May 14, 2008
Unless
This past weekend has ruined me, and I remain in a coma. Or perhaps I just can’t stop reading Rebecca long enough to focus on anything else. And I have a stack of books-to-be-read up to my elbows, so thankfully this weekend is a long one and I can fill it well.
Last evening I attended the Fiery First Fiction event, and it did not disappoint. I particularly enjoyed hearing Nathan Whitlock read from A Week of This (which I read last month), Shari Lapeña read from her book (which I’ve got upcoming), and then there was Claudia Dey who must have sold her book a thousand times. Personally I’m not sure how I’d live long without it– her reading was unbelievable. Coach House is publishing wonderful books these days; remember Pulpy and Midge? And I also want to read Girls Fall Down by Maggie Helwig.
Read Claudia Dey profiled in The Toronto Star. Watch “the list of books that make the best use of their type” at Baby Got Books. Lorrie Moore’s Collected Stories reviewed. Margaret Drabble is characteristically excellent in “The beginning of life should not be a subject for a crude polemic”.
Today whilst reading The Danforth Review on A Week of This, I was surprised to see my own review referenced. Bryson’s points are interesting, and I found quite illuminating his assertion that novels “are fictional inventions of imagined worlds. They are performances of language, and the references they make to each other– explicitly or implicitly– are of greater interest than a novel’s photo realism.” True enough, perhaps, but then isn’t the novel quite a multitudinous thing? And don’t we all approach it differently?
And like Heather Mallick, I’ve noticed this month’s issue of The Walrus is decidedly short on women writers. “Apparently you can’t have a good magazine unless women are writing it,” writes one of Mallick’s avid readers. But you sort of can’t, actually, in this day and age. Not if you’re writing a general interest/current events magazine, and women are writing practically none of it– is this really surprising? The only pieces written by women are two of four “field notes”, one of four book reviews, a poem by P.K. Page, and one of nine letters to the editor. (Perhaps the whole issue is the answer to Austin Clarke’s story title, “Where Are the Men?”) What all this signifies exactly, I cannot venture to say. But then to me the facts appear as such, I don’t actually need to say anything.
In related news, I’m looking forward to reading Why Women Should Rule the World by Dee Dee Myers. Check out coverage at The Savvy Reader.
May 10, 2008
Fiery First Fiction
Oooooh– Fiery First Fiction! A fantastic promotion by the Literary Press Group. Events are being held across the country, and I’m looking forward to attending Monday night’s in Toronto at Supermarket. FFF is promoting 14 first novels published by Canadian small presses. Buy one at participating independent bookstores and get a free durable book bag– I just got mine, and durable IS the word. I love it. Though I could only get one book today (I am trying to curb book buying habits to no more than one daily) so I selected Things Go Flying by Shari Lapeña. And yes, I chose it by its cover, but I think I’m on to something good.
I was at the bookshop with my friend Bronwyn, which has always been one of my favourite experiences. She’d also brought her spare copy of Rebecca to pass along to me, so it’s been an evening of fine new acquisitions.
May 8, 2008
What I have been waiting for
Last night I got to attend the Kama Reading Series again, with superstar readers Lawrence Hill, Anand Mahadevan, Kelley Armstrong and Miriam Toews. It was such an impressive assemblage, though I must say the ladies stole the show. I hadn’t heard of Armstrong before, but she really took that whole “I write vampire fiction” thing and ran with it– she was fabulous. Truly, I don’t get enough vampire fiction. And then Miriam Toews– I’ve only ever read her incredible memoir Swing Low: A Life, which is one of very few books that have ever left me sobbing. So I knew she was a good writer, but I hadn’t yet been exposed to how funny this woman is. She was hysterical, deadpan, right-on, and I could have listened to her read for ages. I would like to pay her to sit in my house and entertain me. And now I absolutely have to read her fiction– what have I been waiting for?
This week I’ve been reading Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, and getting ready to tack a huge stack of periodicals that have arrived in the post. Also enjoyed rob mclennan’s essay “Rereading Sheila Watson and Elizabeth Smart at the Garneau Pub, Edmonton”.
May 8, 2008
Authors' Day
Today I had the great pleasure of being a part of the Toronto District School Board’s “Authors’ Day” held at historic Spadina House. The event began with a delicious lunch, which turned out to just be the beginning of good things. Participants were high school students shortlisted in a board-wide short story contest, and there were about forty of them in total. After lunch they broke into groups and attended writing workshops led by me, Gale Zoe Garnett and the lovely Jessica Westhead. My group was fantastic, and for two hours they shared their stories, criticism and ideas. It was a privilege to be there, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. At the end of the afternoon we reassembled, and the top prizes were given. These winning stories have been published in a booklet, I was given a copy, and now I’m excited to read them.
April 29, 2008
Elizabeth Hay Blogging Tour
I am so excited to announce that over the next few weeks, Pickle Me This will be a stop on Elizabeth Hay’s upcoming blogging tour of the Canadian North. Her award-winning Late Nights on Air was on of my favourite books of 2007 (and read my review here). Other stops will include The Book Mine Set, The Library Ladder and Metro Mama.
April 23, 2008
Listenings
Tonight my friend Jennie and I had the great pleasure of going to see Jhumpa Lahiri at Harbourfront reading from her new book The Unaccustomed Earth (recently read). It was a great event, fascinating to see these masterful stories are made by such a young and slightly nervous person– for me, they’re a bit richer for that, of this earth. She was a wonderful reader, reading from her story “Hell/Heaven”, and having heard it in her voice, I do want to go back and read it again.
I’ve written before about my feelings towards readings– that I’ve long found it difficult just to listen, and they force me to use un-exercised muscles. Though being bad at listening is certainly no desirable trait, and I always striving to become better at this, and some readers and some stories definitely make it easy. Of course it’s not all about self-improvement– I do enjoy readings. I like the idea of bookish gatherings, and they do make me feel better about the world in general– a whole room full of people who’ve shown up to be read to. It all can’t be so bad after all…
I haven’t mentioned yet that Michael Ondaatje was also reading tonight. I mightn’t have mentioned at all– I was there for Lahiri. But his reading was stunning. I’ve read Divisidero and found it not unsatisfying but baffling, and all the baffling stuff ceased to matter tonight when I heard the story in his voice. Perhaps his stories are meant to be told more than read, where they are just dissected, may fall apart, his images failing to withstand much scrutiny. But it was such a marked difference when I was listening, the kind of difference I’ve never really experienced at a reading. When I couldn’t perform dissections, refering to previous paragraphs, underlining points and pencilling question marks. Instead it was forward momentum, unstoppable, and I could only go along for the ride. The niggly problems didn’t stand out then, the bits and pieces, but they culminated into something larger, washing over me to cast a spell under which the story was perfectly reasonable. His last line took my breath away, and I don’t even mean it figuratively.
April 17, 2008
Kama Readings
Tonight I had the great pleasure of attending the Kama Reading Series by World Literacy Canada.
The low point of the evening was on the way there when my necklace fell off and down my dress, and my choices were to shimmy madly on the sidewalk or reach up under my skirt, both of which involved pearls emerging from between my legs, and so I went with a combination of both, imagining everyone behind me didn’t exist.
But the high point of the evening was everything else, the readers featuring three whose books I’ve enjoyed so much during the past year: Richard B. Wright (of October), Frances Itani (of Remembering the Bones) and Janice Kulyk Keefer (whose The Ladies’ Lending Library was the start of my summer last year, and led me to “At the Bay”, and then Thieves, and then to reread Bliss).
It was completely nice to listen to authors reading stories I know well. I also like hearing new stories, of course, and the jarring recognition once I finally sit down to read them myself, but this was easier, like I was hearing old yarns but in new voices. The readers all were impressive, their passages engaging, and for the first time in my life, I thoroughly enjoyed the Q&A. Mostly because no one got up, and prefaced something stupid with, “As a writer myself, I…” or some such thing. I got to ask Kulyk Keefer a question about the multiple points of view in her book. And I appreciated the writers’ responses to a request to define what to them is success; from all of them I got the sense that such a thing is elusive and that it’s always the next book ahead.
April 13, 2008
Dancing about Literature
My short essay “Dancing About Literature” appears in Descant 140: Improvisations, which is in stores now. The piece is about the joys of literary blogging, which I’m so pleased to experience here and elsewhere. The issue also contains work by such notables as P.K. Page, Alberto Manguel, and Anthony De Sa.
April 6, 2008
Chatelaine turns 80
I bought the May issue of Chatelaine, mainly because it was thick, on sale for 1.99, and I wanted to be part of the birthday fete. I don’t buy the magazine usually– women’s magazines tend to overwhelm me with “tips”and “solutions”, rendering me altogether hopeless. Though I do make a point of reading Chatelaine‘s books pages at the grocery store checkout. But I’m pleased I got this issue, and not just because of the fabulous vintage covers. No, I was most of all delighted by the “tea time” feature, with recipes for scones, tiny sandwiches, and ice teas. Accompanied by a gorgeous photo layout, and the obligatory Henry James quote. Will be clipped and kept for life.
March 26, 2008
Just in
I’m just in from the Exile launch, which I left all too soon as I have 600 impossible things to accomplish before bedtime. Had the great pleasure of hearing Rebecca Rosenblum read though, and I picked up the new issue of the Quarterly— it’s beautiful.
In others, I am thrilled that writer Justine Picardie has started blogging. I fell in love with her writing when I lived in England, particularly her memoir If the Spirit Moves You and I look forward to reading her new novel Daphne. Maud Newton on Laura Lippman (whose What the Dead Know made for a perfect cottage read last summer). The Great Gatsby celebrated in The Globe & Mail. And Steven W. Beattie reads Nikolski.
