FFWD Weekly
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Bookends by Harry Vandervlist Five young writers will be touring Canada this spring thanks to Writers for Change, a project of the Vancouver chapter of the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop. The authors, and their most recent books, are: Rita Wong (monkeypuzzle, Press Gang, 1998), Ashok Mathur (Once Upon an Elephant, Arsenal Pulp Press, 1998), Rajinderpal S. Pal (pappaji wrote poetry in a language i cannot read, TSAR, 1998), Tamai Kobayashi (Exile and the Heart, Women's Press, 1998) and David Odhiambo (diss/ed banded nation, Polestar, 1998). In Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, the writers will give readings and visit high schools to talk about current writing in Canada – including issues like tradition, historical context, race and language. The tour aims to help students connect with writing that's going on right this moment. Public readings are being offered in each city, too: the Calgary reading takes place at EM Media on Tuesday, May 18 at 7 p.m. Another tour is also taking place Saturday, May 15 at The New Gallery (516 - 9th Avenue S.W.), where filling Station magazine presents The Big Tour, a reading by kath macLean, rob mclennan and Anne Stone on Saturday, May 15 – all talented writers and all Eastern Canadians on tour promoting their work. It's poetry lab time this Thursday, when The Ready Room hosts COLD PHUSION – linear acceleration and perpetual poetics. What's that? It's all about "empirical investigation and phacilitated experimentation." It's a reading and poetry slam with emphasis on the line break. OK, feeling the need for less confusion about Cold Phusion, I asked Darren Matthies to clear up my delusions. He says that he and his fellow phu collective members, jill hartman, matilde sara t. sanchez, natalie simpson, t. maurice speller and lindsay tipping, wanted to open up the whole poetry reading experience to the audience. "Whoever decides to come and play can get involved in the poetic process – if they choose to be," says Matthies. Lab coats may be involved. Prizes. Publication. Perhaps. The (licensed) experiment begins on May 13 at 7:30 p.m., at 330, 605 - 1st Street S.W., and there is a cover charge. Contact dkmatthi@ucalgary.ca for more information. (Like whether it's all lowercase, all the time, for the phu-istes, or just sometimes!) Literature and pseudoscience go way back. It's not just a few Calgary writers and publishers making it all up, you know. French anarchistic writer and school-teacher-parodist Alfred Jarry, of Ubu fame, launched his own "science of the laws governing exceptions," called le 'pataphysique, way back at the start of this almost-defunct century. It's one way to break down the incredible sanctimony surrounding anything with a whiff of the clinically proven attached to it, and to claim a little bit of the residue of "truth" for the products of the unleashed imagination. The inside of your head is like the Amazon rainforest, full of undiscovered cures for what may soon start to ail you. Try a little exploring and experimenting and who knows what you'll discover. Eric McLuhan, son of famed actor and media visionary Marshall McLuhan, appears at the Glenbow on Thursday, May 13 as part of the ’60s exhibit there. Call 268-4208 for info. On May 16, The Truck Gallery presents Tibetan Buddhist poet Cecilie Kwiat. She reads at 2 p.m. at The Truck Gallery, which is downstairs at the Grain Exchange (815 - 1 St. S.W.). If you missed the Peter Oliva book launch at The Plaza and feel left out, you can catch up at Indigo, where Oliva reads from his novel The City of Yes on Saturday, May 15 at 1 p.m.

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