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

Happy 10th! Eugene McNamara on For As Far As The Eye Can See and Straight Razor and Other Poems

For me two Biblioasis books that touched me where I live were collections of poems.

The first is Salvatore Ala's Straight Razor and Other Poems (2004).  These poems resonate with love: for his father, mother, grandmother, wife, children and sacred places. Windsor, Tuscany, Sicily.


Beginning with Frank Ala's barber shop. The poems roam far away but always come back.

Dennis Priebe's design and typesetting make a beautiful rendering of Sal's words in space. It is a wonderful thing to hold as well as read,

The second book that hit me where I live is Robert Melancon's For As Far As the Eye Can See (2013). Elegantly translated into English these poems are deep in the author's Quebec and afford someone like me who only knows that belle province from visits to Montreal a deep insight into lived life.

Both of these collections begin with geographic specifics but both poets lead us from there to the universal.

A friend of mine sometimes thanks me for "juice" gleaned from reading my poems. Both of these books do that for me. Thank you for them.

Tours Elegy

If all knowledge is recollection, if the play
of sunlight on a wall, an uneven paving stone,
the curve of a narrow street one followed
without a thought in mind, if
anything could tear
the soul from sleep and you
could feel it in yourself, strange
and pounding with impatience, as Ficino said
in his commentary on The Banquet, if all
becomes allegory, where does that leave us,
and in what time?

 

From "Tours Elegy," a beautiful poem by Quebec poet Robert Melançon, author of For As Far As the Eye Can See, translated by Montreal writer Donald McGrath, and posted on the translation blog earlier today.

Two Poems by Robert Melançon

For the poetry-lovers out there, last weekend brought two pieces by Robert Melançon to readers of Maisonneuve. They're numbers 21 ("All the light is radiating from the lemons") and 25 ("We walk through streets we know"). If you click the link you get about 80% of them. Otherwise, plug plug plug plug, you can subscribe to the mag for $20/year. Enjoy.

New Reviews for Nadine McInnis and Robert Melançon

It always feels good to brag about the positive reviews Biblioasis authors are getting, and this afternoon we have lots to boast about.

Both Nadine McInnis and Robert Melançon have been in the news lately, picking up reviews from The Literary Review of Canada and The Montreal Review of Books respectively.

Here's a sample of what these publications are saying about these recent books:

"[With] lean and lyrical language...and arresting images…Blood Secrets is a deceptively gentle book, a desperately tender succession of tales that bruise the heart with their sadness, while at the same time offering the salve of kindness". — Literary Review of Canada

"One hundred forty-four poems of acute observation: Melançon's invention is impressive. Judith Cowan's rendering of the poet's work into English is adroit and fully idiomatic."— The Montreal Review of Books

 What a great way to start the weekend!

Tonight at the Dora Keogh, POETRY!

Toronto Bibliofriends and poetry lovers,
Head down to the Dora Keogh Pub on the Danforth tonight at 7pm for a celebration of National Poetry Month with Robert Melançon and Jessica Hiemstra.

Want to know more about Jessica? Like how she saved a drunk fisherman? Check out her feature on the Dirty Dozen from Open Book Ontario.

See you tonight!

Tonight! Robert Melançon and Jessica Hiemstra at the Word in Montreal

Montrealers! Make sure you make your way to The Word tonight for a fantastic evening of poetry, featuring Robert Melançon and Jessica Hiemstra. Robert will be launching his latest book, For As Far As The Eye Can See, translated for the first time into English by Judith Cowan. Jessica will be reading from her latest collection, Self-Portrait Without a Bicycle.

What better way to kick off Poetry Month than to get a head start with Biblioasis?

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.