Happy birthday Robert Martens

Cover image by Chiu Ming Chiang

The author of Poltergeist (2011) has agreed to do Seven of the Proust so that we can celebrate his birthday.

Here are his down to earth answers:

1.What is your idea of happiness?

Life with a community of good people.

2.What is your favourite virtue?

Kindness. Much underrated.


3.What is your biggest weakness?

Passivity. Perhaps that's why I admire activists so much.

4.Who are your favourite poets?

As a young guy, William Blake was the man. Even a couple of years ago, my first destination in London was the Tate and the roomful of Blake etchings. I also love Allen Ginsberg, who is interesting even when his poems are slovenly. Passion is all I ask.

5.Who are your favourite heroes and heroines in history?

I can't say I have any heroes or heroines at all. But I admire the good people, with all their flaws, who live for justice, peace, as they can, in little ways.

6. What do you most dislike?

Politicians who smile through their teeth.

 

 

7. What is your motto?

Make it through another day—with joy.

Disease and Desire by Kim Clark now available at Lipstick

Disease and Desire is a manuscript of the body's domain and the spirit's will to fight the disease's abduction of the body, revealed through the first poem:

The Abduction
My body held poetry for ransom,
sinistral threat—
first with a little finger
[accidental pizzicato], next
my left foot.
The price was high, mind had to pay up
to make room for the lyric line.
The bootie crossed the blood-brain barrier,
[nothing to do with fair trade]
—poetic packets of plasma data
on the back of stealthy protein
hugged the perimeter,
stole through the interior
over the border—
words worth their weight
in myelin.


Through determination, rage and the embrace of every moment, Kim Clark shows us she is not the victim of the disease, which is Multiple Sclerosis, and not the survivor, but master of the art of living regardless of the pain that interrupts her will.

This manuscript is not for the glossy catalogues of platitudes that glaze over raw emotion.  Nor is it for the museum of documented sufferings.  This is the literary vivisection of a particular life displayed without pity.  As you read each page you will laugh and cry and be thankful for getting to know Kim through her unapologetic disclosures.

About Kim Clark

Disease and desire, mothering and the mundane propel Kim's ongoing journey between poetry and prose. Her debut fiction collection, Attemptations (Caitlin Press), was launched in 2011 and one of its novellas has been optioned for a 90 minute feature film. Kim’s work can be found in Body Breakdowns (Anvil Press), the Malahat Review, and e-zines and other publications in Canada and the U.S.. She lives in Cedar on Vancouver Island.

Lipstick Press
767 Chelwood Road
Gabriola BC V0R 1X1
lipstickpress@shaw.ca
www.lipstickpress.com

ISBN:  978-0-9880043-0-6

28 pages
Cover image: “Mushroom” photo © 2012 Janet Vickers
$10 per copy plus shipping
To order email lipstickpress@shaw.ca

Al Rempel has a new website



Cover design © 2010 Jayson Hencheroff

Al Rempel is the author of The Picket Fence Diaries (2010), "understories" (Caitlin Press), and another forthcoming "This Isn't the Apocalypse We Hoped For". You can find out more about Al at: http://al-rempel.webnode.com/.

Congratulations Al on your continued success.

Happy Birthday Heidi Greco

Heidi is the author of A: the Amelia Poems which was the first book published by Lipstick Press in 2009.

Since that time Heidi has published a novella titled Shrinking Violets (Quattro 2011), has a poem in A Verse Map of Vancouver (Anvil, 2009), and has contributed to the recent anthology
Igniting the Green Fuse which came out of the Eco Poetry Workshop in Seattle.

Lipstick wishes Heidi the best most creative year ever.