Pióro

Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński, who died in January at the age of 74, is the latest public figure to be “outed” as a communist-area spy. The Polish version of Newsweek ran a cover story this week on the late writer revealing that his ability to travel to Africa, Asia and Central America throughout the ’60s [...]

Rudy Wiebe received the $25 000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction for his work Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest in a ceremony at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto today. The three member jury chose Wiebe’s memoir of growing up in rural Saskatchewan from a set of three finalists, [...]

I have a “dis-in-waiting” for the next over-zealous Russophile I meet. It’s not a common practice for me—to store up bons/mauvais mots—but sometimes inspiration hits and you think maybe you’ve got a keeper. For example, just yesterday I found the perfect way to translate “shit-tastic” into French: merde-ific. Truly inspired.
I’ve reserved the Russophile dis for [...]

The Globe and Mail has a contest that has caught my attention. They run part of a recent novel for five days and on the last day readers are invited to submit reviews. This routine will go on for six weeks. At the end of each week, ten reviews are drawn and the winners each [...]

Elif called last night to say that Pebbled has been accepted into the Stratford-Upon-Avon International Digital Film Festival. That’s right. Her work is going to the Bard’s hometown. My voice, which is the only part of me in the film, will float into the Stratford air and I’ve still never visited the place. I wonder [...]

An art project can have a life of its own, especially when Elif is behind it.
Two years ago, when Martha and I were marooned in Whitby, Elif called me and said, “Matt, we’re doing something for the Station Gallery.” Out of nowhere, Elif approached the head of the gallery and said that she was a [...]

Dear Scream Literary Festival,
Thank you for wasting my time. I know artsy types are usually late and start times are flexible. That’s why I arrived at the Metalogos reading half an hour after the posted start time of 5pm. The nice lady at the door then said that the performances by Paul Dutton, Nobuo Kubota, [...]

Few in the crowd waiting for David Sedaris were actually wearing corduroy or denim. They sported lighter fabrics for their shorts and skirts. Fifteen minutes before Sedaris was scheduled to read, the available seating was filled up at the Bay/Bloor Indigo store. People leaked into the surrounding aisles. The two women next to me voiced [...]

[If the title of this post leaves you stratching your head, and you have Windows Media Player, watch this.]
I had a terrible introduction to Henry James. I had to work with him on an undergrad short-story assignment. Each student in the class, after calling out a few random numbers, got a sentence from the prof’s [...]

Umberto Eco stoked interest in his new novel tonight at his appearance at the Harbourfront Centre. Throughout his reading from his new novel, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, his interview and the audience questions, he was charming, gracious and outright hilarious. The reading was 66% English and 33% Italian. The part read in Italian [...]