The suburbs themselves interest me as a locale. They’re often portrayed idyllically in literary stories, but I wanted to explore how suburbs are (or aren’t) shaped for social uses. Suburbs aren’t built for walking or gathering – the suburbs are generally asocial in their organization. Especially now that I have a daughter, I really appreciate the way that the Commercial Drive neighbourhood is a series of beautifully social spaces, shared and inhabited by many different people. It’s quite remarkable. I can’t help but compare the experience of living here with living in a suburb, a neighbourhood of quiet homes set very far apart from gathering spaces (which tend to be very condensed commercial spaces, like malls). So, you get miles and miles of houses, then a node of commercial activity (a mall), then miles and miles of houses. In the Commercial Drive area, by comparison, social spaces dot the neighbourhood; residential, commercial and social areas intermingle. The asocial organization of suburbs makes driving a necessity. For a teen, who cannot drive, a suburb can be as entrapping as an island; it can be experienced as a real wasteland.

Last month, I visited Roger Farrs’ contemporary-literature-for-creative-writing-students class (he’s teaching Delible). The students asked a lot of questions, some quite good, about everything, including my intentions in writing that book. The other day, I came across an old notebook, and in it, a series of notes I’d kept while writing jacks. In reading those notes, I came across a mention of Hermeline (the narrator’s name in my first novel). The name, I rediscovered, is an allusion to a female demon that an eighty year old priest was accused of invisibly keeping company with for some forty years. If someone had asked me if that were the case, I wouldn’t have remembered it before I salvaged the notebook (from a cycle I then called the syphilis notebooks, a massive scrawl of notes ranging from Pythagoras’s thoughts on squaring the circle to his admonition that his followers keep their hands from beans to meditations on 15th to 18th century representations of syphilis). So much for authorial intention. And retention.

Rita Wong and Robert Majzels have thoughtful responses up on rob mclennan’s ‘12 or 20.’ (I’m sure I should get why they’re called ‘12 or 20,’ but don’t.) Can’t wait to read Rita’s new book, Forage.

Tonight, Wayde Compton (my sweetheart) performs at the Western Front.

Wayde Compton and Jason De Couto: The Reinventing Wheel, A Turntable Project.

Sat., Jan. 12, 7:30 pm, The Western Front, 303 E. 8th Ave., Vancouver. Reception to follow. Free admission. Presented by the SFU Writer-in-Residence Program

And, in a week or two, David Chariandy and I read out at UBC. Here’s the announcement from the Play Chthonics Reading Series website:

Play Chthonics Reading Series
will host writers Anne Stone and David Chariandy.

Wednesday January 23, 2007 at 7:30 PM. Cash bar.

Cecil Green Park Coach House
Green College
6201 Cecil Green Park Road, UBC

MAP: http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index_detail.php?locat1=421

DAVID CHARIANDY is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University. He is the author of a novel entitled Soucouyant (Arsenal Pulp Press 2007), which was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award in fiction, as well as several essays on Black Canadian, Anglo Caribbean, and diasporic literatures and cultures. He has co-edited two special issues of scholarly journals (The Canadian Association of American Studies, and Essays on Canadian Writing), and he is a co-founder of Commodore Books, the first and only black literary press in western Canada.

More information about his work can be found online at CBC Words at Large (http://www.cbc.ca/wordsatlarge/blog/2007/11/david_chariandy.html) and the Tyee (http://thetyee.ca/Books/2007/10/17/Soucoyant/) .

PLAY CHTHONICS reading series showcases innovative poetry, narrative, and cross-genre writing. We encourage creative, interdisciplinary conversations between writers, students, faculty, theorists, and community members in Vancouver. The series is based in the English Department at UBC, and is in the midst of a six-reading 2007-8 season.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Institute for Canadian Studies at UBC, Green College, the UBC Department of English, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

There have been a few new reviews this month: Now Magazine calls Delible “inventive and lushly rendered,” January Magazine likes the title, and Canadian Literature reviews Delible alongside Shani Mootoo’s He Drown She in the Sea.

Word on the Street is next weekend. I’ll going to be there all day (hanging out at the Insomniac Press book table, if you want to come by). Here’s to hoping that Louis Rastelli’s more-than-fine debut, A Fine Ending, is back from the printer in time for WOTS!

The video captures part of a really great interview Amy Logan Holmes conducted with me at Book Expo. I can see this being really useful as an intro at readings, and also, to offer anyone who picks up the book a sense of the thinking behind the novel, which is very cool. Judith Keenan, who creates these Bookshorts, did an amazing job.

The song they used is haunting and beautiful and, the way it’s cut in, couldn’t fit better if it was written for the short. (Thank you to Pangaea music and the lovely vocal stylings of Jessica Rhaye).

(Click here to play the fuller sized version).

After the Tyee article came out, there was a bit of a furor over Steven Galloway’s facetious remark about burning down libraries. So, uh, I won’t say anything at all, uh, that might incite folks to burn down the goddamned internet.

Seriously, though. I do wonder what the net affect of this is. But then, I’m still happy (and even a little surprised) when I see that one of my books has been taken out of the local library.

Wednesday, July 25th at 8:00 pm at the Wired Monk Cafe
2610 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver

Reading by Anne Stone, music by Shane Krause and Jonathon Wilcke

Anne Stone’s latest novel, Delible (Insomniac Press, April 2007), tells the story of Melora Sprague, a 15-year-old girl whose sister has gone missing.

Report on Steve Lacy:

Shane Krause (Baritone saxophone) and Jonathon Wilcke (alto saxophone)

Shane and Jonathon have spent the past year researching the compositions and improvisational approaches of soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. It’s about time they presented their research.

Shane Krause plays baritone saxophone along with Bflat and bass clarinet. He is a member of the bands Heartwarmongering and Halfbeard. Jonathon Wilcke is an alto saxophonist and vocalizor [sic]. He plays with Robots on Fire, the pppoetry band, and The Big Elbow. They both live in East Van.

“… a compelling exploration of the intense, secretive world of teenagers.
Stone has constructed a narrative that’s often wrenching. It offers no false
comfort or tidy resolutions, but leaves a lasting mark.”