Poetry & Contemplation at Hollyhock – October 24 – 29, 2010 – Presented by: Jan Zwicky

Delve into poetry as a way of knowing the world. Poetic or contemplative attention — what Simone Weil called “the natural prayer of the soul” — opens the ear, eye, heart and mind to the being and beings around us. In doing so, it reveals to us, as poets, that our best work is not about ourselves. Discover how the power of contemplation can inspire your creativity. Learn to listen to and edit your poems. As a crucial component of engagement with poetic attention, participants maintain silence for the duration of the workshop, apart from scheduled group and individual meetings. Group meetings include discussion of participants’ work in progress as well as exercises designed to foster contemplative awareness and literary technique. Each participant meets one-on-one with the presenter.

Jan Zwicky has led poetry workshops and taught in writing and philosophy programs across Canada. She has published six volumes of poetry, including Songs for Relinquishing the Earth, which won Canada’s Governor General’s Award, Robinson’s Crossing, and, most recently, Thirty-Seven Small Songs & Thirteen Silences.

Hollyhock, Canada’s Leading Center for Lifetime Learning, exists to inspire, nourish and support people who are making the world better. Powerful experiential learning happens in a magnificent setting on British Columbia’s wilderness coast. Enjoy cozy accommodations in hand-crafted wooden buildings and gourmet organic vegetarian cuisine. www.hollyhock.ca

Click here to read more about Jan and Canada’s poetry renaissance in The Walrus.

TUITION: $535 CDN (meals & accommodation extra) / 5 nights

For more info see http://www.hollyhock.ca/cms/index.cfm?Group_ID=4489

Hooked by Carolyn Smart / Other People’s Lives by Chris Hutchinson / The Last House by Michael Kenyon are all longlisted in the poetry category of the ReLit Awards.

Barry Dempster’s book with Pedlar Press Ivan’s Birches is also on this list.

here’s the full article – http://therelitawards.blogspot.com/

Antony Di Nardo appeared at the inaugural Knowlton Wordfest and read from his new book Alien, Correspondent in Knowlton, Quebec. Here are some pictures:

Antony will be launching his book in Toronto at Ben McNally Books at 366 Bay Street on Thursday, September 16; he will read at the Art Bar poetry series at Clinton’s on Tuesday, November 16; and the Pivot reading series on Wednesday, December 1st – all in Toronto.

Antony will travel to Calgary to read at the Flywheel reading series on Thursday, October 7 at Pages Books on Kensington; to Victoria for the Planet Earth reading series on Friday, October 8; and to Vancouver on Tuesday, October 13 for the Cross Border Pollination reading series at the Vancouver Public Library where he will read with Carolyn Smart.

Anne Carson, John Steffler, P.K. Page, A.F. Moritz and Robert Bringhurst – 5 Brick Books authors selected for Eyewear list of 60 poets who “have made the largest impact on the world of English-language poetry these past five years”.  Eyewear is one of Britain’s leading literary blogzines.

Todd Swift writes, “Eyewear has covered any number of poetry stories over the past five years.  In no order, here are the Sixty poets, in longlist, young and old, who, for literary, and extra-literary, reasons, have made the largest impact on the world of English-language poetry these past five years, or promise to do so in the next five, for better and verse, as this blog has seen it.”

For the full list, see http://toddswift.blogspot.com/2010/07/eyewears-top-five-poets-of-last-five.html

Here are the Brick Books titles by these authors:

Short Talks by Anne Carson (1992)

The Grey Islands by John Steffler (2000 – a re-publication of the 1985 book published by McClelland & Stewart)

Hologram: A Book of Glosas by P.K. Page (1994)

A Song of Fear by A.F. Moritz (1992)

Mahoning by A.F. Moritz (1994)

Rest on the Flight Into Egypt by A.F. Moritz (1999)

News and Weather (1982) – This anthology cuts into the Canadian poetry scene on a fresh, oblique angle. Included are Robert Bringhurst, Margaret Avison, A.F. Moritz, Guy Birchard, Terry Humby, Alexander Hutchinson and Brent MacKay.  Edited by August Kleinzahler

These books are all still in print and available through Brick Books at www.brickbooks.ca

Lorri Neilsen Glenn discusses how poetry can help us build a culture of peace and speaks about her participation in the Peace Celebration Dinner at Mount Saint Vincent University at 7 p.m. tonight – other performers are The Elastic Millennium Choir and Dream for Real.

The Peace Conference is being held from July 7 to 10 at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.  “Being the Change:  Building a Culture of Peace” is its theme.

You can hear the interview with Lorri and a reading of her poem “Wild” from Lost Gospels, a new poetry collection published by Brick Books in February 2010 here  http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningns/2010/07/poetry-for-peace.html

Carolyn Smart continues to present her work Hooked: seven poems http://www.brickbooks.ca/?page_id=3&bookid=209 .  Upcoming readings will take place in Toronto, Victoria-by-the-Sea (Prince Edward Island) and Orillia:

Monday, July 12 at 8 p.m. – Ontario College of Art and Design – 100 McCaul Street, Toronto.  Host: Lillian Allen

Friday, July 16 to Sunday, July 18 – Victoria Literary Festival – Victoria-by-the-Sea, Prince Edward Island.  For more information, visit www.victorialiteraryfestival.com

Wednesday, July 21 at 8 p.m. – Reading with Diane Schoemperlen and Helen Humphreys.  Leacock Summer Festival – Leacock Museum, Orillia.

Here’s an interesting article:

Why I Wrote Hooked: Carolyn Smart explains the origins of her book

“And the woman who had been healed grew tired of telling her own story” – Marie Howe, The Kingdom of Ordinary Time, Prologue

For many years I have been known as a confessional writer, writing poems and a full-length memoir that reflected my own life and experience very immediately and with revealing detail. After a while I grew weary of this, and yearned to tell other stories in place of my own. I knew it was easier for me to write out of a woman’s voice, so looked about for another woman to inhabit for a while, to speak a difference language, live a different life.

Since early childhood I had known of Myra Hindley, the “Murderer on the Moors”, as I grew up in England and she was-and is-as infamous a killer there as some of the more recent Canadian murderers have recently become here in Canada. My father was fascinated by her story, partially because of the involvement of Lord Longford and partly because it was rare in those days for a woman to have committed such horrendous crimes. He would read aloud from the Times of London to our family: my sister and I both at that time below the age of 10, and my mother, detailing the walks Myra took in Hyde Park, the further revelations of her case. The very thought of her would keep me awake at night. When I saw her obituary in the Manchester Guardian several years ago, and looked deeply at the picture of such an ordinary woman’s face, I wanted to go inside her head and figure out what it felt like to be her. That’s when I became “Hooked” on the explorations of other women’s voices.

All of the seven women I chose to write about connect to me emotionally in some real way. I discarded several possibilities because they seemed too deeply wounded or too close to being complete victims. If there was no strength that I could celebrate I did not wish to dwell on them.

All the women are addictive personalities: Myra is addicted to murder, Unity is addicted to Hitler, several are addicted to alcohol and drugs, some are addicted to love itself. I think there is a hook in everyone, somewhere. It only takes emotion to reveal it.

Vancouver poet laureate Brad Cran writes, “[Antony] Di Nardo is a superb poet. Alien, Correspondent is a great book… a diligently crafted and unpretentious book filled with insight and great poem after great poem.”

For the full article, see http://bradcran.com/vancouver_verse/alien-correspondent/

Mayor David Miller launches new plaques program

On March 4th at City Hall, Heritage Toronto and the Toronto Legacy Project launched a new program of commemorative plaques. Each blue plaque will mark a site where a notable artist, scientist, or thinker lived or worked.

Joining Mayor David Miller were Grace Westcott and poet and author Dennis Lee of the Toronto Legacy Project, in addition to Heritage Toronto Board Chair Peter Ortved. The first six plaques recognized writers Milton Acorn, Margaret Avison, Morley Callaghan, Robertson Davies, Gwendolyn MacEwen and E.J. Pratt.

A separate ceremony in the afternoon at the University of Toronto’s Massey College presented the plaque honouring Robertson Davies, the former Master.

The program will continue steadily, with six to eight new plaques annually. The first plaques will be installed in the Spring.

For more information on the new plaques, http://www.heritagetoronto.org/news/story/2010/03/03/heritage-toronto-launches-legacy-plaque-project

Come out and meet Randall Maggs – Winner of the Kobzar Literary Award 2010, Winterset Award 2008, E.J. Pratt Poetry Prize 2009 and Globe 100 book for his book Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems.

Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems recounts the personal and public life of Terry Sawchuk, famous goalie of the NHL Original Six.

Upcoming readings

EDMONTON – TUESDAY, MARCH 23 – AUDREYS BOOKSTORE -  7:30 P.M.

YELLOWKNIFE – THURSDAY, MARCH 25 – 7 P.M. – YELLOWKNIFE LIBRARY

YELLOWKNIFE – SATURDAY, MARCH 27 – 1:30 P.M. – 2:30 P.M. – POETRY READING AT THE ICE CASTLE

WHITEHORSE – MONDAY, MARCH 29 – READING WITH LOCAL POET CLEA ROBERTS – “BRAVE NEW WORKS” – 7 P.M. – LOCATION BAKED CAFÉ.

WHITEHORSE – TUESDAY, MARCH 30 – 7 P.M. – CRAFT TALK AT WHITEHORSE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

VANCOUVER – THURSDAY, APRIL 1 – READING WITH ELIZABETH BACHINSKY AT UBC BOOKSTORE ON ROBSON SQUARE – 7 P.M.

LONDON – SATURDAY, APRIL 17 – WOLF AUDITORIUM, CENTRAL LIBRARY 2 P.M.

OAKVILLE – SUNDAY, APRIL 18 -OAKVILLE POETRY CAFÉ, 12 NOON

TORONTO – TUESDAY, APRIL 20 – UKRAINIAN NATIONAL FEDERATION COMMUNITY CENTRE, 145 EVANS AVE. 7:30 P.M.

WATERLOO – SATURDAY APRIL 24 – WORDSWORTH BOOKS, WATERLOO – 2 p.m.

For more, details see www.brickbooks.ca – author tours

March 3, 2010 -  Blue plaques highlight the contributions of artists, thinkers, scientists

Heritage Toronto and the Toronto Legacy Project, in partnership, are launching a new program of commemorative plaques that celebrates the bygone lives that helped to build the city of today.  Each plaque will mark a site where a notable artist, scientist, or thinker lived or worked.

Many cities have similar programs, such as London, Paris, New York and Barcelona. Toronto has the Cabbagetown People plaques, but this is the first city-wide initiative.

“This program will certainly increase awareness about the depth of talent that has always existed in Toronto,” said Mayor David Miller. “These first plaques creatively commemorate some of the writers and poets who played a major role in building Toronto’s literary legacy.”

“This program will enrich our cityscape,” said Toronto’s first Poet Laureate and founder of the Legacy Project Dennis Lee. “And it should still be going strong a hundred years from now.”

The first six plaques will be unveiled today at City Hall, the first honouring prominent poets and writers: Milton Acorn, Margaret Avison, Morley Callaghan, Robertson Davies, Gwendolyn MacEwen and E.J. Pratt. The program will continue steadily, with six to eight new plaques annually. The first plaques will be installed in the Spring.

The Partnership

The Toronto Legacy Project was established by Toronto’s first Poet Laureate Dennis Lee in 2002 to celebrate Toronto’s notable artists, scientists, and thinkers by weaving their names into the cityscape. Initially focused on naming or re-naming facilities, such as Oscar Peterson Place (at the Toronto Dominion Centre), Glenn Gould Place (formerly Metro Square), and George Faludy Parkette (at St. Mary’s and St. Nicholas Streets), the Toronto Legacy Project is currently focusing on this new plaques program.

The Toronto Legacy Project and Heritage Toronto share a common commitment to memory – to marking, on our streets and in our public places, the names of those who have given us something worth celebrating. This new program reflects the merging of the Legacy Project’s focus – individuals who have made a major contribution to the arts, science and thought – with Heritage Toronto’s long-standing Plaques and Markers Program. Using criteria jointly established for this program, the Toronto Legacy Project and Heritage Toronto work closely to select candidates and plaque locations.

Selection of Candidates and Plaque Sites

To be considered, individuals must have made a major contribution to the arts, science or thought. That contribution must be recognized by members of their own calling, and must be well documented and broadly acknowledged. Candidates must also have had a strong association with the City of Toronto through birth, residence over a significant period of time, or through the connection of their work and career with the city.

Plaques must be installed on a site which has a well-documented and strong connection to the life or work of commemorated individuals.

Candidates for the plaques are put forward each year by the Legacy Project. The public is invited to submit names for consideration to both Heritage Toronto and the Legacy Project.

The Plaques

Simple and elegant, each plaque uses a few words to identify the person and place being honoured. Plaques will be installed either on the front wall of a building or on a post at the sidewalk.

The striking design was contributed by the Toronto firm, Hahn Smith. Each plaque is an oval, 30 cm by 18 cm, with bold white type on a blue background. The oval retains the shape of Heritage Toronto plaques; the blue retains the colour of Legacy Project markers at Oscar Peterson Place and other sites, while referencing the official colour of Toronto.

The first year’s plaques commemorate writers, following the “Literary City” theme of Toronto’s 175th anniversary. Future plaques will celebrate figures from a wide range of disciplines, and across the full history of the city.

Heritage Toronto and the Legacy Project are grateful to the property owners who have accepted the 2010 plaques, and to the City’s Culture Division for funding their fabrication in this initial year. The plaques themselves remain the property and responsibility of Heritage Toronto.

The First Honourees

MILTON ACORN

Milton Acorn was probably the most colourful figure in the history of Canadian poetry. A carpenter from Prince Edward Island, and a man of passionate convictions, he wrote poems that came, in the words of Al Purdy, “somewhere close to greatness.”

Acorn lived in the Waverley Hotel, at Spadina and College, from 1970 to 1977. He published five collections during that time, winning the specially-created People’s Poet Award in 1970, and the Governor General’s Award in 1975.

MARGARET AVISON

George Bowering, the first Canadian poet laureate, calls Margaret Avison “the best poet we have had.” Her austere and compassionate work, which frequently reflected her Christian faith, received two Governor General’s Awards. At the age of 85, she won the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize for Concrete and Wild Carrot.

Avison lived in the Fellowship Towers at 877 Yonge Street from 1984 to 2007, and published seven books in that period.

MORLEY CALLAGHAN

Through the first half of the twentieth century, Morley Callaghan was seen as the preeminent fiction writer in English Canada. Hemingway promoted his early stories; Edmund Wilson ranked him with Chekhov and Turgenev. He is still admired for the clear-eyed humanity of his work, and for his finely-honed prose.

A Torontonian, Callaghan lived at 20 Dale Avenue from 1951 to 1990. During that time he published fourteen books, among them such classics as The Loved and the Lost and That Summer in Paris.

ROBERTSON DAVIES

Robertson Davies was known for his prodigious output, with nearly fifty exuberant novels, plays, and essay collections to his credit.

Davies’ enduring reputation rests on the novels in the Deptford Trilogy, which began with the celebrated Fifth Business. He wrote them while serving as the first Master of Massey College, where he lived from 1963 to 1981.

GWENDOLYN MACEWEN
Gwendolyn MacEwen’s rich and visionary poetry continues to impress critics and other poets, and to fascinate new generations of readers. Douglas Barbour calls her “a wonder, a poet of legendary process-of how the everyday becomes supernatural reality.”

From 1983 to 1987 she lived at 240 Robert Street. Here she published five books, including Afterworlds, for which she received her second Governor General’s Award.

E. J. PRATT

During his lifetime, Edwin John Pratt was widely considered Canada’s greatest poet. His book-length narrative poems were hailed as national epics, and he is still regarded as one of our major writers.

Pratt came to Toronto from Newfoundland, and taught for decades at Victoria College in the University of Toronto. From 1932 to 1953 he lived at 21 Cortleigh Boulevard, where he wrote nine books, including Brébeuf and His Brethren and Towards the Last Spike. Three of these volumes won Governor General’s Awards.