All Lit Up Fall Preview: rob mclennan on Stan Dragland,

As part of the All Lit Up Fall Preview (week two), I did a short write-up ("publisher's picks") anticipating Stan Dragland's The Bricoleur & His Sentences (Pedlar Press, 2014), a book I've since received and am nearly half-way through reviewing [see the original post, along with other recommendations, here]. And did I mention that all of our Chaudiere Books titles can now be ordered online through All Lit Up? You should totally start doing that. My little write-up reads:

rob mclennan, publisher at Chaudiere Books, picks …

The Bricoleur & His Sentences by Stan Dragland (Pedlar Press, available now)
One of the fall titles I’m excited to get my hands on is Stan Dragland’s The Bricoleur & His Sentences (Pedlar Press, 2014). I’ve always envied Dragland’s ease with literary criticism; how he articulates the interconnectivity of reading, thinking, literature and living in the world in terms deceptively simple, deeply complex, and incredibly broad. I’ve envied his sentences, and even attempted, unsuccessfully, to replicate them. For years, one of my favourite books has been his Journeys Through Bookland and Other Passages (Brick Books, 1984), a title I’ve probably read at least half a dozen times, even taking to travelling with it on extended tours. According to Wikipedia, “bricolage (French for ‘tinkering’) is the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work created by such a process.” I can’t imagine a better description for the literary criticism of Stan Dragland, a deeply committed reader, thinker and critic. According to the press for this new title, he explores the work of writers such as Walter Benjamin, Margaret Avison, Michael Ondaatje, Phil Hall, Bobbie Louise Hawkins and Colleen Thibaudeau, and readers familiar with Dragland’s work will recognize more than a couple of names from earlier works. I look forward to it.

Una McDonnell: blog-hop self-interview,

Lovely to see that Una McDonnell, who had work in the anthology Decalogue: Ten Ottawa Poets (Chaudiere Books, 2006), has responded to the blog-hop self-interview, as tagged by (and posted upon the blog of) Montreal writer Tess Fragoulis.

Jonathan Ball reviews Amanda Earl's Kiki in the Winnipeg Free Press

Jonathan Ball was good enough to review Amanda Earl's Kiki in the Winnipeg Free Press. Thanks, Jonathan! This is actually the second review of Kiki, after Matthew J. Hall's review in The Small Press Book Review.

See the original review here. And remember: you can purchase Kiki online here!

Amanda Earl's Kiki (Chaudiere, 100 pages, $20) pays homage to the chaos of Montparnasse between the world wars, and its mythical status as a sex- and drug-fuelled artistic hotbed. The book and its first long poem takes its name from Alice Ernestine Prin, a.k.a. Kiki, a celebrity of the period often celebrated as either a muse or an artist herself.

Earl offers a portrait of Kiki that suggests her splendour while taking a tragic tone. A trip to New York finds her "small in the new world. I am Alice again down the hole. // I shrink. I cannot eat what says eat me. I can only drink until I am Kiki again. Until I am back through the shattered glass." Here, Earl alludes to Carroll, while elsewhere aping Burroughs. The diversity of Earl's style elevates her attractively dark imagery, for a rich and mythic tone to match its subject.

Kiki in Wonderland: Amanda Earl,

Chaudiere Books author Amanda Earl is offering free copies (while supplies last) of the visual poetry chapbook to those who purchase her first trade collection, Kiki, at tomorrow night's launch (which also includes the launch of Roland Prevost's Singular Plurals and Monty Reid's Garden).

Kiki in Wonderland is a visual poetry interpretation of Alice, the first section of Kiki. Published by AngelHousePress in a limited edition of 50 copies, this chapbook will be offered free to those who pre-purchased Kiki (& bring the book to be signed at the launch) or who purchase Kiki at its Ottawa launch on Monday, October 27 at 8pm as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival, Fox and Feather, 283 Elgin Street. See link here for further information on the event.

Amanda Earl's Kiki featured at All Lit Up

Amanda Earl's Kiki is featured this week at All Lit Up, along with a short interview with the author, as well as a short interview on the book with co-publisher Christine McNair (who also edited the book). Thanks much!

And did we mention that all of our titles can now be ordered online through All Lit Up? You should totally start doing that.

rob mclennan interview, and a poem or two;

Chaudiere Books co-publisher and author rob mclennan recently participated in the "Blog Hop" self-interview over at his enormously clever blog (as tagged by Montreal writer Tess Fragoulis). He has also been publishing poems in a variety of online journals lately, including this short piece in small po[r]tions.

Anita Dolman's guest-post at the Morning Rain Publishing blog,

Anita Dolman, one of the authors featured in our Decalogue: Ten Ottawa Poets (2006) has a new guest-post up at the Morning Rain Publishing blog.

a review of Amanda Earl's Kiki

The first review of Amanda Earl's Kiki (2014), by Matthew J. Hall, is now online at The Small Press Book Review.

Pearl Pirie on Roland Prevost;

Ottawa poet, blogger and Chaudiere author Pearl Pirie recently wrote on Roland Prevost's Singular Plurals as part of her expansive and ongoing "95 books" project [see her original post here]. Might we see you for the launch on October 27?

91. Singular Plurals by Roland Prevost (Chaudiere, 2014)
There’s a bias at work here since we workshopped together and I blurbed his book. It launches Oct 27th at the Writers Festival and he’s one of my guests today on CKCU Literary Landscape at 6:30pm [listen to the podcast of such here]. The book covers the best of his chapbooks and in 6 sections ranges from purer language to (I won’t say easily but differently) accessible anecdotes like p. 49

    Red Anchors

    Your operation’s later today.

    A white lab coat
    plays doctor well, soon
    to sew you up.

    Ragdoll you. Patch you up.

    We’re all under the coin,
    tossed, flipped, now or later.

    Everything hums in my room whispers
    hums unknown hymns.

There are little sonic beauties of sound and sense thru like “silk of raindrops/sound umbrellas” where the expected noun verbs and makes it remind how the echo bounces and tells us the shape of the whole environment in the rain. Language also takes time to play such as in one of my favourites “His Coloured Concrete Pieces” “Black&White tv comedies/demi-century artefacts/pretending to sleep. Possum ously.”

A fun read even the third time thru in part because of the good-naturedness informing the poems. Not a bitter witty screed but looking to what is possible in world and people. Heartening.

Amanda Earl at Reading Recommendations

Amanda Earl answers Susan M. Toy's book-meme questions today over at Reading Recommendations.

Chaudiere Books at Canzine 2014!

Come visit us at Canzine 2014! Our very first Canzine! November 1, 2014 in Toronto!

Christine McNair makes the 2014 bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist!

Congratulations to Chaudiere Books co-publisher Christine McNair, who made the 2014 bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist for her pleasantries and other misdemeanours, produced in 2013 by Cameron Anstee's Apt 9! We look forward to hearing the announcement in person on November 22 at the Meet the Presses fair in Toronto. See the entire shortlist and press release here.

Douglas Barbour reviews Monty Reid's Garden

Edmonton poet and critic Douglas Barbour provides the first review of Monty Reid's Garden (2014) over at his electric ruckus blog. Thanks so much, Doug! You can see the full review here.

And don't forget to come hear Monty read as part of the fall 2014 Chaudiere Books launch at Writersfest on October 27!

"when love blooms, a visual poetry suite for Tom & Charles," by Amanda Earl

Amanda Earl's vibrant "when love blooms, a visual poetry suite for Tom & Charles" is now online at Creative Thresholds.