Amanda Earl's Kiki (2014) featured at All Lit Up

Amanda Earl's Kiki (2014) was recently featured at All Lit Up as part of their "Top 10: It's My Party" list! And of course, you can order a copy directly, here.

Read This, Then That: Amanda Earl's Kiki and Sarah Bernstein's Now Comes the Lightning

Amanda Earl's Kiki (2014) is recommended as a literary pairing by All Lit Up! See the original post here.









 

Read This, Then That: Ladies of Paris

 January 20, 2016 by Tan Light

Read This: Kiki by Amanda Earl (Chaudiere Books)

Then That: Now Comes the Lightning by Sarah Bernstein (Pedlar Press)

When I say 1930s French Cabaret, you probably think of Edith Piaf. But there were many women who came before Edith. In this edition of Read This, Then That, we’re looking at two poetry collections that provide a glimpse into life in Montmartre and Montparnasse, the nuclei of the major cultural and artistic revivals taking place in France at the time of the Great War.

Each collection takes as its subject a woman who lived in Paris circa the 1920s and 30s, who was central to a particular scene. In Kiki, we learn about the life and times of Alice Ernestine Prin, the Queen of Montparnasse. Kiki performed in cabarets, made art, posed nude, was incarcerated, starred in avant-garde silent films, modeled for her partner, Man Ray, and other artists.

Now Comes the Lightning is set in the streets of Montmartre, and tells the story of Marguerite Boulc'h, who later became known as Fréhel. Despite being one of Europe's most sought after performers, both as a singer and an actress, her destructive addictions led to her dropping out of sight for years at a time.

Both of these collections show how these women navigated a social and economic landscape that was not always friendly to single, independent women. Both had difficult family circumstances to overcome, and later, failed romantic relationships. Yet we also see a glimpse of the ways women worked together to support and safe guard each other in the world of cabarets and jazz clubs. We also get to see early 20th century Paris in detail. Sadly, both Kiki and Fréhel suffered from addiction and alcoholism, which ultimately lead each to their deaths in the early 1950s.

I recommend this pair of poetry collections to Francophiles and independent women from coast-to-coast.

Chaudiere Books featured at All Lit Up!

Chaudiere Books is featured in the All Lit Up series "In House," a short spotlight on some of our activities and adventures over the past few years. Thanks much!

our fall poetry titles now available for order!

Our fall poetry titles are now available for ordering! Check out Andy Weaver's this, Jennifer Londry's Tatterdemalion and Chris Turnbull's continua, with all the rest of our titles also available (obviously). And of course, review copies of all are available upon request! Just send an email to rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com

Jacqueline Valencia reviews Amanda Earl's Kiki (2014)

Jacqueline Valencia was good enough to review Amanda Earl's Kiki (2014) as part of a group review over at All Lit Up. Thanks, much! You can see her original review here.

This is the sixth review of Kiki, after Anne Burke reviewed such via The League of Canadian Poets, "Indiereadergirl" reviewed such over at her indiereadergirl0329 blog, Jonathan Ball reviewed such over at the Winnipeg Free Press, Douglas Barbour reviewed such over at his blog, and Matthew J. Hall was good enough to review such over at The Small Press Book Review. 

And of course, copies can be ordered directly via All Lit Up!

N.W. Lea's Understander now available for online ordering!

N.W. Lea's Understander is now available for online ordering at All Lit Up! And of course, you can order his first collection, Everything is Movies (2007) there as well, along with any/all of our entire backlist. Hooray!

Pearl Pirie recommends Chaudiere titles by Monty Reid and rob mclennan

Pearl Pirie recommends recent Chaudiere titles by Monty Reid and rob mclennan (among others) as part of a brief question-and-answer session over at All Lit Up!

Chaudiere Books the top selling publisher for All Lit Up in April!

Apparently our newest Chaudiere title, The Collected Poems of William Hawkins, edited by Cameron Anstee, helped Chaudiere Books be the top selling publisher (in terms of dollar amount) for All Lit Up in April! Plenty of thanks to those who have already ordered a copy of the book (and others of our titles, which we are eager to also get into the hands of interested readers). And of course, copies of Hawkins' collected can be ordered directly here.

Chappy Hour: Kiki de Montparnasse + Kiki

All Lit Up (where all of our titles are available for online order) features Amanda Earl's Kiki today, and pairs it with an appropriate cocktail. Why not sample both?

OKCanLit: Who’s Your Lit Love Match?

Just in time for Valentine's Day, All Lit Up (where you can purchase our books online) has worked up a little "speed dating" quiz to pair readers up with with the perfect books. Why not try your luck? As they write: "Much like dating, you have to go through a lot of books before knowing which is ISBN-Right for you. We’re speeding the process along with our certified (nope), lab-tested (also nope) love test, that will match you with the books and publishers that will guarantee (YES!) a happy-ever-after."

Family Literacy Day : some recommended kid's books,

In which I wrote a short blog post recommending some kid's books over at the All Lit Up blog.

Monty Reid's Garden (2014) featured at All Lit Up!

Monty Reid's Garden (2014) was featured this week over at All Lit Up; thanks much!

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.

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.