Monthly Archives: May 2010

BookThug Spring 2010 Launch – Featuring DESCANT’S Managing Editor!

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Drew| Leave a comment

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BookThug, Toronto publisher of the innovative and the experimental, is launching its Spring 2010 line-up next week!

On Thursday May 27 starting at 6 PM come and celebrate BookThug’s fantastic new line at the Supermarket (268 Augusta Ave in Kensington Market). The launch will feature a number of readings by a variety of talented BookThug writers: Cara Benson, Jason Dickson, Mark Goldstein, Andrew Hughes and Mark Laliberte — Descant’s own Managing Editor, who somehow found the time to write a book (sort of) while keeping the magazine together. Well played, Mark!

With work that ranges from imaginative lyrics to experimental constructions — and from crafted sensation to verbal transmutation — it’s bound to be an interesting night. Don’t miss it!

Read BookThug’s own announcement about this event …

To see the full list of BookThug Spring 2010 titles, click here …

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Posted in Events, General, Launches, Readings

David Trautrimas Featured at LE Gallery!

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Drew| Leave a comment

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We here at Descant first introduced the work of artist David Trautrimas through our Summer 2008 issue, 141: Excavations. In between written works about destruction and renewal we featured “Industrial Parkland”, a stunning collection of Trautrimas’s manipulated photography. The series reassembled new media into beautiful and unsettling industrial scenes, a perfect fit for an issue that explored the concept of rebuilding.

Now, we are pleased to let readers know that Trautrimas has an equally compelling new collection of work on display at LE Gallery: “The Spyfrost Project“.

With “The Spyfrost Project”, Trautrimas has mixed landscapes and household appliances to create gritty scenes reminiscent of Cold War era technology, at once both historic and futuristic. The end product is a series of images that are disturbingly real and fascinating to look at.

“The Spyfrost Project” is on display at LE Gallery now – but hurry! The exhibition ends on May 30th.

LE Gallery is located at 1183 Dundas Street West. It’s open from 12 PM to 6 PM, Wednesday to Friday, and 1 PM to 7 PM on Saturday and Sunday.

For more information about “The Spyfrost Project” … click here!

Visit David Trautrimas’s official website.

Back issues of Descant, including 141: Excavations, are available for purchase here.

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Posted in Events, General, Visual Art

Posted on May 18, 2010 by WordPress| Leave a comment

You’ve heard us talk about NOW HEAR THIS!, the literacy outreach program administered by the Descant Arts & Letters Foundation, before. The program connects professional authors with community groups, students and aspiring writers in order to promote Canadian literature and encourage self-expression, critical thinking and empowerment through literacy education.

All throughout the fourth year of the S.W.A.T. (Students, Writers and Teachers) Creative Residencies Program (which has been running in TCDSB classrooms from February to May), NHT! has been interviewing their writers-in-residence team to give us a chance to get to know their talented writers.

Below, we’ve pulled the interview links from the NHT! blog to share with you here: just click on the names to read up on the inspirations and events that led these writers to NHT! today:

Devon Code

Desi Di Nardo

Colin Frizzell

Larry Frolick

Adrienne Gruber

Nic Labriola

Elisabeth de Mariaffi

Rebecca Rosenblum

Angela Szczepaniak

Julia Tausch

Aaron Tucker

Natalie Zina Walschots

To find out more information on Now Hear This! The official website is linked here —

http://www.nowhearthis.ca/

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Posted in Authors, General, NHT!, NOW HEAR THIS! News

DESCANT Fiction nominated for 2010 National Magazine Award!

Posted on May 17, 2010 by WordPress| Leave a comment

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Congratulations to author Adam Lindsay Honsinger, whose short story, Silence, has just been nominated in the 2010 National Magazine Award’s “Fiction” category.

Silence first appeared in Descant 145: Private Worlds, Public Exigencies, our Summer 2009 issue: an exploration of the boundary between the self and the other.

Adam Lindsay Honsinger has had fiction and reviews published in a number of publications, including Exile, The Malahat Review, Other Voices, paperplates, Pottersfield Portfolio, PRISM international and SubTerrain.

The National Magazine Awards Foundation is dedicated to the recognition of excellence in Canadian Magazines through its yearly awards program. This year’s Awards Gala is set to take place on June 4, 2010, at the Carlu in Toronto.

Congratulations, Adam, and good luck!

To order a copy of Descant 145, visit our website at here

To view the full list of categories and nominations, go here

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Posted in Awards, Fiction, General