12 or 20 Questions with rob mclennan

Lipstick Press was interviewed by rob mclennan, who works tirelessly to support writers and small presses. Here is the result.  Please visit.

As I read through the interview I realize all the things that I could have said but didn't. But how can a publisher wax eloquent about the work she has published and their authors without being gushy?  The books stand on their own merit.

happy birthday rob mclennan

who is 40 today!

His chapbook "how it is I am not married / I want to live in the runcible spoon" is still available for $8 plus shipping.

For his poem and essay go to his latest blog entry.

Lipstick Press has Moved

Lipstick Press is now at:

767 Chelwood Road, RR #1

Gabriola, BC V0R 1X1

Email: lipstickpress@shaw.ca

how it is I am not married / I want to sleep in the runcible spoon

rob mclennan's latest poetry chapbook is a reflection on the gap between nonsense and need.

The love in these poems is felt by its absence: "the earliest map of the heart has never been found". The attempts to reason and explain a life are pin pricks of feeling, "trails of kisses through the intricate dark".

mclennan doesn't seek comfort in pain, or sentimentality - he "wants to scar in the runcible spoon ... trading glucose for mercury". Feelings of grief can be counted "as fixtures" in a world where "there are no fixtures".

In the personal narrative, sense is much bigger than reason. Even though we have been told many times, in many ways, that reason triumphs over emotion, that our senses can't be reliably recorded, we look to the artist to pull off the scabs, reveal the scars, of the unexamined beliefs and myths that make the individual homeless and alien within his or her society.

rob mclennan is the author of some twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction; his most recent titles are the poetry collections: gifts (Talonbooks), a compact of words (Salmon Poetry, Ireland), wild horses (University of Alberta Press) and a second novel, missing persons (The Mercury Press). He regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com.

Published by Lipstick Press
767 Chelwood Road, RR 1
Gabriola BC V0R 1X1

lipstickpress@shaw.ca
http://www.lipstickpress.com/


ISBN: 978-0-9781204-6-7

16 pages

$8.00

Lipstick Press has a website

Please visit http://www.lipstickpress.com/

It is still under construction but does contain the essential information about this micro-press.

Abbotsford Times: Loss and Vision

Thanks to Christina Toth for her poetic article on Elsie K. Neufeld's Grief Blading Up chapbook launch.

Christina acknowledges that "loss is never welcome, but it comes to us nonetheless".  This is part of the universal value of Elsie's poetry, as Christine observed, is embedded in "the fabric of the natural world".

The critical point of this book, Toth points out "Those who know loss will also recognize the undertone of something mystic, something ghostly in the wind."

Another poet, Robert Martens, said of the chapbook - that in spite of the subject, the poems are not grim at all but uplifting.

The way to keep the world sane is that we (who hold so much influence over nature, the future) must acknowledge our losses, our grief, our rage against what we can't control - so that we don't project our anger onto the innocent other.

BC Bookworld

BC BookWorld's latest issue has reviewed Heidi Greco's "A: The Amelia Poems" on the second page of its printed magazine, under the abecedarian "Who's Who".

You can pick up this amazing 42 page periodical at many retail sites for no cost. It contains the latest books published by BC writers and includes some reviews as well.

Due to the sudden removal of all provincial funding from Pacific BookWorld News Society, they are in financial trouble. You can support this excellent paper by sending $25 to Pacific BC BookWorld News Society at 3516 West 13th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. V6R 2S3. Or visit www.bcbookworld.com and use PayPal.

Footnote: I don't know if this is a true perception or not but I sense that the community and arts programs that are working well in terms of their contribution to civil society are having their funding cut. If that's so why would that be?

Grief Blading Up into a shared community

The launch for Elsie K. Neufeld's first poetry chapbook "Grief Blading Up" was a warm and comforting experience.

Grief connects us all when it is told through authentic reflection. As Elsie read her poems there was a palpable peace in the gallery of the MSA Museum.

Thank you Elsie for having the courage to share the deepest aspects of your heart and your life so that we may understand we are not alone, and not obliged to pretend that all is good all the time.

Thank you to the MSA Museum for providing the room, coffee and juice, and to Dorothy, the Executive Director, for being so supportive and generous.

And thank you to all who came.

Book Launch for "Grief Blading Up"

Lipstick Press and MSA Museum
invite you to the launch of
Elsie K. Neufeld’s
first poetry chapbook
Grief Blading Up
7pm, November 19, 2009
at
MSA Museum
2313 Ware Street, Abbotsford V2S 3C6
Tel: 604-853-0313

Please RSVP: lipstick@smartt.com
Books will be available for signature and purchase
for $8.00 each

What Darcie Hossack says about Grief Blading Up

It's late, almost midnight. The neighbour's dog is howling his loneliness, annoying to a lover of cats, but still full of sorrow from one being to one who can't help but hear. Your poems arrived yesterday, and after a busy day, I've been leaning against the kitchen sink in the almost dark (I always wash up in the dark), dishes dripping into the tray, reading poem after poem, feeling
air fall over my skin as though I'm suddenly outside, with soil and graves beneath my feet. Elsewhere, you are in the world, and somehow the world feels less cold for my knowing.

Darcie Friesen Hossack
Mennonites Don't Dance (Thistledown Press, September 2010)
A collection of prairie stories that form a picture of family, often torn apart at the seams.

Winter Gifts available now

 Keith Wilkinson's chapbook of poetry will be available for your seasonal gift list. The gift itself is intelligent, thoughtful, moving, and best expressed by Keith's first poem in the collection:

The greatest gift
A gift is an ocean between two continents,
a continent between two seas, an unruly bridge
that conveys explorers, returns exiles,
seeds whole civilizations.

Within a gift, old tongues touch new ears,
old ears receive new minds; ideas
join into a newness that everyone
can celebrate in song.

The greatest gift of all to give
is the one the giver wants to keep,
the one too precious to be given, too loved,
too dear, too near the heart, too tender to be tendered.

This gift, when given, gives its giver too—reveals, releases,
conveys, enchants—and is given always, only, with the deepest,
guileless trust of its receiver, given unconditionally
by the heart, with love that transforms the giver.


Keith grew up on the prairies, traveled extensively, earned an interdisciplinary PhD on metaphor, and published in ARC, Canadian Dimension, Canadian Literary Review and The Malahat Review. He currently writes, serves as a Canadian Unitarian Council transitions consultant and works as Director of Academic Services at the Justice Institute of BC.

Published by Lipstick Press
767 Chelwood Road, RR 1
Gabriola BC V0R 1X1

lipstickpress@shaw.ca


ISBN: 978-0-9781204-4-3

Printed in British Columbia, Canada

$8 each plus postage
To order send an email to lipstickpress@shaw.ca