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2022

Larder: First reading

Rhona & Arleen & the book table behind

Last night was the first poetry reading I’ve given in a good long while, and the first at the Fanny Bay Fat Oyster series for about a decade.. it seems my last appearance must have been a reading from Digging the City.

Last night we were blessed with an ample and responsive audience – clearly delighted to be emerging from a couple of year’s worth of cabin fever, finally able to engage in an evening of cautious socializing – and three poets reading from new collections, all with very different styles and subjects.

Judy LeBlanc organized us and did the introductions; Brian Latta took photos, did setup and sound; and a team of volunteers helped with promotion, took tickets, set up chairs, baked cookies, sold coffee and commanded the book table – all those things that go into running a good local literary event. My thanks to all involved.

First up was local (Comox Valley) poet Kelly Madden who read from her first poetry collection, If I’d Known, a series of compact, visceral poems about loss, abuse and grief. Victoria poet Arleen Paré, my Caitlin Press ‘stable-mate’, read from her seventh collection, Time Out of Time , a series of poems written as an affectionate response to the work of Etel Adnan and her Griffin prize-winning collection Time. And then I read a selection of poems from Larder – including “Aristotle’s Lantern”, “Skunk Cabbage”, “Dog, Running”, “Gravy” and “Devil Spawn of the Devil Grass Wheat”.

Kelly Madden
Arleen Paré
Rhona McAdam
Kelly reads to a rapt audience

 

Larder… the Book!

There is this now obligatory photo of authors opening a box of their books, the first glimpse of the real object. You can send off pages to a publisher, you can get typesetting proofs, you can see the cover image, but it’s not real until it’s in your hand. E-books have their place in our world nowadays, but nothing beats a well-designed, genuine book, printed on real paper.  Here’s mine.

I’ll be reading from it at the Fat Oyster reading series, in Fanny Bay Hall on Vancouver Island, a week from today, May 12. If you’re within reach, it would be great to have you in the audience! This marks the return to face-to-face readings for the series, post-pandemic.

There will be 3 of us reading: another Caitlin Press author, Arleen Paré, whose latest collection, Time Out of Time, riffs on the work of another poet, the Lebanese-American poet Etel Adnan. Comox Valley poet Kelly Madden will be there too, reading from her first collection, If I’d Known.

Here’s our poster:

Larder.. the cover!

And the winning cover image turns out to be.. Still Life with Bowl of Citrons, by Giovanna Garzoni. Very pleased with the look of this one.

Much as I would have liked to feature the work of a living woman artist, Garzoni is an impressive figure in art history, and the Italian connection is satisfying, given the presence of poems written during my studies in Italy.

I had wanted something food related, but also to bring in the natural world. The insect figure may or may not be a wasp; but for purposes of this collection, that’s what we’re calling it, to chime with the wasp poem within!

The book will be out sometime in May, but pre-orders can be taken now by visiting Caitlin Press.

Upcoming readings and appearances are on my News page, which I’ll update as details change or get added. But here’s what’s coming up in the next couple of months:

Covering poetry

We’re getting close – the new poetry collection heads to the printer late next week! Over the past month I’ve looked at thousands of images, trying to reconcile the themes in the book, the title (Larder), cost (small press, no budget for images), orientation (vertical preferred for ease of design), size (bigger than 1mb)… my head spins.

I loved so many of the images I saw, so here are a few that didn’t make the cut but which I offer for your enjoyment:

Raspberries on a Leaf (1858) oil on panel painting by Lilly Martin Spencer

I simply love this surprising still life for its simplicity and unexpected juxtaposition of raspberries and the cabbage leaf.

Mason Jar with Blackberry Fruit by Joanne Thomson

Victoria artist Joanne Thomson painted a whole Mason Jar series which is incredibly beautiful. I liked this jar in particular because it had blackberries in it, and blackberries do occur in my poetry.

Still Life with Birds and Fruit by Giovanna Garzoni & Jacopo Ligozzi c. 1650

I would happily have anything by Giovanna Garzoni on my book cover. Discovering her 17th century still life paintings, which look fresh and contemporary to me, was a delight. They frequently include birds or insects, which combines the natural world with food items, and my poems address both.

from shutterstock

I have been looking for images with that ‘look again’ quality, which somehow integrate food imagery with the natural world. Brussels sprouts do look egg-like, and I like the loose and leafy basket.

Playing catch-up

Time has got away from me, but here are a few highlights of my doings since November.

Christmas came and went – abbreviated by pandemic restrictions, but enlivened by snow, which after a couple of days of heavy shovelling became old fairly soon, particularly when accompanied by a polar vortex. Which was then followed by an atmospheric river, though happily not to the degree we experienced in November.

And then some signs of spring (rhubarb) to come, though it’s frozen and thawed and frozen and thawed since then. It will be a while until the soil is warm and dry enough to start planting anything. Meanwhile, I’m sorting and swapping seeds with neighbours and getting ready to plan this year’s garden.

In literary news, one of my poems, Tasting Dirt (all about compost!) appears boldly on the front inner cover of the current issue of Small Farmer’s Journal (winter 2021). Fascinating and one of a kind journal, lavishly illustrated, with lots on farming with horses and oxen, and all kinds of interesting detail on everything from setting up a binder to a report on the apples of New York in 1908.

Another poem, Hügelkultur, which happens also to be on a soil-amendment theme, appeared in the autumn issue of the long running UK literary journal Acumen, and was featured as a guest poem.

And finally, an update on the rice porridge post below, from last summer: I made some with black (“Forbidden”) rice and it was as delicious as I remembered. In addition to the spring onions, crispy shallots, cilantro, sesame oil etc, I added some winter broccoli and Romanesco florets, and fennel fronds and slices and a dash of gomasio. A perfect winter food.