A Painful Homecoming: Quill & Quire on Robyn Sarah's My Shoes Are Killing Me + Tour Dates

Montreal poet Robyn Sarah's  latest, My Shoes Are Killing Me, is featured in the new 80th anniversary April issue of Quill & Quire, where reviewer Jason Wiens calls it a collection of "poems recollecting emotion in the (in)tranquility of boomer twilight."  Here's more: 

The title of Robyn Sarah's My Shoes Are Killing Me speaks to the nostalgia that her poems explore: if nostalgia literally means "painful homecoming," then the "shoes" - read as metonymy for the past of her life's journey - cause at times painful reflection on the rest of the voyage...the frame widens to include the broader public spaces of Sarah's Montreal, then extends this frame further to the global scale....the nostalgia encompasses memories of the Jewish diaspora alongside the motto of the poet's province: "a past continuous, a past as presence. Je me souviens. A motto you can make your own."  

Robyn Sarah will reading this spring along the 401 in Ontario as well as the East coast and Montreal. For a listing of upcoming dates, see below. 

April 20th - Montreal, @ The Word, w/ Robyn Sarah and Robert Melançon
April 21st - Kingston @ Novel Idea w/ Robyn Sarah and Robert Melançon
April 22nd - Toronto @ Dora Keogh w/ Robyn Sarah and Robert Melançon
April 23rd - Hamilton @ Bryan Prince Bookseller w/ Robyn Sarah and Robert Melançon
April 24th - Windsor @ Biblioasis  w/ Robert Melançon and TBA
May 19th - Halifax @ Halifax Public Library w/  Robyn Sarah and M. Travis Lane
May 20th - Lunenburg @ Lexicon Books w/  Robyn Sarah and M. Travis Lane
May 21st - Moncton @ Attic Owl Reading Series w/ Robyn Sarah and M. Travis Lane

Among the Quick: Sum by Zachariah Wells reviewed in Quill & Quire + Tour Dates

Zachariah Wells's third poetry collection Sum was on deck in the 80th anniversary April issue of Quill & Quire, and reviewer Jason Wiens calls Wells "a poet who delights in sound patterns—internal and end rhyme in particular." Here's more:

Highlights include "Squalid," which recalls "the dollars / squandered down urinal drains in bars / of dubious repute," and "The Parkinsonian Reflexologist," which mixes cliches to sometimes hilarious effect: "if you get caught fucking the dog / deny the devil his Scooby-Doo." "Magic Man," in its celebration of the retired Blue Jays player John McDonald, is a paen to the underdog, one "Consigned to ride pine for lack of thunder / in his bat." Appropriating Hopkins's "The Windhover," Wells traces the inscape of this infielder, "sensei of the second sack."

Wells will be presenting from Sum as part of IFOA's 7th Annual Battle of the Bards on Wednesday, March 25th @ 7:30PM. He will also be embarking on an Ontario and Montreal tour with Robyn Sarah and Robert Melançon in late April, as well as an East Coast tour with Robyn Sarah and M. Travis Lane in May. For full listings, see the dates below.

April 20th - Montreal, @ The Word, w/ Robyn Sarah and Robert Melançon
April 21st - Kingston @ Novel Idea w/ Robyn Sarah and Robert Melançon
April 22nd - Toronto @ Dora Keogh w/ Robyn Sarah and Robert Melançon
April 23rd - Hamilton @ Bryan Prince Bookseller w/ Robyn Sarah and Robert Melançon
April 24th - Windsor @ Biblioasis  w/ Robert Melançon and TBA
May 9th - PEI @ Confederation Center Public Library w/ M. Travis Lane
May 19th - Halifax @ Halifax Public Library w/  Robyn Sarah and M. Travis Lane
May 20th - Lunenburg @ Lexicon Books w/  Robyn Sarah and M. Travis Lane
May 21st - Moncton @ Attic Owl Reading Series w/ Robyn Sarah and M. Travis Lane

Biblioasis's Spring Poetry Tour

(le texte français suivra)

You are cordially invited to join Biblioasis as we celebrate 

For As Far As the Eye Can See 

(orig. Le Paradis des apparences), 

now translated for the first time by Judith Cowan, 

as well as Jessica Hiemstra's

Self-Portrait Without a Bicycle

(published by Biblioasis in 2012).

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27

7:30 P.M.

THE WORD BOOKSTORE, MONTREAL

469 MILTON

Hosted by Eric Ormsby

TUESDAY, APRIL 2

7:00 P.M.

DORA KEOGH IRISH PUB (WITH BEN MCNALLY BOOKS), TORONTO

141 DANFORTH AVE. E.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3

7:00 P.M.

AN EVENING OF FOOD, WINE, AND POETRY

PRESENTED BY DANI'S BISTRO AND THE NIAGARA LITERARY ARTS COUNCIL

176 ST. PAUL STREET, ST. CATHARINES

THURSDAY, APRIL 4

7:00 P.M.

BIBLIOASIS

1520 WYANDOTTE ST. E., WINDSOR

In the 144 poems of For As Far As the Eye Can See, Melançon re-imagines the sonnet as a "rectangle of twelve lines," and poetry as "a monument as fragile as the grass." Impressionistic, seasonal, allusive, in language sharp and clean, this form-driven collection is both a book of hours and a measured meditation on art, nature, and the vagaries of perception.

The evening will also feature the poet and visual artist Jessica Hiemstra, whose Self-Portrait Without a Bicycle was published by Biblioasis in 2012.

ABOUT ROBERT MELANÇON:
Robert Melançon is one of Québec’s most revered contemporary poets and a two-time winner of the Governor General’s Award. A longtime translator of Canadian poet A.M. Klein, Melançon has been the poetry columnist for Le Devoir and the Radio-Canada program En Toutes Lettres; he is also a critic and a professor at the University of Montreal. In addition to the Governor General's Award he is a past recipient of the Prix Victor-Barbeau and the Prix Alain-Grandbois.

ABOUT JESSICA HIEMSTRA:
Jessica Hiemstra is a visual artist and writer who divides her time between Ontario and Sierra Leone. She is also the winner of two Malahat Review Open Season Awards (2011) and the Room Magazine Annual Poetry Contest (2009). Self-Portrait Without a Bicycle is her third volume of poetry.

Chers amis,

Biblioasis vous invitent au lancement du Paradis des apparences de Robert Melançon, qui vient d’être traduit en anglais par Judith Cowan.

Dans les 144 poèmes de As Far As the Eye Can See, Melançon redéfinit le sonnet comme « un rectangle de douze vers », et la poésie comme « un monument aussi fragile que l’herbe ». Impressionniste, saisonnière, allusive, écrite dans une langue précise et nette, cette suite de poèmes est un livre d’heures aussi bien qu’une méditation sereine sur l’art, la nature, et l’incertitude de nos perceptions.

La soirée mettra égalment en vedette la poète et artiste visuelle Jessica Hiemstra, dont Self-Portrait Wthout a Bicycle a paru chez Biblioasis en 2012.

AU SUJET DE ROBERT MELANÇON
Robert Melançon, deux fois lauréat du prix du Gouverneur-Général, est un des poètes québécois contemporains les plus respectés. Traducteur de longue date du poète canadien A.M. Klein, Melançon a été critique de poésie au Devoir et à l’émission « En toutes lettres » à Radio-Canada; il a également été critique et professeur à l’Université de Montréal. En plus du prix du Gouverneur-Général, il a aussi reçu le prix Victor-Barbeau et le prix Alain-Grandbois.

AU SUJET DE JESSICA HIEMSTRA
Jessica Hiemstra est une artiste visuelle et un écrivain qui vit au Sierra Leone. Elle a remporté le prix « Open Season» » de la Malahat Review en 2011 et l’« Annual Poetry Contest » de Room Magazine en 2009. Self-Portrait Without a Bicycle est son troisième recueil de poèmes.