Curious links for October 2014...

1) bpNichol would’ve celebrated his 70^th birthday on September 30^th and a number of artists and journals have marked the occasion. Coach House Books gathered a number of insights and anecdotes from colleagues, Lemon Hound created a slideshow of his Steve McCaffery assisted visual poetry and many gave tributes over social media (including Gregory Betts and Gary Barwin). Personally, the day served as a reminder that I still need to pick up bp: beginnings by bpnichol.

2) Through her bookgaga website, Vicki Ziegler has taken on the task of compiling a current list of online, Canadian publications that seek new poetry. Such a task may seem redundant, given how many literary indexes exist on the web, but most of them are littered with outdated information and dead links. If you’ve ever read about a promising journal only to discover that their homepage reverts to a dlinksearch.com page, you’ll know to bookmark Vicki’s growing list (and maybe offer a tip to help her expand it).

3) I don’t often talk about the wilderness that is American poetry because I have so few bearings, but Joseph Massey is one of my rare trail markers. Ever since picking up Exit North (BookThug, 2010), I’ve been keeping an eye out for the Massachusetts-via-California poet's next release. Well, that’s To Keep Time, which will be out October 15^th with Omnidawn Publishing, and they've conducted an interview with Massey about the book’s themes and design. What that means for my overwhelmingly Canadian readership – Russian bots notwithstanding – is, if you enjoy Nelson Ball, check out Joseph Massey.

4) The Hamilton Public Library is preparing The New Writing Workshop, a sign-up group for writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and experimental forms. Running from October 9^th through early January, the workshops will be led by Chris Pannell with the goal of developing individuals’ works-in-progress. For details and contact information, click on the below poster.