Thursday, February 20, 2014

author spotlight #2: rob mclennan,



Chaudiere Books is publishing Ottawa writer rob mclennan’s first collection of short fiction, The Uncertainty Principle: stories, later this spring, launching as part of the Plan 99 Reading Series at The Manx Pub in Ottawa on Saturday, May 10, 2014. Some of the stories from this collection, as well as from a subsequent work-in-progress, have appeared online at The Barnstormer, Reader's Digest Canada, matchbooklit, fortunates and Sassafras Literary Magazine, as well as quite a number posted to his blog: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here (for example). A short write-up by the author on composing the form of the short short story also appears at matchbooklit. Other short fiction has appeared online in Numero Cinq, the author's blog and The Puritan, with short essays on composing fiction at The Town Crier, The Puritan and at his blog. American writer Eileen R. Tabios was good enough to do a short write-up on the work-in-progress, here.

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan [photo credit: Christine McNair] currently lives in Ottawa. The author of more than twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. This spring also sees the publication of a second collection of literary essays, notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014). Other recent titles include the poetry collection Songs for little sleep, (Obvious Epiphanies, 2012), and a second novel, missing persons (2009). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, The Garneau Review, seventeen seconds: ajournal of poetry and poetics and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater. He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com


Monday, February 17, 2014

John Newlove : 70 Canadian Poets, ed. Gary Geddes

Chaudiere Books author John Newlove has poems in the new 70 Canadian Poets (Oxford University Press), edited by Gary Geddes. Newly released this month, this anthology is a continuation of the '15 Canadian Poets' series he's been editing for Oxford University Press for nearly forty years. We can't wait to see our copy!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Association of Canadian Publishers' meeting, 2014

We were fortunate enough to attend the Association of Canadian Publishers' 2014 mid-winter meeting in Toronto recently. Conjoined with a meeting of the Literary Press Group (of which we are a member), we were able to take turns attending sessions throughout the weekend (as Rose the Intern allowed).

One of the highlights was a session on book reviewing [photo, left], with panelists Jared Bland from the Globe and Mail, Stuart Woods from Quill and Quire and Mark Medley from The National Post, lovingly moderated by ECW Press' own Jack David.

We were able to interact with LPG staff (all of whom are wonderful), and members of both organizations, including Karen Green from Anvil Press, Brian Henderson of Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Kitty Lewis of Brick Books, Linda Cameron of the University of Alberta Press [who snapped and posted this mid-conference photo of us on facebook], Alana Wilcox of Coach House Books, Silas White of Nightwood Editions, Michael Mirolla of Guernica Editions, Hazel and Jay MillAr of BookThug, and plenty of others.

We learned many things, had plenty good fun and managed to interact with friends old and new alike, including many who were amazed that we were able to attend a conference at all with a two-month-old (which would have been far more difficult had we not been staying in the same hotel where the conference was being held). Now if we could only get her to help fill out grant applications.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Marcus McCann in Niagara Falls and Hamilton

Chaudiere Books author Marcus McCann has two upcoming readings you should be aware of:

In Niagara Falls: Grey Borders Reading Series

w/ Dani Couture & Ralph Kolewe
7pm, Fri, Feb 28, 2014.
Niagara Artist Centre, 354 St Paul st.

In Hamilton: LitLive Reading Series
w/ Jim Smith, Christine McNair, Andrew Faulkner & others
7:30pm, Sun, March 2, 2014.
Sky Dragon centre, 27 King William St.


For information on further McCann readings and appearances, check out his events page, here.

Friday, February 07, 2014

Robert McTavish helps annotate Bobbie Louise Hawkins' home movies of Robert Creeley and friends

Robert McTavish, documentary filmmaker and editor of A Long Continual Argument: The Selected Poems of John Newlove (Chaudiere Books, 2007) helped Penelope Creeley annotate some home video footage. As Charles Bernstein posts at Jacket2:







Bobbie Louise Hawkins took these home movies from 1962 to 1965. She provided them to Robert McTavish for his film about the Vancouver poetry conference of 1963, The Line Has Shattered (2013), and then asked McTavish to send them to PennSound.  Penelope Creeley and McTavish provided most of the annotations. We welcome any further identifications: let us know!
McTavish will be in Ottawa in March 2014 as part of VERSeFest to present his documentary film, The Line Has Shattered (2013), including a panel discussion with Ottawa-based 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference participants Robert Hogg, William Hawkins and Roy MacSkimming. Check the VERSeFest 2014 website for updates when we have them.

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

ottawater #10 : Dolman, Lea, Le Dressay, Massey + Prevost,

The tenth issue of the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater is now online at www.ottawater.com, featuring work by Chaudiere Books authors Anita Dolman, N.W. Lea, Anne Le Dressay, Karen Massey and Roland Prevost, along with numerous others.