Author Archive

	Read All Over celebrates the bookworm in all of us, showcasing readers in Vancouver and the books they love most. .
	Chris Gilpin is the Co-Director of Verses Festival of Words and Hullabaloo: BC’s Youth Spoken Word Festival. He’s also a spoken word poet himself, having won the 2011 Vancouver Individual Slam championship, as well as the 2012 Erotica and Nerd Slams. You can find out more about his work at ChrisGilpin.com

What are you currently reading? Your thoughts on it?

The Undisputed Greatest Writer of All Time by Beau Sia. Poems like “Seriously Wanna Get Naked With You Right Now,” “So You’re Not Into Asian Guys,” and “Did I Really Need to Write the Previous Poem?” let you know that this is a new kind of no-holds barred poetry. His poems are ambushes, but sincere ones. He’s not trying to shock or impress with irony or linguistic flourishes. He has something to say and he makes sure you hear it. I’m really looking forward to his first-ever Vancouver performance at Speak Bloody. He’s a huge figure in the spoken word movement but no one here has ever seen him perform.

How do you like your books served up best – audio books, graphic novels, used paperbacks, library loaner, e-reader…? 

I’m a conventional book guy. I have an entire bookshelf filled with poetry books, anthologies, chapbooks, and CDs. But a lot of the poetry I hear these days comes from YouTube or MotionPoems.com – or live performance. I’m at the Vancouver Poetry Slam at Café Deux Soleils nearly every Monday.

Who is your favourite Vancouver/Lower Mainland writer? 

Geoff Berner is the best poet in Vancouver. People think I’m joking when I say that, but I’m deadly serious. Just because he happens to sing his poetry instead of speaking it doesn’t make any difference to me. The words are what matter and his lyrics are as good as any published poetry.

What books have changed your life?

Orality and Literacy by Walter Ong completely changed how I view the literary and oral traditions. After reading it, I realized that, while we use the word ‘illiterate’ to describe a lack of literacy, there’s no equivalent word to describe a lack of orality. So I came up with ‘snoral’ as a new adjective for text-based performance that fails at public speaking and puts you to sleep.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

ReVIEWS, preVIEWS, interVIEWS, and overVIEWS: here’s where you’ll find out what the Vancouver Book Club team thinks about the literary scene in Vancouver. What you should read, where you should go, who you should sit up and notice.

Aside from April 1 being a day of jokesters and chocolate hangovers, it’s also the start of Poetry Month, and there is an insane amount of events happening, especially in the first half of the month.

Hullabaloo – April 3-6

HULLABALOO is the BC Youth Poetry Slam Championships featuring youth poets from 16 different schools from Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island. Now in its 3rd year, it is the only provincial youth poetry slam championship in all of Canada, offering youth poets the chance to speak for themselves through spoken word.

Taking place at the Roundhouse Community Centre, there are evening poetry slam competitions with the 16 teams plus there are daytime showcase/all star slams for school groups and the general public to attend. There are also two heavy hitters as feature performers this year—2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion Amy Everhart and Truth Is…. Full schedule can be found HERE.

Ivan E. Coyote, Veda Hille, and Truth Is…

Verses Festival of Words – April 8-13

This festival is all about the transformative power of words, whether written, spoke, or sung. From the Van Slam finals to readings to a Haiku Deathmatch to an evening of musical and storytelling collaboration between Ivan E. Coyote and Veda Hille there’ll been so many words flying you’ll get dizzy. The festival also includes an intimate show with dub poet Lillian Allen at Cafe Deux Soleils and a highly anticipated Aretha Franklin’s Greatest Hits iteration of Mashed Poetics.

All the events take place in the Commercial Drive area. Check the Verses website for the full schedule and ticket info. A festival pass is only $50!

Talonbooks Spring Poetry Launch – April 10

Local indie publisher Talonbooks is releasing not one, not two, but 5 poetry collections this spring and they’re having a huge launch party to celebrate. There will be readings by the authors Dina Del Bucchia (Coping with Emotions and Otters), Wanda John-Kehewin (In the Doghouse), Mariner Janes (Monument Cycles), Stephen Collis (To the Barricades) and Daphne Marlatt (Liquidities: Vancouver Poems Then and Now).

Festivities take place at the Anza Club, 3 W. 8th Ave. Doors are at 7:30 pm with readings starting at 8 pm.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

	Read All Over celebrates the bookworm in all of us, showcasing readers in Vancouver and the books they love most.
	. Willow Martin Seedhouse is an Assistant Pipe Organ tuner, Gospel singer, and History buff. She will read just about anything she can get her hands on but especially historical fiction and fantasy. She considers herself a student of life, the Universe, and everything.

What are you currently reading? Your thoughts on it?

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I’m enjoying it quite a lot. Rothfuss paints a very vivid picture with his words, and you can’t help but be drawn in to the story and the world. The characters are entertaining, even the bit parts, and that just pulls you in more. I’m looking forward to reading the next one!

The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa, and At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. I am enjoying both quite a lot. Rampage is a translated Japanese light novel, the fifth in a series and a great book to read when you’re tired and need something light to make you laugh, and At Home is a fascinating book that takes you through the history of everything from architecture and electricity to British and American politics and society. Bill Bryson also has an entertaining way of writing and his footnotes and asides are almost worth it in and of themselves.

How do you like your books served up best – audio books, graphic novels, used paperbacks, library loaner, e-reader…?

Ooooooh, this gets complicated… It depends on whether I’ve read the book before. If I’ve decided it’s good enough to buy, than paperback or occasionally e-book. If I’ve never read it before, than library loaner or I see if my cousins have it, and ask to steal it for a bit. I read a lot of graphic novels as well, but I consider them a different medium. I read them in collected paperback editions and occasionally hardcover. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Read All Over celebrates the bookworm in all of us, showcasing readers in Vancouver and the books they love most.

Catherine Owen is a poet, writer, bassist, and editor. She has published nine volumes of poetry, one of epistles, and a volume of prose essays and memoirs. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies, been translated into three languages, and has won a number of prizes including the Stephan G. Stephansson Prize. She has played bass in the metal bands Inhuman and Helgrind and her current metal project is Medea. Her most recent collection of poetry, Trobairitz, was released Fall 2012 by Anvil Press. Catherine will be one of the writers at tonight’s Incite at the Vancouver Public Library.

What are you currently reading? Your thoughts on it?

I am literally a voracious reader. I read multiple, yes REAL, books at once, can speed-read and need if at all possible to read while eating & on the loo!

Let’s see, if I could pick one to tell you about – ok, Theresa Kishkan’s memoir Mnemonic: A Book of Trees – lyrical, full of memories of the West Coast, Ireland, Greece, revealing with supreme delicacy how human life is shaped by the environment, the diversity of trees Kishkan has encountered over her 55 years sustaining her, providing narrative and emotional structure. Gorgeously detailed and always tender.

What books have changed your life?

Robinson Jeffers’ books. All of them. But perhaps especially The Double Axe, Roan Stallion, Give your Heart to the Hawks. Turbulent beauty framed in a Californian/Greek tragic-epic landscape in lines of quantitative surf.

The one book you always recommend is:

Marie Claire Blais’ Three Travelers, a novella about a triadic, poetic love between artists. Relentlessly moving.

Favourite Vancouver/Lower Mainland writer?

I don’t like the word ‘favourite’ really as I prefer multiplicity in everything but I loved Vancouverite Mike Schertzer’s work years ago before he moved to Paris, especially his surreal tales in Short Films from the 14th Century, and his incessant multi-disciplinarity, so ahead of its time in this town.

What’s next on your reading list?

A biography of Leonard Cohen called I’m Your Man. Poetry by Peter Van Toorn, a. rawlings, Louise Cotnoir. Essays on eco-poetics by Scott Knickerbocker. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

	Read All Over celebrates the bookworm in all of us, showcasing readers in Vancouver and the books they love most..
	Tracy Stefanucci is the Executive Director of OCW Arts & Publishing Foundation, which runs Project Space and puts on the Vancouver Art/Book Fair. She is also the Publications Coordinator at the Vancouver Art Gallery and teaches in the Master of Publishing program at Simon Fraser University.

What was the last book you read?

It Chooses You by Miranda July. I loved it. It was really amazing to hear about her process while creating her film The Future and to get a glimpse of her personality. It was the first thing I’ve read by her where she was just talking in her own personal voice. It was interesting how the photos in it come across as photo essays, and that the people she meets really come across as characters through the way she interviews them. Hearing her inner narrative, her inner dialogue as she meets theses people, is really fascinating.

Who is your favourite Vancouver writer?

It would be a tie between Amber Dawn and Cathleen With. Two of my favourite books are Sub Rosa and Having Faith in the Polar Girls’ Prison.

Where is your favourite place to read?

I started really loving getting short story books and reading them in the bath. Previously I wasn’t really satisfied by short stories, but I love that one short story is a good length of time to be in the bath. It’s a good therapeutic activity when I’m really stressed out.

In general, though, my favourite time to read is when I get to go on some sort of vacation, somewhere quiet, where I get to read in natural surroundings. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

We love the folks at The 49th Shelf because they’re all about Canadian books. The website is a treasure trove of information about authors, literary festivals, and anything to do with the Canadian book scene. (Check out their Read Local map to indulge your 100-mile book diet.)

One thing they like to do at The 49th Shelf is create thematic lists and this week they’re running a contest to build a list of Canadian books with powerful love stories in them. They’re looking for books that “have made your heart beat harder or broken it at least a little.” We think there are plenty of Vancouver and B.C. books that fit the bill.

You can send them a tweet with the book title and #CdnBookLove, or add the title to a post on their Facebook page. Or go to the website and add it there.

And what’s a contest without a prize? The winner will receive a $150 gift certificate to drop at their favourite local bookstore. And that’s a great way to share the love.

Contest closes at midnight tomorrow night, February 14, 2013.