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It’s been a good long time since I’ve posted an update here. The majority of this year, since June anyway, has been taken up by a big move from Montreal to Ottawa. I hesitate to call myself an Ottawan; although they are supposedly “the happiest people in Canada,” they are also — according to one…
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The solitary part of writing and freelancing isn’t something that normally bothers me. I enjoy the quiet of my work space and the independence of my routine. But every once in a while something happens to remind me of how much of my work takes place in my head and how important it is to…
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Poetry doesn’t have to tell a story, but I must admit, I like it better when it does. It doesn’t have to be a linear story; the story doesn’t need to have characters or an ending. But I always enjoy a poetry collection more if I feel that the poems are somehow knitted together. Gabe…
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My first feature for the Montreal Review of Books appears in their spring issue, which is on-line now. mRb is a great resource for information about the latest books in English published in Quebec, and it’s distributed throughout Canada. It’s also exciting how much poetry they review, a precious rarity! For my piece, entitled Polaroid…
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I’m basking in the afterglow of a weekend among Franco-American artists and scholars at the University of Maine in Orono. Susan Pinette, Director of the Franco-American Studies program there, organized a deeply inspiring conference, exploring the history and future of the Franco-American community. It was a great time, and the perfect place to perform my…
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I’m excited to attend a gathering of Franco-American artists this weekend at the University of Maine in Orono. It still feels a bit strange to call myself a Franco-American artist, but that’s part of what attracted me to this conference, which is entitled, The Living Past: Franco American Identity in the Modern World. Among the…
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When I first moved to Canada, I went on a crusade to introduce myself to as much contemporary Canadian poetry as possible. Considering that I have spent the vast majority of my life less than an hour from the US/Canada border, I was a bit chagrined to realize how few Canadian writers I had ever…
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My solo show, Piecework: When We Were French, continues its North Country tour with two newly-scheduled spring performances. Spread the word! Friday, May 6, 8:00pm Stafford Center Theatre, Clinton Community College Plattsburgh, New York Admission is free, but tickets are required and available on a first come, first served basis. Tickets may be obtained at…
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I don’t understand why Hollywood insists on marketing movies by comparing them to other movies: “It’s Die Hard meets 2001: A Space Odyssey!” “It’s this year’s Shindler’s List!” Well, I do understand why, but I don’t like the idea that the only way to describe something positively is to compare it to something else that…
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I’m proud and more than a little bit humbled that my poem, “The Undefended Border,” has won the 2011 Founder’s Prize from RHINO, a Chicago-based poetry journal and collective. I’ve admired their work from afar for a while now; I don’t get to Chicago too often, but their furious poetic activity certainly makes me wish…
