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Welcome to Collaborative Digital Poetry [Amateur] Night, featuring Blaire Blogs die-hard fans (Dad, that’s you!), occasional readers, and random passersby. This post will be especially eye-opening if I only get three responses, so please, save my ego: tell your friends. (Thanks Jordan and Matt, as always, for the shameless twitter promotion.)

Recently, I have been engaging in an ongoing debate with my favourite red wine philosopher about which we seek out more often: to be seen or heard (or, if they are, in fact, manifestations of the exact same thing which embody deeper human urges presented differently in each individual…but I won’t get into it). Today—in celebration of National Poetry Month—I’m fusing them together with a digital poetry experiment.

Make a one-statement case for/about being seen or heard, and we’ll make one relentless collaborative poem out of it. Do not be afraid to contribute more than once; I like my poets greedy for airtime. Express yourselves!
I’ll start.

SEEN/HEARD
by: Blaire, Matthew, Carly, John, SB, Brenna, Lorna, Carrie, BH, PjM

To hear me is to see inside my dwelling place.
To hear me is to see the things I want you to.
Listen to what I’m telling through my movements and my clothes.
But hear me when you listen, even through my lows.
It’s seeing the options in front of me, yet hearing me out.
Hear me to see me in my truest form.
Look and see, listen and hear … and discover what I’m ALL about!
To hear me is to see the chaos inside me.
Now see what I am showing with the words tumbling out of my mouth.
I hear the grumblings, I see the look, but listening closely is all it took.
Likewise the heard carries the unheard unseen.
Even though I scream thoughts, the loudness disappears.
Seeing what’s in front of you, listen, without saying a word.
The silence confronted, I continue to move through.
Because the ear is the eye of language.
And the eye is the ear of sound.
Seeing me is hearing what I did not say.

***

Take a look at our traditional print Laurier Poetry catalogue in all its digital glory on Edelweiss and BNC CataList. Have a poetic month!

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But we were wrong. Books aren’t our business, expression is our business. Stories, theories, memories, research, art, words: that’s our business. Books, as we know them, are merely the container to our true product: content. Digital publishing simply frees that content from its traditional packaging, and that’s far from our cue to close up shop.

Publishing’s digital revolution means beginning to think about the content of a book separately from its container. It’s not just time to evolve the way we think about books, it’s time to have fun with them; embedded discussion links, interactive fiction, background music—none of that happens on paper. By nature, print books are restrictive to content—there are only a few ways to present it. With the digital world expanding around us, the book industry is tasked with challenging our product to do more than it ever has before. We aren’t witnessing the dwindling of literature, but the re-imagination of its potential. If anyone is up to this immense creative task, it’s publishers. After all, every day they face down a TV-dazed public and say “Hey! Read this.” and survive. (Yesterday, I caught a Walking Dead TV series fan reading the graphic novel and almost cried with joy.) We’ve got this.

But books without jackets? Shelves without spines? It’s daunting, sure, but I’m not worried. People do love books, but we love what’s in them even more: authentic human expression.

Content unbound—let’s see what we can do with that.

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“Censorship does not protect society; it smothers creativity and precludes open debate of controversial issues.”

—From the Book and Periodical Council’s Freedom of Expression and Freedom to Read position statement.

Last week was Freedom to Read week in Canada, and in case you missed it, take a look at some of our current censorship issues.

It may seem strange to think of Canada as a society threatened by censorship, but books and magazines are banned at the border and removed from shelves in our libraries, schools, and bookstores all the time. And it’s not just about what’s in print: social media is the newest venue for free speech, and thus, censorship. Though the internet expands our potential for knowledge, it also enables more immediate personal restriction. Freedom to Read is about intellectual independence and, above all else, the right to choose—what we read, what we express, and how we learn. So, read! Speak! And decide for yourself.

Have you read a recently contested publication? I bet you have.
A selection of works challenged in Canada within the past ten years:

Adbusters: A Journal of the Mental Environment
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Antigone by Sophocles
Contes pour buveurs attardés by Michel Tremblay
Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race by Jon Stewart
Gossip Girl (all fifteen books in series) by Cecily Von Ziegesar
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Harry Potter (all seven books in series) by J.K. Rowling
His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman
Maclean’s
My Mom’s Having a Baby! A Kid’s Month by Month Guide to Pregnancy by Dori Hillestad Butler
NOW magazine
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art by Richard Meyer
Rolling Stone magazine
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Something to Tell by Ann Alma
Sports Illustrated
Star Wars: A New Hope by George Lucas, Hisao Tamaki, and David Land
Takes One to Know One: An Alison Kaine Mystery by Kate Allen
Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak by Deborah Ellis
To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee Harper
“What’s Happening to Me?” An Illustrated Guide to Puberty by Peter Mayle

Still think we’re in the clear?

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The paragraph above is from a blog post by Tanis MacDonald, poet and scholar (Laurier Dept of English and Film), and author of The Daughter’s Way: Canadian Women’s Paternal Elegies. She writes about her desire to do more than a host a gathering of friends with cookies and tea to launch a book that was years in the making. And so she envisioned The Elegy Roadshow and proceeded to tour a scholarly book (combined with poetry) in six cities across Canada.

Tanis thoughtfully thanks the press for the work our staff did on her book, but we in turn thank her for being a tireless supporter of our publications. Please check out the rest of her post, read her poetry, and maybe, just maybe, tuck her scholarly book into your electronic shopping cart on our site (with a 25% discount).

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Since I’m apparently in fess-up mode this month, let’s get started with this bombshell: in terms of my publishing-related fancies, I’ve tended towards fashioning myself as more of a trade girl. Sure, I’m an avid fiction reader (the dirty little secrets continue), but it’s not just that. When it comes to digital marketing in the publishing world, trade was the most immediately obvious beneficiary. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest: that screams “Twilight” far more than “academia”, right? Wrong. Social media is about content. There are many different ways to present that content (with assured eternal regret is one example), but it’s all content, just the same. (Interesting fact: the term “blog” was coined as a short form for its original name “web log” to describe the practice of regularly logging web content. Sexy, I know.) What exactly are we talking about here? What does social media content really facilitate? Curiosity. Ideas. Opinions. Philosophy. Discourse. Knowledge. What does that sound like? Academia.

So, maybe it’s casual academia. And yes, often, it’s not even close. But the intellectual value of such a far-reaching method of content sharing is very real. Out with the pub—the academic’s historic meditative debate venue of choice (yes, that has been thoroughly personally researched)—and in with social media platforms. Well, not really out with the pub; some things will never change that much, and for good reason. But once the scholarly masses discover Foursquare, guess where they’ll be? At the pub. But we’ll know about it. Maybe we’ll even start joining them there.

So scholarly publishing doesn’t really benefit from jazzed up Facebook contests and hashtag hype (yet), but it is ALL about content. And that content is all about substance. Aren’t we just starved for that? So, the next time you’re in the mood for some intellectual nourishment, remember that you may not have to go far. Substantial knowledge goes social, too. Use it.

They are letting me keep a web log, after all. #knowledgerockstars

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Before we get more comfortable, I have a confession to make. In the school year of 2008–2009, my final undergraduate year at Queen’s University, I did not buy my textbooks. I went to the library, I studied with classmates, but I did not spend any money on required reading. For awhile, I was quite proud of this. Fight the system! It’s all a cash grab! I’m a poor student, they can’t expect me to spend money that frivolously (Fact: beer, poutine, and Starbucks are actually daily necessities of life). What I failed to realize was what the existence of those very books represented in my educational journey, and beyond. The authors have made it their life’s vocation to bury themselves in an area of study, testing new and different ways to claw their way to the surface with their bare hands. Every day they challenge themselves and others to push limits and expand their minds. They argue with you. They compel you to ask questions. They will take “No” for an answer, if only to find out why. They learn; and then they teach you. I think back to my undergrad and still feel intensely inspired by many of my professors. Who do you think wrote these books? They did. Them, and other scholarly minds like them. And what cash grab? These publishers are poorer than I am. They do what they do because they refuse to live in a world where knowledge isn’t valued. And you know what, so do I.

The fact that I ever decided against investing in scholarly materials now makes me question the moral fibre of my existence. As a self-declared lifelong learner, I am ashamed. So, students: buy your textbooks! Immerse yourself in those course materials. You’ll be reading someone else’s passion. And trust me, there’s a good chance the publisher of that book is fighting harder to stay alive than you are to stay awake in your 8 a.m. class on Fridays. They want you to learn, but mostly, they want you to love it—like they do.

I am incredibly lucky to be able to call myself a member of one of these teams of knowledge rockstars. I know they have much to teach me. So, drink up your education; I hope you’ll never cease to be thirsty for it. That’s what we’re here for.

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New eReader or Tablet?

Food That Really Schmecks: There’s an app for that!

Edna Staebler’s classic Mennonite cookbook is now available for Apple users.

• Search recipes and ingredients
• Upload your own pictures to recipes
• Add notes and comments to recipes, photos, and stories
• Take a virtual tour of Waterloo Region
• Watch video tributes to Edna Staebler

Don’t miss the iTunes Food That Really Schmecks special holiday offers!

December 20–31: Free
January 1–15: $1.99

________________________________________

Holiday specials from Kobo and WLU Press

Selected Laurier Poetry  titles on Kobo are only $4.99 December 24–January 2

All These Roads: The Poetry of Louis Dudek (Shearer)
Before the First Word: The Poetry of Lorna Crozier  (Hunter)
Blues and Bliss: The Poetry of George Elliott Clarke (Fiorentino)
Children of the Outer Dark: The Poetry of Christopher Dewdney (Jirgens)
Desire Never Leaves: The Poetry of Tim Lilburn (Calder)
Earthly Pages: The Poetry of Don Domanski (Bartlett)
The False Laws of Narrative: The Poetry of Fred Wah (Cabri)
Field Marks: The Poetry of Don McKay (Cook)
From Room to Room: The Poetry of Eli Mandel (Webb)
Plans Deranged by Time: The Poetry of George Fetherling (Moritz)
Verse and Worse: Selected and New Poems of Steve McCaffery 1989-2009 (Wershler)

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We would like to take this opportunity to step out of the limelight for a minute and thank one of the biggest supporters of university presses around the world: the independent bookstore. Independent bookstores buy our books. They appreciate scholarly thinking, serious writing, and offer some of the most bibliophilic spaces you could ever hope to find. They fight to stay alive in an industry monopolized by big-box stores—and all for the love of reading. Walking into an independent bookstore is—for hardcore book lovers—like coming home.

Though there are many, many more to speak of, here is a list of a few independent bookstores we know and love. We hope you will take the time to visit the ones nearest you; we know they’d love to see you.

Happy 75th anniversary to the AAUP, and here’s to 75 more!

Burlington, ON
A Different Drummer Books

Calgary, AB
Pages Books
Shelf Life Books

Cambridge, ON
Book Express

Edmonton, AB
Audreys Books

Fergus, ON
Roxanne’s Reflections

Guelph, ON
The Bookshelf

Halifax, NS
Bookmark

Hamilton, ON
Bryan Prince Bookseller

Kingston, ON
Novel Idea

Montreal, QC
Bertrand Bookstore
Exportlivre
Nicholas Hoare
Paragraphe Bookstore

Ottawa, ON
Collected Works
Octopus Bookstore

Sarnia, ON
The Book Keeper

Saskatoon, SK
McNally Robinson

Toronto, ON
Another Story
Ben McNally Books
Book City
Theatre Books
Type Books

Waterloo, ON
Words Worth Books

Winnipeg, MB
McNally Robinson

Wolfville, NS
Box of Delights

Victoria, BC
Bolen Books
Munro’s Bookstore

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Inspired by this exciting idea, we have created our own WLU Press Influence Map for our Life Writing series. Letters from rural Canadian children, memoirs and diaries of beloved writers or composers, pastors on the front lines of the war, and searing accounts of resistance and resilience from Holocaust survivors; peruse our map and explore the impact of Canadian lives around the world.

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