Still reading Prismatic Publics. The book is set up with long, in-depth, in-person interviews, followed by short selections of poems by the author. Actually, the selections of poems are about as long, pages-wise, as the interviews are, but poems just have fewer words per page.
During M. NourbeSe Philip's interview, she mentions a reading she gave at the Scream -- a reading that I was at. How is it possible that I was at a reading in Toronto that is now being talked about in a, you know, proper, published book? Have I been here that long?
The interview, by the way, is terrific, and her takes on constraint writing, "freedom", the erotics of grammar/language, and the foreignness of language are all very compelling and not yet part of the mainstream discussion of these issues. Go read it.
Labels: Canada, M. NourbeSe Philip
To follow up on the last post: I swung by the offices of Coach House Books today, to exchange a misprinted copy of Prismatic Publics: Innovative Canadian Women's Poetry and Poetics (it happens!). Outside the office there is a poem by bpNichol engraved into the cement. Except it has gotten warmer recently, and the snow has melted, so all the letters were filled in. It was lovely. It had become one of mARK oWEns's puddle poems, but inside-out. (And sorry I was I did not have a camera.)
Labels: bpNichol, Coach House Press, mARK oWEns