THIN AIR presents...HOT AIR 2009

Outro

2009-09-28T20:35:00.002-05:00

Well folks, it appears the festival is over for this year. It was my first time attending Thin Air, and obviously my first time blogging for it.

Not fully knowing what to expect I went into the week a little anxious but excited. And, it was awesome!

I jumped right in, attending three out of five nooners, fiver out of the six evening mainstages, four of the campus readings, two AfterWords, and one TV premier.

There were many great moments throughout the week but the highlight for me was George Elliott Clarke who I made sure to see twice. I was a little disappointed when he ran out of books at Red River (he was selling them for $15) but I made sure to buy one (for $24.95) at the AfterWords reading at Aqua Books. I waited to meet him and have him sign the book and it was worth it. He's very kind and seems to enjoy chatting with his fans. Inscribed in my copy of his new verse-novel I & I are these words:

For Brandon--who is a poet already , given the sincerity and the passion!

Truly,

George Elliott Clarke
25 September IX

Now I have to write.

****

Brandon James Bertram is an English/Creative Writing student at the University of Winnipeg. He reads, writes, rides bikes, and drinks coffee.

Writer-on-writer action

2009-09-28T00:25:00.002-05:00

Michael Van Rooy is THIN AIR's Audience Development Coordinator. He also has a weekly column on writing and publishing in the Winnipeg Free Press and administers CMU's School of Writing...and there's probably things he does for money I don't know about.

Michael is also a writer, specifically a writer of thrillers. (A thriller-writer? A thrilling writer?)

Here's the bio they used for Michael when he performed at the festival last year instead of working for it:

Michael Van Rooy writes for documentaries, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet, and has been short-listed for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. His first book, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, gained him an enthusiastic audience as well as the 2006 Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Writer. His second book, Your Friendly Neighborhood Criminal (Turnstone), introduces Monty Haaviko, an ex-thief, ex-burglar, ex-armed robber, ex-smuggler, and ex-drug-dealer who’s lured into using his nasty talents again. Michael Van Rooy was born in Kamloops BC, and grew up in Winnipeg where he lives now with his wife and three children.

Well, this week, when Michael was trotting from event to event, he got some VERY good news. Which I thought I'd share here, in case you missed it (also, in case HE missed it)...as published in the Winnipeg Free Press:

"WINNIPEG writer Michael Van Rooy's first two thrillers have been picked up by an American publisher. Thomas Dunne Books will release Van Rooy's debut, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, on its Minotaur mystery imprint in July 2010.

Van Rooy's U.S. editor, Peter Wolverton, confirmed the deal by e-mail this week.

In 2011, Wolverton said, Thomas Dunne will release Van Rooy's followup Your Friendly Neighbourhood Criminal.

Thomas Dunne Books is a division of the New York-based St. Martin's Press."

So, to sum: Yay Michael! And: Get some sleep!

Hands on: T'ai Pu

2009-09-27T23:24:00.003-05:00

* * *

T'ai Pu was the closing performer of the festival, when you think about it. I mean, Sunday's programming consisted of a screening of Book Shorts, which are book-inspired videos, but that's not an in-person author. Which means that on Saturday night, it was Guy Maddin, George Toles & T'ai Pu.

Anyways, T'ai plunked his hands down on Aqua's counter after his performance, pulling out a ring that broke during his set for the first series of pictures. Then he remarked, "I'm a bangle person," and rolled up his sleeves to reveal a number of bracelets.

But those photos weren't as good, so you'll just have to imagine the bangles.

* * *

T'ai Pu's bio:

T’ai Pu, aka PuConA, was born in rhyme cyphas, groomed in drum circles, nourished by DJs and bands. His word/sound power is expressed through verbals (lyrics, written pieces), spitz (extemporaneous spoken word), voxbox (beatboxing, chants), and percussion. T’ai Pu has performed at jazz and folk festivals, radio-shows, nightclubs, special events, and community projects, and has recorded with several artists. He has captured the attention of young kids in schools and at Kidsfest with his lively poetry&music show, “Keep Sweepin’!” He’s equally adept with teens and adults, mesmerizing audiences with his verbal virtuosity and genuine warmth. T’ai Pu lives in Winnipeg.

* * *
Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press chapbooks and has had poetry published in fine lit mags such as Carousel, PRISM International and Prairie Fire.

Her first collection of poetry, Hump, is forthcoming from Ontario's Palimpsest Press in spring 2010.

When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

Mid-fest slump

2009-09-26T19:14:00.004-05:00

During the first half of THIN AIR, I usually make it to three quarters of my yah-yah-yah list.

But then, as the days pass, I start to get tired.

Events during the day, events at night...and I ruefully eye the filling sink, the un-shuffled laundry in the washer, mostly in passing. My daughter waves to me from the dining room table, where her dad is feeding her dinner.

This year, I made it to more Mainstages than ever before, but by Friday morning, I was tired, so I didn't make it to ANY of the Friday daytime events I'd circled. And the only reason I made Friday night's After Words event was because I was wearing my working-at-Aqua-Books hat...

But watching George Elliot Clarke read and talk at such length, with such great gory pleasure, about his I&I verse-novel, was rejuvenating.

His face nearly split open as he recited and he seemed eager to lose himself in the work, to inhabit the psyche of his 15 year-old self.

(GEC explained that he was reading through his teenage journals before donating them to a university library and he was compelled by a line here, a line there, so he copied them into his journal...and then a narrative appeared.)

(He also said this one was written for fun; the gory pleasure of sex & violence, music everywhere, the loose incredible energy of youth.)

It took THIN AIR staff nearly an hour to pry GEC away from the people who stayed to chat and get their books signed, an hour they clearly would have loved to spend sleeping, but it was a good way to spend my mid-fest slump.

(I should also note that Kelly Hughes, the owner of Aqua Books, sent me upstairs after he'd intro-ed GEC out of the kindness of his heart. He'd had me come in to mind the store while he played host, after all...)

George

2009-09-26T17:04:00.006-05:00

Here are some pictures of the George Elliot Clarke reading at Red River College. I can't tell you how great it was. I spent all afternoon trying. If you saw him, you know what I mean.

It was awesome.

Seriously.

J.

Hands on: Tim Wynne-Jones

2009-09-25T19:51:00.006-05:00

* * *

Tim Wynne-Jones, who read a segment from The Uninvited about a ailing mother with designs on her doctor's emerald necklace, very cooperatively put his unadorned hands on the poppy-coloured on-stage couch. Of his hands, Wynne-Jones said, "I always felt they were sort of small."

* * *

Tim Wynne-Jones has 3 books out this year:

Pounce De Leon. Markham: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2008.
Rex Zero, the Great Pretender. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2009.
The Uninvited. Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 2009.

* * *
Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press chapbooks and has had poetry published in fine lit mags such as Carousel, PRISM International and Prairie Fire.

Her first collection of poetry, Hump, is forthcoming from Ontario's Palimpsest Press in spring 2010.

When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

How Robert J Sawyer ruined my life.

2009-09-25T12:50:00.004-05:00

And so it went... I made my way to Polo Park expecting to be early enough to browse the bargain book section before the event was to begin. But when I got there (at 6:45) Robert J Sawyer was already up front talking about the process of adapting his book to tv. When I inquired I was told that the time was bumped to 6:30 as opposed to the 7:30 start time in the program (I guess Charlene was onto something when she said check the website because things can change).

But anyway, I was there, and the show hadn't started yet.

BUT...the place was packed! The only chairs left were at the very back and when I finally wormed my way through the crowd to an empty seat and sat down I found I could only see the top third of the screen. This was just not going to work, so when the show finally started, after hearing Sawyer yap on and on about how good the acting was and how satisfied he was and about how much money he was making, and on and on, I, along with the gentleman next to me, decided to stand up so we could see the screen better. This was okay, but not the most comfortable way to spend an hour, but hey, there are commercial breaks, right? I can sit down then.

WRONG. There were commercial breaks, but before the first one even arrived who should come in even later than myself and find and sit in the seat that I had been sitting in? Why Christian Bok of course, along with his ragtag gang of two.

So there I was, standing at the back, leaning against a wall of military history books, right behind Christian Bok and company. FOR AN HOUR.

Was it worth it?

I kept telling myself that there was always the option of cutting out early, maybe even heading to the mainstage where there are chairs and cheese and Margaret Sweatman, but I. could. not. seem. to. pull. myself. away.

It caught me, it pulled me in. The premise is this: everyone in the world blacks out at the exact same time for the exact same length of time, 2 minutes 17 seconds. During that time, each person has a vision of their life exactly six months into the future.

Crazy, right? That couldn't happen. But I guess that's why they call it speculative fiction. Anyway, it's one of those serial dramas, like Lost, which means you have to keep watching every week or you won't know what's going on. But you'll want to know what's going on so you will watch because it's interesting and mysterious. They got me. Now I have to try to find someway to watch it next week to see what happens. And then, I'll have to find someway to watch it the week after that, and the week after that. This is not good. Especially since I don't have any tv stations. But, with things the way they are these days, I can probably find it online which would be just dandy.

There are also some pseudo-interesting philosophical undertones to the story: questions of whether or not us knowing the future can allow us to change the future, and things like that.

It was all pretty good, but I kind of wish I hadn't gone, because now I have to keep watching and if I don't, I'll forever be left wondering why it was that Harold (from Harold and Kumar) didn't have a vision...a FlashForward of his future.

Sawyer was extremely happy with how it turned out and it seemed Christian Bok and friends were as well, when at the end they started chanting, "Sawyer, Sawyer, Sawyer."

Thankfully, no one else joined in.

****

Brandon James Bertram is an English/Creative Writing student at the University of Winnipeg. He reads, writes, rides bikes, and drinks coffee.

Beware David O'Meara's Nautical Poetry

2009-09-25T00:14:00.006-05:00

Usually I like the festival’s Poetry Night. It’s my favorite. They have poetry and that stuff I’m going to try and make it one post without mentioning. Poetry night has always been like a little slice of heaven for me, until now.

It all started out normal enough, heck, I’d say better than normal; my wife was going to be joining me for this one. Going out isn’t something we get to do very often. We have two small children at home so getting out is a real treat. We were both pretty excited. She wore a blue skirt and I wore a brown slacks. She looked beautiful and I wouldn’t detract.

We arrived at quarter to 8 and slipped past the door people. I use the words “slipped past” due to the fact my wife never paid. That’s right. She actively engaged in the theft of poetry. I tried to stop her, but she’s really pretty and she makes me feel better about myself, so what can you do? Me, I aid and abed.

After committing our requisite crime for the evening, we went to celebrate with a drink at the bar. Thievery makes you thirsty. We filled up on red wine and cubed things, and headed to our seats. The lights dimmed and the show was on.

Some people read some poetry.

Then there was intermission.

We went back to the bar and had more wine. My wife found out where to get the stuff in the baskets that had the green bits in it and we lent Ariel a camera. Pretty normal night. Pretty nice night. Until the second set. As the house lights dimmed I caught my first glimpse of him, David O’Meara; the man who would seduce my wife.

Yup. That’s right. David O’Meara seduced my wife. Right there. Last night. In front of everyone. I swear they all heard her gasp. I did. It was right after the last line in the boat accident poem.

Ya, that’s right, he seduces women with boat accident poems. He’s that good.

Anyway, I tried to comfort myself with little lies. You know like, “She hates poets.” “She hates boats.” “You’re good looking Jay, really, you are.” Nothing worked, I knew she was his.

I was so distraught. I barely understood a word Christian Bok said. And really, looking around, I fear I wasn’t the only one.

As soon as the lights came on I did the only thing a man can do in this situation, I grabbed my wife’s arm and ran. I had to get her away from O’Meara’s wonderful web of words, but she was too far gone. She quickly swung our course towards the McNally Robinson table and snapped up the nearest copy of any book with the name O’Meara printed on the cover.

I lowered my head and paid.

While the book girls giggled, we spent the next 20 minutes waiting for an autograph.

I spent the next 20 minutes hoping there’d be cheese left on the way out.

Damn.

Almost.

* * *
Jason Diaz is a Winnipeg-based writer and stay at home dad. His poetry and prose has been published in dark leisure magazine. Last year he joined the Thin Air collective and has been awaiting the festival’s arrival ever since. He has still only been interviewed by The Uniter once, and is sadly no longer licensed to drive forklift.

Time for Something Different

2009-09-24T17:48:00.005-05:00

I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed by all the readings (mainly poetry with a little prose scattered about) and am going to take a break tonight and just watch some TV. I'm going to go to McNally Robinson Polo Park for the Premier of FlashForward, the television series based on Sci-Fi author Robert J Sawyer's book of the same name.

I've never really been a big sci-fi fan, but like I said, I need to take a break from the readings and try something a little different.

Should be interesting. But I don't think there'll be cheese there.

****

Brandon James Bertram is an English/Creative Writing student at the University of Winnipeg. He reads, writes, rides bikes, and drinks coffee.

Hands on: Linda Frank

2009-09-24T17:05:00.004-05:00

* * *

After receiving the Banff Center Bliss Carman Poetry Award - i.e. the ring - Linda Frank contemplated the other rings she always wears, a simple wedding band on the one hand and a silver double-ring on the other. She adjusted the rings, moving the Bliss from one hand to the other and wiggling her fingers until her hands felt 'right.'

* * *

Linda Frank's Books:

Cobalt Moon Embrace. Ottawa: Buschek Books, 2002.
Kahlo: The World Split Open. Ottawa: Buschek Books, 2008.

* * *
Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press chapbooks and has had poetry published in fine lit mags such as Carousel, PRISM International and Prairie Fire.

Her first collection of poetry, Hump, is forthcoming from Ontario's Palimpsest Press in spring 2010.

When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

Dirty little lit secrets

2009-09-24T16:07:00.004-05:00

It’s been a different festival this year for me.

Last year, I attended far more of the afternoon book chats and far fewer of the Mainstages.

Mainstage #1: Bonnie Burnard’s tough frailness while reading and thinking through how to describe her book about middle-aged friends.

How she quietly and unmusically took over the stage after the more performative Gregory Scofield, despite the fact that even she didn’t think she could do it.

This year, it’s been Nooner/Mainstage every day and I haven’t hit any of the uni readings. They’re sort of like my dirty little lit secret, you know? Mostly attended by students, who get assigned to write something about the book or the author, they’re a different window into the festival, a different audience, a different attempt to connect with readers…

Afternoon Book Chat #1: Observing the unspooling of Cyril Dabydeen quick and prodigious memory. He was charmingly self-praising and even, as THIN AIR director Charlene Diehl noted, glossed his own poems for the audience. And they had a little afternoon tea-table set up, where I was able to get orange pekoe and date square.

But I will console myself collegially tomorrow with George Elliott Clarke at RRC and the Friday afternoon panel (The Future!) at UW.

That panels consitutes another of my festival traditions. No matter the subject, no matter the authors, they’re always always memorable.

Mainstage #2: The familiarity terrain – geographically and, also I think poetically - of David O’Meara’s S. Korea poems. We talked bibimbop afterwards, mostly because I was feeling nostalgic about my time in S. Korea. Also, although I only caught the tail-end of Jaqueline Larson’s reading, I greatly appreciated her storm-trooper boots but also the sass and energy of her work.

Tonight is my last Mainstage, on the theme Love Actually. I haven’t seen local Struan Sinclair read yet, or heard Margaret Sweatman’s new novel yet, and both Rhea Tregebov and Tim Wynne-Jones’s fictional work is entirely new to me.

See you there?

writers are writers.

2009-09-24T14:29:00.006-05:00

Today at the nooner Jeanette Lynes told us that it took her 7 years to write her debut novel. (It’s called The Factory Voice and I’m gonna get me a copy.)
But Ariel quickly got her to point out that during that time she had also published numerous books of poetry, and also she teaches.

But anyway, 7 years has got me thinking.

I have been sorting through a lot of thoughts lately, about what makes a writer. What validates a writer as a writer and what makes a writer ‘good’.
I’ve concluded that, despite the popular pressure of
publishing = writer = good writer= writer that feels validated in their craft

its all bs and everyone that wants to write is entitled to be called a writer, and who even knows what’s good or not when its all based on opinion anyway and there are SO many different and wonderful styles of writing in the world.

Really it’s about people having a voice and being able to share that voice with other people, and about connecting with other people through voice.

So that means that sometimes you might not write a damn thing for months, or years, or sometimes you find your grandma’s old journal but its not actually a journal, it’s a bunch of short stories scribbled down and partly finished and you realize that she is a writer and you are a writer and even that girl in your first year English class who really liked to write about the time she found her cat dead and rotting and how it was really just a poorly veiled metaphor for how she felt in high school, she is a writer too.

I know I’m being idealistic. And I know that there are probably some of you out there that are editors or teachers and you are like “Courtney, I have seen all kinds of writing, and trust me darling, not everyone that wants to be a writer is a writer”
And I respect that I have never been in your position.
I also respect that it can be important to support people in developing their writing.
(but always we have to ask-who's support? who's ideas of developing?)

I just feel like it is so dangerous to put limitations on who can write, and what is good, and what is good enough to be shared. What I am interested in is knowing that everyone feels like their voice is good and valid and valued.

Because writing is an act of resistance.

All of this has nothing really to do with Jeanette Lynes or her reading today. I really enjoyed what she shared of her novel, it was fun and intriguing and it made me laugh. And she also wrote a poem about her mother’s feet and I liked that too. Oh, and I really like her hair.

Have a good day.
See you tonight at mainstage.

Courtney Slobogian was born in Winnipeg and likes it that way.

She is a writer/understated activist/ irreverent feminist.

Some of her work can be tracked down in quiet corners of the internet.

She co-hosts a radio show on CKUW called Tiger Lilies are Poisonous, and dislikes cotton socks. She wrote a thesis once.

Outtake #7

2009-09-24T12:09:00.001-05:00

Outtake #7, originally uploaded by Hot Air 2009.

Bloggers at the nooner, having made up.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

A, E, I, O, U

2009-09-24T10:04:00.006-05:00

Sometimes, when playing Scrabble, I find myself facing a tray full of vowels, consider myself unlucky, and carefully add one or maybe even two of them onto a previously placed consonant on the board, making a word like 'eye' or 'ewe' or 'tea' or 'tee,' for minimal points, and reach into the bag of letters with closed eyes hoping for anything other than an a, e, i, o, or u.

From now on when I find myself in that situation I'll think of Christian Bok (I don't know how to place the dots over the o) and wonder what he would do in a similar situation. Maybe he'd find an N on the board and make a word like 'eunoia,' the title of the book that is his wild and daring love affair with vowels.

Hearing Bok read from Eunoia (which, as it happens, is the shortest word in the English language to contain all five vowels) at last night's mainstage poetry bash was an experience to say the least. An experience all together different from reading the work on one's own.

In fact, I was so into the reading that I didn't even think about the cheese on the table near the bar! Imagine that.

***

See Christian Bok today (Thursday) at 1:00pm in room 3M69 at the University of Winnipeg.

****

Brandon James Bertram is an English/Creative Writing student at the University of Winnipeg. He reads, writes, rides bikes, and drinks coffee.

Hands on: Priscila Uppal

2009-09-23T19:48:00.003-05:00

* * *

Priscila Uppal originally aped Elisabeth Bachinsky's on-the-shoulders pose but then quickly flipped her hands over to show me her palms, saying that she had "old people's hands" and that "fortune tellers love my hands, all the lines."

* * *

Over the next year, Priscila Uppal's books include:

The Exile Book of Canadian Sports Stories (Editor: Priscila Uppal). Exile Editions, 2009.
To Whom It May Concern. Penguin India, 2009.
Successful Tragedies: Selected Poetry 1998-2010. UK: Bloodaxe Books, 2010.

* * *
Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press chapbooks and has had poetry published in fine lit mags such as Carousel, PRISM International and Prairie Fire.

Her first collection of poetry, Hump, is forthcoming from Ontario's Palimpsest Press in spring 2010.

When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

Hands on: Elizabeth Bachinsky

2009-09-23T19:21:00.004-05:00

* * *

I asked Elizabeth Bachinsky if I could shoot her hands immediately after her Afternoon Book Chat at McNally Robinson's Polo Park. She paused, then asked me to catch her during the Mainstage, as she was going for a manicure that afternoon. "Maybe french tips," she purred, before following Rhea Tregebov out of the bookstore.

But she might have had second thoughts, as her hands were shell pink and shiny when she laid them on her shiny shoulder. I apologized for the flash then walked away.

* * *

Books by Elizabeth Bachinsky:

Curio. Toronto: Bookthug, 2005.
Home of Sudden Service. Gibson's: Nightwood, 2006.
God of Missed Connections. Gibson's: Nightwood, 2009.

* * *
Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press chapbooks and has had poetry published in fine lit mags such as Carousel, PRISM International and Prairie Fire.

Her first collection of poetry, Hump, is forthcoming from Ontario's Palimpsest Press in spring 2010.

When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

The Place of Place in Writing

2009-09-23T14:23:00.003-05:00

I am a firm believer that writing should be, needs to be, rooted in a place, or places. In my own writing I nearly always put in references to specific places, however subtle or overt those references may be. Where we are, where we’ve come from are important to who we are, and who we are is where our writing comes from.

What is poetry without roots? Who are we without history? Poetry does have roots and we do have history, it is acknowledging that and embracing it that is important.

Cyril Dabydeen has roots in three places: India, where his family emigrated from; Guyana, where they immigrated to; and Canada, where he has lived for nearly forty years. His writing acknowledges and draws from all of these places and the places between. India, Guyana, and Canada each have their place in Cyril Dabydeen’s writing, both his poetry and his prose.

The immigrant experience, I imagine, is largely a liminal one--constantly existing between two places.

Writing from places we know is how we share who we are.

We live in places. We exist between where we live and where we’ve come from.

Elizabeth Bachinsky lives in BC. She exists between BC and the Ukraine, where her roots lie. Her poetry is aware of and reflects this beautifully.

Writing can not exist outside of Place.

****

Brandon James Bertram is an English/Creative Writing student at the University of Winnipeg. He reads, writes, rides bikes, and drinks coffee.

Outtake #6

2009-09-23T12:54:00.001-05:00

Outtake #6, originally uploaded by Hot Air 2009.

The rush on the books table after Linda Frank's nooner.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

It Doesn't Only Have To Be About The Cheese Anymore.

2009-09-23T11:28:00.008-05:00

So it occurs to me last night that until now I may have been going about this festival thing all wrong. It seems that if you talk to people instead of sitting in the back, wearing a poet hat, these main stage things can be a blast and not only because of the free cheese (by the way, they have an herby looking one this year. I didn’t try it, because I’m mostly a marble guy, but it looked tasty. Let me know).

You see, last night I finally spoke with some of the people around the festival and realized they aren’t all as blood thirsty as the afternoon book chat audiences. They’re actually pleasant people. I have photographic evidence.

These are three of the people I talked to last night. I like them. The one with the wicked witch of the west tights on is Chandra Mayor. She is wicked, but like in the 80’s. I’ve known her for a long time. She’s a writer and the most famous person I know. Buy her books.

Next to her is Clare. Clare I haven’t known for long. She sometimes wears cowboy shirts and works for the CBC. Both of these are really cool things. That’s why I like her.

And finally, the one on the end is Colin. I don’t know him well, but in my experience you need to stay on the good side of a quiet guy who chews on a toothpick. Hi Colin.

They let me sit with them. It was nice.

I also saw some people I used to work with at McNally Robinson. They were manning the book selling table. I though Megan and Lucas were cool until they started pretending they didn’t know me because I pointed out how they could be selling books faster. I used to sell books, I know things. Anyway here’s a picture of them even though they don’t deserve the press.

Oh, and you know who else is really nice? The other bloggers. I saw them last night too.

I thought I wouldn’t like the new guy cause of his cheese fetish, but he’s a beard guy like me (at least I think he had a beard. Maybe he was just scruffy. Well, I’m scruffy too, so either way, he’s alright).

Courtney I know from last year. She and Ariel are the ones that keep the blog a little more highbrow. Imagine what it’d be like if it were just me and the cheese guy running around. Charlene would not be happy. I don’t have a picture of them so here’s one of the receiving dept. of a bookstore. There’s a man in a hard hat.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Guess who I got to meet, George freakin Amabile. Ya, that’s right, he’s like a real big time poet and I met him. He even had a hat, just like in the pictures. It was beige and everything. It was so cool. And he had wine and he even said something and we were talking and I’m like I wish we were Facebook friends and….maybe I should stop writing about George Amabile now.

Anyway, last night was pretty great. I never really realized how much fun the main stage can be. I guess it’s not really about the cheese. There’s more. There’s the boxed wine. Take care. Talk to you soon.

* * *
Jason Diaz is a Winnipeg-based writer and stay at home dad. His poetry and prose has been published in dark leisure magazine. Last year he joined the Thin Air collective and has been awaiting the festival’s arrival ever since. He has still only been interviewed by The Uniter once, and is sadly no longer licensed to drive forklift.

crying my way home

2009-09-23T11:14:00.010-05:00

Last night Elizabeth Bachinsky made me cry.

Not because she beat me up or called me names or anything.

It was because she opened up her reading by singing in Ukrainian.

Then she went on to reference Getrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in one of her poems.

And then she mentioned Winnipeg.

Pretty much there are 3 direct routes to my heart and she managed to take them all within her half hour reading.

Needless to say I was left feeling that very particular way that only some writing can make you feel.

It left me with the body memory of why writing is so necessary. Because it evokes a visceral response that goes beyond the intellectual processing that my mind loves to do.

It tells the internal chatter to shut up and sit down and all that is left is your body, and your being, responding to the tugging and weaving of words put together in such a way that everything else manages to fall away.

Mainstage last night was entitled In Between Places and it dealt with the ideas of home, belonging and connection.
I have been in love with another author for a while now, Marusya Bociurkiw, who also deals a lot with her Ukrainian identity.
(If you haven't figured it out yet, I am Ukrainian.)

When I think about home and belonging, when I think about the histories of my families, I find myself searching out the kind of work that brings me to a place of connecting with other writers who have stories of their baba and gigi, stories of having an empty place setting at Christmas Eve dinner for all of the relatives who have died.

Home is in the sharing of our stories and the ability to recognize some part of ourselves in other people's words.

It brings us back to a place we might not know we had left.

I'm sure there are some of you who connected with some of the experiences of the other writers last night, be it Cyril Dabydeen, Priscilla Uppal, Endre Farkas or Carolyn Marie Souaid. Each writer brought an element of their own experience of home.

The more space there is for this kind of writing, the more I am reminded of exactly why everyone that wants to, needs the space to write their way home.

It brings us back, and it has the power to bring the reader back too.

everyone deserves this.

Courtney Slobogian was born in Winnipeg and likes it that way.

She is a writer/understated activist/ irreverent feminist.

Some of her work can be tracked down in quiet corners of the internet.

She co-hosts a radio show on CKUW called Tiger Lilies are Poisonous, and dislikes cotton socks. She wrote a thesis once.

Outtake #5

2009-09-22T20:55:00.001-05:00

Outtake #5, originally uploaded by Hot Air 2009.

Poet Colin smith gestures at intermission.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

lunch and politics

2009-09-22T18:50:00.007-05:00

No human is illegal.

Cyril Dabydeen brought this sentence to the surface within the first five minutes of his time in front of the quiet audience sitting in the cave that is the Carol Shields auditorium during The Nooner today.

The combination of his light and jovial nature didn't hide the intensity of his poems or his politics.
No human is illegal.

Followed by his poem Lady Icarus-about a woman, considered 'illegal',
her story of deportation
x 5.

I have been told that it is difficult to write well and to write politically and/or socially consciously.
I have been told it is best to avoid it.

The idea that there is a divide between good writing and political writing creates a divide in me. Even when writing doesn't deal directly or obviously with political issues-be it race or gender or class,
the politics are always there.

Cyril Dabydeen quoted someone (whose name I forgot to write down, and who I now cannot recall), but the quote was

The aim of the writer is to mythologize the ground that you walk

And the ground that we walk is our history, never separate from our oppressions and our privilege. So it only makes sense to me that, as writers,we stay aware of our location. And the idea that someone can even consider eliminating the political and social context from their art,
is an act of privilege.

No human is illegal.

No art is without politics.

*please note the word politics in this post is being used in the lower case 'p' for politics kind of way. You know, the kind of stuff one might study if they did a degree in say, Gender studies, just for example....

Courtney Slobogian was born in Winnipeg and likes it that way.

She is a writer/understated activist/ irreverent feminist.

Some of her work can be tracked down in quiet corners of the internet.

She co-hosts a radio show on CKUW called Tiger Lilies are Poisonous, and dislikes cotton socks. She wrote a thesis once.

Outtake #4

2009-09-22T18:15:00.002-05:00

The seedy underbelly...er...I mean undernose of the afternoon book chat. Someone in the audience even spoke of killing puppies. I'm starting to wonder about this festival again.

J

Outtake #3

2009-09-22T14:54:00.001-05:00

Outtake #3, originally uploaded by Hot Air 2009.

The Tuesday afternoon book chat...very frenetic, very fun!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

Proposition

2009-09-22T11:05:00.001-05:00

Last night following the first half of the Mainstage I decided to buy featured writer Jon Paul Fiorentino's recent novel Stripmalling.

And I figured, since he was standing there with a pen anyway, I'd ask him to sign it.

He thanked me for the support and while I told him I enjoyed the reading and the cover of his book, and how the parents described in the novel are very similar to my own he was writing something rather lengthy on the inside of the book.

We thanked each other again and shook hands and I made my way to the bar and the cheese table and then back to my seat.

I opened the book and immediately burst into laughter at what he had written:

Brandon!

Let's make sweet love behind the 7-11 on day street--3 am ok?

xo Jon

And while I'm honoured by the proposition, the answer, Jon, is no. Sorry.

***

Jon Paul Fiorentino's most recent novel is Stripmalling. ECW Press: Toronto, 2009.

****

Brandon James Bertram is an English/Creative Writing student at the University of Winnipeg. He reads, writes, rides bikes, and drinks coffee.

Hands on: Gregory Scofield

2009-09-22T00:28:00.000-05:00

* * *

Scofield muttered about his homemade heart tattoo, saying he got it when he was fourteen on a camping trip, but agreed to have one hand photographed after checking with Lauren Kirshner that she'd also had "her hands done."

* * *

In 2009, Scofield will be releasing the following books:

kipocihkân: Poems New and Selected. Gibson's: Nightwood Editions, 2009.
Love Medicine and one Song. Wiarton: Kegedonce Press, 2009.
I Knew Two Metis Women. Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2009.

* * *
Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press chapbooks and has had poetry published in fine lit mags such as Carousel, PRISM International and Prairie Fire.

Her first collection of poetry, Hump, is forthcoming from Ontario's Palimpsest Press in spring 2010.

When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

On Poetry and the Common Good

2009-09-21T23:38:00.001-05:00

Poetry and what?

What is this ever so enigmatic phrase “The Common Good?”

And what, even, is poetry?

Okay, that one’s easy...right?

Poetry is the harnessing of ideas, putting ideas to work by way of carefully chosen words, punctuation, line breaks, etc. It is images and metaphors. Poetry can be stories, conversations, abstractions. Poetry can be confessional, can be didactic.

According to Gwendolyn MacEwan,

Poetry has got nothing to do with poetry.
Poetry is how the air goes green before thunder,
is the sound you make when you come, and
why you live and how you bleed, and

The sound you make or don’t make when you die.

Now, I’m aware of the impossibility of pinning down words with ostensive definitions, poetry especially, so I cite our dear friend Mirriam Webster as just another example of how we define poetry:

Main Entry: po·et·ry
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 a: metrical writing : verse b: the productions of a poet : poems
2: writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm
3 a: something likened to poetry especially in beauty of expression b: poetic quality or aspect .

With poetry being all these things and more, the questions still remain, what is the common good and what does Poetry have to do with it?

I’ll leave those questions to you to think about, as I myself am still pondering their plethora of possible answers.

At any rate, when I made my way out to CMU this morning to see Rhea Tregebov and Gregory Scofield read their poetry I was hoping they’d shed some light on this subject, seeing as the title of the event was Poetry and the Common Good. Instead I was treated simply to a traditional reading that saw Gregory pouring out passionate poems that bounce between English and Cree with a most amazing sense of rythm and cadence, and Rhea reading old and new poems and one, entitled “The Gardens of the Antarctic,” a poetic sci-fi dystopia about what it might be like if we consume ourselves to extinction (a speculation that doesn’t seem all that far-fetched anymore).

Maybe poetry is by its very nature acting towards a common good.

...poetry...is always political and subversive: it uses our foremost technological tool, the ur-tool that is language, against itself, against its tendency to be the supreme analytic and organizing instrument. In poetry, language is always a singer as well as a thinker; a lover as well as an engineer. It discovers and delights in its own physical being, as though it were an otter or a raven rather than simply the vice president in charge of making sense.

-Don McKay

Maybe poetry is by its very nature pushing us toward a common good, causing us to rethink normal and see that there might actually be a different way of going about things. Imagine that.

****

Brandon James Bertram is an English/Creative Writing student at the University of Winnipeg. He reads, writes, rides bikes, and drinks coffee.

Hands on: JPF

2009-09-21T23:27:00.000-05:00

* * *

Jon Paul Fiorentino wouldn't let me photograph his fingers, saying he'd get in trouble. He didn't even want his thumbs showing, so I told him to tuck them in. And he did.

* * *

Books by JPF:

Stripmalling. ECW, Toronto, 2009.
The Theory of the Loser Class. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2006.
Asthmatica. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2005.
Hello Serotonin. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2004.
Resume Drowning. Fredericton: Broken Jaw Press, 2002.
Transcona Fragments. Winnipeg: Cyclops Press/Signature Editions, 2002.

* * *
Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press chapbooks and has had poetry published in fine lit mags such as Carousel, PRISM International and Prairie Fire.

Her first collection of poetry, Hump, is forthcoming from Ontario's Palimpsest Press in spring 2010.

When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

Out-take #2

2009-09-21T20:09:00.001-05:00

IMG00927.jpg, originally uploaded by Hot Air 2009.

Sara and Frank at the thin air mainstage bar (next to the cheese)...
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

How I Don't Have Swine Flu and What I Remember About Opening Night

2009-09-21T19:57:00.000-05:00

I thought it was just cold last night at the Forks. Turns out it was a fever. I guess I should have known something was wrong when I arrived at the Opening night reading at 8 o’clock. The show started at 7. How could I make that kind of mistake?

It’s clear to me now that the sleepy fog of congestion had already forced its way into my brain. A condition further confirmed by the fact that I could barely understood a word Bertrand Nayet said. Now don’t get me wrong, I could still HEAR what he was saying, and I could still FEEL what he was saying, but his words really seemed like another language. It was like he was speaking, I don’t know, French.

I also seem to remember Debra Schnitzer being there too. But in my dreamy, flu shaped memory she’s speaking in a really high pitched, funny kind of voice some of the time. There’s no way that could have happened could it? I don’t remember her ever using funny voices, or dramatic readings back when I had her as a Prof in university, do I?

Ah, who knows, maybe none of it really happened. Maybe I was just completely delusional and only imagined I saw what I saw. After all, I also remember having quite a bit of fun last night and I really don’t see how listening to poetry outside in the dark could ever be fun. Like really, its poetry.

Oh well, lucky for you you don’t have to take what I tell you as truth. I saw some of my compatriots there and I’m sure they’ll tell you what really went on. Take care.

PS It's not Swine Flu.

Hands on: Bonnie Burnard

2009-09-21T14:26:00.000-05:00

* * *

As I was shooting these pictures, Burnard remarked, "I have my father's hands. So do my three children."

* * *

Writing is a pretty hands-on endeavor in that it is the hands that make our thoughts legible via pen-on-paper or keyboards. Without working digits, writers are reduced to working aloud, dictating their work to a machine or an assistant. Which would make it either too noisy or too public for my liking...

I'll be posting similar portraits throughout the week. If there's an author whose hands you'd like to see, let me know...

* * *

Books by Bonnie Burnard:

Suddenly. Toronto, HarperCollins, 2009.
A Good House. Toronto, HarperCollins, 1999.
Casino and Other Stories. Toronto, HarperCollins, 1994.
Women of Influence. Regina, Coteau Books, 1988.

* * *
Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press chapbooks and has had poetry published in fine lit mags such as Carousel, PRISM International and Prairie Fire.

Her first collection of poetry, Hump, is forthcoming from Ontario's Palimpsest Press in spring 2010.

When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

someone turn the lights on

2009-09-21T13:07:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is Courtney and I am late for most things I do - including my introduction for this lovely blog called Hot Air.

Due to some seriously annoying electricity problems in my apartment, I have been without access to a computer for extended periods of time, all weekend. Luckily I have a box full of fuses, and a call out to my caretaker, so the possibility of being without electricity for another night is somewhat reduced.

All that aside, I am back as a blogger for a second year in a row, and I’m really excited about that. Last year I was all bright eyed and bushy tailed about the festival. It was my first time hearing of it, and on top of that I had the major responsibility of writing about my daily treks through the land of books and authors and readings and questions.

It was overwhelming to say the least.

This year I’m looking forward to coming back to feeling more grounded - less easily swept up with the magical of it all.

You know?

I’d like to keep my feet on the ground and look at things critically. Seriously.

Because writing is strictly serious business, right?

…………………

Ok so here’s what I think will actually happen - the magic will still be there, and I will be plagued with questions of what drives authors to write? Where does their motivation come from? What does it mean to be a writer?

(you know, because I'm a big fan of the impossible questions)

I will be caught up in all of the different styles and ways that people find to say what they feel is most important to have heard.

I will be lost in the variations of what people consider important to have heard.

So, hopefully with the help of a trained electrician, and the magic of the festival pulling me along through the week, I will be able to share with you some of the things I find most compelling, funny, and obscure.

And hopefully I won’t be late for everything....

* * *
Courtney Slobogian was born in Winnipeg and likes it that way.

She is a writer/understated activist/ irreverent feminist.

Some of her work can be tracked down in quiet corners of the internet.

She co-hosts a radio show on CKUW called Tiger Lilies are Poisonous, and dislikes cotton socks. She wrote a thesis once.

Outtake #1

2009-09-21T12:25:00.001-05:00

Outtake #1, originally uploaded by Hot Air 2009.

Volunteer coordinator Karen san fillippo gets herself a coffee at the library while trying to spot an author.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

Hey

2009-09-21T11:33:00.001-05:00

Hey all,

My name is Ariel Gordon and this is my third year blowing HOT AIR.

This year, I'm planning to take in as much of the festival as is possible. I always enjoy the nooners and the afternoon book chats and I take great pains to attend at least a couple of the readings at Red River College and the U of Wpg during the day.

And then there are the Mainstages. I usually plan to attend far more of the Mainstages than I actually get to. I'm not sure why that is, but...this year, I'll definitely be at the Poetry Bash on Wednesday and It's About Love, Actually on Thursday.

I'm also going to continue to post pictures of writers' hands, something I started last year during the second part of the week.

Mostly, I'm going to try to make sure that the stomach flu that kept me from Opening Night yesterday doesn't keep me from any more of the festival. Nasty inconvenient virus!

* * *
Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press chapbooks and has had poetry published in fine lit mags such as Carousel, PRISM International and Prairie Fire.

Her first collection of poetry, Hump, is forthcoming from Ontario's Palimpsest Press in spring 2010.

When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods taking macro photographs of mushrooms.

Parlez vous Francais? Non.

2009-09-20T21:16:00.000-05:00

I don't speak French, so It's a good thing Winnipeg based author and poet Bertrand Nayet speaks with his hands, reaching up and out, grabbing words and phrases from out of thin air and weaving them into passionate pieces spoken with grit and gusto. So even though I couldn't understand what he was saying I knew that he was saying something. And even though I couldn't understand what he was saying, the passion with which he spoke, with both his voice and his hands, made his contribution to the opening night a pleasure to be a part of. I was half expecting him to translate after, but was neither surprised nor disappointed when he didn't. Still, I should probably learn French.

****

Brandon James Bertram is an English/Creative Writing student at the University of Winnipeg. He reads, writes, rides bikes, and drinks coffee.

And you are?

2009-09-20T15:44:00.000-05:00

Greetings folks! Allow me to introduce myself...

My name is Brandon and I have to admit I've never been to a writer's festival before, let alone blogged about one. But, I've heard rumours of boxed wine and room-temperature cheese, so I'm sure It'll be right up my alley. Not to mention the fact that after four years wading through the waters of undergraduate academia, more or less directionless, I have finally declared myself as a Creative Writing major, so reading and writing are what I study and what I do. So, over the course of this next week I'll be dipping into the literary scene, taking in readings, lectures, and launches, and more than likely falling behind in my studies. Sometimes there's just no time for sleeping.

Anyway, I just thought I'd say hello.

I just pulled some delicious cheesy flat-bread out of the oven, so I'm gonna sign off for now and slice into that before getting ready for Voices From Oodena in just a couple of hours. Maybe I'll see you there?

****

Brandon James Bertram is an English/Creative Writing student at the University of Winnipeg. He reads, writes, rides bikes, and drinks coffee.

Japanese Engineering

2009-09-20T13:54:00.000-05:00

Hi. My name is Jay. Some of you may remember me from last year. I was the guy who had a few misgivings about the Winnipeg International Writer’s Festival. Well after some soul searching and a few good conversations with a doctor friend of mine, I’m willing to say, I may have in fact judged the festival and its administration a little harshly.

Seems they’re not really out to do you a disservice. While I’m still a little unnerved by the amount of literary power this Charlene Diehl woman has amassed, according to my well placed sources, nothing nefarious is going on. Sorry.

Now, with that bit of nastiness out of the way, on to brighter things, stories about me.

A few days ago, my wife and I were having a few beverages. It was one of our beers of the world tours. As I was pouring a fine light beer from Japan, I noticed that the rim of the can had been engineered with a concave lip. It was constructed in a manner that allowed it to 'hook' onto the side of the glass. This made pouring simple and dripless. When I pointed out this marvel of modern engineering to my wife, she responded with “that’s why I drive a Honda.” I nodded my head in agreement.

All this talk about Japanese engineering got me to thinking about writer’s festivals. You see, when the Winnipeg festival brings you amazing writers like Christian Bok and George Elliot Clarke for a measly 12 bucks on the main stage, that’s like buying a Honda. Great product, great value. Sure your BMW’s are nice and all, but who wants to pay 20 bucks to see John Irving in Calgary? He’s not even Canadian.

Could you spot the 8 dollar difference? I know I couldn’t. And most importantly, what should you be doing for your family in this tough new fiscal reality? You know the answer. Anyway, that’s all for now, but be sure to check back here for regular updates and stories about me from the festival. Take care all and until next time, please drive a Honda by going to the main stage.

J
* * *
Jason Diaz is a Winnipeg-based writer and stay at home dad. His poetry and prose has been published in dark leisure magazine. Last year he joined the Thin Air collective and has been awaiting the festival’s arrival ever since. He has still only been interviewed by The Uniter once, and is sadly no longer licensed to drive forklift.

Festival preview tonight

2009-09-11T09:14:00.000-05:00

Kelly Hughes Live: Into THIN AIR
Featuring authors Deborah Schnitzer and Jan Andrews with musician Ben Wytinck

Date: Friday, September 11, 7 pm
Location: Aqua Books (274 Garry Street, between Graham and Portage)
Cost: FREE

THIN AIR festival venue Aqua Books is proud to present a brand new concept in ripping off other people's concepts: Kelly Hughes Live!

Winnipeg's only live talk show, KHL! will bring you all the trappings you've come to expect from the television talk show: comedy, music and celebrities. The only difference is that you haven't heard of any of my guests, and you'll have to leave your house. So it's not that much like TV after all.

This edition of KHL! is meant to lead Winnipeg readers into THIN AIR, the Winnipeg International Writers' Festival, Sept. 20-27.

About Deborah Schnitzer
Deborah Schnitzer’s work appears in several anthologies, including Children of the Shoah: Holocaust Literature and Education and Dropped Threads. She co-edited Uncommon Wealth: An Anthology of Poetry in English and, with Debbie Keahey, The Madwoman in the Academy: Writing on the Tower, a gathering of women’s writing about graduate school, teaching and tenure. She has published two books of poetry, Black Beyond Blue and Loving Gertrude Stein, and a novel, Gertrude Unmanageable. Her new book, An Unexpected Break in the Weather, is a novel of unconventional friendships in a Winnipeg neighbourhood. Schnitzer is a 3M Teaching Fellow in the English Department at the University of Winnipeg.

About Jan Andrews
British-born Jan Andrews is an internationally-respected writer and storyteller. Her many published titles include Winter of Peril: The Newfoundland Diary of Sophie Loveridge, Pa’s Harvest, and Stories at the Door (Tundra 2005). Over the last twenty years, she has told stories to children and adults across Canada, as well as in the US, Australia and England. She has coordinated storytelling series, and is the director of StorySave, a recording project with Canadian storytelling elders. Andrews lives outside Ottawa, but is spending the fall in Winnipeg as the Writer/Storyteller-in-Residence at the U of M’s Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture.

About Ben Wytinck
Southpaw axeman Ben Wytinck got his start at age nine, playing drums in his father's band at a rural Manitoba bar. He moved to Winnipeg in 2001, to play what he calls Bluegrazz (Bluegrass and Jazz). His eponymous debut CD contains ten of his finest self-penned songs.

About Kelly Hughes
Bookstore owner Kelly Hughes has worked as an actor (Pacific Theatre), a pre-teen TV star (Let's Go!), an arts administrator (Winnipeg Cultural Alliance), and an operations manager (WHERE Winnipeg). He founded Aqua Books a decade ago, and is somewhat infamous as the writer of This Week at Aqua Books. He does dozens of media interviews each year, and has done hundreds of speaking/hosting engagements, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.

KHL: Into THIN AIR!

2009-09-10T10:00:00.000-05:00