BookThug Launch: Carellin Brooks, Mike Steeves, Pearl Pirie, Jake Kennedy and kevin mcpherson eckhoff

Hosted by: Sandra Ridley

In Person Poetry

Admission

Free

Sunday

Apr , 2015

6:45pm

Eastern

Christ Church (Festival Café)

414 Sparks Street • Ottawa

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BookThug Launch: Carellin Brooks, Mike Steeves, Pearl Pirie, Jake Kennedy and kevin mcpherson eckhoff

In Pearl Pirie’s poems, language ferments, foments a “vinegar vigour.” Flipping the labels off contemporary mores, cooking with sound, she offers quick food for thought. Keep up with her if you can.

Daphne Marlatt

Join us in launching five new books from BookThung, known for their innovative books of poetry, prose and creative criticism that extend the tradition of experimental literature.

Join us for a taste of One Hundred Days of Rain by Vancouver’s Carellin Brooks; Giving Up by Montreal’s Mike Steeves; the pet radish, shrunken by Ottawa’s Pearl Pirie; Merz Structure No. 2 Burnt by Children at Play, by Kelowna’s Jake Kennedy; and their biography: an organism of relationships by Kelowna’s kevin mcpherson eckhoff.

The Authors

Carellin Brooks

Rhodes Scholar Carellin Brooks is the author of fresh hell: motherhood in pieces (2013), Every Inch a Woman(2011), and Wreck Beach (2007). Her latest book, a novel, is One Hundred Days of Rain (BookThug 2015). She edited the anthologies Carnal Nation, with Brett Josef Grubisic, and Bad Jobs. Winner of the Books in Canada Student Writing Award for poetry (1993), the Cassell/Pink Paper Lesbian Writing Award for non-fiction (1994), and the Institute for Contemporary Arts New Blood Award for prose (1995), Brooks lives and works in Vancouver, where she was born. Connect with Brooks at www.carellinbrooks.com or on Twitter @carellinb.

Jake Kennedy

Jake Kennedy is the author of two poetry collections: The Lateral (2010) and Apollinaire’s Speech to the War Medic(BookThug, 2011). His latest book is Merz Structure No.2 Burnt By Children At Play (BookThug 2015). His work has appeared in literary journals across Canada, the US, and the UK, including The Capilano Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and The Awl. Kennedy is the recipient of the bpNichol Chapbook Award for Hazard (BookThug, 2007), the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry for The Lateral (2010), and the Robin Blaser Award for Poetry for the long poem “Futuromani” (2011). He also received a BC Arts Council Writing Grant in 2013. Kennedy lives in Kelowna, BC, where he teach English literature and creative writing at Okanagan College. Connect with Kennedy on his blog (shared with kevin mcpherson eckhoff) www.gmorningpoetry.blogspot.com or on Twitter @GmorningPoetry.

kevin mcpherson eckhoff

kevin mcpherson eckhoff’s poetry has been described as having “purity, clarity, and intensity of emotion” while “[undermining] our common sense of language.”. His publicaions include Rhapsodomancy (2010), Easy Peasy(2011) and Forge (2013). His latest book is Their Biography: an organism of relationships (BookThug 2015). Recent work appears in the anthologies Why Poetry Sucks and TAG: Canadian Poets at Play, and he co-edited the final issue of Open Letter with his best friend, Jake Kennedy. As the managing editor at Kalamalka Press, he runs the John Lent Poetry- Prose Award, a letterpress chapbook competition for emerging writers. For eight months of the year, he teaches at Okanagan College, and for the remaining four, he hides out at the Shuswap River or Starlight Drive-in or Rose Mountain with his Laurel and Lionheart. Connect with kevin at http://kevinmcphersoneckhoff.com/or follow him on Twitter @GmorningPoetry.

Mike Steeves

Mike Steeves attended University of King’s College in Halifax, where he received a BA in Political Science and English Literature. He completed an MA in English Literature at Concordia University. Steeves lives with his wife and child in Montreal, and works at Con- cordia University. Giving Up is his first full- length book of fiction. Connect with Steeves on Twitter @SteevesMike. Giving Up (BookThug 2015) is his first novel.

Pearl Pirie

Pearl Pirie has been teaching poetry for close to 20 years. Her online classes are held through Studio Nouveau. Her 4th poetry collection is to be released by Radiant Press in the fall of 2020. Her poems have been given the nod for Best Canadian Poetry in English three times. Her newest chapbooks are Call Down the Walls (Frog Hollow Press, Feb. 2019) and Eldon, letters (above/ground, August, 2019). You can buy her poetry at www.pearlpirie.com