A Quick Catch-Up: Publications and Return to the Grind.

I have returned to the great southern hill country of Indiana's Monroe county after a trip up to the rust belt centre of Windsor/Detroit for a late week get away. Good news is that both cities are physically intact and fire brimstone haven't actually welled up and out of the river, yet. We managed to catch our first game at WFCU Centre and eat a little Pho. All in all, a very successful trip. I just love the feel of rust in the air. What can I say.

There are a couple of publications of note that just came out. Only of note because I have some work appearing in them. The first is a big shout out to READ THIS, who have published their spring issue. You will note that I manage to grace the pages of the issue with a few fellow IU MFAers. It's good to see that they are still cranking out some solid issues, keeping the dream alive in Bozeman, MT. My piece is an excerpt of a longer short story I wrote while working at the Ambassador Bridge almost a decade ago. "Glimpses of Honolulu Blue" finally sees the light of day. You can read the whole issue at Read This Website.

The San Pedro River Review has released their inaugural issue. They are based out of Tucson, AZ and are affiliated with a local press there. I just received my contributor's copy and I really enjoy many of poems in it. My poem "The Lilies of Riverie Canard" appears in it. It's a publication of quality that I am ecstatic to have my name associated with. If anyone is looking for copies you will have to contact them directly. I believe they have a special for institutional copies.

I'm returning to work on a couple of poetry pieces and the longer bits of novella compilation. My first pantoum is in the middle drafting stages and "To Come Upon the River Narrows" (once Bastion of Industrial Decline) is about to get fired back up again. There is a potential mythology ala Duluoz I can see emerging. Be Bold. Writing is only for those with the wherewithall to withstand the punishment.

Berry and Caple's The Notebooks: A Great Read For Writers

A couple of weeks back, while exploring the upper reaches of the Herman B. Wells Library here at IU, I came came across this rather thick book entitled The Notebooks: Interviews and New Fiction from Contemporary Writers. It was in the Canadian Lit section and being just one of those sidenotes to my searches for fiction set in urban Canada, I grabbed it. This book, edited by Michelle Berry and Natalee Caple, has ended being one of the those absolutely invaluable reads for me.

The title gives away most of what this book does. Each section starts with a reproduction of the notebook of one of these Canadian writers and then drops us into a draft of a work in progress by the given writer. What then follows are interviews with the artists about craft and typically the state of the art in Canada. Taken as a whole, each artist section are fantastic individual explorations of the creative process. While each writer is unique and their take on both the craft and the industry are informative and entertaining.

What writers are in this particular collection? Yann Martel (Life of Pi) is clearly the one name that many would recognize. But you also have Hal Niedzviecki of Broken Pencil fame (If you haven't head about it, check it out. They have really cool Writer's Deathmatch. They're based out of Toronto), and Andrew Pyper (Lost Girls). I wouldn't just recommend the book for those that are familiar with the names listed above. It's just worth it to find some new writers and see what they are doing right. It is simply nice to see the state of the craft is alive and well in the Great White North. And while this book is a little on the older side (2002), it really does hold something quite useful for the writer.

The edition I've been looking at was put out by Anchor Canada (Random House Affliate I believe), and it should be available on Amazon.com or Chapters.ca.