Wow. That about sums this bit of book-fetishist-eye-candy. Handsome in that welcome-to-the-canon sort of blue-backed, hard-bound, conservative way. With introductions by series editor Paul Auster, and a host of other boys–Rushdie, Coetzee, Albee, Toiban–introducing the volumes themselves: two for novels, one for the plays, and one with poetry, short fiction and criticism. Well, is it...

Normally I try not to fan the flames of that which irritates, but this week Camille Paglia ranting on about saving the canon was just too much. Who are these people and how do they hold those massive, inflated, heads up in the world? The other irritation is Martin Amis in the New Yorker. What...

Saturday, April 29th @ 3pmTHE EAR INN326 Spring StreetWest of GreenwichNew York, NYFor More Information

One of my favorite Torontonians gone this week, at 89. A long life, and in Death and Life, a great contribution. Her simple premise still makes sense. If you love New York, and you know you do, create it elsewhere: “Death and Life” made four basic recommendations for creating municipal diversity: 1. A street or...

The new production of the new translation of Brecht’s Three Penny Opera is great fun, much better than reviews would have you believe. Part of this may be as they say, the difficulty people have with Brecht, but there are some major flaws too. First the greatness: Wallace Shawn’s translation is funny, clipped, and in...

First saw this site a few years back, and thought that today, on the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl, I would look at it again. Someone needs to revamp her site–but Elena’s journey and photographs are still moving. The morning I first heard of Chernobyl I was planting a garden in Vancouver. It was just prior...

the Hound & Jonny a rawlings Back in Montreal, just for the night, but enough to get a hit of that crazy, excellent vibe. Loved the host, the bartender, the Green Room, the whole crowd, a wonderful event. Even following JP Fiorentino was good. And he ended his reading by tossing his book off the...

Sunday April 23rd. 7:30 pmThe Green Room, 5586 St. LaurentFree Admission Join Coach House Books for the Montreal edition of our spring launch Sina Queyras – Lemon Hound (poetry)Chris Ewart – Miss Lamp (novel)Angela Rawlings – Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists (poetry)Jon Paul Fiorentino – The Theory of the Loser Class (poetry) and special guestMelissa A....

I am I because my lap top knows me…

In the spring round up in the Sunday Book Review you’ll find a review of Don McKay’s new book, Strike/Slip. McKay, who you will also find in Open Field: 30 Contemporary Canadian Poets, offers a surprisingly lyrical and mischevious entry into what we think of as “nature poetry.” He stubbornly resists all things postmodern; he...

Being a little distracted, I didn’t take many photos of the Coach House Launch in TO (see report below), but here is one of Jon Paul Fiorentino for your viewing pleasure. You can also check out my ever-expanding poets & writers set where you will find a few more.

I haven’t met Mark Truscott, but I loved his book (why haven’t I posted on that yet?), and now I’m a fan because a/ he as started a new reading series in Toronto, and b/ a site to store sound files. Test, is the reading series, and Test is the site. Next month they have...