26 April 2009

The Poetic Front out of SFU.

magenta whip

See a surprisingly adept review of Lisa Robertson's Magenta Soul Whip. Mark Callanan sentiments on reading post-avant poetry is that it is like "the frustration of trying to remember a forgotten word that flits past one's mind, tantalizing, never quite apprehended." I think this touches on the common resistance to new poetries that involves the reader "not getting it"--whatever "getting it" means--instead of a different kind of reading act in which the reader interacts with the poem less as a resource extraction machine and more like a walk in the woods.

14 April 2009

06 April 2009

Muskwa-Kechika Artist Camp

The Muskwa-Kechika (M-K), located in the northern Rockies, is one of the few remaining places on the planet where a fully-functioning wilderness ecosystem still lives and breathes as it always has.

The Muskwa-Kechika Artist Camp, now in its fourth year, seeks to raise awareness of this important wilderness area as well as to provide artists with an incomparable environment in which to explore their artwork.

Ten professional artists working in a variety of disciplines (visual art, writing, music, performance art) will be selected for this year's camp, being held August 1-8, 2009. The work produced during the camp will be compiled into a collaborative show and exhibited in art galleries throughout the country.

This year's featured artist at the 2009 camp will be Toronto poet Sue Sinclair. Sue's fourth book of poetry, Breaker, was recently nominated for The Pat Lowther Memorial Award, given for the best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. Past attendees have included internationally renouned visual artist Brian Jungen, and poets Tim Lilburn and Don McKay.

The camps are organized by Writing on the Ridge and hosted by award-winning conservationist and photographer Wayne Sawchuk. Wayne has been conducting guiding trips into the Muskwa-Kechika since 1985. His work was featured in the November 2008 issue of National Geographic (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/muskwa-kechika/vaillant-text).

For more information on the camps, including fees and application form, please visit the following website:
http://www.donnakane.com/communityevents-mkcamps.php