Thursday 27 March 2014

The first Buckrider Books title is here!

D. D. Miller's new short story collection, David Foster Wallace Ruined My Suicide & Other Stories, is hot of the press and ready to launch next month. Here's what some have already said about the book:

"D. D. Miller's David Foster Wallace Ruined My Suicide and Other Stories pulls back the curtain on the tense and darkly funny world of post-millenial men. Tasked with negotiating a universe of amateur porn stars, chat room suiciders, and distracted derby girls, Miller's men are brazen, yet oddly disengaged -- and above all, sharply observed."
-- Elisabeth de Mariaffi, author of How to Get Along with Women

"A striking debut. With unwavering eye and mordant humour, these stories gently scrape the civil façade to reveal what’s awkward, raw and, sometimes, brutal in us. D. D. Miller is a writer to watch."
-- Bill Gaston, author of The World and Gargoyles

Saturday 22 March 2014

I'm teaching a poetry workshop for the QWF in Montreal on April 26

Hey Montreal, I'll be teaching a poetry workshop called Wreckage & Recycling in your beautiful city on Saturday, April 26, 2014. The workshop will concentrate on several forms, ancient and modern, that scavenge old texts in order to construct new poems from the fragments of the past. These forms include centos, erasures, glosas, text collages, and more. We will investigate the history of these practices, and examine their contemporary resurgence. Time will also be devoted to writing and work-shopping new poems using these techniques. To register, or for more information, please visit the QWF website.


Wednesday 19 March 2014

The Wolsak & Wynn / Buckrider Books Launch is April 16th at the Gladstone Ballroom!


I'm very excited about launching these three books next month. This is the inaugural season of my new imprint with Wolsak & Wynn Publishers: Buckrider Books. To celebrate the idea of new beginnings, all three books are debut collections.

The books we're launching are David Foster Wallace Ruined My Suicide and Other Stories, a short story collection by D. D. Miller; The Stag Head Spoke, poetry by Erina Harris; and Everyone is CO2, poetry by David James Brock.

And here are the details of the launch:

WHEN: Wednesday, April 16th at 7pm.

WHERE: The Gladstone Ballroom
at the Gladstone Hotel 
1214 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M6J 1J6
See map

RSVP via our event page on Facebook.

Sunday 16 March 2014

Watching UFC with poets.

Recently, I got together with some of my friends to watch a UFC event on pay-per-view. Jeff Latosik and Jacob McArthur Mooney have been doing this since we were roommates, and other friends often join us. In this instance, it was Natalie Zina Walschots and David James Brock. Normally, a group of friends watching sports on TV wouldn't be out of the ordinary, but the fact that we're all poets -- not stereotypical MMA fans, I suppose -- caught the attention of writer Nathan Whitlock, and he recorded the event for the Toronto Star. The Star included a new poem of mine, "The Palace of Eternal Youth", with the article. You can read it all here.

Me, Jake, Dave, Zed, Jeff.
Photo by Aaron Harris for the Toronto Star. 



Wednesday 12 March 2014

Want to learn more about writing poetry?

I'll be teaching an eight-week introductory level poetry writing course at the University of Toronto this spring. It's one night a week from April 15 until June 3rd. Do you know anyone with an interest in writing poetry? Perhaps this is the class for them. Click here for details.




Saturday 8 March 2014

I have events next month in Toronto, Richmond Hill, and Montreal

Hi everyone, just a few events coming up next month. I hope to see you there!


WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2014
TORONTO, ON
7 pm.

I'm launching my new imprint with Wolsak & Wynn. The imprint is called Buckrider Books, and in its inaugural season we're publishing poetry collections by David James Brock and Erina Harris, and a short story collection by D. D. Miller. The launch is at the Gladstone Ballroom. For more information, visit our event page on Facebook.


SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014     
RICHMOND HILL, ON 
1:00 to 4:00 pm.

Richmond Hill Public Library's Poetry Gala, hosted by celebrated poet Barry Dempster, is celebrating its tenth anniversary. I'll be one of several poets participating. The event takes place from 1:00 to 4:00 pm, and the library is situated on the southwest corner of Major Mackenzie and Yonge Street. Readers include Kimmy Beach, Barry Dempster, Jeramy Dodds, Elizabeth Greene, Ann Shin, and Paul Vermeersch.


THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2014
MONTREAL, PQ
7 pm.

Erin Knight and I will be reading in the Atwater Poetry Project in Montreal. The Atwater Poetry Project is an almost-monthly poetry reading series that brings the best local, Canadian, and international poets together with a passionate audience of poetry fans. The library is located at 1200 Atwater Ave., Westmount.

Friday 7 March 2014

What's a Buckrider?

The imprint I edit for Wolsak & Wynn is called Buckrider Books, but what is a Buckrider?

According to legend, the buckriders (or de bokkenrijders) were bands of robbers who terrorized the countryside around present-day Limburg in the 18th century. Having made a pact with Satan, the buckriders would fly through the sky on the backs of goats, stealing from travellers, farms and churches. Hundreds of suspected buckriders were rounded up and executed in a vicious crackdown that was part Salem witch trials, part Spanish inquisition.

Princeton University has a short encapsulation of the buckrider legend here, and for a slightly more detailed account, Dutch Ancestry Magazine has an article with links to a buckrider genealogy board here, and there's even a society of historians called the Buckrider Fellowship who are dedicated to researching and preserving the history of the buckriders.

The legend still has a lot of influence in the region today. Flanders Today published an article last year in its Mysterious Flanders series called "Uneasy Riders" about the effect of the legend on the community of Wellen and its overlap with the tragic fate of an early Flemish cycling hero. And today in the Dutch city of Roermond, sportsfans can cheer on the local rugby club the Bokkerijders!  I think I'll see if I can get my hands on one of their jerseys.

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Get a free download of D.D. Miller's story "Son of Son of Flying Pig" from Wolsak & Wynn's Website

D.D. Miller's short story collection David Foster Wallace Ruined My Suicide and Other Stories is the first fiction title from the new Buckrider Books imprint. The book comes out next month, but while you wait, you can  download a sample story, "Son of Son of Flying Pig", for free from the Wolsak and Wynn website. 

Click here to find out more.

Introducing my new imprint: Buckrider Books!


I stopped acquiring new poetry titles for the 4 A.M. Books imprint after the spring 2012 season. At that time, I was in the process of starting my new job as senior editor of Wolsak and Wynn Publishers Ltd, where I was laying the groundwork on a new poetry and fiction imprint. That new imprint, called Buckrider Books, will launch in the spring of 2014 with three titles:



Watch this space for more updates about the books and authors of Buckirder Books and Wolsak and Wynn Publishers Ltd. For more frequent updates, please visit the Wolsak and Wynn website, or follow W&W on Twitter and Facebook.


NOTE: Information about the books published under my 4A.M. Books imprint with Insomniac Press will be archived here