Lokanathan & Friends

See PG folk hero Raghu Lokanathan sing and play guitar/accordian at Cimo every Friday from 9 - 11 pm. Enjoy one of PG's premiere chefs, Wayne Kitchen, and his great pasta, fish, or martinis with PG's own folk hero to serenade you. Also appearing are guests like Jeremy Stewart and Collin McLean.

shift & switch

**a new collection to watch for (lots of great young talent in it) is Shift & Switch from Mercury Press. It is edited by derek beaulieu, Jason Christie & Angela Rawlings. From the "Introduction" by derek beaulieu:

"For too long and for far too often, Canadian poetry anthologies [read: frigging Breathing Fire] have presented a neo-conservative poetic as the "cutting edge" in Canadian poetry, marginalizing voices that work to challenge the reading & writing status quo. The poem as finely wrought epiphanic moment of personal reflection (the poetry norm) underlines mass-culture & political sameness; it does little to question or confront how language itself defines the limitations of expression - both personal & critical."

Contributors include:

derek beaulieu & Larissa Lai
Jason Christie & a.rawlings
Jon Paul Fiorentino &
Jordan Scott
ryan fitzpatrick &
Natalie Simpson
Jill Hartman & Nathalie Stephens
Jason Le Heup & rita wong
Frances Kruk & Jason Christie

I love the Mercury website! (ps. have an active cursor & click on the letters in the title). Buy it at Northwest Passages.

A Bit of a Pain in the Ass

71(+) for GB: an anthology
for George Bowering.
Eds Jean Baird, David W McFadden, and George Stanley.
130 pages, designed and printed by Coach House Press
$20 Canadian plus shipping
order from jeanbaird@shaw.ca

A celebration of George Bowering (an honourary Prince George poet) and his 70th birthday. Proceeds from the book go to a deserving writer and shit-disturber in Oliver, BC.

Well, I’ll buy that!

As Margaret Avison so justly puts “he has become a necessity.” Bowering has become an institution, a literary watershed all to himself. And yet, behind his booming voice, his craggy hick style, his generosity, and his humour keep him real.

This book is as enigmatic, erratic, multi-faceted, and grumpy as its subject/object of affection. A testament to decades of ideas and drinking, poets young and historic appear here. Atwood and Cohen make brief cameos with throw-away pieces. Of the established poetry crowd it is Fred Wah, Daphne Marlatt, George Stanley, Barry McKinnon (pg), Ken Belford (pg), Nicole Brossard, Lisa Robertson, Roy Miki, Erin Mouré, and Charles Bernstein that steal the show. They all write about writing. I quickly got sick of baseball (George, it’s a lame ass sport anyway). But the best thing about the book is all the newer/younger writers in it. The spill-over from Bowerings watershed bulwark.

Find this book—it will be hard to get—‘cause it’s a keeper.

werd

word up, canada

meta-prairie

on Post-Prairie [Talonbooks, 2005]

what it is, is an anthology of poems by some of canada's hottest now poets. 21st century and up-to-date with a vengence [Stoker], if you may. despite being quite i Y alberta, it's a collection that represents from winnipeg to prince george. a solid guide to the good of canadian writing at this moment - and is def strong enough to survive. on the first read, skip the convoluted intro and go back to it instead; it is summed up neatly by Kroetsch in phrase:: "place is where it's at". the prairies have never been so complicated. all good, but buy or steal for these writers

• Legris
• Lai
• Budde (pg)
• Cabri
• Wershler-Henry

below zero