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As I’ve begun to prepare for the upcoming fall and winter performances of my solo show, Piecework: When We Were French, I’ve been thinking a lot about storytelling — not the work of novelists or even old-fashioned tellers of tales, but the capacity of any of us to share the stories we’ve lived. Telling is
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August: sunsets, sweet corn, hay fever, crickets, and poems. Come enjoy the great outdoors at these upcoming, outdoor readings in Montreal. Hope to see you there! POETRY IN THE PARK August 23 at 6.30pm The Lagoon in Westmount Park (corner of Sherbrooke and Melville) Hosted by Wanda Potrykus, with readings by: Jan Jorgensen, Claude Lalumiere,
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Since the internet encourages scanning over true reading, it is more true than ever that we often take words for granted. This is a difficult environment in which to be a writer, but it is also, in a sense, a call to arms. I admire any poet who struggles to rock the reader out of
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I like to think that I invented a poetic form that I call The Diatribe, a poem, usually free verse (who has time for meter when they’re really pissed off?), that rants self-righteously and directly against one or more objects of scorn. Once in a while, though, I run across a poem that proves that
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June 24th is La Fête Nationale here in Quebec, also known as the feast day of St-Jean-Baptiste, the patron saint of the French in North America. So it’s fitting that I’m spending this weekend getting in touch with my Franco roots. Vermont History Expo On Saturday, June 26, I’ll be performing excerpts from my solo
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Poetry anthologies can be tough reading. They sometimes seem motivated by an indulgent, overly simple impulse, as though someone read a really great poem about, say, gardening, and instead of thinking, I wish I could read a whole book of really great poems, thought, I wish I could read a whole book of poems about
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Jan Jorgensen, curator of The Lawn Chair Soiree, has planned an evening of eye-popping literary delights for you to cap off her season of events. I’ll have the honour of serving as MC for the evening, and a whole crowd of excellent Montreal writers will share their work. Come lend them your ears! the lawn
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On Monday, May 17, carte blanche, the literary review of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, will launch its eleventh issue. I’m honoured to contribute a poem to the issue and to read at the party celebrating its official launch! carte blanche issue 11 readings and more May 17, 7:00pm Kaza Maza 4629 du Parc, Montreal The
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All poetry is at some level about what words keep us from saying. It tries to leap the chasm between the world that is and the world that is effable. But what if the spaces between words and utterances are also speaking? In her new collection, R’s Boat, Lisa Robertson spreads her lines across the
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Although the products of their labor are often public, most of the work artists do is private and solitary. The actor in rehearsal, the painter in his studio, and the writer at her keyboard must all overcome the silence of the room or the blankness of the page in order to create. Art can be
ABBY PAIGE 