FYI:

What: The Shebeen Club Christmas Party

When: drop in 7-10pm, Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

Where: The Snug of The Irish Heather, 217 Carrall Street in Gastown

Why: to celebrate, duh!

Who: Contact lorraine.murphy AT gmail.com for more information

How(much)? Separate cheques, order off the menu

It’s time once again for our annual holiday festivities. I will try to bring a podcast of Dylan Thomas reading A Child’s Christmas in Wales or, failing that and in a bow to the more Montmartre-like aspects of the Downtown EastSide, William S. Burroughs reading A Junky’s Christmas. Other than that, there is no particular structure. Everyone who is involved in the world of words is welcome!

Got this off Defamer. Yes, I can see Alan Ginsberg updating Howl just for the occasion. Lindsay Lohan is at least as consistently wasted as William S. Burroughs, although she is better-looking than he ever was and has not yet resorted to dealing. Clock ticking on that one, though.

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Dorothy Ducksworth

…Nor will the thought forget,
after wandering many years
nor absence hold its breath,
these sharp words on lofty ears,
Yet this green pastoral heath’ t’were to me
a baby’s breath, and I could start afresh
ne’er worrying about death!

Clowns

On longer shallows,
fall dim shadows,
Bathes the scene
in light serene.
A thrush swallows,
a wolf howls
in linden green, in linden green…
A sharp shriek, the voice peals
fresh peeled voices, thresh!
It will be soon,
It will be soon -
It is coming…
in a forgotten place
It is forgotten lore,
like a child bored
Who happens upon
clowns fucking!
And understands nothing
But the unusual laughter,
enjoys the rapture
And starts to feign.

The King is Inn

For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of dead kings:
How some have been deposed, some disposed of,
some slain by war, the haunted ghosts they have oppressed,
Some poisoning their wives, some poisoned by their lives,
All murdered in their sleep — for posterity
’round mortal coil and suffering
Death suffers his crown, Scoffing his state,
and planning his estate with pomp,
Allowing him a gown of gentle breezes
To monarchize the kingdom, in which he reigned
Confusing him with self, with loyal subjects
As if this flesh that walls about our life
Were one great beast; and, humours us,
Comes home at the last, and, with a little grin
Bores through your castle wall — you fucking clown!

luigi
rote by me

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
5/31/2007
CALL FOR SPOKEN WORD
POETRY SUBMISSIONS

The Word On the Street Festival invites poets to read their work at The
Poet’s Corner, Library Square, on Sunday, September 30, 2007. Poets will be
given a 7minute spot to perform in, between the hours of 12:00pm and
5:00pm. Submissions should include a SASE if you wish your material to be
returned and artists are also strongly encouraged to send an audio tape or CD of
their performance.
Sorry, no email submissions!

Please send submissions to

Poet’s Corner
c/o
442 Cardiff Way
Port Moody V3H 3T1

Deadline for entry is July 15, 2007*

* See us at the Wax Poetic/Coop Radio table at Summer Dreams (We’ll take submissions there too!)

Help us promote literacy and celebrate Canadian literary arts at Library
Square, downtown Vancouver.

The Word On The Street is an annual one-day festival celebrating literacy
and the written arts. Held in five cities across Canada simultaneously -
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax - The Word On The Street
celebrates reading and writing with free exhibits, performances, readings
and hands-on activities every September.

Last year, Vancouver’s The Word On The Street attracted over 40,000
visitors, and hundreds of participating exhibitors, authors, and performers
to Library Square for literary readings, cookbook demonstrations, music,
contests, panel discussions and much more.

We invite you to join us and become part of Vancouver’s favorite annual
celebration of words and reading.
For more information, call us at (604) 788-8340 or email srduncan  at shaw dot ca
http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/vancouver.php

From our April presenter, artist and publisher Robert Chaplin. You can read his blog at RChaplin.blogspot.com. This short film, based on his book 10 Counting Cat, is obviously the perfect present for your budding Goth.

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Vancouver Writes on February 23rd

(Vancouver, January 15, 2007) The Vancouver International Writers Festival presents Vancouver Writes—an evening of competitive wordplay that will bring together people interested in writing with established authors to produce “instant literature”. Join host Billeh Nickerson, authors Caroline Adderson, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Kevin Chong, Steven Galloway, Zsuzsi Gartner, Genni Gunn, C.C. Humphreys, Nancy Lee, Billie Livingston, Miranda Pearson, Bill Richardson, Timothy Taylor and many more of Vancouver’s finest for the first edition of Vancouver Writes.

Teams of eight participants will collaborate with one well-known Vancouver writer acting as coach and editor to come up with a piece of prizewinning fiction or poetry. There will be three contests during the evening, and writers will switch teams after each contest, giving participants the opportunity to work with a variety of writers. Vancouver jazz ensemble Mother of Pearl will help the participants get into the groove.

The Vancouver Writes judges will choose a winner for each contest and prizes will be awarded to the team. After the three sessions a grand winner will be announced, which will be published in The Tyee, BC’s on-line newspaper. Then the real fun will begin—live music, drinks, and a chance for the contestants and published writers to mingle and talk. For more information or to register go to www.writersfest.bc.ca.

Vancouver Writes is part of the Winterruption Festival, a showcase of food, arts and culture on Granville Island (February 23–25).

Vancouver Writes

February 23 @ 7:30 PM

Performance Works

Tickets: $20/18 students & seniors

Tickets are limited

Call 604-681-6330 or log onto http://www.writersfest.bc.ca

Winterruption 2007

February 23–25, 2007 on Granville Island

www.winterruption.com

-30-

For downloadable photos go to http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/media/author-photos.php

For more information contact Ann McDonell 604 681 6330 ext 104

Development & Marketing Manager

Vancouver International Writers Festival

dmm at writersfest.bc.ca

I tried leaning heavily on my love of daffodils to game this quiz, but I think it could tell I was lying. And just because I’m too old to die young doesn’t mean I’m not Keats, dammit! Fuck- I mean FAUGH!

You scored as Percy Shelley. You’re poet is Percy Shelley. Shelley’s best-known works include his Prometheus Unbound (1819), a lyrical drama in which Shelley expounds the cause of an imaginative revolution, his atheistic poem Queen Mab (1821), his prose essay A Defence of Poetry (1840) and The Triumph of Life, left unfinished at Shelley’s death. Many of Shelley’s other works were written around 1820: these include The Mask of Anarchy (1820), the poem ‘Ode to the West Wind’ (1819), Peter Bell the Third (1819) and the political odes ‘To Liberty’ and ‘To Naples’ (both 1820). Percy Shelley 69% John Keats 69% William Wordsworth 63% Lord Byron 63% Samuel Taylor Coleridge 50% Who is Your Romantic Poet? created with QuizFarm.com

Stole this from Curtis at Can’t See the Forest. Someone alert Gawker: How did my biography get on the web already? Must be a leak somewhere; when in doubt, blame Judith Regan.

For all those writers, publishers, editors, bloggers, and journalists out there. Forget the office party and come drink with The Shebeen Club tomorrow night at the Irish Heather!

We’ll be upstairs in the Reading Room this time, at the Irish Heather in Gastown, 217 Carrall Street in Gastown, from 7-9pm. No cover, order off the menu and enjoy the best damn gastropub in the West!

Twas the day before Tuesday, when all through downtown
The email went out inviting Shebeeners down
To the Heather on Tuesday the 19th: tomoz!
For a drink and a nosh and tales of Santa Claus.

We’ll have a fun evening, no lectures to hear,
From seven ’til nine, just a-drinking our beer!
With Lorraine with Grinch earrings and a Santa hat,
You can come as you are, or all dressed up in spats.

And down in the kitchen arises a bashing
The chef is meat grilling and potato mashing.
Order straight off the menu and pay what you nosh
Tear into the butter, and the whiskies quite posh.

“Now Writers! Now Students!
Now, Publishers many!
Come, Poets! Come, Bloggers!
Come, Booksellers, merry!
To the Reading Room of the Heather
At the top of the stairs!
Now party on! Party on!
Don’t put on airs!

We’ll read Chrismas stories, and tell our tall tales
So drop in for a bevvy; I’ll tell about the old jail.
The Heather was lockup in decades gone by
So come down, serve your time drinking Guinness and rye.