| After 11 books of poetry, short fiction and drama, and after seeing his work translated into nine languages, Bosnian author Goran Simic had his first Canadian publication last May. Immigrant Blues, which appeared from Brick Books, continued the work Simic had pursued in his 1997 volume Sprinting from the Graveyard – offering a poetic testimony to the emotional toll of war and exile.
You have more than one opportunity to hear Simic this week. First, he appears on Friday, February 27 at 7:30 p.m. at The New Gallery (516 D Ninth Ave. S.W.). Then on Saturday, February 28 at 9:30 p.m. he reads as part of the Re: Verb event presented by playRites and WordFest in the Martha Cohen Theatre lobby.
Next July seems a long way off – but not to spoken-word poets in Calgary, who have begun raising funds for this summer’s first annual Calgary International Spoken Wor(l)d Festival. That’s why on March 4 at 8 p.m. the Calgary Spoken Word Society will present the fundraising event Mystix at the Knox. Vivian Hansen, Jill Hartman, Tracey Quayat, Tom Wayman and Sheri-D Wilson will perform, accompanied by local standout John Hyde on stand-up bass. Emily Elder will be MC. It takes place at Knox United Church (506 Fourth St. S.W.). Tickets are available at the door for a suggested donation of $10. For more info. call 686-4292.
Even as this new festival prepares for its summer launch, one of the centres of Calgary’s word energy flickers out. Derek Beaulieu has decided that housepress has run its course, after publishing 286 chapbooks, broadsheets and other items by 223 poets, authors and artists.
In his valedictory e-mail distributed last week, Beaulieu acknowledges "it was never about the money or sales with housepress – I was solely interested in getting the work out there in editions that were crafted with care and attention." In other words, housepress was about the passion for interesting work. But lately, Beaulieu confesses, it had simply stopped being much fun.
How come? Several reasons: the faint public response to announcements of new publications, the absence of a Canadian network for distribution and the silence with which reviewers greet new small-press offerings. In other words, the usual gravitational forces that weigh down unique and inspired projects.
Such projects do find their public, and many become influential at times, and in ways, their creators could not have foreseen. Beaulieu places housepress within the "gift economy," and that’s exactly right. No one person or project can go on giving indefinitely, though. So thanks for the seven years, Derek. |
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