Ticker Text … and more

My fine friend Jason Camlot, a great poet and a prof at Concordia, has put together an intriguing project that boggles my non-techie mind: The Ticker Text Project. He's looking for poets around the globe to participate. Check it out.

On a side note, get Jason's most recent book, from Paul Vermeersch's 4 a.m. Books imprint with Insomniac: The Debaucher. It's Montreal! It's Jewish! It's poetry! And it's a great book.

Some loose ends to be tied up:

I did not win the Alberta Readers' Choice Award. That $10,000 award went to Michael Davie, an Albertan writer and software guy, for Fishing for Bacon. After five finalists were determined by jury, the voting for the winner was done by Internet voting: anyone could vote multiple times, but at two-hour intervals at minimum. Although the prize was determined by this public vote, the results haven't been posted. I was curious about the results, because I know I was at a really close second-place about a week before polling ended. I wrote to my contact at the ARC Awards, asking if, in the name of transparency, the voting number would be publicized. I didn't get an answer.

Anyway, the night I lost, I wanted to redeem things for myself: I stayed up till about 4 a.m. and nailed the ending of my novel and sent it in to ECW, who will be publishing it in spring 2011. That felt good. I think I could have tinkered with that book forever, but you gotta put an end to it sometime.

Last Tuesday's reading at the St. Clair/Silverthorn library: what a great time. Funny thing: David McFadden showed up, as audience, and, by coincidence, Nicholas Power, Lillian Necakov and I all had prepared to read poems about/for David. Only Jim Smith didn't, but Dave's influence in Jim's work was perhaps his salute. McFadden, by the way, just a week earlier, had launched Why Are You So Long and Sweet? Collected Long Poems of David W. McFadden. He read two poems from that at the launch: "Nevada Standstill," which he'd never read aloud before, and "Cow Swims Lake Ontario." His book is absolutely astonishing: the breadth of what he does — and the humour, humanity, and audaciousness — is incredible. You better go buy a copy.

Over and out.