2/25/2017

Reading and Signing - Tomorrow! Coquitlam! Now With Double The Poets!

As I mentioned previously, tomorrow I will be giving my "homecoming" reading in Coquitlam, a few minutes walk from my high school.

As never mentioned before this moment the reading will open with a special guest poet - Diane Tucker! Diane will be reading a couple poems - hopefully from her latest collection, Bonsai Love (you can read my interview with Diane about the book here) - to open the afternoon.

It all goes down at 1:30 PM Saturday. The full details:

Rob Taylor Signing and Reading
with Special Guest Diane Tucker!

Saturday, February 25th, 1 - 3 PM
Reading at 1:30 PM
Chapters Pinetree
Pinetree Village, Unit #38
2991 Lougheed Highway
Coquitlam, BC
Free!
Poster:


I hope to see you there!



2/16/2017

March Dead Poets Lineup Announced!

The next Dead Poets Reading Series event will take place at the Vancouver Public Library's Central Branch (Alice MacKay room) on March 12th, 2017, from 3-5 PM.

It will feature:

Elizabeth Bishop (1911 - 1979), read by Carole Glasser Langille
Robert Browning (1812 - 1889), read by W.H. New
Leonard Cohen (1934 - 2016), read by Jennifer Zilm
Jim Harrison (1937 - 2016), read by Nora Gould
Georg Heym (1887 - 1912), read by Melanie Kage

I'm especially excited to have Nora Gould reading. She will only be in town for a couple days following readings in Victoria (to promote her new book Selah). You can read my interview with Nora, about her first collection I see my love more clearly from a distance, here.

Attendance is free. For more info, visit the DPRS website.

I hope to see you there!

2/13/2017

Mission Writers and Readers Festival

I'm very happy to be giving a reading, and running a workshop, at this year's Mission Writers and Readers Festival, alongside pals Jordan Abel and Daniela Elza (and many more!). The details:

Mission Writers and Readers Festival
Saturday, March 4th, 2017, 10 AM - 4 PM
UFV Mission Campus, Heritage Park Centre
33700 Prentis Avenue, Mission BC
Registration: $40 ($20 for students) - includes lunch! Register here.
Poster:


I'll be giving a short reading at lunch and a workshop (on poetic forms which encouraging shifts and turns in your poetry - ghazals, haibun, sonnets, etc.) in the afternoon. You can learn more about the entire schedule of workshops and readings here.

If you're out that way, or keen for a drive (I think it'll be worth the trip!) I'd love to see you there.


2/10/2017

Whitman or Mallarmé?

I think of myself as the unity of my tensions, a unity forever sought, and one of my chief tensions is, Should I be Whitman or should I be Mallarmé? Should I include everything explicitly, which is so beautiful a thing to do, so powerful, so right, or should I severely essentialize, going deep, deep to the very end of depth, through one tiny jewel of approach, making as little concession as possible to any verbal elements other than the strictest needs of refined poetic expression—which is so beautiful a thing to do?

- A.F. Moritz, in interview with Evan Jones over at Canadian Notes & Queries. You can read the whole thing here.

2/07/2017

Coquitlam Chapters Reading - February 25th

I'm heading waaay back to where it all began (a whole 40 minute drive!) to give a "hometown reading" at the Chapters in Coquitlam. It was from that store's poetry stacks (ok, "stack"... ok, "half a shelf") that I purchased my first poetry books. So I'm pretty darn pleased to be going back on February 25th!

I'll be there to sign books (It's a poetry book, so line up early!) starting at 1, and reading around 1:30. All the details:

Rob Taylor Signing and Reading
Saturday, February 25th, 1 - 3 PM
Reading at 1:30 PM
Chapters Pinetree
Pinetree Village, Unit #38
2991 Lougheed Highway
Coquitlam, BC
Free!
Poster:


If you're in town, I'd love to see you there! You can RSVP via Facebook here (or, y'know, just show up).


2/06/2017

12 or 20 questions Interview

rob's blog dates back to 2003. the blog's header: 1992-ish?
As regular readers will know, I use this blog as a depository for smart, interesting things I catch people saying about writing (362 quotes and counting!). I file them here, and also over there ---> in the "quotes on writing by..." section of the sidebar.

No interview series has given me more material than rob mclennan's 12 or 20 questions. Over the years, I've quoted eighteen different "12 or 20 questions" interviews here, which I think safely makes me the leading 12 or 20 questions enthusiast on the internet.

So needless to say I was pretty chuffed to be invited to join the party and answer the 20 (never 12... why the 12?) questions myself. You can read my interview here:


12 or 20 (second series) questions with Rob Taylor


Thanks to rob for the opportunity, and for the unhealthily large amount of work he does promoting Canadian literature. It's very much appreciated.

If you haven't read rob's interviews before, check them out!

2/02/2017

desk blog count: sixteen was never sweeter


Desk blog #16 is upon us, and once again credit for finding it goes to rob mclennan. rob, in fact, is so devoted to desk blogs that he has assembled a list of desk blogs his very own slab of pine has been featured in.

Deskblogmaniacs, when we finally get around to doling out Desk Blog Fan Club lifetime memberships, let's make sure rob's name is at the top of the list (yes, of course, lifetime memberships will include a life's worth of free injections to keep Desk Blog Mania from overtaking your system and ravaging your vital organs. You're welcome, rob!!!).

rob mclennan's TARDIS
and heirloom CRT monitor
rob's latest find is realpants.com's "From the Desk Of" series. Highlights (beyond rob's explosion, picture here) include Chelsea Martin's lemonade-stand-love-desk and Alexandra Naughton's unicorn. Be warned: there's an overwhelming volume of whimsy up on some of these desks!

Here are the slippery sixteen:

On My Desk [Defunct: Archived Here]

Desk Space

Sitting Pretty Magazine

Writers' rooms (Guardian Newspaper)

What Is Your Ideal Space to Create? (Ploughshares Lit Journal)

"Workspace" Section (Branch Magazine)

At The Desk (Open Book Toronto)

Writers' Rooms (VIWF)

Good Places to Write

On The Writer's Desk (Open Book Toronto)

Where Do You Write to My Lovely?

10 Stunning Writing Studios (Flavorwire)

Writing Spaces (The New Quarterly)

3 Room Editors Share Their Writing Rooms With Us (Room Magazine)

Tiny Rooms of One's Own (Open Book Toronto)

From the Desk of (Real Pants Magazine)


Keep hunting, Deskblogmaniacs - don't let rob do all the work for everyone (like he does for blogging, publishing, promoting, etc).