31 January 2008

4 Candlefish



::click on image for larger view::

28 January 2008

Stanley's Aboutism

"Sometime around the beginning of the new millennium, the poet George Stanley half-jokingly invented the idea of "aboutism." Among other things, aboutism proposes that a poem is or should be, after all, about something, as contrasted to the contemporary poetries of linguistic abstractionism or anecdotal significances framed in verse.
. . .
Aboutism is a reminder that art is, finally, about the world. Yet aboutism is also both a game and a parody of literary movements. In fact, were it not saved by its playful aspects, aboutism would be a slightly reactionary doctrine--though not actively retrograde, like the so-called New Formalism in poetry. But aboutism is reactionary in the sense that it rejects a lot of the outcomes of Language Poetry, if not its intent. That is, aboutism doesn't object to Language Poetry's proposal for "a self-critical poetry, minus the short-circuiting rhetoric of vatic privilege" that "might dissolve the antinomies of marginality," but rather to the often irreferential results of its program to break "the automatism of the poetic 'I'" (Bob Perelman's The Marginalization of Poetry, Princeton, 1996)."

From Stan Persky on "aboutism".

determined and determining

"The place of writing then becomes imagined as a site of intersecting discourses and lived histories: not groundless and fluid but both determined and determining"

Derksen, Jeff. "Text and the Site of Writing" in Burger, Mary, Robert Glück, Camille Roy, and Gail Scott, eds. Biting the Error: Writers Explore Narrative. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2004: 111.

Crumpled Space

“Everything in them [minor literatures] is political. In major literatures, in contrast, the individual concern (familial, marital, and so on) joins with other no less individual concerns, the social milieu serving as a mere environment or a background . . . Minor literature is completely different; its crumpled space forces each individual intrigue to connect immediately to politics. The individual concern thus becomes all the more necessary, indispensable, magnified, because a whole other story is vibrating with it. In this way, the family triangle connects to other triangles—commercial, economic, bureaucratic, juridical—that determine its values”

Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature, trans Dana Polan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. 17.

26 January 2008

PG Public Library Local Writers Series


Lynda Williams and creative friends will launch the Okal Rel Universe Anthology 2 at the Prince George Public Library on January 29 at 7:00 pm. Come find out what it is all about. Book prizes available to volunteer readers in the audience. Anthology 2 features the theme of “personal combat” and is the companion anthology for book #2 of the main series, Righteous Anger, which was nominated for the 2007 Aurora Award for best Canadian Science Fiction novel. Hosted by the Friends of the Prince George Public Library. No Charge. Everyone Welcome.

23 January 2008

Portfolio Workshop & BFA Information Session


with Sheila Hall
(Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design)
and Rob Budde (UNBC)

Friday, January 25
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room 4-234 UNBC

Come and discover
--what constitutes a professional visual arts portfolio
--what creative writing can go into a portfolio
--how to present yourself for the greatest effect
--what evaluators are looking for
--what the BFA is about

This year's deadline for applications to the BFA is February 1, 2008

image by Erin Arding

11 January 2008

Aboriginal Youth Short Story Writing Competition