not very writerly of me
i keep feeling this should be in list poem form, but do you think i have that kind of time?
i saw lynn coady read at my school one friday night, for a crowd of about 10 people, most of whom were in the school's creative writing program, duh. it did feel weird on multiple counts, one of them being that i had just woken up (friday is my free day) to almost-dark and left for the reading right away. one of them being reading "hellgoing"very late into the night. another being how i still don't get to understand how a giller prize winner reads to such a small audience...last May i saw richard ford reading at Indigo (and these are free events!), an audience of maybe 25...and i was so excited to see him and afterwards so saddened and ashamed that there hadn't been more people, that i kept postponing writing about it, so it's coming out now, wrapped up in the lynn coady residual feeling.
i mean, i know these things will happen. in a foreign country, in an english-minoritary city. there are plenty of reasons. and i know people who are launching books soon, and i know their launches will be bundles of buzz and friends and supporters. maybe it's just that i'm still grappling with "getting"readings for real.
along the same line, for a while i felt pretty fired up to write something about the local "literary scene" or whatever for my English 396 class, since everyone else there writes about restaurants and cafes and wellness. only to seriously conclude that i have as little to do with the literary scene in montreal as i do with the restaurants, i.e. maybe less than with the cafes. i know of some readings, and i've mostly felt sad every time i went, see above. no one i know is launching anything right now (one more month, and i could've tried to pull that one off...).
i was speed-reading through "ru" AND "man" by kim thuy at the shelves in Indigo right before it was announced that "ru" won Canada Reads. immigration is another one of these things. i swear somehow all my teamwork lesson plans or projects are turning out to be on immigrant texts.
so these days i'm visiting bazaars (maybe more on it later). and ...it's not even a big difference from readings. cold ill-lit places where accidental groups of people are trying to keep on smiling faces while swapping trinkets - worn, unglamorous things. and i do know it's me and how i see it from the doorstep, how i can't find an entry point into things i still aspire to.
i have winter postcards i haven't sent out yet. as long as there's some more snow to come, i tell myself i could still manage to be timely. almost all other places on earth seem to be ready for the lilacs.
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| this is just bernard street being fancy |
i mean, i know these things will happen. in a foreign country, in an english-minoritary city. there are plenty of reasons. and i know people who are launching books soon, and i know their launches will be bundles of buzz and friends and supporters. maybe it's just that i'm still grappling with "getting"readings for real.
along the same line, for a while i felt pretty fired up to write something about the local "literary scene" or whatever for my English 396 class, since everyone else there writes about restaurants and cafes and wellness. only to seriously conclude that i have as little to do with the literary scene in montreal as i do with the restaurants, i.e. maybe less than with the cafes. i know of some readings, and i've mostly felt sad every time i went, see above. no one i know is launching anything right now (one more month, and i could've tried to pull that one off...).
i was speed-reading through "ru" AND "man" by kim thuy at the shelves in Indigo right before it was announced that "ru" won Canada Reads. immigration is another one of these things. i swear somehow all my teamwork lesson plans or projects are turning out to be on immigrant texts.
so these days i'm visiting bazaars (maybe more on it later). and ...it's not even a big difference from readings. cold ill-lit places where accidental groups of people are trying to keep on smiling faces while swapping trinkets - worn, unglamorous things. and i do know it's me and how i see it from the doorstep, how i can't find an entry point into things i still aspire to.
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| to keep in mind i want to know who these people are who keep posting amazing one-of-a-kind things all around my neighbourhood. |
i have winter postcards i haven't sent out yet. as long as there's some more snow to come, i tell myself i could still manage to be timely. almost all other places on earth seem to be ready for the lilacs.
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