Monday, March 16, 2020

Gil McElroy, Conyer Clayton, K.I. Press, Gary Barwin + IAN MARTIN : virtual reading series #2


a series of video recordings of contemporary poets reading from their work, prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cancellations, shut-downs and isolations; a reading series you can enjoy in the safety of your own protected space,

Gil McElroy : from “The Julian Days”

Gil McElroy is a writing and artist living in Colborne, Ontario. His Long Division is due out from the University of Calgary Press this year.

Conyer Clayton : “Shower” from We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite (Guernica Editions, May 2020), “Only for so long,” Parentheses Journal no.8, Winter 2020

Conyer Clayton is an Ottawa-based artist and gymnastics coach, originally from Louisville, Kentucky. She has 6 chapbooks; most recently Trust Only the Beasts in the Water (above/ground press, 2019). In 2018, she released a collaborative album with Nathanael Larochette, If the river stood still. She is the winner of Arc's 2017 Diana Brebner Prize and The Capilano Review's 2019 Robin Blaser Poetry Contest, and writes reviews for Canthius. Her debut full-length collection of poetry, We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite (Guernica Editions), is forthcoming May 2020.

K.I. Press : “Parish Boys” and “Mal aux cheveux”

K.I. Press is a Winnipeg writer originally from northern Alberta who has also lived in Edmonton, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Toronto. Her most recent book of poetry was Exquisite Monsters (Turnstone Press), and her best-known book of poetry (in that she still occasionally gets a cheque for it) is Types of Canadian Women (Gaspereau Press). She teaches writing at Red River College

Gary Barwin : “Ghosts”

The author of twenty-two books of poetry and fiction, Gary Barwin is the author of the nationally bestselling novel, Yiddish for Pirates (Random House) which won the Leacock Medal for Humour and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award and was a finalist for the Governor-General’s Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His poetry includes For It is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe: New and Selected Poems, ed. Alessandro Porco (Wolsak and Wynn, 2019) and A Cemetery for Holes, a poetry collaboration with Tom Prime (Gordon Hill, 2019), and, forthcoming, Muttertongue (a CD and recording with Lillian Allen and Gregory Betts, Book*hug). A new novel, Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy will appear from Penguin Random House Canada in 2021. garybarwin.com

IAN MARTIN : “BIGFOOT,” “SURVIVAL OF THE REASONABLY FIT”

IAN MARTIN is a multidisciplinary artist who reportedly is “at it again”. IAN’s work has appeared recently in The Wild Literary Magazine, SURFACES.cx, release any words stuck inside you II, paintbucket.page, small poems 🍓, the DUSIE blog, G U E S T, and BAD DOG. IAN has published four chapbooks, most recently YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO KEEP THIS UP FOREVER (AngelHousePress, 2018) and PLACES TO HIDE (Coven Editions, 2018). When not writing, IAN makes small video games and complains online. [www.ian-martin.net]