Sunday, December 31, 2006

The Mighty Quin

My friend Jamie kept talking up the author Ann Quin who I'd never heard of until he finally lent me a copy of her last novel, Tripticks.

The fact that it was published by The Dalkey Archive was a good sign, but most surprising to me was that she was part of B.S. Johnson's circle. Johnson being one of my favourite prose writers, as well as being one of the most criminally underrated.

But Tripticks itself is very cool -- as the back cover notes it does have the Acker thing happening, but it also reminded me of Gail Scott's first book. One passage spoke to me particularly, seeming to be relevant to both academia and the poetry scene:

I had the feeling that the whole place was an inbred life, a life turned in on itself, I had the uneasy feeling also that people talked to themselves, in a language devised for each other, delivered in papers written for each other, at conferences held for each other, supported by agencies formed for each other. And all done in the self-important atmosphere of addressing themselves to the problems of the world, which is their responsibility to find solutions for.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

100,000 million versus 22

There's an interesting response to my essay, "Annexing a space for poetry in the new Toronto" from the Coach House anthology State of the Arts, at the Reading Toronto website by Amy Lavender Harris.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Another Story

Need to give a shout out to Another Story Bookstore who hosted the celebration of Double Helix and Avatar last week. The staff are fantastic and the stock is great with tons of small press books, graphic novels, and the best selection of children's literature I've ever seen.

Now that I've finished lecturing for the Fall term I'm finally getting a chance to catch up on long overdue reading. Two notable books from this week: Ken Babstock's Airstream Land Yacht and Erin Moure's Little Theatres.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Double Helix is here



Double Helix has arrived and it's a beautiful thing.



Your first chance to get a signed copy will be tonight at the Another Story bookstore (315 Roncesvalles at 7 p.m.)