Monday, October 24, 2011

Celebrated Author Antanas Sileika Reading at UNB Fredericton

Author Antanas Sileika will be reading from his new book Underground on Tuesday, October 25th 2011 at Alumni Memorial Hall on the UNB Fredericton Campus.

Antanas Sileika is the author of four novels, including Dinner at the End of the World (1994), Buying on Time (1997), Woman in Bronze (2004) a Globe Best Book of 2004, and Underground (2011). Sileika is the artistic director for the Humber School of Writers in Toronto, and is a past winner of a National Magazine Award



Sileika's new novel, Underground (Thomson Allen & Son, 2011), is the dramatic historical tale of Lukas and Elena, members of an underground Lithuanian resistance movement during the period of Soviet rule. A violent confrontation with a room full of Soviet government workers during their engagement celebration turns Lukas and Elena into folk heroes for their political cause but forces them to flee punishment for their part in the massacre. Lukas and Elena are separated during their escape which forces Lukas, believing Elena killed, to leave the country for a new life in France. A crisis in his home country throws Lukas' new life into disarray and he is thrust back into the fight for his life. The thrilling circumstances of Underground are based on true historical events and elements of the author's family history.
 
The reading is presented by the UNB English Department, the Canada Council for the Arts, the UNB Fredericton Bookstore & The Fiddlehead. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.

Friday, October 21, 2011

The 8th Annual Poetry Weekend

I am living in absolute exhilaration and exhaustion from our most recent poetry weekend. Our presiding spirits were this year two creatures who have been at every poetry weekend: Sharon McCartney and Jack the Dog. They conjured magic.

We opened the weekend with a Friday night reading from this year’s UNB writer-in-residence Sue Sinclair. Wonderful beginning.

It was really exciting to see so many first and second books representing many of our finest new poets. I’m making my way through them now with true delight!

I’m grateful for the poets who came from such a distance, so thank you, from Colorado, Leigh Kotsilidis; London, Karen Schindler; Hamilton, Jeffery Donaldson and Amanda Jernigan; Toronto, Daniel Renton, Heather Hessup, and Linda Besner; Ottawa, Rhonda Douglas; Montreal, Asa Boxer; Boston, Daniel Hudon; Grand Manan, Wayne Clifford; Halifax, Warren Heiti and John Barger; and from Newfoundland, James Langer, Mark Callanan, Shoshanna Wingate, Danielle Devereaux, and Carson Butts, and Corey Lavender from somewhere in Ontario, and undoubtedly someone I’ve forgotten.

On Sunday, Ian LeTourneau took our group photo:
From left to right standing: Sharon McCartney, Corey Lavender, Jeffery Donaldson, Mark Callanan, Karen Schindler, Carson Butts, Rhonda Douglas, James Langer, John Barger, Triny Finlay, Aaron Daigle, Ross Leckie, Kathy Mac, Danielle Devereaux, Travis Lane, Wayne Clifford, Nick Thran, Shoshanna Wingate, Matthew Gwathmey, Phillip Crymble, Matt Cornfield, and Zach Alapi.
Seated: Jack the Dog, Ian LeTourneau, Anita Lahey, Amanda Jernigan, Sue Sinclair, Kayla Geitzler, Lynette Adams, Claire Kelly, and Chasity St. Louis.
And here are some more photos:
Anita Lahey showing how big her baby will be,
with Tom looking on skeptically.

Danielle Deveraux and Leigh Kotsilidis:
“That Renton sure can spin the BS.”
James Langer: "Well, we all really know . . ."
Linda Besner: “Isn’t life cool!”
Sharon McCartney and Triny Finlay:
“Ross, we didn’t know you could be funny.”
Shoshanna Wingate: “Why yes,
I was praying to the gods of poetry.”
It turns out Wayne Clifford is a wise old man.  At his feet: John Haney, Amanda Jernigan, Nick Thran, Sue Sinclair, and Warren Heiti.


And Jeffery Donaldson has summed up everyone’s thoughts again:

Sue Sinclair said that
at Ross Leckie’s poetry festival in Fredericton,
“The Gods muttered among themselves.”

Amanda Jernigan said that
at Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“We let our song become our work.”

And Matthew Gwathmey mentioned that
at Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“The song titles read like a lesson in grief.”

Warren Heiti confessed that
at Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“I dreamt I was in a grocery store.”

Zach Alapi commented that
at your poetry festival, Ross Leckie,
“It was the first piece of yourself that was made for me.”

Cory Lavender told us that
at Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“I didn’t say boo.  Not one word.”

Triny Finlay said about
Ross Leckie, at the poetry festival:
“My surprise in watching him emerge.”

Daniel Renton said that
at Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“If they fudge their lines, they ask for a second take.”

Ryan Marshall opined that
Ross Leckie’s poetry festival
“Is like lifting a mirror from a loosening mount.”

Michael Pacey speculated that
Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“Is a compost heap, the engine of circulation, a random deliberate gathering.”

And at Ross Leckie’s poetry festival:
“A leaky tent pitched behind the garage.”

And again at Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“Built not to hold, but to release.”

And furthermore at Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“As if words were just beads on a necklace, strung.”

Karen Schindler praised
Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“Because it makes a room feel larger, and when placed outside, expands a garden.”

Travis Lane said that
Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“We read it, in its context, as a song.”

Emily Skov-Nielson said of
Ross Leckie’s poetry festival:
“This is all you need to hear.”

Aaron Daigle said,
Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“Names glimpsed in passing.”

Gerard Beirne grieved that
Ross Leckie’s poetry festival
“Approaches the hallowed ground, yet never can enter.”

Chasity St. Louis observed that
At Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“They can do nothing but curl in upon themselves.”

Linda Besner said that
At Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“We swung past what we saw.”

Asa Boxer reminisced that
At Ross Leckie’s poetry festival,
“Down we tripped into the third most dreaded circle.”
-------
Thank you to everyone!
Ross Leckie, Editor, The Fiddlehead

Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Fiddlehead 249 is now out!


 It’s autumn and The Fiddlehead is gently falling into subscribers’ mailboxes and tumbling through magazine stands across Canada. Found within are a bag full of stories, poems and reviews including new works from Bruce Bond, Dede Crane, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Jeanette Lynes, and Ricardo Sternberg among others.

The cover artwork showcases the brilliant autumnal reds of Anna Cameron’s “Untitled IX.” So warm up some apple cider, curl up in a cozy chair, and leaf through your copy of 249.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Fiddlehead News

The Fiddlehead 247 (spring 2011), which contained the winners of the 20th annual contest, received a lovely review from NewPages.com. Go take a look!


Also congratulations to Clark Blaise whose new book, The Meagre Tarmac, made the Scotiabank Giller Prize long list. His story, "Brewing Tea in the Dark," which was published in The Fiddlehead 248, is from this collection. There's additional wonderful news for Clark Blaise, The Meagre Tarmac has been shortlisted for the 2011 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. The Globe and Mail has an excerpt from The Meagre Tarmac and a readers' poll on who should win this year's prize (updated 28 October) .


Monday, October 17, 2011

Award-Winning Author Molly Peacock Reading at UNB Fredericton

Celebrated author Molly Peacock will be reading from her new book, The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72 on Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 at 8pm at the Alumni Memorial Lounge on the Fredericton campus of the University of New Brunswick.


Molly Peacock, a poet and a creative non-fiction writer, is the author of The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72 (2011), the life story of Mary Granville Pendarves Delany, the beautiful and talented daughter of a minor branch of a powerful family in the 18th century. Married at seventeen to a drunken, though wealthy, sixty-one-year-old man in the interest of improving the family fortunes, Mary would later cultivate a wide and influential group of friends, developing her artistic abilities and pioneering the art form of mixed-media collage in her wondrous cut-paper flowers. The 985 botanically accurate paper flowers, known as Flora Delanica, are now kept in the British Museum. Peacock explores the nature of creativity and art in this exceptional biography, and the book itself is beautifully designed and features thirty-five full-colour illustrations of Mary Delany's paper flowers.

Molly Peacock has also published six books of poetry, including The Second Blush (2008), and Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems (2002). Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, The New Republic, The Paris Review, and The Best of the Best American Poetry. Among her awards are Danforth Foundation, Ingram Merrill Foundation, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and New York State Council on the Arts Fellowships.