Feb. 10, 2010 continued...Jen Farrell was next, reading an excerpt from The Devil You Know, which will be in stores around the end of April (published by Anvil Press). Very powerful stuff. Then the infamous Chris Walter stepped up to the mic. I've been reading his work for a while and this was the first time that I've seen him in person. He told us a little bit about the history of the space we were in. Chris Walter used to be a bouncer here back in the nineties when it was called the "What Gallery". INTERMISSIONThere's a strange guy going around doing three minute interviews with authors tonight. He calls himself a blogger, but he's completely unfamiliar with the term 'chapbook'. I can tell by the badge hanging from his neck that his name is Patrick Walsh. And when I Google him I discover that he has, indeed, been blogging for a while (since 2005). I can't help thinking that he seems a bit of an odd duck in this crowd. But, if the Olympics are good for anything they ought to at least serve as an opportunity to bring all of us odd ducks together somehow. Anyway, I'm checking out these black and white photos of D.O.A. that are on display in the loftish space that overlooks the gallery. They're pretty cool, all taken by bev. davies. It's hard to imagine D.O.A. playing at Lincoln Park in Chicago during 1979, but there they are. Now we have Jen Sookfong Lee. She's reading to us from a piece published in the TOK 4 Anthology (quite a feat considering it's a piece all about Vancouver!). Sookfong Lee grew up on the east side of Vancouver and this selection is all about her experience attending school on the west side of Vancouver. Shay Wilson is up next. Her writing was recently published in Joyland, and upon Googling her name, I discover that she is also a photographer. Then we have Ian Weir, who read from his latest, Daniel O'Thunder. Finally, we have a poet: Larissa Lai. Automaton Biographies is her first full-length solo poetry book. I thought that it sounded fascinating so I decided to check it out. I was a bit disappointed. This collection of poetry is full of repetition, and I don't mean the good kind of repetition that evolves into a pattern or indicates an experiment with form. For example, in "nascent fashion" Lai uses the word 'blood' at least five different times all within the same type of context. It's scattered around randomly, which suits the themes she explores in this poem, but it gets a bit tedious for the reader. "nascent fashion" happens to be the poem she read at W2 and while listening to her I didn't notice the repetition of words. It makes sense when doing a reading to choose a poem that does have a lot of repetition because it's much more difficult for the audience to pick up on subtle nuances and variation in the ideas being expressed. One thing that I noticed right away while she was reading: Lai's use of alliteration. I found her use of alliteration quite distracting. Again, instead of using this type of repetition to draw attention to formal experimentation she seems to throw it in without much regard to how or why it's there. I think the themes Lai wants to explore in Automaton Biographies are very interesting, and she does present us with some fascinating imagery. Unfortunately, only a handful of the poems in this collection are sharp and distinct. Oh well, it's not like I could do anything better. Moving right along...Anne Stone reads from her latest, "delible", about a 15-year-old girl who goes missing. Jane Sayers reads "Leftovers". Then we have someone hailed by Sean Cranbury as the Social Director of the writing community in Vancouver, Kevin Chong. Recently, Kevin bought himself a 'bottom-clinger', that is, a racehorse. So, he decided to visit a Kentucky horse park. He reads to us about his experience on a tour of breeding farms down there. I hope he publishes that material in one form or another because it is some of the strangest non-fiction I've ever heard. Last but not least, Peter Darbyshire read to us from The Warhol Gang.
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