While in Reykjavík this autumn 2009, I facilitated two creative writing workshops. Exercises ranged from automatic writing to erasure poetry, from homophonic translation to collaborative cut-ups. Online Canadian poetry journal ditch, has a special feature displaying texts that began in these workshops, composed by Icelandic writers Ásgeir H Ingólfsson, Kristín Kamban, Hjörvar Pétursson, Silja Hrund Barkardóttir Hansen, Jón Bjarki Magnússon, Jón Örn Loðmfjörð, Bragi Páll Sigurðarson, and Bjargey Ólafsdóttir. Thanks to John C. Goodman for requesting and displaying this special feature!

Njótið vel!

York University’s Canadian Writers in Person course offers its archived recordings of readings and Q&A sessions to the internet. You’ll find my speedy reading and Q&A from the spring of 2008 here. I enjoyed listening to the Q&A, especially as the first question prompted me to talk about music I listen to when I write. I mentioned Nico Muhly’s Speaks Volumes as a key album in spring 2008; it’s still in rotation now, though has been joined by other albums published on the same label (Bedroom Community). Makes sense, as I’m still working on the same projects as I was a year and a half ago.

Roo Borson and I perform tonight (19:30) for the Play Chthonics Reading Series at Green College, UBC, Vancouver. There will be a Q&A post-reading.

Online magazine and publisher Action, Yes! has posted their newest issue, which includes a section of Canadian poetry curated by françois luong. Contributors include Daniel Canty, Angela Carr, Jason Christie, Cris Costa, Sarah Dowling, Darren Wershler and Bill Kennedy, Ray Hsu, Sonnet L’Abbé, Chantal Neveu, glenN robsoN, Hector Ruiz, Jenny Sampirisi, Jordan Scott, Angela Szczepaniak, and François Turcot. The issue also includes ten poems from my work-in-progress Rule of Three, and I LOVE how it looks online here.

I’ve had the pleasure of facilitating two writing workshops in two weeks for Reykjavík folks. The first workshop had twelve enthusiastic participants, and we worked on free writing, erasure poetry, and cut-ups. The second workshop had thirty writers, and we covered free writing again, plus homolinguistic and homophonic translations, and a collaborative manifesto exercise with performance. Local artist Tomas Ponzi sketched participants during our translation activities; this sketch shows Kristín Anna Kamban, Jón Bjarki Magnússon, and me.

Derek McCormack guest-edited last year’s Halloween edition of Taddle Creek, and the entire issue is now available online for your reading pleasure. The issue includes a poem I wrote entitled “In.”

Toronto-based publisher BookThug has released a limited edition run of New Icelandic Poetry in Translation, featuring work by derek beaulieu, Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl, a.rawlings, and Hugh Thomas. My contribution is a poem from EFHILMNORSTUVWY in both English and in Icelandic; it’s my first attempt at translating from English to Icelandic.

Northeastern Ontario publisher Your Scrivener Press launches in Toronto’s Supermarket @ 7pm tonight the anthology Regreen: New Canadian Ecological Poetry edited by Madhur Anand and Adam Dickinson. Contributors are Don McKay, Brian Bartlett, Jeanette Lynes, Michael deBeyer, Ross Leckie, Katia Grubisic, Robyn Sarah, Sina Queyras, Armand Garnet Ruffo, Margaret Christakos, a.rawlings, Ruth Roach Pierson, Erin Robinsong, Olive Senior, Maureen Scott-Harris, John Terpstra, Kemeny Babineau, Cornelia Hoogland, Karen Houle, Roger Nash, Alanna F. Bondar, Monique Chénier, Alison Calder, Mari-Lou Rowley, Christian Bök, Bert Almon, Lisa Robertson, Rhea Tregebov, Rita Wong, Rhonda Collis, Kim Goldberg, Jane Munro, and Jan Conn. My contribution in the anthology includes eight pages of previously unpublished work — an excerpt from my work-in-progress EFHILMNORSTUVWY, as well as three poems written specifically for Sudbury and comprised of found and recycled components.

The Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada (ALECC) publishes a journal called The Goose. Their spring 2009 issue (available as a downloadable PDF from this page) features an excerpt from the first section (“Environment Canada”) of my work-in-progress EFHILMNORSTUVWY. Lisa Szabo introduces the work.

Icelandic publishing collective Nýhil recently published an anthology called Af steypu, focusing on visual poetry and language as material. The 284-page collection is edited by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl and Kári Páll Óskarsson, and features work by Apollinaire, Mary Ellen Solt, Eugen Gomringer, Jean Michel Espitallier, Maurice Roche, Johanna Drucker, François Le Lionnais, Lyn Hejinian, Gertrude Stein, Inger Christensen, Ida Börjel, Ingólfur Gíslason, Benedikt Hjartarson, Sjón, derek beaulieu, Davíð Stefánsson, Gunnar Wærness, Jessica Smith, Marjorie Perloff, Bryndís Björnsdóttir, Óttar Martin Norðfjorð, Haukur Már Helgason, Kristian Guttesen, Kára Tulinius, Gísli Hvanndal, Anton Helga Jónsson, Brian Kim Stefans, Kenneth Goldsmith, Charles Bernstein, and Gary Sullivan. The anthology also includes an excerpt from my ljóðapoems.