BlogThug

TDR on BookThugs

2008-05-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

The Danforth Review has listed Kate Eichhorn's Fond as one of the top spring books of 2008! We're pretty partial to it too, so take a look and then come by the launch at 7:30 this Thursday at Cervejaria at Ossington and College Streets in Toronto to get a copy.

and....

Jay MillAr was recently reviewed in The Danforth Review for The Small Blue published through Snare Books.

Aaron Tucker on Blue....

"This is a soft work, hinging on preservation of phrasing and relying on its own echoes of images and wording. Far from picturesque, the poems do work as photos, vignettes exploring the singular line from a multitude of perspectives. The work gains strength as it progresses, gathering momentum and additional connotations as the poems pile up."

read the full review here.

We're on Team Win!

2008-05-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

Cara Benson's Quantum Chaos and Jay MillAr's Lack Lyrics have won this year's bpNichol Chapbook Award. We're clearly awesome!

Award ceremony scheduled for May 21st, 2008 at 7:00 pm at The Central
603 Markham Street, Toronto. For Media Inquiries or to set-up interviews please contact Natalie: (416) 964-3380 or write natalie@pcwf.ca

Spring Launch

2008-05-10T10:42:00.000-07:00

Come celebrate the release of two stunning new books of poetry from BookThug:

Fond by Kate Eichhorn
Matter by Meredith Quartermain

May 29th at Cervejaria 842 College Street at 7:30

Also, purchase or renew your BookThug subscription and become a card carrying Thug!

About Fond:

What drives the collector? Is the archive a site of order, the convergence of past narratives and present desires, the chaotic reflection of passions spilling over categories? Is every lover an archive waiting to come undone? Every archive a place where the dust of bodies accumulates? One file in a fonds of misplaced manuscripts, Fond is haunted by an author’s compulsion to repeat and the archive’s inevitable limits. A finding aid guides the reader through a field of drafts, grids and marginalia, but can it account for this conflicting narrative of desire and its inevitable unraveling? A book-length disentanglement of one archive of emotion, Fond dwells in the eerily familiar, exposing the fragility of our most rigid constraints.

Kate Eichhorn’s poetry and creative prose have appeared in journals such as Matrix, How 2, Bird Dog and CV2. Fond is her first collection of poetry. She is also the co-editor of Innovative Canadian Women’s Poetry (forthcoming from Coach House Books). She teaches writing and book and media studies at Ryerson University in Toronto.

About Matter:

What if words evolved in species and genera just like birds and dinosaurs? What if you classified them in kingdoms and families? Made a phylogenetic tree with orders of Space, Matter, or Intellect. Gravity and Levity as classes of Matter. With Density, Rarity, Pungency, Ululation. Would this matter taxonomy speak of the out-there, the non-human? Or the in- here – the human mind, the sorting, reasoning human – homo linguis the word maker, the world maker? Formally innovative, Matter explores Roget’s taxonomy, rummaging its taint of globalism and social Darwinism, unearthing relations between humans, language and the planet. Matter asks what if words are so many birds, chirping and chattering? What is thought? What is knowledge? What’s your life-list of words?

Meredith Quartermain was born in Toronto but grew up in rural British Columbia, on the north end of Kootenay Lake. Botany, Latin, Math, Philosophy and Ecology intrigued her at UBC. She is the author of Terms of Sale (1996), Wanders [with Robin Blaser] (2002), A Thousand Mornings (2002), The Eye-Shift of Surface (2003), and Vancouver Walking (2005), winner of the BC Book Awards Poetry Prize. She lives in Vancouver where she runs Nomados Literary Publishers with husband Peter Quartermain.

Line UP!

2008-04-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

BookThug would like to take this opportunity to announce the spring list, now available in a classy pre-publication subscription package at a discounted price through Apollinaire's Bookshoppe: (www.apollinaires.com)

The BookThug Spring 2008 Line Up:

Trade Books:

Fond: Poetry by Kate Eichhorn
Matter: Poetry by Meredith Quartermain
Beloved of My 27 Senses: Fiction by Karen Fastrup
Translated from the Danish by Tara F. Chace

Chapbooks:

After Rilke: to forget you sang: Poetry by Mark Goldstein
Sweethearts of the Great Migration: Poetry by Andrew Hughes

Get all five titles at the advance price of $75 plus shipping.
Books will be shipped when they become available.

If you want to be a card-carrying member of BookThug Nation, you have to pay your dues!

Camille Martin hosts In Other Words

2008-03-18T08:30:00.001-07:00

:::T U E S D A Y 1 8 M A R C H 2 0 0 8:::

______________________________

SOUND POETRY ON CKLN FM: IN OTHER WORDS
______________________________

Please tune in to CKLN (88.1) on Tuesday, March 18, from
2-3 pm.

Poet Camille Martin hosts In Other Words with a program of sound
poetry and text-sound compositions.

The link for online listening:

http://www.ckln.fm <http://www.ckln.fm/>

BookThug Launch Orphans

2008-02-20T08:37:00.000-08:00

BookThug presents Launch Orphans, part of our Back to the Backlist Reading Series.

Feb. 25^th @ The Cameron House, 408 Queen Street West, 7 pm.

This business of front and back listing could use some more thought, so BookThug would like to propose a paradigm shift. Backlists are full of good work too, and rather than continually shift amazing poetry into the shadows, we'd like to nudge it forward.

To kick off our Back to the Backlist Series, we're reintroducing four exceptional BookThug poets who never had proper launches back in the day.

The Orphans:

Elizabeth Bachinsky:
CURIO: Grotesques and Satires from the Electronic Age (Fall 2005)

Ray Ellenwood: The Sands of Dream (Therese Renaud)
(Spring 2007)

Jason Dickson: The Hunt (Fall 2006)

David Fujino: air pressure (Spring 2006)

The readings will be followed by Troy Sinister & the Trailer Park School at 10 pm.

We look forward to seeing you out!

Jenny Sampirisi

jenny[at]bookthug[dot]ca
BlogThug: www.bookthug.blogspot.com
BuyThug: www.bookthug.com
FaceThug: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=12255736347

Ottawa hosts Jay MillAr

2008-02-11T15:52:00.000-08:00

Toronto poet and publisher Jay MillAr visits Ottawa for a reading in The A B Series. Joining him are Ottawa poets and writers Monty Reid and Emily Falvey. Hosted by Max Middle.

Friday 15 February 2008

doors open 7:30pm
downstairs
Laurier Royal Oak
161 Laurier Ave East
Ottawa

There will be a book table.

Free admission
A hat will be passed.

for more information:
contact Max Middle
maxmiddle at gmail dot com
telephone: 613.859.8423

or refer to:

theabseries dot blogspot dot com

Jay MillAr is a Toronto poet, editor, publisher, and virtual bookseller. He is the author of False Maps for Other Creatures (2005), Mycological Studies (2002), and The Ghosts of Jay MillAr (2000). His most recent collection is the small blue (Fall 2007). In 2006 he published Double Helix, a collaborative "novel" written with Stephen Cain. MillAr is the shadowy figure behind BookThug, an independent publishing house dedicated to cutting edge work by well-known and emerging North American writers, as well as Apollinaire's Bookshoppe, a virtual bookstore that specializes in the books that no one wants to buy. He is also the co-editor (with Mark Truscott) of BafterC, a small magazine of contemporary writing. Currently Jay teaches creative writing at George Brown College.

Originally from Nova Scotia, Emily Falvey is currently an Ottawa-based writer, curator, and art critic. In 2004, she received a Writers Works in Progress Grant from the Ontario Arts Council for her novella, Lessons in Darkness. She is currently working on the final version of this manuscript. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Descant and Decalogue 2: ten Ottawa fiction writers (Chaudiere).

Monty Reid's books include The Life of Ryley (Thistledown), Crawlspace (Anansi), The Alternate Guide (rdc books) and Sweetheart of Mine (BookThug). Widely published, he has been short-listed three times for the Governor-General's award. His most recent book, Disappointment Island (Chaudiere), won the Lampman-Scott Award and was nominated for the City of Ottawa book award. He lives and works in Ottawa.

Upcoming

2008-02-06T07:39:00.000-08:00

Upcoming:
___________________________________

Jay MillAr reads at the IV Lounge friday, Feb 8:

Lolette Kuby (Out of Cleveland, fiction)
David McGimpsey (Sitcom, poems)
Jay MillAr (the small blue, poems)

THE IV LOUNGE READING SERIES
326 Dundas St W, across from the AGO, 8pm, free.

___________________________________

St. Catharines: The Grey Borders Reading Series
Strega Cafe / 19 King Street
Friday, 8 February 2008, 7:30 pm
Featured readers: Aaron Giovannone, Stephen Cain, Geoffrey Hlibchuk, and Camille Martin
_______________________________________

Toronto: Test Reading Series
Mercer Union / 27 Lisgar Street
February 15, 2008, 8:00 pm
Featured readers: Susan Holbrook and Camille Martin

___________________________________

Launch Orphan: A Back to the Backlist Event
Monday, Feb. 25th at 7pm Sharp.
@ The Cameron House 408 Queen W.

Readings by talented Thugs who never had launches

Elizabeth Bachinsky
David Fujino
Ray Ellenwood
Jason Dickson

Followed by the musical stylings of Troy Sinister and the Trailer Park School.

______________________________

March 5th

Refus Locale: An Evening of Surrealism in St. Catharines -- in
commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the publication of Refus
Global. The event will feature readings by contemporary Canadian
surrealists like Beatriz Hausner and Stuart Ross, and acclaimed
Automatist scholar Ray Ellenwood reading from the very first book of
surrealist verse in Canada, Therese Renaud's The Sands of Dream
(1946). To cap off the event, local avant-garde theatre troupe
Suitcase in Point will be performing Claude Gauvreau's remarkable "In
the Heart of the Bulrushes."

There will be surrealist games, films, movies, and more; most notably,
the Great Canadian Surreal Beaver Balls art installation featuring the
work of over 60 Brock students.

Tickets available at the door: $8 adults or $5 for students/artists/
seniors

Martin and Cain at Grey Borders Reading Series

2008-02-04T17:10:00.001-08:00

Poster for the Grey Borders Reading Series. The next one is on February 8th @ 7:30 and features Camille Martin (Codes of Public Sleep), Geoffrey Hlibchuk, Aaron Giovannone and Stephen Cain (in place of Sharon Harris).

The Spring 2008 Frontlist

2008-01-31T13:46:00.000-08:00

We're excited by the complexity and scope of our frontlist, (archival, taxonomic, geologic) due out this May. Take a moment to read through the spring catalogue, or pick up a hard copy at our next event (Feb. 15th at the Test Reading Series)

Spring 2008 Frontlist.

Fond by Kate Eichhorn
Matter by Meredith Quartermain
and...
Beloved of My 27 Senses, Fiction by Karen Fastrup, Translated from the Danish by Tara Chase
(yes, a new fiction imprint is in the works!)

Serious Thuggery

2008-01-30T13:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to our fall poetry launch at the Gladstone Hotel in December. The turn out was fantastic. We have more events in the works, including a series for our back listers who sadly never had launches. We really don't see why back lists are ignored, boxed, stored, shunned...we have such affection for ours. The first "launch-orphan" will be on February 25th (7-9pm at the Cameron House) and will feature Elizabeth Bachinsky. Other orphans include Jason Dickson, Ray Ellenwood, David Fujino. Check back here or join our facebook group for date and venue updates. We look forward to seeing you out and about in the poetry ether.

Note that our spring 2008 catalogue is out. A pdf will be available for download on Thursday evening and onward. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, take a moment to look at what some thugs are doing...

Poetry hasn't missed or resisted the New Media boat, so why should poetry journals? The Continental Review features Cara Benson's video poetry (necessitics): for Aristotle. Cara Benson is the author of Quantum Chaos and Poems: A Manifest(o)ation (BookThug 2007).

Phil Hall's work has been placed under the microscope at Poetics.ca where rob mclennan explores Phil Hall’s surrural: Ontario gothic, the killdeer, the music of failure and the distraction of shifting ground. Phil Hall is the author of White Porcupine (BookThug 2007) and The Bad Sequence (BookThug 2nd Ed. Revised 2007). He has published 11 other books of poems, 5 chapbooks, and a cassette of labour songs. An Oak Hunch, (Brick Books 2005) was nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2006.

White Porcupine was recently reviewed by Kemeny Babineau:

White Porcupine pushes language to the edges of being, or the edges of being into language. Frilled with word quills the poet pricks the self and pierces the flesh of an other. This is a verbal assault on the past, and on language, a writing of a wronging. The reader is snowed under early on, thrown into the storm of the text in medias res, but the poet leaves enough lifelines for the reader to get out from under the avalanche.

Read the full article at Laurel Reed Books.

Camille Martin is busy promoting Codes of Public Sleep. If you're in any of the following cities on any of the following evenings, drop by....

St. Catharines: The Grey Borders Reading Series
Strega Cafe / 19 King Street
Friday, 8 February 2008, 7:30 pm
Featured readers: Aaron Giovannone, Sharon Harris, Geoffrey Hlibchuk, and Camille Martin

Toronto: Test Reading Series
Mercer Union / 27 Lisgar Street
February 15, 2008, 8:00 pm
Featured readers: Susan Holbrook and Camille Martin

Hamilton: Lit Live
Sky Dragon Centre / 27 King William Street
March 2, 2008, 7:30 pm
Featured readers: Camille Martin and others (TBA)

BOOKTHUG SPOTS PORCUINES IN NATHAN PHILLIPS SQUARE

2007-11-25T23:53:00.000-08:00

Have you spotted any porcupines lately? Keep your eyes peeled. If you see any shoot them (with a camera) and send them in....

2007-09-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

Dear BookThugs, hello.

So the Spring books are finally finished just in time for Fall.

Fall is when all books have a chance to actually sell, especially wack-o poetry books. This is because Wal Mart has put up their christmas decorations and as a result everyone is frantically running around looking for perfect gifts. Or wait a minute, maybe it's because of Hallowe'en or something. Who knows? The mysteries of economics.

So if you're looking for perfect gifts look no further. If you're not, well shove off. There's always the movies.

Meanwhile, two new 'real' books are brewing -- White Porcupine by Phil Hall and Codes of Public Sleep by Camille Martin. I haven't said much about these books yet, but that's because the spring has still been wafling in the wind and I couldn't bring myself to talk about them. As Phil says: "Deadlines is such an ominous word when publishing poetry." So true, so true. I'd hate to be dead on a line, myself.

If you want to know more let me know. I'd be more than happy to fill you in.

There are a couple of chapbooks cookin too -- Fishings by Shannon Bramer: collaborative stories and drawings created with her 3 year old daughter; and The Aureole by Alfred Durrant Watson, issued as Deptartment of Reissue No 2; the first free-form poem ever published in Canada with an occultist slant toward a hermaphroditic utopia (afterword by Gregory Betts).

Meanwhile, night beckons. Sweet dreams!

Coming Soon to a Readership Near You

2007-05-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

McCaffery's The Basho Variations and Renaud's/Ellenwood's The Sands of Dream are finally at the printers. Meanwhile, Jarnot's The Iliad Book XXII is in process, and what a process it is folks! I'm nudging the leading as we speak.

Patience, dear readers...

This quick and easy post has been brought to you by the the good people at I'm From Barcelona.

LAUNCH!

2007-04-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

BOOKTHUG LAUNCH!

Blissful Times and What Happened will be launched on
Wednesday 11 April 2007
at Clinton’s Tavern
693 Bloor Street West (near Christie Station)
8:00 PM. FREE

We are taking votes as to whether the event should
be hosted by Jay MillAr or a trained monkey.

Hope to see you there.

Jay MillAr

New Books!

2007-04-04T10:35:00.000-07:00

Blissful Times by Sandra Alland
Do we, any of us, speak the same language? Blissful Times is a collection of poetry that tries to find out. Beginning with found text from Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, Sandra Alland ‘translates’ the poem 63 times, morphing it into different poetic forms and emotional states, even different media. Edgy, passionate, amusing and intelligent, Blissful Times is a poetic cocktail for our troubled times.
9780978158767; 77pp.; $20.00

What Happened by Tom Walmsley
What Happened is a new collection of ‘pre-enlightenment’ poems about everything Tom Walmsley considers significant, both to himself and, ultimately, to everyone else: God sexuality, the wretched past, the here and now. Walmsley’s blunt mediations present a man who has learned the hard way about hope and thankfulness. Without being a work of genuine autobiography (except perhaps in the sense of Genet), What Happened is a collection of up-front, edgy and human poems that consider life an unresolved issue that should never be resolved.
9780978158798; 84pp.; $20.00

Haikube Launch

2007-03-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

You've seen the book Haikube, now you can meet the machine that 'wrote it' (with a little help from Gregory Betts). Hallie Siegel and Matt Donovan's artwork, including the release of the Haikube Sculpture, will be on display at Olga Korper Gallery in Toronto. Please come to the opening, where the book Haikube will meet its master:

Saturday March 31, 2-5pm
Olga Korper Gallery
17 Morrow Avenue
Toronto, ON M6R 2H9

Map

Rob Read Reading

2007-03-10T06:57:00.000-08:00

Hear BookThug Rob Read read at The End of the Internet
(along with Locke and Brian Barlow and Jon McCurley).

The End of the Internet
Wed March 21 9:30 pm
The Press Club
850 Dundas St. W

Hugh Thomas in Ottawa

2007-03-06T15:24:00.000-08:00

This Saturday evening, March 10th, 2007, BookThug author Hugh Thomas will be reading in Ottawa at the Carleton Taven along with Sandra Ridley and Max Middle. This event is organized by the Small Press Action Network - Ottawa and hosted by rob mclennan.

The Apothecary

2007-03-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

A new edition of Lisa Robertson's first book The Apothecary is now available from BookThug. Available directly from Apollianire's Bookshoppe.

Lisa Robertson will be appearing in Corner Brook Newfoundland on the 7th and 8th of March as part of The Architecture of the Book: An International Symposium at Memorial University, along with fellow BookThug Stephen Cain.

BookThug in NYC

2007-02-15T09:43:00.000-08:00

BookThug Chapbooks make a red carpet appearance at NYC's McNally Robinson. Thanks to Evan Kennedy for the snap, and to Dustin Kurtz at McNR for thinking of us.

New BookThug Subscriptions

2007-02-15T07:48:00.000-08:00

BookThug Subscriptions are now available from Apollinaire's Bookshoppe for your immediate and near future reading pleasure!

Full Subscription Package:

Apollinaire's Bookshoppe is pleased to offer all 12 books published by BookThug in the spring of 2007 for 25% off the total cover price.

Chapbooks:

Kemeny Babineau: VDB Wordlist
Jonathan Ball: WOLVES (lone.ly)
Tom Konyves: OOSOOM (Out Of Sight Out Of Mind)
Jeremy McLeod: Search
Jay MillAr: Lack Lyrics
Alfred Noyes: Compression Sonnets

Tradebooks:

Sandra Alland: Blissful Times
Lisa Jarnot: The Illiad Book XXII
Steve McCaffery: The Basho Variations
Tom Walmsley: What Happened
Thérèse Renaud: The Sands of Dream trans. Ray Ellenwood, ill. Jean-Paul Mousseau
Lisa Robertson: The Apothecary

Chapbook Subscription Package:
Get all 6 chapbooks for 15% off the total cover price.

Tradebook Subscription Package:
Get all 6 tradebooks for 15% off the total cover price.

On Compression Sonnets

2007-02-15T07:26:00.000-08:00

A recent review of Alfred Noyes' Compression Sonnets by Robert Archambeau (alongside the work of Reginald Gibbons). Secrets are revealed!

http://samizdatblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/two-versions-of-intertextuality.html

Lyngsø Homepage

2007-02-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

Danish poet & BookThugger Niels Lyngsø has a new homepage:

http://www.nielslyngsoe.dk/

Some BookThug Events

2006-11-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

18 November : London Ontario : The Hunt by Jason Dickson

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19 November : Toronto Ontario : ICON TACT by Victor Coleman

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19 November : Montreal Quebec : The Men by Lisa Robertson
with Office for Soft Architecture [Coach House Books]

BookThug: Fall 2006!

2006-10-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

All those titles from BookThug that you've been eagerly waiting for are available at last! Subscribers will be receiving their packages shortly, but if you haven't heard what's been cooking up for the past few months, here's some information on the books:

ICON TACT: Poems 1984 - 2001 collects poems and serial texts written by Victor Coleman towards the end of the 20th Century. In many ways the book is a follow-up to his 1985 collection CORRECTIONS. Like CORRECTIONS, ICON TACT contains texts in Coleman's 'conventional' style. Previously published in small private editions that are now gathered together for the first time, ICON TACT includes Imaginary Performances, Eulogistics, Waiting for Alice, The Day They Stole the Coach House Press, Moon Over Viagra, and more.
ISBN 097397429X $24.00 176 Pages Perfectbound.

The Hunt by Jason Dickson is a collection of antique postcards that tells the fragmented story of a nameless family's search for the murderer of their mother. As each piece of the puzzle is presented, The Hunt reveals another version of Canadian history read from East to West. Blending several 'genres' including History, Travel, Mystery, The Ghost Story, Archival Obcessions, Fiction and yes, even Poetry, The Hunt is like no book you've ever read before.
ISBN 0978158709 $22.00 132 Pages. Perfectbound.

We Are Here by Niels Hav, translated from the Danish by Patrick Friesen and P.K. Brask, is a collection of poems that address what Hav consideres to be elemental about life. His voice is direct and humorous, intelligent, lyrical and philosophical; a voice that takes into account the difficulties of staying close to the elemental. Hav is devoid of sly obfuscation; he is a poet unafraid of being clear. What could be more direct or elemental than the fact that We Are Here?
ISBN 0978158725 $15.00 59 Pages. Perfectbound.

Chapbooks this fall include Crows in the Wind by George Bowering, Us Them Poems by Evan Kennedy, Monterality: B-Sides & Rarities by Stephen Cain, Hazard by Jake Kennedy, Weight (Revised Canadian Edition) by Samuel Andreyev, and a Mysterious Chapbook by an Undisclosed Author (so far only one copy returned!). For more information, or to order copies (or even pick up a subscription), visit Apollinaire's Bookshoppe: www.bookthug.ca

Think tough. Buy BookThug.

Good Things
Jay MillAr

BookThug 2006 Fall Titles

2006-08-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

The BookThug Fall Season has come together. You can find information at Apollianire's Bookshoppe if you like. Two of the books are even available, and there is a subscription package to check out too. The BookThug Fall 2006 Catalogue is even available to download as a pdf. Just take a look on the main page of the shoppe for the links.

I'm also out of town until the 24th. Taking the family to Newfoundland. Hope to be at Test. All will depend on the sanity of flight schedules.

Lisa Robertson: Dispatches from Jouhet

2006-06-30T07:22:00.000-07:00

Lisa Robertson reports on literature, porn, art, fashion and more at The Poetry Foundation.

Lisa Robertson at The Scream

2006-06-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

Something to look forward to: A full-length reading of Lisa Roberton's The Men accompanied by a fine three-course meal.

radiant danse uv being

2006-05-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

bill bissett re/view

think you know culture, you can't know anything, knowing like water: you can be in it (figure it "hot"), but not know it. bill bissett doesn't use the figures of other wo/men's speech, he reinvents language, the value in this equation of modern art the new wave of the mid-sixties contributes. he's in it, loves the feel. knows enough to realize coming into other wo/men's mouths for clues leaves you right where you already are, knows enough never to resist. you first get in to see how it'll feel, a thing way more important all the way out as far as you get to sea, than even the most tasteful news from bygone mouths. that's knaesthesia. (forget i said that) the important thing is bill bissett. the importance he's language. our language. meat marinating in intelligence, the sound slapping and pulling every which way, quenching, drenching, cleaning, drowning (no) bearing us deep inside the music of mother's voice in amniotic swell, roaring, pouring, torrents so cool our straining back at sun seems less hopeless each new spray.

arthur cravan

2006-05-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

Phil Hall, Erin Moure, and Sylvia Legris (along with international poets Kamau Brathwaite, Michael Hoffman/Durs Grünbein, Michael Palmer and Elizabeth Winslow/Dunya Mikhail) read from their nominated collections at the Griffin Prize for Excellence in Poetry showdown: a soldout show, 31 May 2006 at 7:30PM, MacMillan Theatre, Edward Johnson Building, University of Toronto, 80 Queen’s Park, Toronto. Gatecrashing recommended.

The Men by Lisa Robertson

2006-05-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

The Men by Lisa Robertson is now available from BookThug.

Lisa Robertson will be launching The Men: A Lyric Book in New York at the Bowery Poetry Club on 20 May 2006 at 4pm with Carol Mirakove, and in Toronto at Test Reading Series on 24 May 2006 at 6pm along with Stephen Cain.

Final Post

2006-05-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

I apologize that it has taken me this long to publicly respond to these matters. The stress I experienced over the past week has left me unable to do so; I dislike immediate reactions for they are always heated and emotional. Since the Internet only seems to create space for anger, gossip, and speculation, I will make no attempt to explain anything and I will be brief, and I hope that people will understand that I removed everything from this blog not because I am trying to hide anything, but because I do not want to invite further anger or reactionary disputes. I want to say what follows only. This post will remain on this blog for one week.

I am deeply distressed that I and BookThug have been tainted by recent events and that the ‘thug’ in BookThug has now become associated with hate. I want to publicly state that I never intended anything that transpired to happen and do not agree with anything hateful or hurtful said by anyone associated with BookThug at any time. Anything that was said was done so by individuals acting as free agents expressing their own opinions. It has nothing to do with the ideologies associated with BookThug, an independent publisher of innovative literature. I also wish to state that for the record the particular moment that led to everything took place during a reading to promote a new curvdh&z publication. This does not excuse the action or what it means, or what has happened on this blog or other blogs since.

BookThug does not promote or encourage hatred of any kind against anyone. I have taken steps to sever myself and BookThug from anything even remotely resembling hatred. I will continue to support polyphony and the freedom of independent expression but never at the expense of others.

To Angela Rawlings, whom I consider a good friend, a human being par excellence, and a valuable member of the Toronto poetry community; who has been an important supporter of BookThug from the beginning and who, despite all that has transpired has not cancelled her subscription to this season’s publications, I am truly sorry that anything associated with BookThug has caused you distress emotionally or professionally. I only wish good things upon you in all that you do and I hope that we will continue to work together as colleagues and friends.

To those of you who have sent notes of concern for the future of myself and BookThug over the course of these past terrible and confusing days, you were both very kind. I hope that BookThug will continue to publish interesting books of innovative writing and will never again be exposed to this kind of negative attention.

Good Things
Jay MillAr