Archive for April, 2010

As National Poetry Month draws to a close we are heartened to see the birth on a new online journal for the discussion of all things poetry. The Influency Salon has as its mission,

the reception and distribution of poetry thinking— reading diverse works of poetry, conversing about them, and measuring their ways and means, forms and motives. Via page and ear, our editors listen deeply and care persistently. We figure how the work matters. We expect a conversation about poetry to be public, present, and relevant. We want to gather in the room of poetry, and talk our heads off.

The first issue features, among other things, an essay by poet Jacqueline Larson (former editor with WLU Press) on Sina Queyras’ Expressway. The page includes a reading by Sina Queyras, an editors’ roundtable, and other discussion.

The whole site is a goldmine of talk about poetry. Why not head on over and check it out?

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It’s a disappointing week for many international publishers as Mother Nature once again decides the limits of our powers. Although our plight is small compared to the thousands of people trapped in airports just trying to get home, we at WLU Press are affected by the volcano in Iceland and its accompanying no-fly effect. Our Marketing and Rights Manager, Penelope Grows, was supposed to fly out Saturday morning for the London Book Fair, joining thousands of publishers from around the world. But, as fate would have it, those who were there by Thursday morning got in (but may not get out) and the rest are stuck at home with no end to the flight ban in sight.

There are numerous news stories that give all the details. For an overview you can check out the New York Times, which includes an up-to-date map of closures. To follow from a publishing perspective, keep an eye on Quillblog, from Quill & Quire magazine.

Here’s a shot of the London Book Fair floor, courtesy of Kelvin Kong of The Rights Factory. The photo at the top of the post is the Canada stand, usually bustling.

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Ian Brown wrote a lovely column this weekend in The Globe and Mail about reading poetry at work. I’ve found the same thing when we publish a new poetry book, or especially when we published the wonderful Open Wide a Wilderness last year, a large volume of nature poetry. I would start to browse through looking for a poem to feature on the blog and an hour later I’d still be reading.

Some other things going on around the web for poetry month include readings over at Seen Reading. This week features Dani Couture reading from Sweet, forthcoming from Pedlar Press in June 2010. And this is Young Poetry week, so check out youngpoets.ca where youth are invited to submit poetry about climate change. Don’t forget to visit their parent site, The League of Canadian Poets, and register for the annual festival and conference June 11-13 for all things poetry.

If you’re lucky enough to be in New York in April, try to attend one of the weekly readings at Poets House. This spring they are featuring Ecopoetic Futures, a series of events that examine poetry and the environment.

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To celebrate poetry month, WLU Press is participating in a poetry contest hosted by the Book Madam. The contest is running on Twitter all day today (and each Wednesday in April) and the winners will be announced Thursdays. Follow @BookMadam and watch for her tweets. Retweet the entry to help promote the supporting publishers (WLU Press, House of Anansi, Coach House, and Brick Books) AND send a reply with one reason you love poetry. That’s all you have to do, folks.

Here’s a poem from Fierce Departures: The Poetry of Dionne Brand, one of the books we’re giving away.

I walk Bathurst Street until it come like home
Pearl was near Dupont, upstairs a store one
christmas where we pretend as if nothing change we,
make rum punch and sing, with bottle and spoon,
song we weself never even sing but only hear when
we was children. Pearl, squeezing her big Point
Fortin self along the narrow hall singing Drink a rum
and a… Pearl, working nights, cleaning, Pearl beating
books at her age, Pearl dying back home in a car
crash twenty years after everything was squeezed in,
a trip to Europe, a condominium, a man she suckled
like a baby. Pearl coaxing this living room with a
voice half half lie and half memory, a voice no room
nowhere could believe was sincere. Pearl hoping this
room would catch fire above this frozen street. Our
singing parched, drying in the silence after the
chicken and ham and sweet bread effort to taste like
home, the slim red earnest sound of long ago with the
blinds drawn and the finally snow for christmas and
the mood that rum in a cold place takes. Well, even
our nostalgia was a lie, skittish as the truth these
bundle of years.

– Dionne Brand

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Here in Waterloo, Ontario, the weather is in the low 20s celsius (70s for the fahrenheit folks). It’s gorgeously sunny and warm and people are defecting like flies for the long Easter weekend. A perfect start to poetry month, evoking lines of verse like “I wandered lonely, as a cloud….”

We love poetry here at Laurier Press and publish a bunch of books to prove it. Here’s a selection from Mobility of Light: The Poetry of Nicole Brossard, selected with an introduction by Louise H. Forsyth. The poems in this book are presented in their original French along with English versions, some previously translated, some newly translated for this volume by Louise Forsyth.

Installation

chaque matin je m’intéresse à la vie
de grands détours et des preuves
au cœur de la langue des pans de siècle
icônes, soies, souvent manuscrits
le corps impair des femmes
les grands séismes
de loin ça se voit
je m’installe dans mon corps
de manière à pouvoir bouger
quand une femme me fait signe

Installation

every morning I take an interest in life
huge detours and proofs
the tail ends of century at the heart of language
icons, silks, often manuscripts
the odd-numbered body of women
great quakes
visible from afar
I settle into my body’s installation
so as to be able to respond
when a woman gives me a sign

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