Last Call! 1st Annual McKinnon Chapbook Prize

This prize, funded by the UNBC Geoffrey Weller Library Archives, is to acknowledge an outstanding literary chapbook written and published by an emerging local Northern BC writer within the last year (copyright 2005 or 2006). Chapbooks are hand-made books that serve to enhance the reading of the literary text contained in it. The chapbooks will be evaluated on the layout/ construction of the chapbook and the writing within. Judging the chapbooks will be Peter Maides, Peter Ewart, and Rob Budde. Deadline for submissions is Feb 1, 2006. Drop off or send chapbooks to

Rob Budde
English Program
UNBC
3333 University Way
Prince George, BC
V2N 4Z9

The winning chapbook will be announced at the

Barry McKinnon Chapbook Fair & Reading
8:00 pm Tuesday February 7
Art Space (above Books & Co., 1685 3rd Avenue)
Prince George BC

Come celebrate the distinctively Prince George art of chapbook making. The fair will be a chance to show, trade, browse, or sell chapbooks.

Chapbooks are small hand-made books that artistically enhance the literary text. They come out of a tradition of literary “pamphlets” that date back centuries and allowed an author to distribute their work locally to receive critical feedback and spark debate. In the 18th & 19th centuries

“printers sold their chapbooks to itinerant peddlers called 'chapmen', who in turn sold them to consumers. These chapmen, who hawked all manner of small goods for their livelihood, were often roguish figures who lived on the margins of society. [Of course, nowadays there are chap-women as well.] In general, chapbooks were inexpensive publications designed for the poorer literate classes. They were typically printed on a single sheet of low-quality paper, folded to make eight, sixteen, or twenty-four pages, though some examples were longer still.”

For more on chapbooks go here.

Some chapbook presses include book thug, leaf press, mother tongue press, greenboathouse books, above/ground press, belladonna*, nomados, and coach house books.


Tables will be set up and the evening will feature food and readings by local authors, Donna Kane, Ken Belford, Richard Krueger, and the master chapbook maker, Barry McKinnon. The event is sponsored by the Northern BC Archives, Geoffrey R. Weller Library as a formal recognition of McKinnon's archival donations to UNBC .

The winning chapbook will receive a $200 award.

For more information, contact Rob Budde.

Raghu Lokanathan at Art Space

Saturday, January 28

Contact Books & Co. for more information. To hear some of Raghu's songs go here. Take a listen to "Caledonia," a love song to Prince George as a tough woman-- "but she's real."

Folk balladeer and political activist song-writer, Raghu's latest CD, Caledonia, can be found at Books & Co. A Prince George cultural treasure!

"Give me a Blue"

A Canadian is a person who will probably be dumbstruck if you ask him the question: what is a Canadian?

And we will not be mistaken if we take that to be a good thing. It means that our country could use a sign overhead at all airports, border crossings, and ports of entry: Under Construction. It means that we cannot yet brainwash our schoolchildren and television-watchers that this is the country God picked to be the best, or the country that history had in mind, or the country that invented everything important.

We invented basketball, the potato peeler and the Jolly Jumper. That is enough to make a Canadian happy, but not enough to crow about. Canadians don't crow about Canada. Our young people put little Canadian flags on their backpacks, but not to boast. It's more that they want to show that they are not something else. For the same reason, lots of young people who are not Canadians put Canadian flags on their backpacks. That doesn't make us mad: we just smile and say "What a good idea!"

If a young person from some other country says, "What is a Canadian?" we might say, "I don't know. It's a beer, isn't it?"

-George Bowering, Left Hook. Raincoast Books, 2005.

George Bowering seems to be around every corner these days, and a good thing for it. His latest book, Left Hook, is a collection of his essays on Canadian culture. Like Bowering's poetry it is a smooth read - sly and cynical, and embedded w/ gems of sentences that always come at the right time. Part of the book's charm is that he is not trying to hammer any point into the reader's head; rather, it is meandering path through one of Canada's greatest minds, full of observations, friends, memories, and anecdotes. The essay as an art form is very much alive here, and it is the journey, not the destination, that proves most enlightening.

Cinema CNC 2006

Film Festival 2006—January 20-22

Jan.20: 7 p.m. C.R.A.Z.Y.; 9:30 p.m. GRIZZLY MAN…

Jan.21: 1 p.m. THE DARK HOURS + LIFE AND HARD TIMES OF GUY TERRIFICO (double feature), 7 p.m. WHERE THE TRUTH LIES, 9:30 METAL: A HEADBANGER’S JOURNEY…

Jan.22: 2 p.m. THE NOVENA, 7 p.m. WATER, 9:30 WHOLE NEW THING

For more Information contact the College of New Caledonia, Prince George.

The 1st Annual Barry McKinnon Chapbook Fair

8:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 7
Art Space (above Books & Co., 1685 3rd Avenue)

Come celebrate the distinctively Prince George art of chapbook making. The fair will be a chance to show, trade, browse, or sell chapbooks. Tables will be set up and the evening will feature food and readings by local authors, including the master chapbook maker, Barry McKinnon. The evening will also feature the McKinnon Chapbook Prize of $200 for the best new local chapbook! Contact me for more information.

Black As Crow & The Cottonweeds

An Evening of Poetry and Folksong
… with Al Rempel, Raghu Lokanathan &
Jeremy Stewart

Saturday, January the 14th@ 7:30pm (no cover)

The Kizmet Café
101- 100 Tabor Blvd S

gave'r - the best of PG 05

In the year passed, a lot of arts & culture events went down in PG. Here can be a tough venue since most major circuits do not hit PG, but we do manage to get our kicks - whether from the locals; or from others who put in the time to come here. Either way, the list is long, and the city is appreciative.

• The 2 Georges George Bowering and George Stanley read at Art Space (february): big GB, Canadian poet-laureate, takes over this old haunt of his; Stanley transforms before our eyes w/ a reading of the sex-bending "Veracruz".
• Eco-launch Barry McKinnon and Jay MillAr join Ken Belford for the launch of his latest book 'ecologue' at Art Space (march): even bigger KB makes 3 as PG hears some of Canada's best poetry on what woulda been a random Wednesday spring evening.
• Great Canadian Beer Festival PG Playhouse (april): not really art - but sure was fun... *burp.
• Aboriginal Writers Festival Aboriginal writers converge at UNBC (september/october): Tomson Highway and Richard Van Camp led the way at this festival that brought together some of the continent's best writers for a week of deep culture.
• Bad Colonial Day Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun at 2 Rivers (summer): A colourful yet stark look at post-colonial Aboriginal heritage.
• Blue Rodeo at The CN Centre (september): They played so many definitively-Canadian songs that cut right down to our wooden hearts that fall evening.
• The Nutcracker Judy Russel's Enchainement Dance Studio (december): A cracking production that gets grander & tighter w/ each season.

In a vague address: thanx to anyone who did anything; and keep doin' it in 06.

Missed something?? Add it to the comments then...

Arts2006

Upcoming events to watch for:

--launch of The Forest Diversification Project a collection of new PG poets (UNBC Press)
--a celebration of Barry McKinnon's collected letters at the UNBC Geoffrey Weller Library and Archives
--the first Annual Prince George Chapbook Fair
--launch of Flicker by Rob Budde (Signature Editions)

If you'd like to post an announcement for your cultural event, email the information to the culture mill.