Poets Past & Future

Happy Thursday, all. Those of you plugged into the Facebook have probably seen a couple poesy-themed articles floating about: one by Russell Smith in the Globe, and another by Matt Tierney in the Post. While I'm always happy to see poesy in the press, the latter was especially smile-worthy: one of the young poets "crushing it" is our own Dave Hickey, who was listed as punching above his weight, with a second book that reads like a third. And in other poetry news, Alexandra Oliver, whom we're very excited to say has a book forthcoming with us next year, has an interview on poetry and film out in White Coffee Magazine. Interesting stuff if you get a chance. Plus it includes poems. 

The NYC Scoop, Clear Skies, Some Money for Poetry (?!), and The Great & Mighty Gazette

For those of you who aren't quite sure, Book Expo America--where Dan and I have been for the past week--is the biggest North American trade show in the biz, and perhaps the only way you can get thousands of publishers, publicists, literary agents, distributors, media representatives, librarians, booksellers, "power readers," bloggers, and authors to trudge in a herd twice daily through the meat packing district of New York. We met Lemony Snicket. We snuck inside the annual New Directions party, held in their 8th Avenue offices, where we gawped at their filing cabinets ("Pound, E. Correspondence A-L"), ogled their decor (on the wall in the main hallway, a scrip in the hand of W.C. Williams, next to a Henry Miller painting), and were altogether very warmly welcomed by people and objets d'art alike. On the fair floor a growing collection of willy warmers hooked the eyes of more than a few passersby, and we talked up your Bibliotitles till our throats were sore. Altogether a resounding success! And a success made even sweeter by coming home to this little gem by David Hickey:

What are those little colour panels, you may ask? Little mini-Mondrians? Not exactly. Read more about  clear sky charts--"equal parts Atari and abstract art"--on David's blog. 

Ahem. In other (woefully overdue) poetry news, we have a lovely & thoughtful new GoodReport on mythic maps, plus the grounds and airy overgrounds, in Amanda Jernigan's Groundwork. And Marsha Pomerantz, whose Illustrated Edge is now just a little over a year old, was just recently selected as the recipient of a prestigious fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Congratulations to Marsha and happy birthday to the Edge!

Last but not least, since it wouldn't be a 2012 blog post without me saying something about Malarky, I'd like to point your virtual eyes towards what's running in this weekend's Montreal Gazette. You know you're in good hands when a review begins "It's a post-Celtic Tiger Ireland," and finishes with with a hellzapoppin paragraph like this: 

Toeing the delicate line between tragedy and comedy – the former inherent in the bare facts of Our Woman’s life, the latter in her irrepressible voice – Schofield starts at a pitch of inspiration most novels are lucky to reach at any point and remarkably sustains that level all the way through. The spirit of Joyce’s Molly Bloom hovers around the edges of Malarky, so if you’ve always found the last pages of Ulysses to be the highlight of that difficult masterpiece, you might just find Molly’s modern-day descendant in Our Woman. Others will be reminded of another Irish classic, lately fallen into unjust neglect: Edna O’Brien’s 1960 novel The Country Girls. But here’s one Irish country girl who has grown up and seen and done things O’Brien’s could never have envisioned.

Thanks to Ian McGillis for that. Happy weekend, everybody. This brings the trade show season to a close until the fall. 

The Benefactions of the Muse

Morning, folks. Rise and shine! Another new day at the Bibliomanse; another new-old poem; another dozen or so events to rhapsodize about before you all get on with the business of the day. Today's theme, as we prepare to cogitate upon the sublime chaos that is May, is the farewell to sleep (Get up, get up for shame)! Along with Mr. Herrick, Bartholomew the Englishman/D. Solway have a few things to say about how best to bid Morpheus good night. Here's hoping his advice is sage ... especially since Bartholomew's cure for lethargy ain't exactly a walk in the park. (Lethargic types--especially poets and lovers of women--are to "be brought into a light and airy place / and drawn into wrangling and disputation / and tugged by the hair of [the] beard / and a clyster applied to [the] genitives." Anointing with mustard and a frenzied quaking of flesh to follow. Who knew? I'd rather be shook and called sweet slugabed, myself.)

Anyhow. The point is there are better things than sleep upcoming. Josh Trotter in Newfoundland, today. Ray Robertson in Barrie, tomorrow. On Sunday at 11:30 Ray Robertson is speaking about Writing and Happiness at the Blue Met Festival in Montreal. And THEN the mustard frenzy REALLY begins:

Tuesday April 24, Biblioasis's Spring Reading at Phog Lounge, Windsor: with Mike Barnes, Amanda Jernigan, and Claire Tacon
Wednesday April 25, Claire Tacon and Alex Boyd, Live at the London Music Club, London
Thursday April 26, The Reasonable Ogre Hits Type: A Book Launch/Art Exhibit for Mike Barnes & Segbingway (Type Books, Toronto)
Thursday April 26, David Hickey will be reading with Penn Kemp and a few others at the Poet Laureate and Friends event at the London Public Library (Central Branch).

Claire Tacon, moreover, will be reading at the Plan 99, Art Bar, and Virus Reading Series between April 29th and May 5th, and on May 7th, Alice Petersen will be launching All the Voices Cry at the Atwater Library in Montreal (with Chantel Lavoie).

So. That takes us to the end of the first week of May. The second week of May? You'll just have to see that malarky to believe it. Eh?

We'll have more information here on Thirsty closer to the dates. In the meantime, for full events listings, please see our Biblioasis Events Page.


Waking

from The Properties of Things (The Poems of Bartholomew the Englishman), 2007.

Bad waking is other than incontinence of sleep
but is a superfluity in the composition of man
and comes from evil matter grieving the brain
as in those disposed to melancholy;
and sometime it comes of grumous substance
and gloomy moistures in the brain
as in old, forlived men;
and sometime from great repletion and bad digestion
and sometime from craving and overdrinking.
For in this especially the sharp smoke of wine
sticks and pricks the sinews of feeling
and such men are often disposed to woodenness.
Excessive waking is to be avoided
for it dries the eyes and weights the eyelids
and enfeebles the sight and breeds headaches
and finally destroys the body.
But measured waking is nothing else
than the imbruing of spirit
into the limbs of feeling and moving
and working of the animate virtue of the body;
and abstinent waking prepares the soul
to receive benefactions of the Muse
and bring the work to completion
as did the Lord
who lugged the clayform out of darkness;
and moderate waking cools the body from within
and makes it lean and temperate;
and disciplined waking alerts the mind
to the sudden ruses of enemies
who lie in wait wolfishly like Dominicans.
For good waking
brings new resources to wayfaring men
so they do not lose the journey with sleeping
or the crown that is owing them in wakefulness.

(Image: "Satan Arousing the Fallen Angels," John Martin, 1824. Awake! Arise! Or be forever ... etc.)

A Brief History of Human Longing

Today's poem of the day comes from David Hickey, whose Open Air Bindery was for my money the undersung gem of 2011. It's a marvellous collection. Find it. Buy it. I'd rather have "The Astronomer's Apology" in my pocket than a star.

Speaking of evening-times: I also want to call your attention to the Poems after Midnight feature that Knopf is running on their website. With their stable it's worth checking out and the first piece is especially nice. Here's to the happy places our serious hearts have made, to paraphrase Jack Gilbert--and without further adieu, David Hickey.

A Brief History of Human Longing

from Open Air Bindery (2011)

Chapter One

I borrowed it from the library. It held onto my hand.

Chapter Two

I carried it like a rosary. It was the weight of a wedding band.

Chapter Three

I wore it off to work each day and back again at six.

Chapter Four

It sang out to the mower (the sink I couldn’t fix).

Chapter Five

I fell asleep against its font and my sleep was an old green hill.

Chapter Six

I look up sometimes, and I see it there.

Epilogue

And farther, farther still.

The San Fran Book Review Loves A Very Small Something

The San Francisco Book Review gave David Hickey's and Alexander Griggs-Burr's A Very Small Something a glowing review in their current issue, saying, in part:

David Hickey plays with language like few others ever have. This sweet story is written in a strangely syncopated near-rhyme with quirky, clever combinations of words and modifiers. The charming illustrations by Alexander Griggs-Burr are the perfect complement to Hickey’s unconventional rhymes.


Will, the reviewer asks, Olive ever learn how to blow a bubble?  Give it a read and you'll see.  

Winnipeg Free Press reviews A Very Small Something

The Winnipeg Free Press offered up a short but sweet review of our most recent children's book A Very Small Something this weekend in their round-up of new kids/YA lit.

How would you feel if you lived beside a bubblegum factory but couldn't blow a bubble?

That's the problem that torments Olive, who lives in a bubble-mad town in A Very Small Something by David Hickey (Biblioasis, 32 pages, $9).

With the help of large and lavish artwork by Stratford, Ont., artist Alexander Griggs-Burr, London, Ont., author Hickey transports Olive to an enchanted forest where she swallows a magic pill that allows her to blow gigantic bubbles. ...

Perhaps more importantly I've read recent reports that AVSS is in regular heavy circulation in several Biblioasis author households, and ranks as one of the more popular titles on the bedside table.  Which means that you should probably consider picking up a copy for your young bubble-blower today.

Resource Links Praises A Very Small Something

Calling it " an engaging story with crisp rhymes and brilliant illustrations ... a concord of colour" Resource Links recommends our late 2011 publication of David Hickey's and Alexander Griggs-Burr's marvellous children's book A Very Small Something. Who loves bubblegum? It seems just about everyone under eighty.

For more information about the book please check out the website.

David Hickey, Roald Dahl & A Very Small Something

This Saturday Biblioasis joins Small Print Toronto to launch their latest children's title, David Hickey's and Alexander Griggs-Burr's wonderful tale of bubblegum and belonging, A Very Small Something. Part of the International Roald Dahl Day celebrations, David Hickey will be reading at the Gladstone Hotel at noon, as part of a day of festivities which includes a giant peach scavenger hunt, a bubble gum blowing contest, a film presentation of James and the Giant Peach and a writing contest. $10 for an All Dahl Pass.

In anticipation, David has put together this book trailer, which I must say is one of the best I've seen. It gives you a great sense of the story and Alexander's wonderful illustrations.

If you would like to listen to a full version of the story, please visit the book website www.averysmallsomething.com, and click on the link.

for now, the trailer:

A Very Small Something from David Hickey on Vimeo.

Reminder: Montreal Poetry Pandemonium This Sunday!

This Cake Is Also For The Party

This past week I spent an inordinate amount of time with David Hickey, who's 2nd collection with the press, Open Air Bindery, launched last week. It was a race to the finish line, with the books only arriving from the printer in the nick of time. But, unlike with most of our titles, this one did not arrive finished: no, not having enough to do, we thought it would be best to do a title label. I told David that if we did a label he'd have to come down and help glue them into place, and he and Erica made the trip down twice to get through all 500 copies.

Here's about 400 of them.

We've decided that we might actually be in trouble if the GG or Griffin Prize comes knocking, though I suppose we'll cross that proverbial bridge when we come to it. We may need to conscript some other Biblioasis writers should we ever have to reprint. We've also decided that, henceforth, every Biblioasis poet should have to have a hand in the physical creation of their book. Turned out to be a lot of fun. And the book turned out to be among our more beautiful.

And there was also cake! Courtesy of Erica Leighton.

Audio: Hickey, Trotter & Wells in Windsor

The first of three readings went off in Windsor last night at Phog lounge and, in addition to reading, Zach Wells recorded the whole of it. You can listen to it here.

If you find yourselves near the Central Branch of the London Public Library this evening (7 PM) you could catch them at it again; and they will be doing a swan song at the Dora Keogh on Wednesday in Toronto at 7:30 as well. We will hopefully see you there!

Open Air Bindery (& other related Poetry News)

The first of our Spring poetry titles arrived on Friday afternoon. David Hickey's second collection, and second with the press, Open Air Bindery offers as our own cover bumpf says "a tight fantastic collection of songs, stories and covenants, whose subjects range across art, astronomy, snowflakes and suburbia." I'll have more to say about this book shortly; I was rereading it last evening and was quite moved by many of the poems, one of which I'll leave you with at the end of this post. For now it serves as a reminder to let Thirsty readers in on a few upcoming poetry events (before I turn my attention to accountants: see last evening's post).

Wednesday, March 30th (the day before a certain dreaded deadline): The IFOA Poetry Slam. Despite the images this conjures, mainly of Zach Wells head-butting David Hickey, this promises to be a civil affair, and there will be three Biblioasis poets in attendance: the aforementioned David Hickey and Zach Wells; and Robyn Sarah, author of, most recently, Pause For Breath. I wish I could be there. I trust all Toronto-area Biblioasis-o-philes will be in the area to cheer our crew on.

Monday, April 4th: David Hickey, Josh Trotter & Zach Wells descend on Phog Lounge (7:30 PM) in Windsor, Ontario for a night of poetry and (surely) wine. Last time I was at Phog Lounge with Zach I nearly got beat up. (And no, he had nothing to do with it.)

Tuesday, April 5th: The same trio descend on the Central Branch of the London Public Library: 7 PM-8:30 PM. Come early to this one, as it looks like it will be a packed house.

Wednesday, April 6th: The same trio, again, descend on Toronto, and the Dora Keogh on Danforth, 7-9 pm.

Monday, April 11th: For those of you in Rome (yes, that Rome), David Starkey will be reading at the fittingly named John Cabot University in that city. (NB: to all Biblioasis poets: We had nothing to do with that one, so don't get your hopes up.)

Thursday April 14th: Marsha Pomerantz reads as part of the Poetic Justice Series at the Liberty Hotel (fittingly, a former prison)

Saturday, April 16th: David Hickey will be reading at the always fabulous Cobourg Poetry Festival

Sunday, April 17th: Joshua Trotter and David Hickey will be reading as part of of six poet/3 press night in Montreal at the Sparrow on St. Laurent. Doors open at 7:30.

More, quite likely, to follow.

For now, Hickey's The Astronomer's Apology

Sorry for the sound of my steps
on the floor—wherever I
walked, it creaked. There was a new

moon above and I swallowed the dark
(it still comes out now as I speak).
Sorry, too, for the door, I didn't quite close;

the cold pulled you out of your sleep.
It's what the new moon does: it
deals out the stars; it dances, it drinks

and it cheats. All day long,
the planet revolved; it turned in
the troposphere's keep. With new moon

above, I swept through the dark. Then
I swept the dark off my feet. Still
I'm sorry, this morning, when

I came back to bed, if my hands had lost
all their heat. It’s an old tune, love,

what you lose in the dark,
what follows you back to the sheets.

The Books of Spring: Open Air Bindery

Two and a half hours of shoveling snow gets a man thinking about Spring, which means, for us a new crop of fabulous books. The first of these, set to hit the presses this week, is David Hickey's second collection of poetry, Open Air Bindery.

This is David's second collection with us, following 2006's Gerald Lampert nominated In the Lights of a Midnight Plow. Bindery builds upon the myriad strengths of Plow to offer a tightly fantastic collection of songs, stories and covenants ranging across everything from art and astronomy to snowflakes and suburbia, each poem a small instance of colliding light, playful and humorous and profound. These poems, like the flakes in David's poem-sequence Snowflake Photography. take their "time / Covering the roadside trees in forms of (their) careful willing ... gesturing down to earth, unveiling new shapes / for all that (they) find/ here in the oldest of botanies."

David will be touring in March and April in support of Bindery, including the following:

March 21st: McNally Robinson, Winnipeg, MB for World Poetry Day
April 4th: TBD, Windsor, Ont. (With Joshua Trotter and Zach Wells)
April 5th: London Central Public Library, London, Ont. (With Joshua Trotter and Zach Wells)
April 6th: Dora Keogh, Toronto, Ont. (With Joshua Trotter and Zach Wells)
April 16th: Cobourg Poetry Festival, Cobourg, Ont.
April 27th: TBA, Kingston, Ont. (with Sarah Tsiang)

From Bindery, here's the poem (which may shed a bit of light on the title and cover image) X-ray. (This poem, incidentally, will be the next CNQ collectible broadside, due to hit mailboxes in early March.)

X-Ray

So this is where I’ve hidden
my ghost, shadow of all

my firsts, essential self
shuttered down to its most

basic pajamas:
I’ve been looking for you,

ornithological bouquet
blooming in the dark

room of my days,
I’ve been walking around

in negative,
I’ve been wondering

how I fit, moony
white, in the wetsuit of my body —

so it’s good
to greet you at last,

and to see

there’s nothing wrong

with me, nothing

broken, nothing missing

but the wings

of a book

in my hand, nothing

but a little

lamplight

left on inside me.

David Hickey / Jeffery Donaldson East Coast Tour

David Hickey will be touring the east alongside Jeffery Donaldson -- there's an excellent overview of his work by James Pollock in the current CNQ -- next week. Dates as follows:

Tuesday, March 24th Charlottetown, PEI at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery

Wednesday, March 25th St. John, NB at the Faculty-Staff Club, Ward Chipman Library Building, UNB Saint John

Thursday, March 26th Fredericton, NB UNB Fredericton

Friday, March 27th St. Mary’s University

Poem in a Bottle.

Poetry London is having a fundraiser tonight. It is one of the best run poetry series around, and the organizers have brought in a couple of Biblioasis authors over the years, including David Hickey, who's Broadside in a Bottle, pictured above, is one of the items. Not sure what else will be available, though the bookseller in me wants to know.

Poetry London will also be bringing in Patricia Young in 2009.

For that reason -- let alone the fact that the biblioholic in me wants the Hickey item -- I'm starting the bidding at $50 on the Broadside in a Bottle. I don't think I've spent $10.00 so far this year -- now that we have a cappuccino/espresso maker at the bibliomanse, there's not much reason to leave -- so even in my current penurious condition can roll the pennies and nickels and dimes and quarters in the Laphroig cannister under my desk -- Laphroig! Those were the days! -- and should be pretty close.

Bookfest Windsor

The Windsor Bookfest is on this weekend, and the big event for Biblioasis-o-philes is Saturday. It begins early, at 11 Am, when Stephen Henighan, Linda Leith, May Jane Maffini and Nino Ricci take part in a panel on literature and criticism in the Wilkinson Room (Main Floor). At 1 pm Mike Barnes will be talking about his memoir about bi-polar disorder, The Lily Pond (I heard a version of this talk a few weeks ago in Hamilton, and it is one of the best author talks I've heard. ), to be held in the Valiant/Rodzick Room on the 3rd floor. Between 3:30 - 5:30 Stephen Henighan will be part of a panel called Writing with Attitude alongside Nino Ricci, Diane Schoemperlen and David French, again in the Wilkinson room on the main floor. And between 8-10 pm David Hickey will participate in a poetry panel on the Wired, Wired Word alongside Di Brandt, Alanna Bondar, Karl Jirgens, M. Nourbese Philip and Steven R. Smith.

I'm very disappointed to hear I'll be missing Mary Swan tonight. But t'is Halloween, and I'll be guiding my Batman and Vampire-Knight around the neighbourhood. I can take some solace in the fact that I'll have the comapny of Mike Barnes, his wife (and wonderful artist) Heather Simcoe and David Hickey's company for the evening.

Upcoming Biblioasis Events

A couple of events to bring to your attention:

David Hickey will be reading this Thursday with Elizabeth Bachinsky (Nightwood Editions) at the Landon Branch of The London Public Library, 167 Wortley Road on Wednesday, February 27th at 7:30 pm.

And Stephen Henighan and Ondjaki will be touring Ontario and (hopefully) Montreal between March 10th and 22nd in support of Henighan's translation of Ondjaki's Good Morning Comrades. More details to follow as we have them, but here's what is lined up thus far:

–March 12, 2:30 PM, Visit to Portuguese Class, University of Toronto.
-March 12, 7:30 PM, English-language Reading, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto.
–March 13, 12:00 Noon, Bilingual reading, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.
–March 15, 7:30 PM, Bilingual Reading, Collected Works Bookstore-Café, Ottawa, Ontario
–March 18, 2:30 PM, Bilingual reading, York University, Toronto.
–March 19: 1:30 PM, Bilingual Reading, University of Guelph, Ontario.

Gerald Lampert Pics

David Hickey didn't win the Lampert, a runner-up to Steven Price and his Anatomy of Keys. Dave sent me these pics, which I post now, a week later. Congrats go to all. I've read Steven's book now, and it's pretty fine, and I've heard good things about Thran's and Yvonne Blomer's. A talented crop.

David's moving to my neck of the woods soon, to do his doctorate at Western in London. I look forward to having him so close at hand. He's got a hell of a telescope, and I can't think of much better at the moment than a clear sky, a telescope, a country back road and a bottle of wine. Perhaps we'll soon get the chance.


David reading at the League meeting.
David (reading from his fine-looking collection.)

Steven Price, Yvonne Blomer, & Dave

Relit Awards

Two Biblioasis titles have made the Relit Longlist: Leon Rooke's Hitting the Charts: Selected Stories, in the story category, and David Helwig's Saltsea in the Novel. Disappointed not to see Patricia Young, Mike Barnes, and David Hickey there, as there's no doubt that each is better than many that have made the cut, but t' is the way of these things.

Speaking of those three, we'll be doing a new book by all of them in the next year or so: Patricia Youngs' first poetry collection in nearly a decade, a brilliant and very moving memoir on art, memory and madness called The Lily Pond by Mike Barnes, and David Hickey's wonderful first children's book.

Last year, both of our titles by Goran Simic made the Relit longlist, and his From Sarajevo, With Sorrow made the shortlist for poetry (losing out to Leon Rooke's first poetry collection, Hot Poppies.) For those of you who have not read From Sarajevo, With Sorrow, you should order yourself a copy. It's powerful stuff.

And while I'm speaking of '08 (& beyond), we have another Simic collection in the works, a selection of his best pre-war poems, which will be made available (with a few exceptions) for the first time in english. In Canada (& elsewhere in the english speaking world), Goran is known solely as a poet of war and immigration. But he had a varied and successful career as a writer and poet before the war, and we are hoping to broaden the understanding, appreciation and audience of Simic with this new book.

BIBLIOASIS POET ON GERALD LAMPERT SHORTLIST

David Hickey has been nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for his first collection of poetry, In the Lights of a Midnight Plow (published August, 2006).

David Hickey’s In the Lights of a Midnight Plow (ISBN: 1-897231-09-1, $18.95) is a beautiful collection of carefully crafted poems. It has been well reviewed on Good Reports and the Danforth Review, and was included as one of the best recent Canadian books of poetry by Alex Good in his Year in Review. A graduate of UNB, David has lived in P.E.I. New Brunswick, Labrador and Quebec. He currently lives (& watches the stars) in P.E.I.

In the Lights of a Midnight Plow is available from any fine independent bookseller (including The Reading Well in PEI and Wordsworth Books in Waterloo, Ontario), at Chapters and Indigo and online at amazon.ca, abebooks.com, and via the Biblioasis website at http://www.biblioasis.com/.

Other shortlisted authors and titles include:

a broken mirror, fallen leaf by Yvonne Blomer (Ekstasis Editions), Tacoma Narrows by Mitchell Parry (Goose Lane Editions), Anatomy of Keys by Steven Price (Brick Books), Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists by Angela Rawlings (Coach House Books), and Every Inadequate Name by Nick Thran (Insomniac Press).

The jury consisted of Heidi Greco, Brian Henderson and Alison Pick.

The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is given in the memory of Gerald Lampert, an arts administrator who organized authors' tours and took a particular interest in the work of new writers. The award recognizes the best first book of poetry published by a Canadian in the preceding year. The Award carries a prize of $1,000 and is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets.

The winner will be announced at the League of Canadian Poets Annual General Meeting, June 9th, in Edmonton.