club!
• Carmen Aguirre Dishes Up Chile Con Carne!
• The Edward Curtis Project in April!
• Centaur Theatre Plays in Colour!
• Mom's the Word at the Grand Theatre
• Lizzie Borden Took an Axe...
• Fred Wah and Friends at Words on the Water!
• Burning Vision at Walterdale Playhouse
• What Kind of University Do We Want?
• Hesiod at the Hellenic Community Centre
• Urban Change, Urban Unrest!
• Sainte-Carmen of the Main Comes to Winnipeg
• Indigenous Writing Program at Banff
• The Properties Up For BC Book Prize!
• Stephen Collis and Rachel Rose at Lunch Poems at SFU!
• okanagan hungree 4 bill bissett
• Wanda John-Kehewin and Friends on Tour!
• Meet the Cast of A.C.T.'s Dead Metaphor
• Palace of the End
• Ask the Panel
• Les Belles Soeurs in Baltimore!
• The Ends of the Earth at Vertigo Mystery Theatre!
• The Rez Sisters at Orillia Opera House!
• Gil McElroy Joins Versefest in Ottawa
• The Line Has Shattered
• Criminal Genius at Walking Fish Theatre!
• Terminus!
• The Regina Monologue
• Mining, Justice and Censorship at the University of Victoria!
• Love in a Storage Locker
• In Search of Lost Childhood
• Freedom to Read Week and Carmen Aguirre!
• Rogue Beats at the Sidewalk Café
• Daphne Marlatt at Scrivener's Monthly in March!
• Carmen Aguirre Talks Chile Con Carne
• Baba Brinkman Wins Friend of Darwin Award!
• Atwood & Co. in Calgary
• Albertine in Five Times in Duncan!
• Okanagan Reads Loves George Bowering
• Drew Hayden Taylor Is Writer-In-Residence at Ryerson!
• Sound Po-ing with the Stars
• Colin Browne Reads at the CAG!
• Glace Bay Miner's Museum at Neptune Theatre
• Tracing the Lines to Launch in Vancouver!
• Where the Blood Mixes at the Roxy!
• Billy Bishop Goes to The Gladstone!
• Promo for Leave of Absence
• Participate at the National Indigenous Writers Conference at SFU!
• Carmen Aguirre Visits Octopus Books!
• Carmen Aguirre Serves Up Chile Con Carne in Toronto
• Wagner's Dream at VIFF Vancity Theatre
• Five Elements at Rhizome Cafe!
• MacIvor Soars Solo in Cowtown
• Winning!
• Leave of Absence at Pacific Theatre
• Theatre in Ottawa: A look at Carmen Aguirre's Blue Box
• Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout at UFV!
• The Gary & Garry Act
• Meet Brian Quirt and Carmen Aguirre!
• The Magnificent Voyage of Jovette Marchessault
• Ceci n'est pas un Téléphone!
• Many Congrats, Chantal!
• Adeena & bill - Footage From Their 25th!
• Announcing Modern Canadian Plays, Volume Two, Fifth Edition
• Tiny Plastic Men to Start Monday
• Chill Your Hearts This Season of Global Warming!
• George Bowering at WOTS Vancouver
• A Process of Unforgetting
• Something Fierce at North Vancouver City Library
• Ken Gass Relaunching Theatre Company
• GET ME OUT OF HERE

Way More Than A Thousand Words: Coping with Emotions and Otters Launch

Ash Tanasiychuk takes pictures. Of Dina Del Bucchia. Nuff said. Oh, and Otters!

> Go to story...

Other People’s Moccasins: Joanne Arnott Interviews Wanda John-Kehewin

Joanne Arnott interviews Wanda John-Kehewin about her new book In the Dog House:

I can’t really say there were many poets of the past that influenced my writing. I think when I really started to be inspired was when I heard that there were other Native writers, and that wasn’t until I moved to the West Coast in 1991. For some reason I didn’t think it was actually something an “Indian” could do. There weren’t any books in the library that were by First Nations people when I was growing up.

> Go to story...

Text in the City: Music Somewhere Near a Griffin

Garry Thomas Morse on poetry prizes and/or music in poetry. Whatever!

Not to pull an academy-bashing Joaquin Phoenix, but strictly off the record, I’ve never understood how prizes relate to poetry, exactly, and a number of acclaimed poets have confessed a similar sentiment in my presence, in one way or another. One would hope that a poet only gets into the racket out of an imperative need to do so, if not a compulsive love, implying all the emotions and forms of resentment love can contain. In that case, how can a prize for being the greatest lover compare to said love itself?

> Go to story...

From book to stage with My Turquoise Years

Monica Miller discusses M.A.C. Farrant’s memoir, adapted for the stage at the Arts Club Theatre:

The story is quintessentially Canadian and a nostalgic view of growing up in BC in the 60s. Taking place in Cordova Bay, a 15-minute drive from Victoria, the play speaks to multiple generations about the traditions of family. My Turquoise Years challenges the preconceived notion of the traditional nuclear family, and reinforces the idea of choosing who we love and care for as our family, sticking by them, and supporting them.

> Go to story...