Archives for category: how to write

how-to-writePearl Pirie’s review of How to Write has just been syndicated on The Canadian Women in the Literary Arts (CWiLA) Blog.

How To Write has immediate power as a kind of one-off joke, a reveal that hits the reader immediately upon engaging with the text; the surface of the book is so clever and punchy that it’s easy to take that for all that it is. But instead of leaving it there, Pirie digs as deeply as she is able, and comes up with great richness as a result. It’s an excellent celebration of the possibilities of literary criticism in long form.

beaulieu_courtesyDerekBeaulieu_web The University of Calgary’s Gauntlet newspaper has interviewed me on “Advice for aspiring poets” in which i plead that emerging poets should “Make it fucked up, make it strange, make it digital, make it infected…”

How to Write has just been reviewed by both ryan fitzpatrick (in Canadian Literature) and Melissa Dalgeish (in The Bull Calf).

This past spring, a.rawlings spent time in Toronto’s Malvern Collegiate Institute and facilitated over thirty interviews between high-school students and Canadian poets. The Great Canadian Writer’s Craft: High-school students interview Canadian poets is now available online and features interviews with poets from across Canada (including myself).

Four videos of my performance May 29, 2011 in Calgary’s Riley Park as part of the filling Station / Pooka Press Pub Crawl (as recorded by Helen Hajnoczky):

OK, turn the clown off. This is who was in the White House. This is the, uh, this, this is what I’m giving you an example of what the Obamas have done to America ah culturally and socially. They bring a tenth-rate clown like this in who boasts about that he teaches his children how to, uh, his students, so to speak, at the once ex University of Pennsylvania. It’s become a cesspool, uh, what’s happened there. And talks about uncreative writing and how to plagiarize, you hear? Now, when you have a, uh, uh, plagiarist in the White House you would think having a plagiarist pretending to be a poet in the White House in a poetry event … what is this, like, Abbie Hoffman 2? I mean, this is what I’m talking about here, this is not poetry; this is the debasement of our culture. It’s part of the Marxist class warfare. This is what he does and this is what he does and this is how he does it. You say “what are you going on about?” All right, bring it on, I’m showing you who he had there. It wasn’t just the rapper, he has this putz there talking about teaching children, uh, you can’t write anything creative and original, you have to plagiarize everything you turn in. This is a teacher in a college. This is what’s going passing now for a college teacher. It goes back to Obama inviting a so-called college teacher who teaches children to te- to write uncreative writing, where you’re not allowed to write anything original you must plagiarize. It’s the same mentality. It’s the destruction of western civilization. In that sense Obama is acting in a rather s-schizophrenic manner to have a poetry event and invite someone who teaches children that that they must plagiarize. You follow where I’m coming from here?

Right. Yeah.

Alright, it’s a little too esoteric, I get it.

The City of Calgary Announces Short List for W.O. Mitchell Book Prize

The City of Calgary, the Writers Guild of Alberta and Uptown 17 BRZ are pleased to announce the short list authors for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, one of 17 awards presented as part of The Calgary Awards.

The three finalists include Derek Beaulieu for How to Write(Talon Books), Weyman Chan for Hypoderm (Talon Books), and Clem Martini and Olivier Martini for Bitter Medicine (Freehand Books).

In How to Write,Derek Beaulieu writes an indexical, playful and innovative “how to” manual like no other. Derek is a Canadian poet, publisher and anthologist who studied contemporary Canadian poetics at the University of Calgary.

Hypoderm is Weyman Chan’s third collection of poems subtitled “notes to myself” which is a compilation of observations, intimations and recognitions of mortality. Weyman is a Calgary-born poet whose writings have appeared in many Alberta anthologies over the last two decades.

In Bitter Medicine, award-winning playwright Clem Martini chronicles his family’s 30-year struggle with schizophrenia that has plagued those closest to him – his brothers Ben and Olivier. The book is complemented by Olivier Martini’s childlike yet expressive drawings. Both Clem and Olivier reside in Calgary.

The City of Calgary established the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize in honour of the late Calgary writer W.O. Mitchell to recognize literary achievement by Calgary authors. The $5000 prize is awarded each year for an outstanding book published in the award year. The 2009 recipient was Gordon Pengilly for Metastasis and Other Plays.

The winner of The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize will be recognized at the Calgary Awards presentation on June 15, 2011. The Calgary Awards will be televised live on Shaw TV.

Karis Shearer has just reviewed How to Write in Montreal’s finest literary magazine, Matrix. Click on the image for the entire review.

Edmonton’s Douglas Barbour has reviewed both How to Write and Fractal Economies on his Eclectic Ruckus blog.

Brent Schaus has a short, snappy, review of How to Write at the Advent Book Blog — check it out here.