I am giving a paper as part of ACCUTE at Congress this coming weekend: “‘Ottawa, / you know nothing / of poems’: William Hawkins and the Small Press in Ottawa.” The paper grew out of editing The Collected Poems of William Hawkins. It looks a bit more broadly at how Hawkins’s life and work make clear some of the contrasts that the small press inhabited in Ottawa in the 1960s, arguing that his poems and their material production as well as his critical reception in the intervening decades are informed by his residence in the capital. The panel is called “Ottawa in Literature / Literature in Ottawa” and will also have papers by Alana Fletcher (Queens) and Zachary Abram (University of Ottawa). Sunday May 31, 1:45-3:15pm. Should be fun!
There is also a reading on Sunday night as an unofficial part of ACCUTE. “A Night of Too Many Poets” runs 7pm at the Carleton Tavern, taking advantage of the sudden influx of poets into the city thanks to Congress. I’ll be reading beside some excellent people, too many to list here. We’re at 13 last I checked. Hopefully it won’t be quite so humid. Come on out!
After far too many years of work, a paper that began its life during my M.A. research will finally see publication.“‘poet and audience actually exist’: The Contact Poetry Reading Series (1957-1962) and the Study of Literary Readings in Canada” is forthcoming in the Spring issue of the Journal of Canadian Studies. I owe a great debt of thanks to a great number of people for helping the paper forward over the years. You will be thanked in person.
You will also find a nice article about Collett Tracey, In/Words, and what some of its past editors are up to now in the latest issue of FASSinate. I am always up for singing the praises of the magazine and its influence on me, and was happy to have the chance to do so once again.
Cameron Anstee 