The first review of Our Days in Vaudeville

Here is the first review of Our Days in Vaudeville, appearing on rob mclennan's blog in early January. Who knows — it may wind up being the only review of Our Days in Vaudeville. So kudos to rob for taking on this project! rob does a fascinating inventory of other poetry collaborations in this country — some realized and some that never saw print.

One quick correction to this review: the poems in the book are not from the past couple of years — there are collaborations with Gary Barwin that date back about two decades. I'd say most of the pieces in the book, though, are from the past five or six years, though I admittedly did a mad burst of collaborations in the year leading up to publication.

It baffles me that collaborations aren't taken more seriously. I agree with rob that literary collaboration is largely viewed as a "parlour trick." Is it because they're, well, more fun to write? I'm curious to see if Our Days in Vaudeville gets any more reviews — every one of my previous books of poetry have received at least four or five reviews.

I'm immensely proud of Our Days in Vaudeville. I'm proud of my collaborators for agreeing to appear in such a strange book. I hope to do more volumes of collaborative poems.

Meanwhile, this Sunday, I'm leading a daylong workshop in Toronto on collaborative poetry. Trying to spread the gospel.

Over and out.