Telling It Like It Is

For those of you who hate it when parents tell cute stories about their kids, read no further. Seems a fitting tale to tell here. If I ever get too big for my britches, I can always count on my boys to keep me in line.

This time it was Anson. No pictures on this computer, so you'll have to imagine him. 2 1/2, reddish blonde curls, a dirty, scratched and banged up cherub. Always getting into scrapes and trouble and as different from his older brother as siblings can be. Plenty of attitude, no fear, and never willing to back down.

He's also in love with Harry Potter. Since Christmas, we've watched the various Potter movies dozens of times. To his credit, he prefers Ronald Weasley. He's taken over my favourite pen as his magic wand and is constantly pointing it at me and muttering incantations, hoping I will eventually shut up.

This weekend we'd had enough Potter. One almost wishes Voldemort would whisper whatever word it is that can kill someone outright and put the bespectacled wizard out of his misery. "No more stinkin' Harry Potter," I told him. "Enough's enough."

He pleaded.

I refused.

He got angry.

"You," he told me, " you are not beautiful."

"You are not handsome."

"You are not smart."

He stopped for a second, trying to figure out what else was wrong with me.

"Your foot is stuck," he said.

"And your eyes are broke."

And with that he turned around and left the room, leaving me pondering my many, many deficiencies.

This, dear Zach and Rachael, is what you have to look forward to.

Kapuscinski's I Wrote Stone & the L.A. Times

An article about Ryszard Kapuscinski's I Wrote Stone appeared on the LA Time's Book Blog yesterday. The whole thing can be read here:

latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2008/03/kapuscinskithe.html

Here's an excerpt:

Although there was much fanfare around the appearance of Kapuściński's final book, "Travels With Herodotus," which was published not long after his death, it's disappointing that "I Wrote Stone," now published in English for the first time by Biblioasis, has come out with not so much as a single trumpet sounding.

Translated by Diana Kuprel and Marek Kusiba, this slim volume gathers poetry Kapuściński wrote over 40 years. Slim, yes, but hardly insubstantial.

Big events -- such as the murder of the Congo’s Patrice Lumumba -- may have been treated lyrically in his prose, but Kapuściński's translators note that he believed poetry could "illuminate dimensions of human experience that otherwise would remain unknowable." These poems capture the moments between crises, impressions that carry a book-length argument in a few lines. ... I Wrote Stone shows us a chronicler of chaos in one of those moments when he has turned off his journalistic processes and given himself up to something else.

This follows last week's publication of the poem In Lieu of a Prayer in the Guardian (where it may soon be reviewed). Finally we seem to be getting somewhere.

Winter takes Winterset

Kathleen Winter has won the appropriately named Winterset Award for her short story collection boYs. Awarded to the best book published in 2007 by a Newfoundland-based author, it comes with a $5000.00 purse. The two other finalists were George A. Rose for his book Cod: The Ecological History of the North Atlantic Fisheries and Paul Rowe for the Silent Time. They each received a prize of $1000.

Congratulations, Kathleen!

Kathleen Winter shortlisted for Winterset Award

Kathleen Winter has been shortlisted for this year's Winterset Award. The winner, to be announced on March 27th, will win $5000.00 and everlasting fame. The two finalists will each receive $1000.00.

the other two finalists are:

George A. Rose, Cod: An Ecological History of the North Atlantic Fisheries, published by Breakwater Books, St. John's, NL

· Paul Rowe, the Silent Time, published by Killick Press, St. John's, NL.

On the day prior to the announcement of the winner, the three finalists will read from their works and answer questions from the audience at a public reading and reception at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, at The Studio, 272 Water Street in St. John's.

Congratulations to Kathleen!