Tuesday, October 30, 2007

A Call for Papers

To all you grad students out there, we're calling for papers! If you think you can be in Montreal for the end of March...


Concordia University - Department of English - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Sixth Annual Graduate Colloquium
March 28 & 29, 2008
Theme: Anatomy of Passions

In recent years, many critics in the humanities have turned their
attention to affect and emotion. As Brian Massumi tells us, "affect is
central to an understanding of our information- and image-based late
capitalist culture." But how do we account for affect's putative
centrality in contemporary culture? How is the value of emotion
figured in other historical periods? Literature and the arts offer the
most nuanced and sophisticated articulation of these issues: how do
art objects anatomize emotions and the complicated force they take on
in our lives?

The 6th annual Concordia Graduate Colloquium, hosted by
the English Department, invites papers that engage the question of
affect in its philosophical, aesthetic, and political guises. Our
cultural history may be read as a repository of claims about emotion's
origin, expression, and purpose, ranging from classical notions of
Eros and catharsis to claims about the current "waning of affect"
(Jameson). We invite emerging critics to engage this vital field of
aesthetic and cultural inquiry. Papers may be inspired by but are not
limited to the following:

• "Empty" states: dread, anxiety, apathy, acedia
• Second-order emotions and minor emotional categories
• Subjectivity/Objectivity; Passivity/Activity
• Moral Sentiments
• Allegories and symbols of feeling
• Propaganda, group mentalities, theories of audience
• Libertinism and aestheticism
• Privileged and underprivileged emotions
• Volition, Agency, and Responsibility
• Consuming passions: commodities, technologies, and substances

Please send a 200-300 word abstract by Monday, January 7, 2008:
By e-mail: colloquiumconcordia@gmail.com

Saturday, October 27, 2007

At last! FAKE LAUNCH! November 30!

To celebrate the end of the ambitious "Snaring the New West" book tour and the release of ryan fitzpatrick's first trade collection of poetry, you are invited to bask in the glowing, warming, warming glow of FAKE MATH, a book that attempts to interrogate the profit motive and the ways in which it affects and controls our lives. FAKE MATH has been hailed (by ryan's good friend Chris Blais in a private email) as "F-ing Genius": a claim that may or may not be true. Only you can attend the launch to validate or disprove these claims!

When: Friday, November 30, 2007 7:30pm

Where: Birds and Stone Performance Theatre
204 16th Ave NW, (in the basement of the Unitarian Church of Calgary)

Cost: Free!

This event is open to the public and is all-ages.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Thumbscrews Book Launch!

Come celebrate the launch of Natalie Zina Walschots' first book.



Friday, October 26th at 7:30pm
Pages Books, 1135 Kensington Road

Thumbscrews is a poetic engagement with the aesthetics of sadomasochism and consensual pain. It employs the techniques of mannerist poetry to constrain language as ropes, cuffs, or shackles might be used to constrain the body. Each poem can be taken as a miniature sadomasochistic encounter where language is tied up, beaten, and twisted into submission. This book abuses language; language begs for it.

November Flywheel: Day of the Dead

Readings from:
Glen Dresser
Doug Ferguson
Ian Kinney
Andre Rodrigues

Hosts: Emily Elder, Bronwyn Haslam, and Natalie Zina Walschots


Thursday, November 1 – 7:00 pm
Prairie Ink Restaurant
McNally Robinson Bookstore – 120 8th Ave SW

Do you find that Halloween doesn't satisfy your need for creativity? A
proud participant in the Olympic Plaza Cultural District's First
Thursday initiative, this instalment of the flywheel reading series
promises an evening of literary and experimental madness at McNally
Robinson. On November 1, you will find a creatively satiating line-up
of Calgary writerly gentlemen who will titillate, provoke, and
challenge daily conventions.

Join Glen Dresser and Doug Ferguson to celebrate their recently
released novels! Experience the pleasing insanity of Andre Rodrigues'
linguistic gymnastics! Finally, discover the newcomer Ian Kinney,
editor of cutting edge publication NōD magazine!

PLUS: Don't forget the flywheel prize draw, and the flywheel limited
edition posters! Not only will attendees get to hear top-notch
literature, but they'll also have the chance to win swag from filling
Station magazine and McNally Robinson Booksellers.

Every month since November 2003, filling Station magazine's flywheel
reading series has brought poetry, prose, music, lectures and
performance to the heart of downtown Calgary. It's a place for
first-time readers to share the stage with professional authors, for
Calgary audiences to see their favourite writers alongside the next
generation of literary superstars.

CONTACTS:
Emily Elder 403.383.1356
Bronwyn Haslam 403.209.1010
flywheel.fs@gmail.com

Next flywheel: December 6, 2007 – Multi-Lingual Edition of flywheel

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Mature Writers Call for Poetry Submissions

In response to the cultural emphasis placed on young & emerging authors, we seek submissions for an anthology of contemporary Canadian poetry featuring up-and-coming mature writers. Work can be in any style or tradition, collaborative or by a single author, but please limit submissions to twenty pages. If you feel these criteria apply to you, please send poetry as an attachment in Word .doc or .rtf format or in the message of an email to the editors, kevin mcpherson eckhoff & Heidi Garnett, at portage.anthology@gmail.com. Be sure to include your email address, phone number & a brief bio. The sooner submissions are received, the better, but the final deadline for work is January 31st, 2008.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

You Are Invited! Yes, YOU!

To the Toronto launch for Booty: Hurricane Jane and Typhoon Mary. Mercury is launching all their fall titles! So Exciting!

Monday, October 01, 2007

Eleventh Transmission Issue #15 now online!

Hello everyone,Issue #15 of Eleventh Transmission is now online! http://www.eleventhtransmission.org.

Eleventh Transmission is Calgary's arts, culture, media, and activism magazine. This issue features:
-art by John Antoski
-poems from the 2007 Calgary Slam Team's new chapbook titled Fourskin
-Calgary to Banff timelapse video by Greg Waschmann

Also included is "In History," a poem from Belgium's Martin Burke, articles on Calgary's Take Back the Night and Street Fashion Show, follow up fiction to last month's "The Secret," and more!

Check it out at http://www.eleventhtransmission.org.

Don't forget to check out details of the Second Annual Fiction Contest.

Hope you enjoy this issue.

Much love to all,
Kirk