5/02/2012

Vancouver Book Club report


Wow! What a wonderful afternoon it was on Sunday at The Waldorf. After all these weeks of HYPE and photos, the book club event finally happened. I read for 15 minutes or so, though I spent at least half of that time talking about shark repellent and the Salton Sea (different subjects - don't worry, last I checked there were no sharks in the Salton Sea... perhaps because of the effectiveness of the shark repellent?).

After that came the Q+A, which I thought would last, at best, twenty minutes or so, but instead took up the rest of the two-hour time slot! The questions the audience came up with were thoughtful and probing, and went well beyond the more superficial elements of the book - and they just kept coming, one after another. Along with my book launch and spotting my poem on transit for the first time, being a part of that Q+A was one of the absolute highlights of my first year with The Other Side of Ourselves.

At the end of the gathering, event organizer and recovered-poet Liam Ford announced the winning photo from the TOSOO photo contest, David Jez's "Endless Rope" from week five of the contest, inspired by "The Horse Grazes":

"Endless Rope", © David Jez

Dave was on hand to receive his luxurious prize - a copy of TOSOO and the VBC's next pick, Anakana Schofield's Malarky.


You can read VIA's account of the event (from which I stole these photos) here.

Heaps of thanks to Liam, Liisa, Jen, Erica and everyone else at the Vancouver Book Club for making the event happening, and to Cormorant Books and The Waldorf for doing their part. And to everyone who came out. And to everyone who sent in photos. And to... goodness... let's just say everyone. I couldn't have asked for a better one-year birthday present for my little blue baby.

p.s. To those of you who were at the event and are still looking for a definitive answer to the burning question of the afternoon, I give you the disturbing answer: poop.

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