Tonight: McFadden!

Why Are You So Sad? Selected Poems of David McFadden is finally out from Insomniac Press, and the launch is tonight, 7 p.m., at the Dora Keogh Pub, 141 Danforth. Also being launched is Roseanne Carrara's A Newer Wilderness.

The McFadden book is 320 pages and features extensive notes on the poems by the author, a practice he's employed in many of his previous books. It's a blast. And he was amazing to work with. Maddening but amazing. For me, it was a dream to edit the Selected of my favourite Canadian poet, a guy I've been reading since, as a teenager, I stumbled on A Knight in Dried Plums at Bathurst Heights Library.

While many regard Dave as a very important poet, I don't think he's ever received the accolades he deserves. For example, no GG. I'm hoping that this hefty book brings him a lot more attention and wins him all sorts of new readers.

*****

It's been a busy time since I returned from BC. A small but really fun Boot Camp a couple weekends ago. A fantastic Fictitious Reading by Gary Barwin and Maggie Helwig on Sunday night — with great attendance, too. And the Small Press Book Fair on Saturday was a really good one: I sold lots, I got to visit with the divine Sandra on the eve of her departure for Scotland, saw heaps of old friends (always a highlight of the fair).

This Sunday I'm leading a prose-editing seminar at This Ain't the Rosedale Library, if registration steps up a bit. Details in the column to the right.

Over and out.