::Arc Poetry:: Log Entries - January 2008 Archive ::

January 11, 2008

Press Release: January 11, 2008

Get Woozy with Arc Poetry Magazine

You’re invited to the launch of Arc 59, featuring special guest, East Coast poet Sharon McCartney

Ottawa’s literary scene may still be feeling woozy after the holidays—thanks to Arc Poetry Magazine.

Arc 59—the “Woozy” issue—makes its official debut 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, January 15, at a launch hosted by world-renowned independent Ottawa bookstore, Collected Works (1242 Wellington St. W at Holland).

Special guest, Fredericton poet Sharon McCartney, author of Against (2007), The Love Song of Laura Ingalls Wilder (2007), and Switchgrass Stills (2006), among others, will also read from some of her latest work, including pieces first seen in Arc.

The Winter 2008 issue of Arc is packed with goodies for the new year, among which, most notably, are the prize-winning poems from the 2007 Diana Brebner Prize and 11th annual Poem of the Year contest.

Guy Simser’s “Withdrawl” took top honours in this year’s Brebner competition, judged by Ottawa poet Stephen Brockwell, while LM Rochefort earned an honourable mention. First prize in the Poem of the Year contest, judged by Canada’s poet laureate John Steffler, went to Susan Elmslie for “Box;” Degan Davis took second prize for “Winter;” Aurian Haller’s “from ‘Seamless’” was awarded the third prize, and E. Alex Pierce, Jamella Hagen and Lorri Neilsen Glenn all received honourable mentions.

The evening will feature readings of the winning selections, as well as readings of other new poetry contained in the “Woozy” issue of Arc (including the poem that contains the word “woozy”!). Come have a drink with us, sit back, and enjoy the poetry!

FMI:
promotions [at] arcpoetry [dot] ca
www.collected-works.com

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January 03, 2008

Carmine Starnino

Knock, knock: Is the real Atwood still there?

Excerpt from Feature Review

Margaret Atwood. The Door. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart (2007).

If there’s a Canadian poem readers know by heart, chances are it’s Margaret Atwood’s four-liner “You Fit into Me”. A quick start: “You fit into me / like a hook into an eye.” A quicker ending: “A fish hook / an open eye.” As short lyrics go, it’s flawless: perfectly judged and perfectly ruthless.

“You Fit into Me” was published in 1971, and its sting is a fair example of Atwood’s method at the time. The lovey-dovey snugness we associate with hooks and eyes is exactly the conditioned response she uses to draw blood. But you really have to go back to the late sixties and mid-seventies—when her fish hooks were at their sharpest—to understand why she caused such a stir when she came on the scene. The Circle Game appeared in 1966 looking more or less like any other slim mid-century debut. But the differences were important. Daughter of an entomologist and student of Northrop Frye, Atwood fronted a poetry whose soundings of female consciousness were forensic and archetype-obsessed. She was, at heart, a young poet with an unstoppable knack (six books in the eight years from 1966 and 1974) for writing striking descriptions of extreme emotional states. Some of it recalled Anne Wilkinson, who also overhauled romantic emblems and came to conclusions that, for their time, were just as unflinching (“I’d love this body more / If graved in rigid wood / It could not move.”) But while Wilkinson’s poems simmered without boiling over, Atwood remade her anger into a series of attacks with no retreat.

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posted by Arc on January 03, 2008 permalink
cats: Reviews | Arc 59 Winter 2008
tags: Carmine Starnino | Margaret Atwood | poetry | poetry reviews