Please join us for the launch of …

West Coast Line 53
Representations of
Murdered and Missing Women

Edited by Anne Stone and Amber Dean

With presentations or readings by
Reg Johanson, Larissa Lai, Sachiko Murakami, Lora McElhinney, Renee Rodin, and others…

Tuesday, October 23rd at 7pm
Spartacus Books
319 West Hastings, 2nd Floor
Free! All welcome.

For more information write to westline@telus.net

Stephen Henighan has a piece in Geist about Rob Allen, his one-time teacher, my good friend. The direction of the piece is pretty much apparent in the title, “Traitor’s Dirge,” and byline (Henighan’s name has been made less for his literary fiction than for the way, in short essay style, he strafes Can Lit’s no-fly zones.) It’s not that Henighan doesn’t have a point. He does. Rob did love America and pop-culture and he loved a good literary line, however long. At times, the esoteric quality of his writing landed its punches far from the gut. Preferring the eye, say. Or what’s behind it.

For a study in the local, emotional power, and quiet perfection, I’d recommend Henighan play catch up by reading the sonnets in Standing Wave, a collection that’s among Rob’s best.

While Henighan does have his point, it’s trivial and expressed meanly: the form Henighan’s dirge takes is a funnel, and all of the broad and generous observations he has about Rob spiral down into a final dismissal of much of Rob’s work. “Traitor’s Dirge” doesn’t strike me as particularly honest or fair. Reading it, I get the same sense I do when reading much of Henighan’s work. Whatever Henighan looks at is an excuse for him to further elaborate himself.

It’s unfortunate that Rob died early. If he’d lived longer, maybe Henighan would have had the chance, and the grace, to kill his mentor off before the man himself died.

Well, it was a miserable rained-out day in Vancouver, with scraggly looking and soppy wet people huddling around piles of books, covers curling in the damp. But man, hard core book people are always great to talk to (except when they’re crazy).

Stuck around for a few hours with Dan, manning the Insomniac Press table. Am really happy to know Insomniac publishes Marian Engel, Jane Rule, Gwendolyn MacEwen. Picked up a couple of newer Insomniac titles: Whatever Happens by Tim Conley and The Grammar Architect by Chris Eaton and Julian the Magician by Gwendolyn MacEwen.

And now, for a hot bath…

CBC’s North by Northwest will air an interview about Delible Sunday morning between 8 & 9 a.m. (I think it’ll be archived on site later). I liked Sheryl MacKay right away. It was one of those interviews that morphs into a conversation (in a good way), the context falling away.

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 Delible bookshort is up:

(Click here to play).

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).

I’ve put up the Table of Contents, the Prefaces (one & two) and the Introduction to West Coast Line 53: Representations of Murdered and Missing Women.

The issue will be on stands (and sent out to subscribers) mid-September.

Thanks to Blaine Kyllo for the layout (minimalist and very elegant). Thanks also to Glen Lowry and Michael Barnholden for their support and hard work.

Apparently, if you’re American, you can download books for free. Including new books. Um, here’s a free copy of my book. (Thanks for the link, J.)

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.

The latest issue of West Coast Line will arrive here today. Edited by Amber Dean and me, the special issue looks at representations of murdered and missing women.

In the next week, I’ll put up the table of contents and the introduction. Both Amber and I felt some hesitancy in putting the issue together (a process that’s been two years in the making now), but surveying the works gathered up here, I am very glad we did it.

(Email me for review/desk copies).

disjunct reading series

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.

matrix magazine
CURRENT CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

The Narrative “I”: Autobiography in Film and Fiction
edited by Taien Ng-Chan

How does film and fiction fit into your life? From lurid confessionals, diary entries, screenplays and first-person accounts of historical moments (real and unreal), from the poetic to the absurd, any genre, any medium from page to screen. Matrix 78 will include a DVD anthology of short films, videos and animations to be featured with the theme section. Please send your time-based media (on NTSC DVD or as Quicktime files preferably) as well as your short fiction, comics, poetry, screenplays, essays, and art forms to:

Matrix Magazine
The Narrative “I” Issue
1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., LB-658
Montreal, QC
H3G 1M8

Deadline for submissions is August 1st, 2007. Contact Taien Ng-Chan for more info or go to Matrix Magazine’s submission page.