art and life

We all know that life imitates art in ways that are sometimes downright eerie, or it’s probably more accurate to say that some people who have a great deal of insight into life and human character can imagine with uncanny prescience just how a situation might play out, given all the factors at stake.  My insightful friend Alice Zorn shares a pretty amazing story about this sort of thing over at her blog.

You should also check out Alice’s excellent short story in the latest issue of Prairie Fire, which has placed first (!) in their annual fiction contest.  This fact is even more impressive given that one of her stories has actually placed first in this contest before.  (A story you can read in her wonderful collection -- if for some reason you don’t already happen to have a half-shelf full of back issues of Prairie Fire.  Although you might as well subscribe to Prairie Fire, while you’re at it.)

Writers on writing -- links

Last night's reading at Arts Cafe was great, with a really strong lineup of readers. My friend Alice Zorn was one of the readers, and I was happy to discover that she was also featured yesterday on Love Ms. Julie. She talks about her writing routine and you can look at a photo of her rather serene-looking desk. A desk that makes a desk look like a good idea.

Friend and poet Linda Besner also recently recorded a piece for The Next Chapter on the trouble with titling her first collection of poetry, which will be coming out with Vehicule. She polled me and writer Rob Weston about whether we supported her title or the one proposed by her editor. It's about 20 minutes into the show if you want to give it a listen --- but you should also listen to the first 20 minutes as it's an interview with Jessica Grant about her novel Come, Thou Tortoise (a novel I loved and have already raved about here).

And writer Jonathan Ball talks to CKUW about his new book of poetry Ex Machina as well as his short films. He has the audio hosted here on his website. Jonathan and I are attempting to post every day this month (what is known in the blogosphere, perhaps somewhat unfortunately, as NaBloPoMo --- not to be confused with NaNoWriMo, which I am decidedly not attempting), so you should check out his blog here and encourage him. Today's post is about the best method for undertaking revisions --- something I am trying not to think about while I'm finishing this first draft....

Readings, readings, readings!

We've been wonderfully fortunate in our literary events lately in Montreal. Thanks to the Concordia Writers Read series, George Saunders was in town two weeks ago to give a reading, which I can honestly say was the best reading I've ever attended (a close second being Yann Martel reading from Life of Pi at a free event at the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, the same morning he found it was shortlisted for the Booker). Saunders read from his recent story in The New Yorker, "Victory Lap." It's a classic Saunders story -- I'm not sure anybody does tragicomedy better than he does. He did different voices for the characters, including a Mickey Mouse-type voice for the imaginary baby deer (read the story, you'll understand) that is still cracking me up whenever I think about it. He answered the questions generously and interestingly and humbly. Everyone I went with was equally impressed.

Then this past Monday was the Biblioasis Metcalfe-Rooke reading at Drawn and Quarterly, where Kathleen Winter, Rebecca Rosenblum, and Amy Jones read from their winning short-story collections (actually, in Rebecca's case, she read a new story, which was a treat). They were all excellent and inspiring readers, and there were some yummy snacks there to boot. Kathleen very nicely sent me home with some of the leftover blue cheese. I'm pretty sure that living off of literary reading leavings means that I'm a REAL writer now.

And tonight at Arts Cafe is a poetry and prose reading, with a lineup including Alice Zorn, who will be reading from her wonderful book Ruins & Relics. The collection is deservedly shortlisted for the Quebec Writers' Federation McAuslan First Book Prize, and I'm rooting for it to win. And on the subject of the QWF Awards, why don't you come to the gala? As always, it promises to be a great event, and at just $10 a ticket, I suspect it is the most affordable (yet still glitzy) literary gala in the country.