Lies With The Occasional Truth presents:
“The Margaret Atwood Dystopian Future Vs. Spam Email Contest
Inspired by a popular reference in their submission guidelines, MADFVSEC asks you to imagine a terrifying future society like those found in Margaret Atwood’s classic novels The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx & Crake.
This dystopian future, however, must be accurately described by the subject line of a well-known spam e-mail. Consolidate Your Debt, Increase Penis Size Now, and Urgent Request From Kenyan Bank Executive are all acceptable titles for your daring piece of speculative fiction.”
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A friendly reminder that Misunderstandings Magazine will be launching
it’s 6th issue this Friday. Come out to enjoy a night of readings,
drinks and literary fun.
When: Friday, April 13 at 8 pm
Where: Renaissance Café (Danforth just west of Woodbine).
Featuring performances by contributors: Ryan Bird, Susie Petersiel Berg,
Savatore Difalco and Triny Finlay.
Open Stage: yes!
Hope to see you all!
Sincerely,
The Misunderstandings Team
www.misunderstandingsmagazine.com
Descant 134, our big, beautiful issue devoted to Cuba, was a popular one to say the least. It sold out in no time, but by some stroke of luck we’ve managed to acquire 15 additional copies that will be available for a limited time at the office. If you’d like to purchase one, please get in touch with us at circulation@descant.ca
In this issue of Descant we are investigating the meaning of Cuba today, both for those who live inside it and those who contemplate it from the outside. And those “outsiders†include those who once lived in Cuba and are now in “exileâ€, and those whose families emigrated from Cuba but who bear its history in their own history, and all of us, we tourists, who take to Cuba as one of those Platonic forms, sun, beach, booze, music, a numinous floating idea where we escape aspects of our own fragile materiality.
– Karen MulhallenÂ
After last year’s Word on the Street Book fair, where we actually completely sold out of copies of Descant and witnessed a mad swarm of people partaking in the written word, I’ve strated to think that the thrill of reading is on the rise. The Globe and Mail has published an article that has proved my thoery: 66.6 % of Canadians have read a book in the last 12 months. Now, that may not seem like an amazing statistic, but compare it to the 61 % who have seen one movie in the same time period and it seems to prove that books are more popular than you would have assumed.
The same article suggests that magazine readership is also climbing, where 42.6 % of Canadians are reading a magazine a week. We do hope it’s Descant…
R))I))F))F)))
R))A))F))T))) Â
RACHEL ZOLF
GERRY SHIKATANI
a. rawlings
JORDAN SCOTT
JENNY SAMPIRISI
SONNET L’ABBE
MARGARET CHRISTAKOS
Special Guest Musician TIM POSGATE
A night of poetry moving onto the raft of music
and seven poets riffing with each other’s poetries
Each poet will present one original 3 min piece and
be joined by 3 other poets onstage with musician Tim Posgate
for an extended improv-based interpretation
The Trane Studio  Â
April 5, 2007
964 Bathurst St., Toronto (north of Bloor)
7 – 10 pm
416.913.8197
$5 minimum, pwyc / your support is appreciated; Some poets remunerated through The Canada Council National Poetry Month (through the League of Canadian Poets)
A POETRY COLLEGE PROGRAM More info mchristakos@hotmail.com
PLUS Coach House Books will be on site with their latest offerings.
For those of you who already subscribe to Descant, we wanted you to know that because we love you, we’ve made it quick and easy for you to renew your subscription online. Just head on over to descant.ca/offer and key in the special offer code DB07 and save even more on an already discounted one or two year subscription! When you renew online it means we don’t have to send you those pesky (although very well written and thoroughly enjoyable) renewal notices as a reminder. Renewing online saves you time and money!
And if you’re not already a subscriber, what are you waiting for? Don’t you want to be part of our family? You too can click the link, key in the code (DB07) and enjoy the savings. This offer will only be around for a very limited time, so act now.
Not sure if you’re ready to commit? Well, we all have some commitment issues so we certainly understand. Why don’t you try out a sample issue and we’ll send you a great subscription offer along with it? That way if you like what you read you can subscribe!
“Google takes the position that everything may be freely copied unless the copyright owner notifies Google and tells it to stop.”
- Thomas Rubin, Lawyer for Microsoft
Read the full story here.
via D.B. Scott/Canadian Magazines
Frequent Descant contributor and iconic Canadian author Margaret Atwood will be awarded the Grand Prize for lifetime achievement at this year’s Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal.
According to a CBC article published last week, Atwood will also be the recipient of the $10,000 prize that accompanies the distinction.
Am I alone in thinking that Atwood, the author of dozens of works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry that grace many a best-seller list, syllabus and high school curriculum reading list, doesn’t really need $10,000? Or is that just my jealousy shining through again?
The 2007 Blue Met will gather 250 writers, translators, musicians, journalists and publishers from Quebec and around the world for literary events in English, French, Spanish and other languages from April 25 to 29.
Photo: Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press via cbc.com
Barbara Gowdy is a bit of a Descant favourite. In spring 2006 we published a widely successful Gowdy tribute issue, Entering the Other, where we printed a then unpublished excerpt from her soon to be released novel, Helpless.
Now Helpless is about to hit shelves, and there’s much buzz about Gowdy’s return after an almost ten year book publishing hiatus. Set in Cabbagetown (where Gowdy herself currently resides) Helpless draws on the chaos of the recent Toronto black-out and depicts the unsettling abduction of an unusually beautiful nine-year-old girl by an appliance repairman. The book is told from multiple perspectives, and in true Gowdy style, our sympathies are tested and extended beyond their usual boundaries.
This week, Gowdy graces the cover of Toronto’s Eye Weeky, and the article (written by Emily Schultz) is well worth a look. It reveals a great deal of Gowdy’s process, and is an enlightening look at her writing and her feelings on, well, entering the other.
Read the Eye Weekly article here.
Buy a copy of Descant Issue 132 here.
Barbara Gowdy will be appearing as part of the International Reading Series at Harbourfront on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 7:30 PM. She will read from her new novel, Helpless, an will be interviewed by Susan G. Cole. For more information, visit International Readings Online.
Believe it or not, the Descant crew can be a humble bunch. Many of them have some fantastic things going on in the rest of their lives that they never talk about, and Now Hear This! Program Co-ordinator Pasha Malla is no exception.
So imagine my surprise this morning, while getting my daily dose of Quill Blog, and I ran across this posting.
Congratulations to always-deserving-of-praise Pasha Malla, for both his book deal and his humility.
