If you're not like me (& who is really) & you buy
people xmas/holidaze gifts, here's a rundown of good presents for the literature
lovers in your life. this is also a way for you to support great writing, great
small press publishers & feel damn good about yourself…
SUBSCRIPTIONS
yes, I know Canada Pissed is planning on cutting service to
homes in urban centres, but that's going to take a few years at least…in the
meantime…
above/ground press publishes a plethora of fine poetry chapbooks
& broadsides year round. for a mere $50 you can acquire everything
above/ground puts out annually. While you're at it pick up the 20th anniversary
anthology: "Ground Rules" from their sister publisher, Chaudiere Books.
Book Thug publishes something like 15,000 books & chapbooks in a year… Check their
site for suscription or bundle options. While you're there picking up launch packages, might
I recommend two fabulous poetry books from 2013: Sandra Ridley's "The Counting
House" & Phil Hall's "The Small Nouns Crying Faith." There's a 30% off deal
til early January. Take advantage!
Brick: A Literary Journal is a thick volume that comes out a coupla times a year. The interviews, reviews
and fiction are wide-ranging. I have learned about all kinds of things I never
heard of before such as theatres in the catacombs of Paris, the late of ceramicist
Edmund de Waal's family, peers of the Rothchilds, who escaped Nazi Germany with
a priceless collection of Japanese netsuke, miniature sculptures.
The Capilano Review, fillingStation &
Rampike are, in my opinion, the most comprehensive & eclectic literary journals in Canada,
including a variety of poetic styles with an emphasis on the rawer edged stuff,
art, visual poetry & interviews.
also check out Ottawa published literary magazines: Arc Poetry Magazine, In/Words (they also
have chapbooks) ,
Chrysalis Zine,
& the Ottawa Arts Review.
Front&Centre from Black Bile Press is I believe a twice yearly or so magazine with transgressive fiction &
critical reviews of mostly fiction, the occasional interview & a candid editorial
by Joel Williams. Black Bile also has chapbooks of fiction.
BOOKS
The Literary Press Group has a pop up store for December
which offers a good deal on a different themed trio of books daily.
Go to the LPG's site to access various publishers, indie booksellers etc. or go
directly to the publishers' sites themselves.
I am in love with several of the recent Mansfield Press
titles, particularly Stephen Brockwell's "Complete Surprising Fragments of
Impossible Books" for its brilliance, wry wit & imagination.
Also buy anything from Nightwood Editions, but especially
Danny Jacobs' Songs That Remind Us of Factories. The fellow has a good sense of
humour & a good sense of sound.
These are a few titles on my wish list for year round gift possibilities (i don't mind hinting):
Bone and Bread - Saleema Nawaz
Caught - Lisa Moore
Hellgoing by Lynn Coady
A Fairy Tale by Jonas
T. Bengtsson Translated by: Charlotte
Barslund
1996 - Sara Peters
19 Knives - Marc Anthony Jarman
Glossolalia - Marita
Dachsel (Poetry)
Blue is the Warmest Colour - Julie Maroh
Blood, Marriage, Wine & Glitter - S. Bear Bergman
This Great Escape - Andrew Steinmetz
The Traymore Rooms - Norm Sibum
The Lost Letters - Catherine Greenwood
Army of Lovers - A Community History of Will Munro, the
Artist, Activist, Impresario and Civic Hero Who Brought Together Toronto's Club
Kids, Art Fags, Hardcore Boys, Drag Queens, Rock 'n' Roll Queers, Needlework
Obsessives, Limpwristed Nellies, Stone Butches, New Wave Freaks, Unabashed
Perverts, Proud Prudes and Beautiful Dreamers-Sarah Liss
White Piano -Nicole Brossard, translated by Robert Majzels
& Erín Moure
The Loneliness Machine by Aaron Giovane
Gay Dwarves of America - Anne Fleming
Light - Souvankham Thammavongsa
Juanita Wildrose: My True Life - Susan Downe
Dennis Cooley - the stones
Rosa Rose - Robert Priest & Joan Krygsman
CHAPBOOKS
from a coupla toonies to $10 or so, chapbooks & broadsides are great gifts of
mostly poetry from Ottawa micropresses.
Black Bile Press & In/Words Magazine also have
chapbooks. see above.
MISCELLANY
jwcurry's Room 3o2 Books is the place to go for amazing
limited edition books, broadsides, chapbooks, posters etc. . if you were planning on spending money on such items, this would be an ideal
time.
what am I forgetting? let me know.
finally a nod to the fabulous 49th Shelf, one of the
greatest resources for Canadian books on line. it was a great help to me in the
preparation of this list.
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