Thursday, 12 December 2019

Presenting my first self-published chapbook in 20 years!

I taught a class on the history of self-publishing, DIY culture and the literary micropress this past semester, and as part of their final project my students made short print runs of their own chapbooks and zines. Inspired by their fabulous work, I decided to make my first self-published chapbook in twenty years!







A poetry chapbook by Paul Vermeersch



Dimensions: 8.5" x 5.5" 



24 pages 



Cardstock covers with printed endpapers. 
Numbered in an edition of 50, this chapbook contains new, previously uncollected poems: a sneak peek of some of the new material scheduled to appear in Shared Universe: New and Selected Poems 1995-2020 (ECW Press, Fall 2020). To order a copy (ten bucks plus shipping), click here


Thursday, 21 November 2019

I am profiled on Sheridan's Curiosities blog

My friend Cherie Dimaline and third-year Creative Writing & Publishing student Brianna Wodabek talk to Sheridan News staff about my writing and teaching work, and Cherie goes into detail on the night we met at Rideau Hall. Read all about it here.


 Reading a poem at the launch of Cherie Dimaline's novel Empire of Wild
at Lula Lounge in Toronto. Photo by Kevin Hardcastle.


Friday, 8 November 2019

The Joseph Bloor T-Shirt is Back!

Toronto history buffs, this is for you. The Joseph Bloor T-shirt is back, better and more affordable than ever. Available now on the Saint Bigfoot Redbubble store in a variety of options.







Monday, 21 October 2019

Saturday, 21 September 2019

Reading at the Art Bar Poetry Series this Tuesday

I'm doing a reading at The Art Bar Poetry Series this Tuesday at 8pm. I hope this poster captures the right vibe. I'm never sure.





Monday, 29 July 2019

"Motel" supplies epigraph for new Dimaline novel

I am honoured that an excerpt of my poem "Motel" from my recent book Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy supplies the epigraph to Cherie Dimaline's new novel Empire of Wild (September, 2019).

I will be joining Cherie in Toronto this September, along with Canisia Lubrin and Catherine Hernandez, to help launch Empire of Wild at the Lula Lounge. I will be reading my poem, while Canisia will join Cherie on stage for a conversation about her new book, and Catherine will perform burlesque. Details below.

JOIN US FOR THE LAUNCH OF THIS SPECTACULAR NEW NOVEL! 

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019
TORONTO, ON
Lula Lounge
Doors at 6pm, event at 7pm
1585 Dundas Street West
With guests Canisia Lubrin and Paul Vermeersch. 
Special burlesque performance by Catherine Hernandez.



Friday, 19 July 2019

HAPPY MUTATIONS, the debut album by LASERGNU, is now available

Two years ago I was talking to A. G. Pasquella about his band Miracle Beard. I love their music, so I asked A. G. how they worked together. He told me, but I wanted to see for myself. "Show me," I said. 
In September, 2017, he showed me. We met at his house and talked about music and we collaborated on our first song. I had just created the LASERGNU logo for my book Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy, so I suggested we form our own band and call it LASERGNU.
We did. 
Today, nearly two years later, we are releasing our first album HAPPY MUTATIONS. Collaborating with A. G. on this project has been a joy. I think it's a fun record, and I'm excited about making more music with LASERGNU in the future. If you like spacey, oddball electronica, then I think you'll like this. Click on the image below to visit our website and get the album. There are a limited number of free downloads available. 
And thanks to A.G. for showing me the way.




Monday, 1 July 2019

LASERGNU releases two new singles for Canada Day

It is Canada Day! As a gift to the nation, today LASERGNU are releasing two new singles. You can chill out to the smooth sounds of "Happy Mutations (Life Pt. 1)" and then get funky with "Live at the Cerebral Interface"! The first 200 downloads are PWYC! Visit https://www.lasergnu.com to listen and download. A full album is coming this summer.







Monday, 24 June 2019

Introducing LaserGnu, and our new single "Mission Theme"!



June 24, 2019: I've been collaborating with Toronto-based novelist A. G. Pasquella for the last few years on a music project. We call our band LaserGnu, and we've just released our debut single "Mission Theme."

Our mission is to make the most interesting music we can using platforms, software, and techniques available to pretty much everyone.

You can click on the link below to check out "Mission Theme" on our BandCamp page, and stay tuned for our first album Happy Mutations coming out later this summer.












Thursday, 30 May 2019

LAUNCH: a new issue of the Humber Literary Review launches on June 10

The launch of the latest issue of the Humber Literary Review is coming up on June 10. I'll be there reading with some of the other contributors. The new issue features art by Kent Monkman. Should be a fabulous night.



When: June 10, 7-10pm
Where: The Piston, Toronto.
See you there!


Tuesday, 23 April 2019

Common Reading Series at Campbell House, Toronto, March 25th, 2019



There aren't many video recordings of me reading, but here is one. The evening was hosted and curated by Daniel Renton and the videography was done by Alexandra Prochshenko.


Sunday, 14 April 2019

Interview on CBC's The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers

Back in December, I taped an interview with Shelagh Rogers for her CBC books radio program The Next Chapter. My segment aired on the April 13, 2019, episode, along with an interview with my friend Ayelet Tsabari. We talk about my book Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy: monsters, technology, the future, and hope. Many thanks to Shelagh and to producer Barb Carey for making the entire experience positive and fun.



You can listen to my segment here.

And you can hear the entire episode here.





Tuesday, 5 February 2019

New art piece: "The Imaginary World Is Preparing for a Revolution (Sticker Collection #1)>"





"The Imaginary World Is Preparing for a Revolution (Sticker Collection #1)>"
16”x20” custom stickers and gold pen on illustration board, 2019.



"The Imaginary World Is Preparing for a Revolution (Sticker Collection #1)>"
detail



"The Imaginary World Is Preparing for a Revolution (Sticker Collection #1)>"
detail



"The Imaginary World Is Preparing for a Revolution (Sticker Collection #1)>"
detail


Price: TBA






Thursday, 24 January 2019

What the critics have been saying about Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy







"Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy has arrived, and not a moment too soon! Nothing less than a manual for navigating the current landscape of booby-traps and hidden unravelling. An invaluable aid in this time of troubled spirits, muddled truths, and convoluted thinking. Paul Vermeersch has created a template to help us all traverse the highways and bi-ways of an increasingly confused and confusing world full of misinformationalism and bald-faced lies." — Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO

"When you can’t trust anything, the poems argue, your imagination becomes the only valid interpreter of reality…. Part inspirational tract (borne of a deliciously playful inspiration, not the usual kind), part prophetic revelation, and all crafted with Vermeersch’s signature elan, Self Defence for the Brave and Happy is a generous chocolate box stuffed with bon(-bon) mots, the perfect gift for your inner visionary. Shine on, you crazy zircon." — RM Vaughan, THIS Magazine

"Vermeersch captures our culture’s anxieties in these eclectic poems, which range widely in form and draw from pop culture, science (particularly in the Space Age) and literature. Our fears take metaphoric shape as age-old monsters such as the bogeyman and the malicious hag of folklore, but also as real-life menaces such as the atom bomb. The tone is not all doom-laden, though, for Vermeersch suggests that the way forward is through our capacity for imagination." — Barb Carey, The Toronto Star

"One of the great pleasures of reading Vermeersch is not only in his attention to words... but also the way a poem drifts from a unique starting point to something wildly unexpected. This Vermeerschian Drift quantum jumps from line to line through humour, surprise, and a ton of ratiocination." — Kevin Spenst, SubTerrain Magazine

"Pataphysics meets pulp in Paul Vermeersch's sixth collection...a canny pop acceleration equal to the obdurate cargo of politics." — Jesse Eckerlin, Quill and Quire

"In Paul Vermeersch’s conception, we have no need for fictional dystopias: we are living in one right now. The poet’s sixth full-length collection offers a road map for navigating our current moment. One of the poems – 'How to Protect Yourself from Monsters' – could serve as an alternate title for this frightening, yet paradoxically hopeful, work."  Quill and Quire, fall 2018 poetry preview

"Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy, the sixth collection by poet, professor, artist and editor Paul Vermeersch, feels like a flashlight found in a blackout... it strives to give practical examples of better dreaming for the future." — James Lindsay, Open Book

"A deeply intelligent collection that uses its interest in form to contribute significantly to the thoughtful arguments of its content. It both delights during a quick read and rewards careful re-reading... Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy is perceptive, carefully-crafted, melancholy and funny. The simultaneously critical and wryly amused attitude of the collection is perhaps the only self-defence that we have against time and the monsters of our own creation." — Amy Mitchell, The Temz Review

"Replete with deep thinking and reflection, revealing the poet's wide-ranging intellect, eclectic mind, and penchant for sharp satire." — Publishers Weekly 

"It’s like waking from a dream where you’ve been searching through the ruins for — what? Love? Hope? The way back to your world? Only you realize that you’ve been awake all along and the dreams you have are the moments of clarity amid all the madness. Or maybe it’s the other way around. How can you even tell anymore?"  Peter Darbyshire

"Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy is a live virus vaccine for our times, inoculating the reader against the surreality of today’s headlines with a healthy dose of its own. Vermeersch’s poems, flavored with 1950s science fiction and Cold War paranoia, are like the dark lenses in John Carpenter’s They Live, providing a way to see our society more clearly as we race toward climate collapse. It’s not with a strict sense of dread that Vermeersch shows us the end, but wit, wonder, imagination and humor." — Jeff Dupuis

"While the collection might begin in some rather dark places, Vermeersch’s use of humour, pop culture, surrealism and collage work to disarm the increasing anxieties surrounding the darkest possibilities of humanity’s demise.... Between the lyric narratives, essay-poems and visual pieces, I’m intrigued by the broadening of Vermeersch’s structural scope, and how everything contained fits so nicely together."  rob mclennan

"Monsters, futuristic machines, and disinformation abound in this dystopian poetry collection that is a survival guide for what’s clearly coming."  The CoilMost Anticipated September 2018 Books