A thousand apologies faithful readers, for this unconscionably long delay in posting. What, I ask, ever happened to my well-ordered life? I’m caught up once again in an activity vortex, brought about by any number of wonderful happenstances, not the least of which is the nomination of my publisher for Poet Laureate of Windsor, and my beginning a new manuscript.
Marty Gervais, publisher of Black Moss Press, poet extraordinaire, journalist, editor, and author so prolific it’s annoying, has at long last been nominated for Poet Laureate. It’s about time. There is no one, with the possible exception of Margaret Atwood, who has done more to raise the profile of Canadian literature than Marty, and it was my very great honour to advance his nomination along with several other of his colleagues and writers from the Black Moss stable. It’s quite an involved process, and with my well-known and steadily advancing inability to make sense of any governmental form, I needed a lot of help. Vanessa Shields to the rescue! Several hysterical emails later and my forms were completed and deposited into the tender hands of Canada Post. Fly away my pretties!
And the new manuscript. Well, cat’s outta the bag since last Monday when I workshopped my first poem of the new series. It’s a collection of poems about Mary Magdalene, working title “Love Stronger Than Death: The Passion of Mary Magdalene.” I’ve written the first twenty poems and the research is just fascinating. If things will just calm down a little around here, I could write twenty more. Oh my, gentle readers! What I’ve learned. How misguided I’ve been! More on that later.
And the Poetry Cafe is tootling right along. Just heard back from the local high school today, and I’ll be bringing some invitations over there for the senior English students to attend not just to hear the great readings but also to ask questions of the authors, especially Marty, about writing and publishing, and studying creative writing at the university level. (Marty is the Writer In Residence at the University of Windsor.) Excitement is growing about this little to-do, and I’m just rejoicing.
