K-W Bookstravaganza

Last night I dragged my tired Monday butt to The Starlight Lounge for Bookstravaganza, because anyone who makes literary readings sound like a magic show can has me sold. Of course I was so tired that I forgot my wallet, which is a good thing, since it kept me from spending any more of my budget on books.

The readings began with Jason Schneider, from his novel, Philip Snowcroft’s Finality, published by Blaurock Press. I’m ashamed to say that I had not heard of this small press until now, even though they are based out of Kitchener. According to their website, they are “an independent and non-sectarian literary imprint,” that specializes in short novels, novellas and collections of stories. Jason’s reading set a scene of desperation as an artist’s agent is forced by his gambling-addiction-related starvation to pawn a piece of art given to him by the artist. If the selection was any indication, it’s exactly the sort of bleak tale that turns my crank.

Next up was Damian Rogers, the beautiful author of Paper Radio, a collection of poetry by ECW Press. She was charming and engaging, and her poems lent themselves nicely to the spoken word. Her last poem was, “The Last Shaker.” The shakers being the 17th century religious sect that strove for purity in their lives, to the point of celibacy. As Damien pointed out, this isn’t the best method of ensuring the survival of your sect. “The Last Shaker” is the dream of the one remaining member of an endangered community.

Emily Schultz was third, reading from Heaven is Small, a novel from House of Anansi Press. This novel is about a journey into the afterlife… if the afterlife were suburban Toronto, and the journey more of a commute. The concept is just strange enough to sell me.

Cordelia Strube read from her novel, Lemon (Coach House Books), after first instructing us to imagine her as a sixteen year-old girl. Her narration did the work for us, the style perfectly emulating the way that teenagers speak. Of course, not many teenagers have their mother try to force them into a suicide pact. Strube’s narrator describes watching her bathrobe clad mother fall from the balcony. How did she get out of it, the girl’s counselor asks? “I said I was busy reading”. Nice.

Matthew Tierney (who TNQ recommended for a Writer’s Reserve Grant back in 2006) finished up the night with poems from The Hayflick Limit (Coach House Books). This collection is peppered throughout with poems based on various phobias. Most memorable of the night was the poem, “lutraphobia,” which makes a very sensible and humorous case for a fear of otters (yes, those charming brow-furred swimmers). After a sampling of phobia poems, Matthew gave us a primer on particle physics, a subject made compelling because his passion for the subject comes through in his poems in a captivating way.

Based on the snippets I heard, I’d say that all of these books are worth at least peeking at. They did manage to keep me awake on a monday night, after all.