Descant would like to acknowledge the passing of a magnificent Canadian poet. Yesterday, P.K. Page passed away in Victoria, BC at the age of 93.
Since her birth in 1916, Patricia Kathleen Page has amassed numerous awards and honours for her work both within Canada and abroad. In 1954, she received The Governor General’s Award in Poetry, and The Lieut. Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence in 2004. In 2000, her poem, “Planet Earth,” was chosen by the United Nations for its reading series, Dialogue Among Civilizations Through Poetry. Her latest poetry collection, Cullen, and a collection of fables, The Sky Tree, were published in November 2009.
Her short narrative, “Those Years,” was recently published in Descant #145: Private Worlds, Public Exigencies (Summer 2009).
We offer our condolences to her family and are honoured to have been a part of her distinguished publishing career.
(information taken from the CBC article and Page’s official site)
The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2009 Toronto Launch:
@ Revival (783 College St, ph: 416.535.7888)
Wed, Nov 11, 2009 > 7 – 11pm
Hosted by: Myna Wallin
DESCANT is proud to announce the appearance of three of our poets in The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2009 (Tightrope Books). This year’s anthology was edited by A. F. Moritz and Series Editor Molly Peacock; it collects the fifty best Canadian poems published in 2008. Congratulations to Margaret Atwood (for “Ice Palace” from D142), P.K. Page (for “A Triple Glosa” from D140) and Cora Siré (for “Before Leaving Hué” from D141), for making the critical cut. Congratulations also go out to Betsy Struthers, who was long-listed for “Harvest Moon: September” (D141).
The anthology will hold its launch at Revival on November 11, 2009 with readings by several featured poets and the musical stylings of The Pining. The event begins at 7pm, and is free to attend. You can RSVP to the Facebook event HERE. Continue reading →
DESCANT recommends this recently published memoir by Globe and Mail journalist (and past DESCANT contributor), Ian Brown.
In The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Search for his Disabled Son, Brown chronicles the challenges of parenting a child with the rare, severely disabling condition, Cardiofaciocutaneous Syndrome (CFC). Reviewers celebrate this work for its artistry and its honesty — the raw, nuanced quality of Brown’s writing that ensures his readers “come away with a deeper, richer understanding of what it means to be human” (Dave Morris, from Eye Weekly).
More comments from reviewers:
“…your only excuse for avoiding this book is a phobia about brilliant writing.”
Dave Morris, from Eye Weekly
“Brown slices through ignorance and trite consolation, leaving the eviscerated skins of relationships, social policy and medical expertise flapping in the wind.”
Paula Todd, from The Globe and Mail Books
Sunday, November 1, 2009 / 1-7pm
The Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen St. W., ph: 416.531.4635)
$5.00 admission, including Broken Pencil’s Olympic Issue
On November 1, 2009, the Gladstone Hotel will play host to Canada’s largest Zine Fair and Festival of Alternative Culture! Though DESCANT will not be present at the festival, we recommend you spend this Sunday perusing work from more than 150 indie print and online publishers from across the country. In keeping with this year’s Olympic theme, interactive events will abound along with new “Can’tLit” readings!
Visit Canzine 2009 and Broken Pencil online for details.
… an evening of poetry and prose with some (not so) Nice Italian Girls and Friends
On Tuesday, October 27th, please join members of the Descant community for an evening of poetry and short fiction in the heart of Kensington Market. The neighbourhood’s renowned Supermarket Restaurant & Bar will host live readings by Descant‘s editor-in-chief Karen Mulhallen, co-editor Michelle Alfano and authors Valentino Assenza, Diane Bracuk, Sonia di Placido, Giovanna Riccio and Paul Zemokhol.
Come early, eat well from Supermarket’s Asian fusion menu, and settle in to enjoy the literary musings of these (not so) Nice Italian Girls and their Friends.
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 / 7:30pm
Supermarket (268 Augusta Ave, ph: 416.840.0501)
On behalf of editor-in-chief KAREN MULHALLEN, we would like to invite you to the Toronto launch of ACQUAINTED WITH ABSENCE (Selected and Introduced by Douglas Glover, Published by Blaurock Press); this is Karen’s latest book of poetry.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 / 6-8pm
at Noce (875 Queen St W, 416-504-3463)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
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Karen Mulhallen is Editor-in-Chief of DESCANT. She has published numerous critical articles and twelve books of poetry, including ‘Sea Light’ (2003, Black Moss) and ‘Sea Horses’ (2007, Black Moss). She is a professor of English at Ryerson University and the University of Toronto.
Please visit: http://www.karenmulhallen.com
“Karen Mulhallen is a magnificent poet, prolific, protean and deeply, intensely, personal. She is a metaphysical poet, concerned with ends and existence, yet she grounds everything in the specific and the concrete. Reading and rereading her, one begins to notice, beyond the narratives of love and death and the concrete references to loved ones and beloved places, insistent recurrences – water, islands, plant lore, horses, seahorses – unfolding into myth, comedy, eros and personal anguish.”
Douglas Glover, from the Introduction to ‘Acquainted With Absence’
A number of Descant‘s former contributors are continuing to make a splash in the arts world.
Arnaud Maggs, who provided the cover image and a portfolio of images of Paris hotel signs for Descant 142: Hotels, has a number of photographs from the same project on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) as part of the “Beautiful Fictions: Photography” collection. His work will be on display until January 17th, 2010.
In addition, Balint Zsako, who provided the cover image and a portfolio of artwork for Descant 136: A Trompe L’Oeil Calendar, has a new exhibition called Old Master Paintings on at the Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects gallery (1082 Queen Street West). The exhibition, which is a series of collages assembled from reproductions of old master paintings, is showing until October 18th, 2009.
One of Descant‘s contributing editors, Mark Kingwell, is releasing a new book, Glenn Gould, with Penguin Group Canada as part of their Extraordinary Canadians series. Kingwell discusses Gould, one of Canada’s most talent artists and renowned classical musicians of the 20th Century, from the perspective of a philosopher.
Descant will be one of the many presses, publishers, and magazines participating in the Publishers’ Way at this year’s Eden Mills Writers’ Festival. Issues of Descant — including the new Fall 2009 edition, #146, Immanence/Transcendence — will be available for purchase from noon – 6 pm on Sunday, September 20th. This is the same time a variety of authors will be reading their work.
The Eden Mills Writers’ Festival was founded in 1989, and has been an annual event since then. The first installment was created by Governor-General Award Winner and former Descant contributor Leon Rooke.
We hope to see you there.
Descant‘s outreach program, NOW HEAR THIS!, is proud to introduce the third installment of the HEAR/HEAR reading series. The event takes place on Wednesday, August 19th, at the Free Times Cafe (320 College Street, 2 blocks west of Spadina). This FREE, ALL-AGES show will begin at 6 p.m.
This month’s lineup features NHT! Writers-in-Residence Rebecca Rosenblum, Mariko Tamaki, Andrew Daley, and Colin Frizzell.
We hope you’ll join us.
