The Ottawa X-Press 'best of Ottawa 2007' poll

The annual "best of Ottawa" poll is out from alternative weekly The Ottawa X-Press; be sure to vote early, vote often for your favourite Chaudiere Books authors, including Monty Reid's award-winning Disappointment Island, Nicholas Lea's Everything is movies or rob mclennan's The Ottawa City Project.

review of clare latremouille's the desmond road book of the dead

Review of her book here; remember, she reads this week in Ottawa, and then again (opening for Anne Le Dressay).

Monty Reid's Disappointment Island wins the Lampman-Scott Award

Announced last night: Monty Reid's Disappointment Island wins the Lampman-Scott Award, sponsored by Arc magazine;

Widely published as a poet and essayist, Monty Reid has produced a substantial volume of literary work. His volumes include The Life of Riley (Saskatoon SK: Thistledown Press, 1981), These Lawns (Red Deer AB: Red Deer College Press, 1990), The Alternate Guide (Red Deer College Press, 1995), Dog Sleeps (Edmonton AB: NeWest Press, 1993) and Flat Side (RedDeer College Press, 1998), a collection of new and selected poems, Crawlspace (Toronto ON: House of Anansi, 1993), and the chapbooks cuba A book (Ottawa ON: above/ground press, 2005) and Sweetheart of Mine (Toronto ON: BookThug, 2006). His work is also included in the anthology Decalogue: ten Ottawa poets, published as part of the first season of books by Chaudiere Books. He has won the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry three times and is also a three-time Governor General's Award nominee. He spent nearly twenty years working at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta, in the heart of the Alberta badlands, before moving to the Ottawa area in 1999 to work at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Disappointment Island was also shortlisted for the Ottawa Book Award.

a review of the book by Ronnie R. Brown; another review by Steve McOrmond; Amanda Earl's write-up on the award + ceremony; photo of the event by John W. MacDonald;

for an interview with Monty Reid (one already exists in the second issue of ottawater), a review copy or to order a copy (available in better bookstores, including Audrey's Books in Edmonton and Collected Works + Mother Tongue + Exile Infoshop in Ottawa), email the publisher, rob mclennan, at az421@freenet.carleton.ca

Anne Le Dressay's Old Winter; Winnipeg, Ottawa launches

Chaudiere Books is pleased to announce the publication (and two launches) of Ottawa poet Anne Le Dressay's second poetry collection, Old Winter.

The pieces that make up Anne Le Dressay’s second poetry collection, Old Winter, are urban poems grounded in the rural past. Understated, direct, ironic, quietly humorous, they reveal a love of the particular, of small daily things which feel more and more fragile in a world overshadowed by big threats. Descriptive or narrative, focussing on the inner world of mind and spirit or the ‘real world’ outside the narrator, these poems celebrate in close and vivid detail the small moments of ordinary life. They are poems of wonder, transformation, and resurrection.

Anne Le Dressay grew up in Manitoba, first on a farm near Virden and then on an acreage outside Lorette. She has lived for extended periods in Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Edmonton (in that order). She taught English and Creative Writing for ten years in Alberta. She is now in Ottawa for the seond time, working for the feds. She has been published sporadically since the 1970s. She has one previous trade book, Sleep is a Country (Harbinger, 1997) and two chapbooks, This Body That I Live In (Turnstone, 1979) and Woman Dreams (above/ground, 1998). She was also featured in the anthology Decalogue: ten Ottawa poets (Chaudiere Books, 2006).

Winnipeg launch: Monday, November 12 at Mcnally Robinsons booksellers, Grant Park, 1120 Grant Avenue, Grant Park Mall at 7pm. rachelb@grant.mcnallyrobinson.ca

Ottawa launch: Thursday, November 22 at Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar, 1242 Wellington Street West (at Holland), 7:30pm. The evening will open with readings by Ottawa writers Amanda Earl and Clare Latremouille. info@collected-works.com

For information on this event or on the title, contact the publisher, rob mclennan at az421@freenet.carleton.ca

The Life and Poetry of John Newlove

THE LIFE AND POETRY OF JOHN NEWLOVE
as part of the fall 2007 edition of the ottawa international writers festival

Documentary Film and Book Launch with Robert McTavish
Hosted by rob mclennan

Sunday, October 21 at 2pm; Library and Archives, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa

Honour the memory of one of Canada’s greatest poets with this screening of What to make of it all? The life and poetry of John Newlove and the launch of A Long Continual Argument: The Selected Poems of John Newlove (Ottawa ON: Chaudiere Books, 2007). The film’s poignant interviews with Newlove in his last years are punctuated with commentary from George Bowering, Patrick Lane, Joe Rosenblatt, John Metcalf and the many poets and friends who knew the public persona and the private man.

B.C.’s Robert McTavish, who directed and produced the film and edited the book, shares his passion for Newlove’s plain-spoken and carefully crafted work, which mixed an obsession with the history and identity of the Prairies with a bleak personal struggle for understanding.

$12 General / $10 Students & Seniors / Free for Members Day Pass: $29

The Max Middle Sound Project in Toronto

The Max Middle Sound Project will be performing in Toronto's Test Reading Series on October 25th, 8pm at:

Mercer Union, A Centre for Contemporary Art
37 Lisgar Street, Toronto

http://www.testreading.org/index.html

**Founded in 2004 and consisting of three prominent Ottawa-area artists, John Lavery, Max Middle [Decalogue: ten Ottawa poets] and Jason Sonier, the Max Middle Sound Project is an interdisciplinary collaboration committed to the integration of poetry, sound poetry and music, incorporating elements of theatre and performance art as ancillary expression. The ensemble has performed in the Ottawa Fringe Festival, the Ottawa International Writers Festival and in the Dusty Owl, Tree and Grey Borders reading series.

http://www.maxmiddle.com

Clare Latremouille at the TREE Reading Series

Ottawa writer Clare Latremouille (The Desmond Road Book of the Dead) is the featured reader at the TREE Reading Series, Tuesday October 23, 2007.

12 or 20 questions: with Clare Latremouille

"Clare Latremouille is previously from parts unknown (mostly Kamloops, BC, with a bit of Toronto, Vancouver, Chilliwack, Victoria, and just a dash of Nanaimo thrown in for good measure. She has little or no recollection of her years in the town of Alexandria in Glengarry County, Ontario, although there is some sort of statuette in her honour in the park, or at least that's what the nice man told her...) Anyhoo, she is now a full time writer, which means she does anything and everything to avoid actually sitting downand writing, spending hours cleaning the litter box rather than picking up a pen, which would be much more sensible if she actually owned a cat... She presently has dreams of being a wildly successful writer and artist, but will in all likelihood only achieve her previous childhood dream of growing a really cool moustache. . ."

She is the author of the novel The Desmond Road Book of the Dead (Chaudiere Books, 2006), the poetry chapbook I will write a poem for you. Now: (above/ground press, 1995), and has had poetry and fiction appearing in a number of publications, including ottawater, graffito: the poetry poster, paperplates: a magazine for fifty readers, The Peter F. Yacht Club, and the anthologies Written in the Skin (Insomniac Press, 1998), Shadowy Technicians: New Ottawa Poets (Broken Jaw Press, 2000), groundswell: the best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (Broken Jaw Press, 2003) and Decalogue 2: ten Ottawa fiction writers (Chaudiere Books, 2007).

1 - How did your first book change your life?

My first book changed my life in that I can no longer go home for the holidays.

2 - How long have you lived in Ottawa, and how does geography, if at all, impact on your writing? Does race or gender make any impact on your work?

I have lived in Ottawa for a long long long longloooooong time ... over a fifth of my life so far ...(now I am afraid, and just a little depressed). Geography impacts my writing in as much as I am trapped in house all “Freezing-Rain Season (October to May-ish) and am forced to write out of sheer desperation. And although I myself rarely race anymore, I am very fond of gender.

3 - Where does a poem or piece of fiction usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?

A poem generally sneaks up on me, and whacks me on the side of the head when I am not paying attention. Fiction is even more devious, and appears and disappears without warning whenever I am as far from a pencil or computer as humanly possible, usually in the midst of something inappropriate, or sometimes vaguely illegal. I spend a lot of writing time coercing these magical ideas back from the magical nether-worlds into my head and onto the paper/screen, a process involving ridiculous quantities of caffeine and even more ridiculous quantities of Tom Jones albums. At the moment I am leaning toward the “book” mode of writing, although it is hard, and sometimes puts my leg to sleep.

4 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process?

Oh, I just love them. They are like mother’s milk to me...

5 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficultor essential (or both)?

I am an extremely difficult, and yet essential sort of person myself, and so was pleased to find I was able to offer editors a run for their money (if in fact actual money is involved in Canadian writing and/or editing, which I am personally skeptical of at this time).

6 - When was the last time you ate a pear?

You are a nosey thing, aren’t you? Well, if you must know, I had one for a morning snack today – a lovely, juicy, golden, politically-correct, organic, locally-produced Bartlett pear, picked at the peak of its little pear life, and presented to me in all its glowing yellow goodness by my glowing white “life-partner,” Bryan (AKA husband.)

*NOTE: I made the last bit up. I had to get it myself out of the fridge, while Bryan was looking up lame facts on the Internet in the next room. Although it is true he is very white, and should get out more . . .

7 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?

“Save your fork; there’s going to be pie! And fellowship.”

*NOTE: Even I have no idea what that last bit means. It is, strangely enough, an actual quote... And yes rob, you still owe my uncle a piece of pie. The fact that he has since passed away does not let you off the hook, damn you and your pie-eating ways . . .

8 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to fiction)? What do you see as the appeal?

I am extremely interested in writing extremely long, complicated, and unduly incomprehensible fiction, chock-full of obscure meaning and riddled with subtext, which English literature students will be forced to read until they weep and gnash their teeth, and I will laugh and laugh whilst I twirl about in my doubtlessly shallow and possibly unmarked grave. Poetry is so easy, so dammed short – you have such little scope for annoying people, and must resort to other tactics (see Question #4 above).

9 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?

Oh, I like to get up just a little late, lurch jauntily down the stairs, frantically bark orders ateveryone from my nine-year old son Sam to the senile Siamese cat, have a pot or two or something caffeinated, make lunches, sign papers, make snarky comments to glowing “life partner,” drag son to school, mill about at second-hand store on way home, hide really cool “Barreta” home game under the back porch so that glowing “life partner” does not find it, finally look at self in mirror, remove toast crumbs from eyebrow, brush hair, brush eyebrows, get dressed, inhale more caffeine and single perfect organic, locally grown Bartlett pear, and then settle in for a full hour or two of checking email, seeing how much our house is worth now, and looking for free puppies on EBay, before “Writing Time” actually commences, usually about ten minutes before my son is due home on the bus.

*NOTE: This description is frighteningly accurate. In speaking it out loud, I am ashamed and yet somehow relieved, as if a great burden has been lifted off my foot...

*NOTE: I love the lame, yet lingering melodrama that is ellipsis...

10 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

What is the old saying? 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration? Disgusting. I’m all for waiting until the Muses pick you up and carry you, kicking and screaming to your keyboard, and squish your little fingers randomly down on the keys until you produce a masterpiece. You and the little monkeys with typewriters. . . (And no, I don’t mean Davy Jones ...).

11 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?

I love Everything! But most of all . . . Oh, I just can’t decide! Everything it is!

12 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

Is there something I haven’t yet done yet? Good God! I’m getting right on that!

13 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?

I’ve always dreamed of becoming a derelict, although for quite a time, in my youth, I was entranced by the idea of becoming a wolf, and spent a good deal of my childhood and teenage years lurking about the side of the house, growling.

14 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?

Satan. I’m pretty sure. Yep. Satan.

15 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?

The last great book I read was maybe Ulysses, by James Joyce, or maybe A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or maybe The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka. No, wait; it was ANYTHING BY rob mclennan. He (he) is the BESTEST WRITER EVER! (Now where is my ten bucks?...) And the last great movie I saw (not having read any recently, she said snottily) was Brother, Where Art Thou? with George Clooney (God love him) And a great version of Alice Through the Looking Glass with Kate Beckinsale (?). And Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And of course, anything with Ethel Merman. Or Bugs Bunny. Or both.

16 - What are you currently working on?

I am really and truly working on a graphic novel for children, as well as a novel involving (in some mysteriously spiritual and yet sleazy way) Tom Jones, and a new poetry manuscript, and another graphic novel not nearly so serious and pretentious as the other one, and a third one much more serious and pretentious than the lot of them, and yet another book, even more serious and pretentious than all of the above, and heads and shoulders (knees and toes) over The Desmond Road Book of the Dead, by Clare Latremouille, (AKA me), a glorious and largely overlooked masterpiece which (after long contemplation and careful consideration), turns out to be the best book ever.

Sorry, rob . . .

Clare Latremouille reads next in Ottawa on Tuesday, October 23rd at the Royal Oak II Pub as part of the TREE Reading Series.

12 or 20 questions archive