Happy 10th! David Worsley on Once and Thought You Were Dead

The Biblioasis titles that first worked for me were by Rebecca Rosenblum and Terry Griggs. Once and Thought You Were Dead had a younger urban focus and a lighter touch that I think are still a bit underrepresented in Canadian fiction. There's not a hell of a lot of mystery to getting introductory readers interested in a book. They need to see even a bit of themselves in it, and find something to identify with. It doesn't hurt when talent wins out in the process. With that in mind, Random House has apparently let Terry's book, Rogues Wedding, go out of print. It would look great in a Biblioasis reprint series.

- David Worsley, Words Worth Books 

Caroline Adderson Recommends Rebecca Rosenblum's ONCE

It's always nice when a backlist title comes up again on the radar. While checking out the Writer's Trust site, I noticed that Caroline Adderson has recommended Rebecca's first book with us, Once.

Speaking of generations, Rosenblum is a new voice, a writer just over thirty years old, destined to take up where our current mavens of short fiction leave off. How refreshing to read about young people who aren't entirely messed up, but funny and perceptive and deeply human.Once gives the middle-aged hope, as does Rosenblum's clean, singing prose. Don't believe what they say about illiterate youth, or about youth being wasted on the young. Rebecca Rosenblum has squeezed every bit of life out of her thirty-two years and put them in these delightful stories. - Caroline Adderson

Haven't read Once yet? Well, as it happens, we'll be launching her second collection, The Big Dream, this Tuesday at the Dora Keogh, 7 pm. I'll make sure we have copies of Once on hand: three years old this weekend, Once's pleasures remain well worth (re-)discovering.

For the rest of Caroline's choices, please go here.

Open Book Toronto Interviews Rebecca Rosenblum

Over at OBT, Angela Hibbs interviews Rebecca Rosenblum about writing, Once, and her forthcoming second book The Big Dream:

AH: How was writing and publishing *The Big Dream* different for you than writing and publishing *Once*? Did you feel more confident having one well received book under your belt? More pressure?

RR: Since *The Big Dream* is still a stack of paper on my publisher's desk, I can't fully answer this. The writing process was a bit more focused and faster than for *Once.* I liked it that way—I felt like I lived inside the book a bit more because I was going right from one story to another. Another reason for this is that the stories in this collection are linked and there is even a small overarching narrative to the book--so I had a bit of scaffolding to fall back on when I lost track of what I wanted to do. I also really liked the feeling of working on a book as a book, as opposed to trying to write enough good stories to include. Both experiences are great, but this one was new!

I am certainly very curious as to how *The Big Dream* will be received by the wider world (wider than me, my writing group, my editor and my agent, I mean). I loved having *Once* in the world, and I feel very lucky that it was read by folks who were open to and enjoyed the things I was doing. But you are right, there is a touch of pressure that comes from having such a positive run--how to top it? What if people don't like *Dream,* or just don't like it quite as much? But in the end, it was the book that I needed to write, to move on and grow and challenge myself after *Once*, and I feel a like I became a better writer in doing it. I feel *The Big Dream* is a stronger, more complicated book than *Once.* So there really was never any other option...but I still hope people like it!!

AH: Who are some of your favourite writers?

RR: This is always so hard--whatever I've been reading recently always crowds to the front of my mind when I'm asked "favourite" questions. I read Michael Christie's *The Beggar's Garden* recently, and it was like he sat down and said, "What book would Rebecca like to read?" and then wrote that. Such tender, understated, funny descriptions of people who live on the margins of our perceptions. I felt this way, even more strongly, about Alexander MacLeod's *Light Lifting* last fall.

I love short story classics, of course of course. Munro and Updike, forever. I read novels too--the last great one was maybe Joshua Ferris's *The Unnamed.* I read an incredible collection of Dionne Brand's poetry not too long ago, and I'm halfway through Van Gogh's letters... I read a lot.

For the whole interview, please go here.

Rebecca Rosenblum...

has a new website (to go along with her new chapbook. More on this when I receive my copies.): check it out:

http://www.rebeccarosenblum.com/

We Are Not Farm Teams

Over at That Shakespearean Rag, Steven Beattie has posted an interview with Rebecca Rosenblum on why she chose to stay with Biblioasis for her second book.

Rebecca Rosenblum is the author of the 2008 collection Once. That book, published by the small Ontario-based press Biblioasis, won the Metcalf-Rooke Award and received almost universally positive reviews. In the wake of her success with her debut, Rosenblum was in a perfect position to jump ship to a larger house. But, for her second book, the upcoming collection The Big Dream, the author decided to stay with Biblioasis. In its ongoing series inquiring into the gulf between large and small presses, TSR asked Rosenblum about her decision to remain with her originating publisher, and her feelings about how her association with Biblioasis has benefited her as an author.

Why did you choose to stay with Biblioasis for your second book?

1) Because I had a really good editorial relationship with John Metcalf – he pushed me, but only in the directions I wanted to go, and it was exciting to be challenged like that. I think the book is better than it would have been – much better – without that relationship.

2) Because I liked the “book-creation process,” for lack of a better term. I got to lay down a piece of art on a table with Dan (Wells, publisher) and John and say, can this be my cover? And the answer was yes. A lot of work was done to make sure I didn’t have to cut the book’s length at all. The copy edit was solid. I like the title page design. These things matter.

3) Because the promotion of Once exceeded my expectations. I was really thrilled with the review coverage Once got – more like shocked, really. I got to go to a few festivals, I got to be on the radio, do readings, do interviews. I am very much aware that not every unknown author of short stories gets to do this stuff. Some of it was luck, sure, but some of it was because Biblioasis worked really hard for me.

Did you ever consider the bigger payday you might have received from a larger house?

No. I mean, I should make it clear that I think I was paid decently for Once and will be for The Big Dream. My agent, Samantha Haywood, negotiated the latter deal and was very positive about it – she would never have let me sign anything inappropriate. Beyond that, no, money was not a factor.

For the rest of the interview please go here.

May is for Short fiction

or so says the National Post. Today, they interview one of our own, Rebecca Rosenblum. It can be found here.

Here's one of her answers:

Q: Who are your favourite short story writers? And what did you learn from them, as it applies to the craft of writing short fiction?
A: Oh, you know, Hemingway and Updike did all right, by the world and by me. They don't have all that much in common, but the small salient
details, the clues to character that I feel are at the heart of a lot of the stories of both helped me and inspired me deeply. When I was
quite young, I was a fan of Colette for the same reason: the penetrating look, the small weirdness. More recently, of course there's Leon Rooke, from whom I'm still trying to learn fearlessness...

Danuta Gleed Shortlist: Official Announcement

May 6, 2009

Press Release for Immediate Release

SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD

The Writers’ Union of Canada is pleased to announce the shortlist of nominees for the twelfth annual DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD. The Award recognizes the best first English-language collection of short fiction by a Canadian author published in 2008.

Judges Merilyn Simonds, J.J. Steinfeld, and Rudy Wiebe shortlisted the following nominees:

Ian Colford: Evidence (The Porcupine’s Quill)

Pasha Malla:The Withdrawal Method (House of Anansi Press Inc.)

Rebecca Rosenblum: Once (Biblioasis)

Ahmad Saidullah: Happiness and other Disorders (Key Porter Books Limited)

Betsy Trumpener: The Butcher of Penetang (Caitlin Press)

"The five shortlisted books exhibit an exhilarating array of voices and styles, presenting stories ranging from the idiosyncratic and fanciful, to the satirical and exotic, to the hard-edged and realistic; these works comment on the human condition in insightful, inventive ways that show the short story is thriving in Canada."

The DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD is a celebration of the life of Danuta Gleed, a writer whose short fiction won several awards before her death in December 1996. Danuta Gleed’s first collection of short fiction, One of the Chosen, was posthumously published by BuschekBooks. The Award is made possible through a generous donation from John Gleed, in memory of his late wife, and is administered by The Writers’ Union of Canada.

The Award consists of cash prizes for the three best first collections, with a first prize of $10,000 and two additional prizes of $500. The winners will be announced in Calgary, Alberta on May 23, 2009, during the Alberta Literary Awards at the joint Annual General Meetings of The Writers’ Union of Canada and The Writers Guild of Alberta. Their names will be posted on the Union’s website (www.writersunion.ca).

The Writers' Union of Canada is our country's national organization representing professional authors of books. Founded in 1973, the Union is dedicated to fostering writing in Canada, and promoting the rights, freedoms, and economic well-being of all writers. For more information, please visit www.writersunion.ca.

Breaking News: Danuta Gleed Shortlist in

Just learned this morning that Rebecca Rosenblum has been shortlisted for the $10,000.00 Danuta Gleed Award for a first book of short stories. Also shortlisted are Pasha Malla, for The Withdrawal Method, and Ahmad Saidullah for Happiness and Other Disorders. Though I've read most of Malla's excellent collection, Saidullah's slipped beneath my radar up to this point. I'll try to pick it up this weekend.

More to follow. I haven't seen an official press release yet, just a two line announcement in the Toronto Star. The winner is set to be announced May 23rd. Congratulations to all three nominees, though of course a touch more goes out to our very own Rebecca Rosenblum.

Fingers crossed.

National Magazine Awards

Rebecca Rosenblum 's short story Linh Lai, about a young Vietnamese girl who is sent by her parents to Canada so that she will learn English, and dreams of learning to fly on a skateboard, has been shortlisted for a National Magazine Award. First published last summer in The New Quarterly as part of their Metcalf-Rooke related feature, it can be found in her first collection of short stories, ONCE. Congrats to Rebecca and The New Quarterly.

Speaking of the Metcalf-Rooke award, we'll be getting the next installment underway in the next week or so. Last year's winner Amy Jones will be featured in the summer issue of TNQ, due to hit mailboxes in the next few months.

Rebecca Rosenblum: A Portrait

Above a portrait of Rebecca Rosenblum, recently completed by Alan Dayton. It is part of a series -- his second, as he did one of these in the 90s (I have the catalogue, and it is excellent) -- on Canadian writers. Others in the series will include, from what I gather, Russell Smith and Sharon English, among many others. I look forward to seeing other portraits in the series.

For Rebecca's thoughts on this portrait check out her own blog post here.

Mr Cheever, I Hardly Knew Ye

Just in case any of you are going through Rosenblum withdrawals -- she has not, after all, posted for a week -- I've decided to link to her most recent post at her own blog, Rose-coloured. She has an interesting post on Cheever, and the surprisingly common reader fallacy that the writer and his or her characters are one and the same. You can read her whole post here; below, though, a sizable excerpt.

Even before *Once* came out, I was amazed at how generous readers were in sharing what they thought of my work. It's not like I'm deluged with fanmail, but a good number of people have bothered to send me a note, or say a word to me at an event, to share their reactions to my stories.

And though really that's why anyone wants to publish anything--to get people thinking about these characters and situations that have been in the writer's head--I didn't really know how thrilling it would be see my imaginings refracted through other imaginations like this. I've enjoyed everything expressed to me, including "I just didn't get it" (more than once)...it's important for me to learn about ways my work can misfire. No one ever got better by dwelling on successes.

Of course, everyone's been pretty nice--I'm sure I wouldn't appreciate negative feedback if it came in the form of people yelling "you suck!" at readings. But there is one comment that's come up a couple times, always voiced as a compliment, that does trouble me: variations on "I feel as though I've read your diary."

A big scary hurdle of publishing is accepting the idea that I can't control how people read the work once it's out there; if people enjoy thinking of all the characters I write as manifestations of Rebecca Rosenblum...uh, I guess I have to go with that.

But I wish they wouldn't. And not only because I am not a terribly autobiographical writer and that's not how *I* read the characters. Of course I use real life sometimes--it is right there, after all. Besides, all my ideas come from inside my own head, so they all reflect me to some degree (I believe I'm paraphrasing Margaret Atwood there, but I can't find an attribution). I'm sure if a person with the right degrees read any book with enough attention, he or she could construct a reasonably accurate psychological profile of the author.

Rosenblum interviewed by a Puppet

Yes: the penguin.

Here's a snippet:

W:
What, if any steps are taking to avoid the so-called sophomore slump? Or do you subscribe to such superstitions?

R:
Thanks for bringing up a touchy subject, Winston! I'm not taking any
steps, but that's because I don't know of any (do you?) I'm just
trying to write a really good second book without being (too)
fretful. And trying to continue to really hear advice instead of
thinking, "I did this once, I know what I'm doing." Because I really
really don't know what I'm doing.

W:
Where do you stand on that perennial conundrum: rock, paper, or scissors?

R:
Paper!! Has any writer ever said otherwise?

You can read the whole thing here.

Once in Braille

Biblioasis Newsflash: Rebecca Rosenblum's ONCE to be transcribed into braille by the CNIB. Though this must happen quite often, it's a first for the press. Means a lot to me personally: my granddad was blind, and the CNIB helped to keep him sane, first with braille, and then, after his stroke, with Books on Tape. He was the most literate member of my family, spent 8-10 hours a day "reading", right up until his last few months. I spent many hours on his bed with him listening to these books. So the fact that the CNIB will be doing Rebecca's book in braille, and that someone will be able to discover her this way who might not have been able to before ... well ... I think that's pretty special.

Murals

Explanation.

Cool Poster, for a Cool Reading Series

Over at Rebecca's aptly-named blog, Rose-coloured, I found what must be the coolest Reading Announcement poster a Biblioasis author has yet to appear on. (Second one down. The train, not the bleachers. No, not the one in the middle. Her hair isn't that big. I think she's the one in black.) She'll be reading this week, Tuesday March 3rd, at Gallery 1313. I won't be in Toronto for about another 46 hours, so I will have to miss it, though anyone in the GTA might want to consider heading down: anyone who can put together a promotional poster like this is worthy of our support (even, on the off chance, that isn't Rebecca on the stairs.)

UPDATE:

I have it on very good authority that the woman in black is not Rebecca, but Kathleen Brown. Still: a fine poster, and I urge you all to attend the reading.

Seen Reading: The Once Edition

Over at Seen Reading, Julie Wilson's website of readers reading and podcasts of their doing so, Kerry Clare reads from Rebecca Rosenblum's Once in the bathroom of the Gladstone Hotel. Here.

Underground Book Club on Rebecca Rosenblum

Michael Bryson, editor of the Danforth Review, reviews Rebecca's Once in a post on the short story on his blog, Underground Bookclub. For the full post go here, but I've copied the section on Once below:

It is not the best of the times and the worst of times for short story writers. It is simply the worst of times. Though for short story readers, hope springs eternal. Regardez Rebecca Rosenblum’s Once (Biblioasis, 2008), a book Beattie called "the most exciting first book of short stories by a Canadian writer since Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades [1968]."

I read this book over the past couple of months. I didn’t want it to end.

Winner of the Metcalf-Rooke Award, Rosenblum’s debut consists of 17 stories in just over 200 pages. The dominant theme is youth. The stories are quirky, light, intelligent, funny, well-written, absurd, amusing, insightful, clever, urban, urbane, lovely, contemporary, remarkable – in short, they offer much rewarding reading.

The stories made me remember my twenties with something other than bitterness, which is an achievement, believe me. They made me aware of opportunities of youth that I hadn’t thought of before. What I mean is, Rosenblum has a unique vision, powerful enough to make the old seem new again. She achieves what only the first rank of story writers achieve. She makes the familiar strange, and the strange familiar.

Here’s one moment. Trinity, a pretty girl, says to her friends at a party: "You know, certain people in the sixties thought orgies would have become de rigeur by now, replacing parties like this entirely. Isn’t it weird that after all this time, we’re still repressed? This evening doesn’t even have orgiastic elements."

This is a book about coming of age in the 1990s. It may well be the best book about that experience. I say 1990s, because I don’t think this is a post-9/11 book. The young people in this book are too smart and self-aware not to have noticed that the Bush years were different. Darker. Meaner. They tracked a downward trajectory. The outside world, one hopes, is now harder to ignore. We have left our contemporary Jazz Age behind and have long since taken on new challenges.

I don’t mean to suggest that Rosenblum should have written a different book – or that she should have changed as much as a word. I just don’t think this is a book about our current moment. It seems to capture the anxieties of the young of a period of our recent past, now gone. It is extremely well-written (and edited and published). Cudos to all who had a hand in it. Many are waiting to see what you will come up with next.

The Calgary Herald’s reviewer probably wouldn’t like it, though. Too many subtle moments. Too many well turned metaphors. Too much humour that’s quirky and not slapstick. Too much emotion that’s suggested, not overt. Too many characters bathed in ambiguity, not drawn to represent moral certainties.

Every once and a while someone shows again that the short story form is not exhausted.

Rebecca Rosenblum has done it. Hooray!

CanLit 2008: It Didn't All Suck

Or so says Steven Beattie over at That Shakespherian Rag. He's posted the five Canadian books which didn't suck here, and -- I know, you were waiting for it -- one of ours placed. Of Rebecca Rosenblum's Once Beattie writes:

On Matt Galloway’s CBC Radio One show Here and Now this past September, your humble correspondent referred to Rebecca Rosenblum’s debut collection as the most exciting first book of short stories by a Canadian writer since Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades. This is not to suggest that the two writers are similar in terms of themes or approach: to the contrary, they couldn’t be more different. Rosenblum tells edgy, urban stories about listless twentysomethings trying to find their way in the world. But she writes with such concise vigour, and includes such moments of crystalline beauty, that her stories belie her relative youth and inexperience. Once would be a superior fifth or sixth collection. As a first book, it is nothing short of remarkable.

The Danforth Review reviews ONCE

Reviewed by Peter Davidson.

When I read The City & The Pillar in 1996 I sought the book out because of a review I’d read in which the book was described as unsentimental. It was the first time I’d ever heard this word to describe a book. At that stage of my life I thought any sort of writing was a form of sentimentality; there is something to be said about casting away navel gazing urban middle class malaise and trying to get to the heart of what counts, even if its awkward. There is something to be said about doing it almost sixteen times in a debut collection.

Hamilton, Ontario-born Rebecca Rosenblum’s Once is an achievement and a bit of a signal post for Biblioasis. The press is proud of the book, and goes out of its way to let you know. Rosenblum’s writing is popular because it doesn’t seem to be put on. Rosenblum’s writing is a success and is excellent because it attempts and succeeds at being heard. It is concise, loquacious and brilliant. It does not mimic the prehistoric 1990s sarcasm genre of fiction or attempt to partake in the cheeky rash of David Sedaris worshippers/ wannabes who roam the hipster halls of CanLit boy writing. Her language is clean, gritty and at times poetic. Her dialogue is sharp and when required, arrowhead cruel.

Like all fiction collections, there are flaws. Some of the stories tend to meander on and on with their capable hard working and hard thinking characters but its not enough. The inconsequential actions appear inconsequential, bordering on self-absorption or vacuous physicality. There are characters here that, no matter how well written they are, are simply not charismatic enough to sustain interest. However, because Rosenblum writes them so well, I am convinced that I am not interested in them. Like being described a person and thinking, wow, I never want to meet them. Thankfully almost the entire collection is brimming with interesting people.

The best part of the 16 stories that make up Once is they vary in tone, style, POV and subject matter; for the most part being hyper-melodramas or expanded vignettes of the working class. But it’s the intricacy that Rosenblum uses in her work that makes any skeptic of her trail-blazing debut balk in acceptance. It isn’t just working poor romantic situation we’re reading, nor the arbitrary pedestrian observation but a genuine concern for detail and a deliberate attempt to clean the reader’s road as they set themselves down to witness her character’s journey.

In "Linh Lai", and "Pho Mi 99", you get the sense that Rosenblum, winner of the Metcalf-Rooke Award, really worked and suffered to create a thoughtful and authentic separation of state between her the conscious creator, and the non-existing cerebral core of her characters. A marvelous book, full of lively rage and occasionally dense, always daring and perhaps most importantly, in today’s young urban writing showcasing an onslaught carnival of "you know" and other cheap turns of phrases, Once seems original and genuine.

The Globe 103 & SFU's Peak

In the Globe 100 Rebecca Rosenblum's Once received an honourable mention from Jim Bartley. It gets much more than that from this SFU Peak reviewer, who writes "... these stories stand out as some of the best I’ve ever read." Very astute reader.

ONCE A PURELY PLEASUREABLE READ by Tessa Perkins

Once, a collection of short stories by Rebecca Rosenblum, was published in September, 2008.

Simply put, this collection of short stories is pure pleasure. The characters and their situations are so real that by the end of each story you’ll feel like you know everything about their life. Rebecca Rosenblum has managed to capture the essence of everyday life through the lens of various unique and well-defined characters. From the girl who can barely understand English working in a Vietnamese restaurant to the boy who lives in a burnt-out shack, these lives resonate off the page with stunning authenticity.

All the relationships portrayed in these 16 stories are confusing, heart-wrenching, or tragic, and all of them cause the reader to empathize greatly with the protagonist.

“ContEd” tells the story of Isabel, a waitress who takes a night school tax class. She thinks she has a thing for the instructor, Mr. Denby, but maybe she just wants to have a crush on someone or maybe it is the girls at work that want her to.

“Linh Lai” is a girl who has been sent to live with her Uncle in Toronto and given a new name. She is now called Jinny, an excellent Canadian name. Her new boss at Pho Mi 99 gives her a name tag that says “Xing” which is supposed to be unpronounceable in order to satisfy the customers. When Linh/Jinny/Xing finally talks to the cute skateboarder, he calls her Jimmy. Her helplessness in her new environment is portrayed exceptionally by Rosenblum.

Jamesy is probably the most tragic character. In “Wall of Sound” he is depicted as a hobo and loyal grandson in one. He must squeegee windows on the highway to buy his breakfast, but he never lets his grandparents know, and faithfully does their yard work before taking advantage of their shower.

Some of the stories have overlapping characters or settings, making them feel less isolated from each other and giving the book more cohesion. Pho Mi 99 is the focal point of a few stories, but each has different characters and new points of view which make these stories all the more inventive and wonderful. After Linh Lai is only the waitress (a background character) in one story, she becomes the protagonist in another.

The Canadian setting and perspective is a nice change, and the realism of the characters and their lives makes these stories stand out as some of the best I’ve ever read. Rebecca Rosenblum uses dialogue, everyday settings, and mundane events to create evocative and genuine characters that people will relate to. These stories start in the middle of life and end there as well; they show the lives of these characters unapologetically and without judgement. One would not think that the daily activities of a fruit factory or tech support department are all that exciting, but when Rosenblum writes about them, they gain a whole new level of meaning and interest.