Then
let me ask
what is not worth
preserving what is not vanishing as
if
we are not always fading away
lonely as if we are not all
grand
Arleen Paré First, “The American Wilderness Act”
I have a problem naming things. Thank goodness I don’t have children. They’d be named, renamed, forgotten and then renamed elaborately once again. In part, my problem with naming things is that I love the act of naming so much that I want to do it again and again even if it’s for the same person, place or thing. Certainly, there’s also forgetfulness, a quality which is also a central theme in my writing. I appreciate the request by rob mclennan to write a bit about my recent book tour in order to force me to sit down and remember. To put names to people, places and things.
Over the course of planning my cross-Canada tour, which started in early January of 2023 with mostly query emails to bookstores and libraries in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec, the originally conceived 50-venue tour went from Chuffed about Chapbooks to Chuffed about Chapbooks: a Big Poetry Tour of Mixed Feelings (this was in March I think when I hadn’t heard back from several bookstores and no libraries were interested in hosting me for free) to a brief dalliance with Huffed about Puffed Chapbooks: Poetry Pops (when I was questioning my sanity over what I’d undertaken) to finally settle on Chuffed about Chapbooks: a Poetry Tour of Everywhere. I dove into the planning, after purchasing a multi-legged flight from Vancouver to Edmonton to Saskatoon to Winnipeg to Windsor and then a return from Montreal, thinking that since I’d planned a 100-venue tour in 2014 when I had no full book titles to my name (just a handful of chapbooks), a 50-venue tour would be easier. In some ways it was (I had my publisher Anvil Press covering my travel costs), but in many ways it wasn’t. It was a lot harder convincing most bookstores that I was worth their time even with the promise that I’d be reading with local authors. Most people were still coming out of the Great Period of Unsettlement and with inflation and the frayed social fabric revealed/exacerbated by COVID, goodwill seemed to be in shorter supply. From my privileged point of view, I went in thinking that I could plan a straight-forward small press book tour consisting of my last full-length collection and three new chapbooks, which had recently been published. Again: I appreciated the support and enthusiasm by the venues that did host me, the poets who agreed to read with me and the people who came out. That’s something that will always shine from the circumference of my heart as it grows past 2023, but all the same, there were some rough patches where I wondered if putting myself into the mind of a tree (and all those things we do as we descend into the writing of poems) was worth all the trouble I was putting people through. When I encountered the enthusiasm of someone like community organiser, Janet Kvammen, however, I felt assured that I was growing in the right direction.
After I posted on Facebook in February that I was embarking on another big tour for small books, Janet Kvammen asked if I was reading in New Westminster. While I had intended to launch the tour at THIS gallery in the DTES (of Vancouver), because of scheduling conflicts, Janet and I eventually landed on a reading April 16th:
Almost On the Other Side: Writing Before
and After
Q and A with Jónína Kirton, Kevin Spenst,
and Alan Hill
Sunday APRIL 16, 2023 @Columbia_Square
New Westminster
Since Jónína, Alan and I had read together a few years before the pandemic, I thought it would be interesting to have us together to reflect upon some of the changes in our writing pre- and post-pandemic. I love poetry for all the linguistic fireworks that language is capable of, but I also appreciate how it engages with what cuts us to the core. Jónína and Alan did not disappoint in their engagement with issues of mental health, colonialism and trauma. It felt like the right place to start the tour.
 |
| Photo credit: Janet Kvammen |
April 29th Surrey Art Gallery with Tolu Oloruntoba Venue
#2
In February, I reached out to Jordan Strom, curator at the Surrey Art Gallery. I wanted my hometown of Surrey to be included in the tour and was hoping to do a simple pop-up reading of a couple minutes, but once again, because of scheduling, the reading landed much earlier than what I thought would be the official launch. Fortunately, because Jordan Strom is brilliant, the reading took the form of a workshop with Tolu Oloruntoba. We provided prompts to a group of about fifteen people to encourage them to write in response to the work of Charles Campbell, whose show Ocean to Livity consisted of (to quote the Surrey Art Gallery’s website), “an installation of breath recordings from Surrey and other Lower Mainland residents. Campbell strips away racial hierarchies and holds up Black breath as its own force—a carrier of ancestry and experience, a creator of community and something that, even in its most subtle presentation, changes the way we think, feel, and live.” It was a productive and meaningful afternoon where we also made chapbooks to hold the work that was written. I’m forever grateful to Jordan for reconceiving my “pop up” idea in much bigger terms and bringing Tolu into this project where we also were in dialogue (directly and indirectly) with Charles Campbell.
May 2rd at 4 -> Lower Case Reading Room at Regional Assembly of Text (Live Instagram Reading!) Venue #3
Into every 50-venue reading tour, a bit of social media must fall. One of the best collections of artbooks, zines and chapbooks (and yes, there’s a lovely grey area between the three) is at the Regional Assembly of Text on Main Street. Brandy Fedoruk & Rebecca Dolen, owners and chief makers at the RAoT, agreed to have me for an afternoon residency of sorts. I spent an hour in the Lower Case Reading room, a space packed with hundreds (thousands?) or palm sized books. The room itself fits two people at most. I wrote a cento, a poem made up of other lines, and then read it to the people who happened to be in the store.
I was surprised at how nervous I was to read in front of strangers. It’s something I’d done dozens of times before but somehow I feared that I risked being a pest. In the past, I threw myself into pop-up readings in front of strangers with the belief that weirdness for weirdness’ sake was worth it, but this time I felt I was treading on uncertain ground. Like I risked upsetting people who’ve already been through so much. My fears unfounded, the two women and their children seemed delighted to be part of reading number three, which I then redid for the good people of Instagram.
Here’s how the next two short readings went: I tagged myself at the end of two Jane’s Walks that I’d organized in the West End and then in Mount Pleasant:
West
End Poetry Walkabout (May 6) 11am to 1pm starting at the corner of Guildford
and Beach in front of the Sylvia Hotel: Kevin Spenst will read West End poems
from A Verse Map of Vancouver (edited by George McWhirter) -> on grass in
front of Parks Board offices: poetry from Jennifer Zilm (“Vancouvering”) and
Jules Wilson -> at the corner of Lost Lagoon: poetry from
Veronika Gorlova and Betsy Warland -> at the parklet at Guildford and Haro:
poetry from Bill Richardson and Emily Chou, with additional poems by Jeff
Steudel read by Kevin Spenst Venue #4
 |
| Veronika Gorlova and Jules Wilson ; photo credit: Jane’s Walks |
Mount Pleasant Poetry Walkabout (May 6) 2:30 to 4:30 starting at Mount Pleasant Community Garden (3161 Ontario Street) poetry and song from Lori Weidenhammer and Tariq Hussain -> outside the Western Front: poems from Jane Ellison and Lois Klassen -> Lydia Kwa and Elena Johnson to read by murals off Main Street street (between fourth and fifth) -> Selina Boan and Rita Wong - daylighting project on Saint George and 5th Venue #5
 |
| Tariq Hussain started the afternoon off with some music |
This was one of the highlights of the tour. There was a turnout of about thirty people at each walk. The fear of the earlier reading was replaced with confidence, bolstered by being in the midst of so many of my poetry pals. As host, I was able to share my enthusiasm for others and this opened me up. What was especially lovely was that there were strangers and people who were new to poetry. Lingering in conversation, the last two people at the second venue of the day had learned about the walk through EventBrite. “I wanted to do something special each day of my birthday week and I wanted to know more about Mount Pleasant and poetry, so I came to this,” the brand-new twenty-year-old told me and my partner.
May 12th Vancouver Chuffed about Chapbooks at THIS gallery from six to eight with Evelyn Lau and Joanne Arnott hosted by Geoff Nilson #6
The official launch was finally here! With exceptionally astute help from my partner, Cheryl Rossi, I had sent out a spiffy press release that garnered a bit of attention. Ultimately, I don’t know if the article in Createastir brought anyone out, but it felt good to have some official recognition for the small press scene, and adjacent arts communities, upon which I was hoping to help shed a little light. While I found out later that one arts editor for a major paper considered the press release fraudulent (“Is this guy this popular or is this a joke?”) and I didn’t hear back from one call for writing about book tour planning, it was good to have some official press in the world backing up the tour. A poem might be an invitation to a private place shared between the imaginations of strangers, but a book tour for those poems needs some evidence of its existence outside of one’s head.
Unfortunately, at the last minute, Joanne Arnott wasn’t able to make the reading. Her presence and poetry was dearly missed. Evelyn Lau read worlds into existence in front of our eyes and ears. Geoff did a fantastic job of hosting and adding some of his own poems. Shannon Pawliw, the curator at THIS, was a superb host. The gallery was packed to standing room only. Afterwards, just like old times, we went to the Alibi room for drinks (a place that’s been around since the late 90s.)
VICTORIA:
May
18th Victoria at Russell Books May 18th Arleen Paré and Anne-Marie Turza venue
#7
The first part of the tour that took me some distance from home was Victoria. On the bus to the ferry, I made my first on-the-road chapbook. There was a woman across from me who had a tote bag with a mediaeval unicorn on it. I had a paper transit pass that I folded into a micro-chapbook and I tried writing something about unicorns. The ink didn’t quite stick to the glossiness of the paper. “Pardon my low-budget solicitation. I’m reading in Victoria with two writers who I’m sure you’d love,” I said, explaining that the cover of Ann-Marie Turza’s book consisted of a mediaeval scene from The Unicorn Tapestries. I gave her the micro-chapbook. The reading that night was lovely and this stranger from the bus, a harpsichordist as it turned out, was in attendance.
WE ATE PICKLES TOGETHER, SAYS A DEAD SOMEONE
Someone has made a tiny ladder out of paperclips.
A tiny bird flies through the ladder’s rungs.Ann-Marie Turza, Fugue with Bedbug
While in Victoria, I stayed with Dennis Bolan and Soressa Gardiner. Not only were they gracious hosts (Dennis even let me beat him at pool a couple times) but they came out to my poetry crawl the following day. Also in attendance were Yvonne Blomer and Carrie Walker. It was a good sized group and we got a lot of writing done in response to the following places:
Poetry
Crawl May 19th Friday:
Open
Space Arts Society May 19th at 2pm pop up writing and reading #8
Gage
Gallery Arts Collective May 19th at 2:30pm pop up writing and reading #9
Bastion
Books - Rare and Second Hand Books in Victoria May 19th at 3pm pop up writing
and reading #10
The
Regional Assembly of Text May 19th at 3:30pm pop up writing and reading #11
Back in Vancouver, I had two other pop up readings before my flight to Edmonton. Getting punched in the face (it was a random blow that came out of nowhere one late afternoon as I was cycling through East Vancouver) was something I didn’t need. I did write about it the next day at the DTES Writers Festival, where I facilitated a writing station.
2023 DTES Writers Festival Create & Share - Workshop and Reading Facilitators: Fiona Tinwei Lam, Kevin Spenst, Claire Matthews Time and Date: Thursday May 25, 2023 1:30 PM-4:30 PM Location: The Field House, Oppenheimer Park: Drop In Join us for a supportive multi station generative writing session with Fiona Tinwei Lam, Claire Matthews, Kevin Spenst and other authors to create fresh local poetry. Enjoy new techniques in a supportive environment. No previous experience necessary, everyone is welcome. Open mic reading and sharing at the end of the creation session. Event runs rain or shine! ASL, Mandarin, and Cantonese interpretation provided. 有普通話和廣東話翻譯 venue #12
Writing with others is healing. It was a warm-spirited afternoon that ended with an open mic. It was the best place to be, but it took a while for me to shake the strangeness of being randomly assaulted. Fortunately, I had the page and I was spending every hour outside of tour planning writing down details about the incident, trying to understand it.
Two days later, the disembodiment of zoom was extra discombobulating. My jaw was still sore and I was gearing up to leave home for six weeks. The presentation that I gave (one that I’ve given many times before) felt odd. I wasn’t inside the presentation. For now, I’ll blame the violence of this world.
Simon Fraser University - The Writers Studio Saturday May 27th workshop over zoom for the Writer's Studio cohort and ending with pop up reading: venue #13
EDMONTON:
June
1st 7pm Paper Birch Books with Catherine Owen and Chris Hutchinson venue #14
June
2nd Edmonton Poetry Crawl:
2pm
Peter Robertson Gallery pop up writing and reading venue #15
2:30pm Lando Gallery pop up writing and reading
venue #16
4:00
Transcend Coffee, 8708 109 St venue #17
4:45
Antique Treasure Housevenue #18
There were half a dozen people in attendance at the Paper Birch reading. There was an Alberta Writers Guild meeting in Calgary that weekend and several people sent their regrets. The readings were steller: Catherine shared a number of chapbooks that she’d published over the years and Chris’ poetry sparkled. The next day, one person showed up for the Poetry Crawl and we were asked to leave the first gallery we were at. It was a strange start to an afternoon that quickly fizzled out. Fortunately, I met up with Christ Hutchinson later in the day and we talked poetry. The Trobairitz reading at Catherine Owen’s the next day was the highlight of the trip. It was good to chat with a number of local authors. One hopes to sell books at a reading, but the next best thing (sometimes even better thing) is good conversation. All of the above happened at Catherine’s Trobairitz. I also stayed with Catherine, a writer who once did a six-week tour across the country, so it felt invaluable to talk about touring and the poetry world. “I’m detached with love,” she said, explaining her philosophy in regards to the poetry scene(s). Her love of poetry is evident and fierce. She also had me on her podcast, Ms. Lyrics’s Poetry Outlaws.
June
3rd Saturday, 2pm to 4pm Catherine Owen’s
home reading series Trobairitz: Venue #19
SASKATOON:
June
6th Poetry Crawl
Saskatchewan
Craft Council 2:00 Venue #20
Turning
the Tide 2:30 Venue #21
Pioneer
Cairn 3:30 Venue #22
Art
Placement 4:15 Venue #23
Saskatoon was stellar. A big part of the fun was getting to know a family that my ex-girlfriend had put me in touch with. Lea and Wade picked me up at the airport and we immediately got to talking about this, that and everything.
“How many times have you been to Saskatoon?” Wade asked as he drove along the ring road which circled the city.
“Three or four times… The first time I was hitchhiking across the country in ‘95. Actually, I was outside the city and a German picked me up in a big boat of a car. He was on his way to a pow-wow and he asked if I wanted to go with him. I ended up staying with him for a couple of nights.”
“Oh, that’s probably Klaus,” Wade said. “He works with Lea’s mom.” Wade explained that a number of anti-nuclear energy activists from Germany had come to Saskatchewan in the 90s and several of them ended up staying. Ach du meine Güte!
The entire trip was punctuated by moments like this. “The world is a handkerchief” is the Spanish expression. Yes, small.
The other big part of Saskatoon was getting to know the incredibly sweet and smart John Nyman. Earlier in the year, Jackpine Press had put us in touch after we’d both contacted them independently about setting up a reading. John and I then met over zoom to talk about organizing a poetry crawl. Despite our efforts at publicising it, no one came out to join us in our crawl, but we had prompts for each other and we wrote. It felt like the perfect way to engage in a relatively unknown city. We helped each other uncover the poetics of the place and there was a small audience at each venue of surprised and people (“Am I interrupting something?” a woman said at Turning the Tide. “You’re right on time,” I replied. “Welcome to venue #21 in my 50-venue tour of the country. It’s my great pleasure to introduce the poet John Nyman…”
Peryton Books June 6: 7:00 -> 8:00 readings Kevin Spenst, John Nyman and Mari-Lou Rowley Venue #24
For the full reading the next night at Peryton, a mostly second-hand bookstore owned and operated by Aimee Martens, we had a full house of about twenty people. There were plenty of unfamiliar faces along with some people I knew. Mari-Lou Rowley ended her remarkable set of poems on a very sexy number, proving poetry’s capacity to fluently trade in the unexpected. John’s reading was also memorable.
 |
| Delane Just (from Jackpine Press), Aimee Martens, John Nyman and myself |
WINNIPEG:
June
8th: Whodunit books with Angeline Schellenberg and Ariel Gordon Venue #25
 |
| myself, Angeline Schellenberg and Ariel Gordon |
June 9th Poetry Crawl
1:00 Winnipeg Art Gallery -> WAG Venue #26
1:45 Plug in Institute of Contemporary Art Venue #27
3:00 Artspace Vesti_art (corner of Arthur St. and Bannatyne Ave) Venue #28
3:30 Platform Gallery Venue #29
7:00 Private Backyard Reading Venue #30
In Winnipeg, I stayed with Angeline Schellenberg and it was once again a pleasure to find myself in the midst of a very cool family. That first night, I Facetimed my girlfriend and introduced her to Angeline and Tony. It felt good to be able to bring her into the homes of where I was staying.
I also had the pleasure of reading with Angeline and Ariel Gordon at Whodunit Books. Was it Mari-Lou Rowley’s poem written for a former lover that still echoed in my mind? Had it created some sort of gravity? Whatever the reason, there were a number of sexy poems that evening, prompting someone to suggest “Mennonite erotica” as a new label. There was a lot of laughter that night, which spilled into the home reading in Angeline’s backyard. I’m eternally grateful to her and Tony for their hospitality and all the thought that went into the reading.
For the rest of the tour I leave the basics below. I will get around to writing more about the tour when time allows it. Do note that all this could be an exercise in nothing but thank yous. The point of the tour was to connect with the various poetry communities (people, places and things) across the country. In that regard, it felt like a big success. I come home with a heart full of gratitude.
WINDSOR:
Mayor’s
Walk June 11th venue #31
Monday
June 12th evening reading with Jade Wallace, Mark Laliberte (MA|DE) and Rawand
Mustafa at Biblioasis Books venue #32
LONDON:
June
15th Poetry Crawl
2pm
Museum London venue #33
2:50pm
Michael Gibson Gallery venue #34
3:15pm
Covent Garden Market venue #35
4pm
TAP with Aaron Schnieder and Kit Roffey venue venue #36
Hamilton:
June
16th Printed Word with Kate Siklosi and Gary Barwin venue #37
HAMILTON:
June 17th Poetry Crawl
1pm You Me Gallery venue #38
1:30 Mulberry Street Coffeehouse venue #39
2pm Centre[3] for Artistic + Social Practice venue #40
2:45 Hamilton Artists Inc. venue #41
TORONTO:
June
19th Art Bar with Catherine Graham Monday venue #42
GUELPH:
June
20 at open mic launch “In Your Own Words” at artBar, headlining with John Nyman
venue #43
TORONTO:
June
21 Flying Books with Kate Siklosi, Gary Barwin and ryan fitzpatrick venue #44
KINGSTON:
June
28 with Michael Casteels and Alison Chisholm
Novel Idea Books / Reading 7pm
venue
#46
 |
| Michael and Allison and their little poet |
OTTAWA:
June
29 reading with rob mclennan and Conyer Clayton (pictured below)
The Factory Reading Series: Ten
Toes Coffee House and Laundry
837
Somerset Street West (at Rochester Street,)
venue
#47
June 30th: 7pm Happy Goat Coffee pop up writing and reading venue #48
Surprise pop up over Instagram venue #49!
This penultimate reading turned out to be one that I did for my nephew who came to meet me at the train station. I was so happy to see him.
MONTREAL
July
2nd Accent reading series #50
 |
| with one of the Accent series organisers Devon Gallant (also author and publisher of Cactus Press) |
One final final note: there were other
readings outside of the numbered venues above. These were on planes, trains and
galleries. If I wrote something in response to a cloud or piece of art and
shared it with whoever happened to be next to me, I’d announce it as a decimal
point reading: 30.5 was a reading on my flight out of Winnipeg for the former
CFL running back who happened to be sitting next to me on the plane. I wrote a
poem about football and travel and put it on an airplane sickness bag that I
turned into a chapbook. That sort of thing.
Merci!
