31 December 2012

APB Book Review: Jump the Devil

by Joe Blades, Ashes, Paper, & Beans (CHSR 97.9 FM)


Jump the Devil
Richard Rathwell
Montreal, QC: 8th House Publishing
127 pp, ISBN 978-1-926716-11-4, $18.88, 2012

Jump the Devil is a work of fiction, a novella, narrated by interrelated characters in seriously dysfunctional relationships. The mostly internal narratives are by ex-peacekeeper soldiers with secrets, corrupt doctors, angry old men and women, abusers, a young woman trying to break free from her family’s restrictive expectations and religion. None of the narrators are all-clean or all-good. Many of them are obsessive about something—whether philandering, locking one’s husband in the basement, journalling, hating, daughter jealousy, preying on local women, skin bags of ears, social status, class, brand fashion status, etcetera. Their stories weave together like lines of traffic, or convoys on ruble-strewn streets moving too fast for their safety. The reader feels the roller-coaster hurtle of the narrators in their stories. Rathwell writes an engaging and convincing prose set in the tumultuous world around us. Some the book is set in part in England—where Rathwell lives—but it could be anywhere “Western”. It is also set in Central Africa and Egypt—with every place feeling disorientating and troubling to the various narrators—foreign to their upbringing—with swirling undercurrents of racial tension, hostility, and confusion. There is palpable violence throughout the book—with possible suicide vests, alleged past roles in massacres, so-called democratic uprisings, colonists, insurrectionists, rapists, terrorists, redemptionists, and revolutionaries engaged in war, genocide, revenge, rebellion, and fights for freedom nationally and personally. The reader or, as Ted Hughes put it, the "coauthor" is challenged by these labels/identities and where one stands in relation to other people and events in the world. With their own assumptions and ignorance, the reader is left haunted without ability to conclude these increasingly unresolved stories.


—Joe Blades is the award-winning producer–host of Ashes, Paper, & Beans broadcast weekly, since 1995, on CHSR 97.9 FM in Fredericton, NB. He is an artist, educator, and writer with seven published poetry collections—three of which have also been translated and published in Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina.

19 December 2012

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 19 Dec 2012

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton's Writing & Arts Show. Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, http://www.chsrfm.ca/ Fredericton, NB.

2012-11-18 Odd Sundays at Molly's reading featuring a short story, "Drugged", by Kellie Underhill (Miramichi, NB) & poetry by Emily Skov-Neilsen (Saint John, NB). Recorded by Joe Blades, Fredericton, NB.

Neil Simpson: "The Other Yellow Bird"

Diane Reid: "Summer Preserves", and "Daughter"

Andrew Spencer: "English Professor"

Zorras: "Head Games"

05 December 2012

Ashes, Paper, & Beans: 5 Dec 2012

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton's Writing & Arts Show. Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, http://www.chsrfm.ca/ Fredericton, NB.

Noah Richler: Is Canadian Multilateralism Dead? (The 12th Annual Dominick S. Graham Lecture in War and Society, The Gregg Centre for the Study of War & Society, UNB, 14 Nov 2012). Introductions by Mark Milner and Suzanne Alexander. Recorded by Joe Blades.

03 December 2012

Essay in new eBook about Nela Rio


An essay of mine, "Publishing Nela Rio in Canada", is included in this new eBook all about Fredericton author Nela Rio and her writings both poetry and fiction. The eBook was launched November 2012 in Toronto, Ontario. Mine is the only contribution in English in this mostly in Spanish publication. The book came out of a conference on Nela Rio's work that I prepared for but was unable to attend: del Segundo Simposio de la serie Autores hispanocanadienses organizado por la Red Cultural Hispánica, que celebramos el 15 de mayo de 2008 la obra de la poeta, escritora, artista, investigadora y promotora cultural Nela Rio, en la sede de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Gatineau QC. There's a link below to the eBook PDF.

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Nela Rio
Escritura en foco: la mirada profunda


Edición dirigida por Gabriela Etcheverry
Qantati eBooks
Ottawa, Canadá

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CONTENIDO

Prefacio 4

PRÓLOGO
Hugh Hazelton: El amor como fuer za vital en la obra de Nela Rio 7

AUTOBIOGRAFÍA
Nela Rio: LAS ORILLAS DE LOS RELÁMPAGOS 25

ENTREVISTA
Isabel Díez Serrano: UNIENDO VOCES: LOS PROYECTOS CULTURALES DE NELA RIO 29

Andréia Alves Pires: CARLOTA, TODAVÍA, LA HECHICERA: CUANDO LA ANCESTRALIDAD ENCANTÓ EL ENVEJECER 49

Luis Alberto Ambroggio: REFERENTES DEL EXILIO EN LA POESÍA DE NELA RIO 62

María Fernanda Arentsen: MÁS ALLÁ DEL SILENCIO: LA RETERRITORIALIZACIÓN EN LA OBRA DE NELA RIO 81

Joe Blades: Publishing Nela Rio in Canada 96

Natalia Crespo: Nela Rio. La luna, Tango, siempre la luna 104

Eunice Doman Myers: RESOUNDING SILENCES: EN LAS NOCHES QUE DESVISTEN OTRAS NOCHES 108

Zulma Fraga: NELA RIO, LA PALABRA ENTRE MÁRGENES 131

Alicia Galván: Viudez, Nela Rio, y aquellas mujeres parteras en mi alumbramiento 141

Zheyla Henriksen: ELEMENTOS MÍTICOS-ERÓTICOS EN LA OBRA DE LA ARGENTINA NELA RIO 153

Claire Joysmith: NELA RIO: EL FLUIR HACIA LA PAZ TRANSFRONTERIZA 190

Sintia E. Molina: VOZ Y DIÁLOGO: JULIA Y NELA 197

Araceli Otamendi: IDENTIDAD EN LA OBRA DE NELA RIO 215

Elena Palmero González: LA OBRA DE LEONOR DE OVANDO EN LA POESÍA DE NELA RIO: UN DIÁLOGO POÉTICO EN EL TIEMPO 225

Lady Rojas Benavente: EL ESPACIO DE LA LUZ (2004) CUENTOS Y POEMAS DE NELA RIO 238

Juan Ruiz de Torres: LA “MIRADA OBLICUA” EN LA POESÍA DE NELA RIO 255

Alejandro Saravia: Alg unas consideraciones en torno a la poesía de Nela Rio 274

Tamara Schürch: La voz de la imaginación en Túnel de proa verde de Nela Rio: imágenes de dolor y esperan za 293

Nora Strejilevich: Memoria testimonial y mandato ético en la poesía de Nela Rio 312

Marta Raquel Zabaleta: Trauma y escritura de vida de mujeres en el quehacer poético de Nela Rio: una lectura involucrada 329

BIBLIOGRAFÍA Y HONORES 347

ARTE VISUAL 354

SELECCIÓN DE POEMAS Y CUENTOS DE NELA RIO 380

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© 2012, por Qantati eBooks
Ottawa, Canadá
Etcheverry, Gabriela (Dir. de edición)
Nela Rio: Escritura en foco: la mirada profunda
eISBN: 978-09881086-5-3
Cuadro de la portada: Ana Maria Pavela
Diseño de la portada: Jillian Lim

01 December 2012

Day With/out Art 2012


For years, since the late 1980s, I have recognized 1 Dec as Day Without Art as a day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis. Like many other things it seems the day's approach changed, in 1997, and those changes finally caught up with me.


"red album + red square" (acrylic on mixed media, 2012) is my contribution, made this week, to the Charlotte Street Arts Centre's Day With(out) Art Event/Exhibition of works created by volunteer artists from their ArtReach program.

According to artist WhiteFeather, "Artists will select a pre-existing artwork (painting, cross-stitch, etc—something that can hang on a wall) and paint the entire thing over with red paint. Many abandoned artworks can be purchased for extremely cheap [...]. The idea is to completely ‘red-wash’ the pre-existing work, in order to support the theme of Day Without Art, while raising awareness for AIDSNB, using the colour that symbolizes the AIDS awareness movement. The results will be red works with enhanced texture, that will show the ghost of the original underneath. Conceptually, this also ties in with the theme of loss due to AIDS, as well as the idea of funding cuts to the arts/health and the disappearance of art." To that I add recognition and support for the Québec student movement.

The exhibit will be in the Charlotte Street Arts Centre's Galerie Penny Gallery, 732 Charlotte Street, Fredericton, NB, in Dec 2012 (and possibly longer).

P.S. It's also a fundraiser ... Reserve bidding starts at $75