Fatale: A dangerous Night of Femme Performance

I am passing this announcement on:

As part of the programming for Exposure:  Edmonton's Queer Arts & Culture Festival, The Canadian Literature Centre/Centre de litt ture canadienne is co-sponsoring an evening of literary performances this Sunday, November 25th, at Latitude 53, 10248-106 St. (7.30 sharp:  doors open at 7.00 p.m.).  The evening is called "Fatale:  A Dangerous Night of Femme Performance," and it features performances in French and English by David Bateman, Anna Camillerii, T.L. Cowan, and Val Desjardins.  Please join EXPOSURE, and the CLC, for this innovative and exciting evening of Canadian literary celebration.  Admission is FREE.

Alberta Writers’ Guild publishing evening

The Alberta Writers' Guild has a seminar evening next Wednesday that might interest you (and is pretty cheap!):

Get Published in Magazines (the Edmonton version)!
Wednesday, November 28, 7:00 PM
2nd Floor Program Room, Strathcona Public Library

8331 104 Street

WGA members free; non-members $5

 

Edmonton Story Slam

Adam suggested I pass this on:

The Bunker Projects presents:
another Edmonton Story Slam (celebrating our 20th event!)
Wednesday, November 21, at the Blue Chair Cafe, 9624 - 76 Avenue
(& the third Wednesday of every month) 
Sign up at 7 p.m., stage opens at 8 p.m.
For details e-mail thebunkerprojects@hotmail.com or call Susan at 1 (780) 682-2559.
Special event: Exposure Festival's Queer Slam, Nov. 28, at the Blue Chair Cafe

 
 

Dear Slammers;

Why would anyone sign up to read their works at a Story Slam? It's not safe. Not comfortable. You sweat. Your breathing gets a little funny. Your insides are a wreck. What if you fail? What if you stand there paralyzed like in that recurring nightmare? You open your mouth; no sounds come out. What if you end up looking like some jerk?

Or worse. What if they don't get your bizarre sense of humour? 

You could stay home with the curtains drawn this Wednesday while others gather to celebrate literature as it comes alive at the Blue Chair Cafe. Or you can bravely sign up at 7 p.m. and share five minutes of your best prose with a welcoming community. Or simply join our audience to witness some of the finest performed prose in Edmonton. Stage opens at 8 p.m. Please arrive early to enjoy dinner and drinks and to ensure you get a seat.

If you haven't been to a Story Slam yet, please join us Wednesday for our 20th monthly Story Slam and celebrate our success as a growing community of talented and dedicated writers/performers. 

Thank you for your participation, support and talent. This is an inspired community worth building.

Please see Story Slam rules and information below.

 
 

Sincerely,

 
 

Susan Hagan, on behalf of The Crew: Alison Hagan and Lisa Gregoire.

 
 

Thank you to the Blue Chair Cafe, Vue Weekly and Tracy Kolenchuk (photos) for your generous support.

 
 

Story Slam Rules: We keep it simple and only use rules that are absolutely vital so writers can express their creativity fully. We reserve the right to tweak the rules, if it becomes logical and necessary, and will enhance the evolution of the event. Our goal, as the caretakers of the Edmonton Story Slam, is to keep the format simple and Story Slam fair and fun.

1. Writers must present their own original stories (no rerun stories).

2. Stop watch starts ticking as soon as contestant begins talking.

3. 5 audience judges are selected by the organizers. Highest and lowest scores are dropped, middle three added together.

4. Times of 5:05 minutes or less, no penalty (5 second grace period). Over 5 minutes and you receive a .5 point penalty for every 10 seconds (or portion) over (ie. 5:11-5:20 = 1 point. 5:51-6 min = 3 points).

5. Gong at seven minutes.

6. Writers names are drawn randomly from a hat for the order of appearance.

7. Highest score after penalty deductions receives ALL audience donations from pass the hat. (Tied high scores share the prize) and is eligible for a spot in Slam Off.

8. Sign up begins at 7 p.m. Cut off when the Slam stage opens/or 10 writers.

9. No props.

10. Past winners are welcome to compete again, but receive only one space in Slam Off.

Also, we encourage writers to present their unpublished stories that contain events which transpire over time. However, this is a strong suggestion only because enforcement becomes really tricky.

Story on climate change

I thought some of you might be interested in the following story. Apart from the intrinsic interest in the story itself, it is a good example of how to approach research, from all angles, from those Richard Black is writing about, to his own research. I think it is also interesting as an example of how a writer can take a particular subject and make it into a story, here a scientific one that has much more general application:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7092614.stm

Germaine Greer and Pink

A fun and typically perceptive article (Why has the world gone pink mad?) by Germaine Greer that's just come out, and that I thought might interest some of you:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2007/11/why_has_the_world_gone_pink_ma.html

I haven't seen that much pink here in Edmonton (too male oil sands nacho for pink?). Any comments?

Creative Works readings

Tuesday, November 6, 3:30 pm, HC 4-29

Creative Works Reading by Gary Geddes

Gary Geddes has written and edited more than thirty-five books of poetry, fiction, drama, non-fiction, criticism, translation and anthologies. Sailing Home: A Journey Through Time, Place and Memory became a national bestseller in Canada.  Other recent works are
Skaldance and a best selling nonfiction work about an ancient Asian voyage to the Americas, The Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things: An Impossible Journey from Kabul to Chiapas.   His national and international awards include the E.J. Pratt Medal, the National Poetry Prize, the Americas Best Book Award, the Writers' Choice Award, National Magazine Gold Award, Poetry Book Society Recommendation (U.K.), the Archibald Lampman Prize (twice), and the Gabriela Mistral Prize.  Gary has been very active in promoting other writers. He was founding editor of a series of critical monographs called Studies in Canadian Literature, he has reviewed poetry regularly for the Globe & Mail, and started several publishing companies, including Quadrant Editions and Cormorant Books.  He has had numerous appointments as writer in residence, including University of Alberta, Malaspina University College, University of Ottawa, and Green College, UBC.  His best known anthologies, 20th Century Poetry & Poetics and 15 Canadian Poets (both from Oxford), have gone into numerous editions and have had an enormous impact on the teaching and writing of poetry in Canada. 

Wednesday, November 14, 3:30 pm, HC 4-29

Creative Works Reading by Michael Trussler

Michael Trussler's collection of stories,
Encounters (NeWest Press), won the City of Regina and Book of the Year awards at the Saskatchewan Book Awards in 2006. 
Encounters
is made up of stories that centre on characters who encounter something larger than themselves — a situation or another character — around which they must navigate. 
His second book, a poetry collection, entitled
Accidental Animals
has just appeared.  He has also published book reviews, literary criticism, poetry, and short fiction, and is the Chief Editor of Wascana Review. Trussler received a PhD from the University of Toronto and has taught courses on American literature, literary theory, and the short story at the University of Regina. He has travelled widely in the United States and Europe, is an amateur photographer, and has a fascination with visual art. 

Tuesday, November 20, 3:30 pm, HC 4-29

Creative Works Reading by Candace Savage

Candace Savage is the author of more than two dozen books, including thirteen on natural history and natural science, and an equal number of magazine features.  She is currently the wildlife columnist for
Canadian Geographic. 
Her work ranges through the sciences and humanities, with books on the aurora borealis, grassland ecology, European witchcraft, and cowgirl mythology, among other subjects. She has been honored by the American and Canadian Library Associations and the Canadian Science Writers' Association, among others. In 1994 she was inducted to the Honor Roll of the Rachel Carson Institute. As a resident of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, she has lived on the prairies for most of her life.   Her latest book,
Crows: Conversations with the Wise Guys (Greystone, 2005), has been described as part science, part poetry, and a celebration of crow consciousness.  This reading is funded by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Piece on the oil sands

There's a well-written and extremely well researched essay by Aida Edemariam on the oil sands on the UK Guardian website – I think it's essential reading, especially as it presents a view from the outside, and almost everything we hear about the oil sands is Alberta or Canada generated – and it's a model of how to combine extensive and detailed research and fact and figures with writing that keeps the reader interested:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/30/energy.oilandpetrol