Wednesday, March 21, 2012 11:30 AM EDT
Bias against women writers? Heresy from a fledging publisher
Linda Leith
I read John Barber’s recent article on gender bias in the book world with great interest, glad to see the Globe reporting the feminist group VIDA’s findings about the small proportion of women featured in influential literary periodicals.
I know these arguments. I’ve made these arguments, and so have many others. Not only about publications like TLS and The New Yorker, but about book awards and books published, invitations to literary festivals and invitations to sit on juries. It’s a cause I’ve been aware of since the heyday of 1970s feminism: of Ms. magazine and “Herstory,” of Germaine Greer and The Madwoman in the Attic. That was the start just for me, not for the argument. A good book on this subject is How to Suppress Women’s Writing, by Joanna Russ, published in 1983 by the University of Texas Press.
The individuals making these arguments are mostly, though not exclusively, women, and the people looking up in surprise and bewilderment at the very idea of bias are mostly, though not exclusively, men. This is, in short, a feminist issue, one of the quintessentially feminist issues. I’m a woman and a writer, as well as wearing a couple of other hats, and of course I’m glad to see these issues raised again, even if it’s disheartening to recognize the need to raise them again and again. That is one of the points that Russ makes convincingly.
But, but – this is not the whole story, folks. There is another side to this coin. A couple of other sides, at least. I am not interested in the side that dismisses writing by women as “middlebrow fluff,” or as “crazy emotional rollercoasters.” (These are direct quotes from comments on Barber’s article published on the Globe website.)
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Thursday, February 9, 2012 1:36 PM EST
Here's Nancy McKenzie. our George Bowering Baseball Trivia Quiz gal
JUDITH FITZGERALD
However, firstly, secondly and marginally more importantly? Today, this very day, happens to happily and coinkydinkally coincide with Dr. Stompin' Tom Connors's B-Day (b. 1936). Plus? In Other Words, this blog, home of The IOWerZ Bar 'n' Grail? Today, right about now? We turn three!!1! Wowzers!!1! Holee Molee!!1! Zowee!!1! Happy B-Day 2 He and We!!1!
Key of B, Maestro!
Happy B-Day 2 We
Happy B-Day 2 We
In Other Words?
Our Bar 'n' Grail now turns 3
Zo? Ha-Ha-Happy B-Day 2 Wee We Oui :)!!1!
Monday, February 6, 2012 3:29 PM EST
And now a little schadenfreude . . .
Dear IOWerZ:
Please find herewith a poem by the inimitable Clive James so wondrous, so excruciatingly honest, so astonishingly wicked and so incredibly hellarious, it would constitute a criminal act if I did not share this schadenfreude with you.
See U Thursday with fireworks and the Pope is bringing Cake so . . .
What? Gimme a brick :). The big winner of the George Bowering Baseball Trivia Quiz will be made known to all (and, can you believe this? When the winner sent the correct answers, said genius told me their uncle was none other than Mac McKenzie, the man who originated and propagated the Wiarton Willie phenomenon). Amaziah!
Love, Hugz, Air Kisses, Middle Fingers and Baby Toes, J/DiT
Thursday, February 2, 2012 12:52 PM EST
MuseFlash Thursday: Marty Gervais, Patrick Woodcock and so much more
JUDITH FITZGERALD
Windsor's recently installed and justifiably celebrated poet laureate (not to mention top-notch snap-shooter and award-winning journalist), C. H. (Marty) Gervais, sends along an extraordinary 'graph he grants permission to reprint for you, Dear IOWerZ and Rez Reg Readers:
I wrote this piece for Descant; it takes up a great deal of the new Winter Issue . . . It's about Pat Sturn, a photographer who lived till she was 100 . . . I had been taking care of her . . . Pat lived in a tiny stone cottage in old Walkerville [Windsor environs], never married . . . She passed away last March, almost a year ago, now . . . For 113 days, I watched over and looked after her, organized her round-the-clock care and read poetry to her in the afternoons. We talked about Friedrich Schiller's poetry; we talked about Goethe's . . . She was a woman who was photographed by Yousuf Karsh; but, just before she turned 100, she decided she'd throw that photograph away! (Har! I rescued it and am giving it to our museum.) The piece is a diary I wrote during those final days and features her thoughts about them (among other various interesting subjects). Those last days . . . Well, she remained at home until nearly the very end; then, a few days before she died, she entered the hospital. I sat there in the gloom of those winter days, listening, watching, listening and waiting for her to leave us. She so inspired me and she pushed me — Right till the end! — she pushed me to pay attention to poetry, to the next line and because she was, after all, a photographer, she really forced me in a good way to pay attention to the light in that hospital room. In some ineffable way, she lives within me still . . .
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 11:16 AM EST
World Exclusive: Introducing poet Paul Lisson
JUDITH FITZGERALD
Awaiting the arrival of the butcher
O, But what shall I tell you? What is there worth being told?
The future will be luminous and reckless
This it was that the wives prophesied
When I showed up at your door You coaxed me with candy
Shook your bracelet charms and said
Let me wash away all that algebra
Let your punishment fit my crime
We wandered through your wardrobe We drank intemperance
The future was framed by your legs
This it was that the priests envied
O, But what's left to say? What is there that hasn't been sold?
Can you hear the gull's farewell?
The last of the boats has sailed
And church bells no longer chime
How long now, 'til our joined heritage leads to the gallows? You
smile and say: "I’ll always pretend that I'm not smarter than you."
-- Paul Lisson
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 3:02 PM EST
This just in . . . Carol Ann Duffy v. Sir Geoffrey Hill
JUDITH FITZGERALD
A simmering spat-storm burbling on the other side of the pond may well spill over into the international poetry world primarily because Oxford Poetry Professor Sir Geoffrey Hill (b. 1932) delivered a lecture on the state of the art and soundly put the UK's current poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, in her place. A poetic smack-down, if you will, one with "vicious," "spiteful" and "jealous" barbs from, for now, Sir Hill, a fact bound to change as the days pass us by since, as everybody knows, Duffy fearlessly — and occasionally foolishly — speaks her mind.
In his lecture, "Poetry, Policing and Public Order," Sir Hill took the 56-year-old Duffy to task for her willingness "to democratize" the highest art in existence (and, for my money, he did so with unimpeachable logic), citing her willingness to act as cheerleader for the so-called Facebook Generation (among other peccadilloes):
"For the common good she is willing to have quoted by The Guardian interviewer several lines from a poem by herself that could be easily be mistaken for a first effort by one of the young people she wishes to encourage . . . This is democratic English pared to its barest bean and I would not myself have the moral courage to write so. My simultaneous incompatible response is this is not democratic English but cast-off bits of oligarchical commodity English such as is employed by writers for Mills & Boon [think Harlequin] and by celebrity critics appearing on A Good Read or The Andrew Marr Show."
Monday, January 30, 2012 4:17 PM EST
Kudos to Fern G. Z. Carr, poet lawyer
JUDITH FITZGERALD
Former lawyer and current League of Canadian Poets member Fern G. Z. Carr recently achieved quite the distinction: Her biographical listing found its stellar way into The World's Lawyer Poets in conjunction with a research project conducted by Professor James R. Elkins of the West Virginia University College of Law.
Dr. Elkins's database, Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry, is a compendium of biographies of lawyer poets categorized by country. The site contains links to his research, articles about poetry and poetry resources. Carr joins a select group of contemporary Canadian poets; additionally, her poetry, slated for publication in West Virginia University's journal, Legal Studies Forum (which features the literary work of lawyers), also enjoys Parliamentary Poet status. I Am, a lovely example of her talent, can be savoured here. Kudos!
Thursday, January 26, 2012 1:23 PM EST
James Earl Jones v. Chris Walken: A poetic Poe-down
JUDITH FITZGERALD
Now, we understand why James Earl Jones would lay down a pristine spoken-word version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven . . .
But, Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New York) winging his own way on the timeless treasure complete with . . . well . . . do enjoy a peek-see to hear why we remain pretty much zip-tipped (Au: You mean thumb-tied, I think. Ed.):
BTW, James McTeigue's cinematic Poe treatment? You'll find the freshest info concerning The Raven, starring John Cusack, here.
Thursday, January 26, 2012 10:35 AM EST
Wrap-up Wednesday
Judith Fitzgerald
Did you know we can lay claim to our very own Canadian Hall of Fame? S'True (and, equally true, it identifies our greatest writers, both historically and presently, as "talented contemporary authors," additionally noting our collective literary output ranks "as one of the world's best").
Me, neither. You learn something wonder-filling new . . . Great? Great! Judging by the news and events both recently celebrated and presently anticipated, no one could challenge such a great nation / notion; nor, come to think of it, would anyone really want to try . . . would they? Erm . . . Why? We's way too nice and too polite for such thangs :).
Thus, because Wednesday — Hump Day — generally provides columnists, commentarians and bloggers with the opportunity to look both ways before they cross the beat (or, in this instance, to catch up on what we've missed during health-hiatus), I put it to you (ironically) . . . sigh . . . I genuinely hope the following tids, bits and encharming briefs and beauts satisfy your appetites for all things greatfully Canuckian (with the proviso that a pair of exhaustive interviews — one with Buffalo, NY's poet and musician John Kloberdanz, the other with GG poetry shortlister, Vancouver, BC's Garry Thomas Morse — currently on the front burner, will appear in the near future to colourfully brighten and en/lighten these blech-grey winterfied daze.
Monday, January 23, 2012 3:12 PM EST
Monday MuseSplashes
Judith Fitzgerald
Song operates on so many levels. It operates on the level you just spoke of where it addresses the heart in its ordeals and its defeats but it also is useful in getting the dishes done or cleaning the house. It's also useful as a background to courting.
Dear IOWerZ, both Regs and Rez Commentarians, humour yours truly for a digrambling parlour-game moment (particularly since it's one heckuva freaky near-spring Monday here in the normally ice-boxed Heart of The Near North's Almaguin Highlands):
Who, in your opinion, would you consider the English-language speaking world's top poetic dog? Stay with me, please, since the question's a little more germane and a tad less superficial than it might first appear to be.
Personally, my vote goes to SIR Geoffrey Hill, the current Oxford Poetry Professor (who took up his position after Ruth Padel tried to take the process down a notch by enlisting one of her ex-lovers, an Independent journalist, to remind voters for one of the most highly coveted gongs that Derek Walcott had endured public humiliation citing his apparently less-than-honourable sexual proclivities at the allegedly spiteful hands of a student less-than-pleased with her final grade in one of his courses way back in the closing decades of the twentieth century).
In Other Words Contributors
Peter Scowen
Peter Scowen is a communities editor with the Globe and Mail and is responsible for the Globe Books website. He is a veteran reporter and editor who has worked for a number of dailies and alternative weeklies in Toronto and Montreal. He is the author of Rogue Nation: The America the Rest of the World Knows.
Linda Leith
Montreal writer and publisher Linda Leith’s most recent book is Writing in the Time of Nationalism: From Two Solitudes to Blue Metropolis. Publisher and editor of the literary magazine Matrix between 1988 and 1995, she founded Blue Metropolis Foundation in 1997 and was president and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival until she resigned in December 2010 to devote her time to writing and publishing. Her online literary salon .ll. is at http://www.lindaleith.com.
