Contemporary Authors

• Xing: Poems Saturnalia Books (Ardmore, PA), 2011
• Lunch Portraits ( poems) Brooklyn Arts Press (Brooklyn, NY), 2016

1. Lunch portraits LCCN 2016024225 Type of material Book Personal name Kuan, Debora author. Uniform title Poems. Selections Main title Lunch portraits / Debora Kuan. Edition First Edition. Published/Produced Brooklyn, NY : Brooklyn Arts Press : Distributed to the trade by Small Press Distribution / SPD, [2016] Description 96 pages ; 21 cm ISBN 9781936767502 (pbk. : alk. paper) CALL NUMBER PS3611.U16 A6 2016 CABIN BRANCH Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 2. Xing : poems LCCN 2011934349 Type of material Book Personal name Kuan, Debora. Uniform title Poems. Selections Main title Xing : poems / by Debora Kuan. Published/Created Ardmore, PA : Saturanlia Books, [2011] Description 79 pages ; 19 cm ISBN 9780983368618 (pbk.) Shelf Location FLS2013 013869 CALL NUMBER PS3611.U16 X56 2011 OVERFLOWA5S Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms (FLS1)

• Author Homepage - http://www.deborakuan.com

  ===about===

  DEBORA KUAN is a poet and writer. Her debut collection of poetry, XING, was published in October 2011 by Saturnalia Books. She is the recipient of a Fulbright creative writing fellowship (Taiwan), University of Iowa Graduate Merit Fellowship, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference scholarship, Santa Fe Art Institute writer’s residency, and two Pushcart Prize nominations. Her poems have appeared in American Letters and Commentary, Boston Review, Conduit, Crowd, Fence, Indiana Review, New American Writing, The Iowa Review, and other journals. Her fiction is forthcoming or has appeared in Brooklyn Rail,The Iowa Review, Opium, The L Magazine, The Rumpus, and Wigleaf, and in 2010, she won The L Magazine’s Literary Upstart Short Fiction award. She has also written about contemporary art, books, and film for Artforum, Art in America, Idiom, Modern Painters, Paper Monument, PDN, and other publications. She was both a nonfiction and fiction fellow at the CUNY Writers' Institute in 2010-2012, and has taught at the University of Iowa, The College of New Jersey, and New York Institute of Technology. She works at an educational nonprofit in New York City.

  This website was built by Letha Wilson. Image on home page, Prism-Pyramid (2009), also by Letha Wilson.

  ===book===
  Xing

  Debora Kuan's Xing is novelistic in its scope. From "Articles of Faith" to "How to Make Bells," with numerous parabolic twists and turns, Xing unmasks at times the almost unsayable. This is a beautiful, necessary, veracious voice assaying the vagaries of contemporary life and culture illuminated by flashes of history. -Yusef Komunyakaa

  This is a work of stunning crossings and double-crossings, crystalline opacities and ambiguous precisions. It's quite unlike anything I've read: A dizzying blend of drama, fractured narrative, real or invented family history, elegy, dream, religious meditation, erotic diary, critique of both Western nihilism and of any suggestion of Eastern mysticism--critique, indeed, of the possibility of thinking "East" and "West" in the global marketplace. Kuan is a master of "the rhetoric of gamesmanship," bringing a naturalist's gaze to artificial surroundings, and a poet's vestigial desire for transcendence to a landscape in which "We came to understand/ our place as elsewhere, anywhere/ always just before or after." -Mark Levine

  Descriptive power, clear seeing, vivid, various material--Debora Kuan's poems have everything. She is a provocative and deeply rewarding poet. -Jonathan Galassi

  As Andre Breton's epigraph proposes that "everything beyond is here in this life," Debora Kuan's marvelous debut book of poems, Xing, contains multitudes in this singular collection where the quotidian is replete with unexpected crossings and surreal transformations. -Arthur Sze

  Purchase from UPNE
  Purchase from SPD
  Purchase from Amazon

  PRESS

  Poetry Society of America features "Pastoral"
  Verse Daily features "Dream of the Birds"
  Interview with rob mclennan

• Hyperallergic - https://hyperallergic.com/author/debora-kuan/

  Debora Kuan
  Debora Kuan's first book of poems, XING, was published in October 2011 by Saturnalia Books. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Brooklyn Rail, The Iowa Review, Opium, The L Magazine, The Rumpus, and Wigleaf, and in 2010, she won The L Magazine’s Literary Upstart Short Fiction award. She has also written about contemporary art, books, and film for Artforum, Art in America, Idiom, Modern Painters, Paper Monument, and other publications.

• Resistance Journal - http://resistancejournal.com/debora-kuan/

  Debora Kuan

  Debora Kuan is the author of XING, her debut poetry collection (Saturnalia Books, 2011). A two-time Pushcart nominee, she has been awarded a Fulbright creative writing fellowship (Taiwan), University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop Graduate Merit Fellowship, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference work-study scholarship, and residencies at Yaddo, Macdowell, and the Santa Fe Art Institute. Her short fiction and poems have appeared or are forthcoming in American Letters and Commentary, Atlas Review, The Awl, The Baffler, Boston Review, Brooklyn Rail, Fence, Gigantic, Glittermob, HTMLGiant, Hyperallergic, Indiana Review, New American Writing, Pleiades, The Iowa Review, The L Magazine, The Rumpus, and other journals. She has also written about contemporary art, books, and film for Artforum, Art in America, Idiom, Modern Painters, and Paper Monument. A former fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center Writers’ Institute in fiction and nonfiction, she received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a BA from Princeton University. She is currently a director of English Language Arts assessment at the College Board and a senior editor at Brooklyn Arts Press.

  Poems

  Senior Mammal

  Big Flowers

  Gigs

• Blue Lyra Review - http://bluelyrareview.com/debora-kuan/

  ISSUE 4.2 SUMMER 2015, POETRY
  DEBORA KUAN

  ‍‍יג תמוז תשעה - JUNE 30, 2015 BLR STAFF LEAVE A COMMENT

  Debora KuanDebora Kuan is the author of XING, a collection of poetry (Saturnalia Books, 2011), which was featured as a notable first book by both the Poetry Society of America and Ploughshares magazine. Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, she has been awarded a U.S. Fulbright creative writing fellowship (Taiwan). Her fiction and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in American Letters and Commentary, Atlas Review, The Awl, The Baffler, Boston Review, Brooklyn Rail, Fence, Gigantic, Glittermob, HTMLGiant, Hyperallergic, Indiana Review, New American Writing, Opium, Pleiades, The Iowa Review, The L Magazine, The Rumpus, and other journals. In 2011, she won The L Magazine’s Literary Upstart award for best short fiction. She received an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a BA in English from Princeton University. In the past, she has taught literature and creative writing at the University of Iowa, The College of New Jersey, and New York Institute of Technology, and through the independent organization Brooklyn Poets. She is currently a director of English Language Arts assessment at the College Board and a senior editor at Brooklyn Arts Press, a small, independent press that publishes poetry, art monographs, and fiction.

  Teen Ghost

  In real life,
  I chased more
  dust than dark.
  I sought more
  dolor than horror.
  Around the clock, the false
  hands flew. I
  couldn’t get any younger.
  I could never return
  to that original thrill, or
  a room of my friends
  watching “The Shining”
  for the very first time,
  a boy unhooking my bra
  in stealth. The first time
  in the backseat the cattle
  were lowing, a drowsy
  brigade behind us
  in the frosted broken
  dark. His face
  was sharp and cold
  like a knife wrapped
  whole in a scarf.
  The palms of his hand
  were dry. I
  went home,
  preserving the kiss
  on the back of my neck
  as if it were a firefly in a jar.
  I chased its life like art.

• Rob Mclennan blog - http://robmclennan.blogspot.com/2012/02/12-or-20-questions-second-series-with_18.html

  rob mclennan's blog
  ROB MCLENNAN'S BLOG
  author page : including bibliography, links + extended bio,
  Saturday, February 18, 2012
  12 or 20 questions (second series) with Debora Kuan

  Debora Kuan is a poet, writer, and critic. Her debut collection of poetry, XING (Saturnalia Books), was published in October 2011. She is the recipient of a Fulbright creative writing fellowship (Taiwan), University of Iowa Graduate Merit Fellowship, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference scholarship, Santa Fe Art Institute writer's residency, and two Pushcart Prize nominations. In 2010, she won The L Magazine's Literary Upstart short fiction award, and her reviews on contemporary art and film have appeared in Artforum, Art in America, Idiom, Modern Painters, Paper Monument, and other publications.

  1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
  The call I got from Henry Israeli to tell me that my book was being published was possibly the best phonecall I had ever received in my life, up until that point. I had shopped that manuscript around, in various iterations, for over six years, and there were so many moments of doubt that shadowed the endeavor and so many near-misses, runner-up wins, and frustrations. So the day it finally happened was a very good day.

  Since the publication, I can’t say that my life has changed in any daily way, except that more good surprises pop up now—like hearing from the Poetry Society of America, or getting a nice review, or being invited to do a reading, or someone telling me they bought my book and liked it. Mostly, though, the change is in your headspace. I feel solidly on a path now as a writer, whereas before I was always nagged by the creeping fear that I would never fully become what I felt I was.

  I am writing short stories at the moment, so formally, I’m working with a very different set of rules and expectations now. But I do think I’m building upon some trends that are present in XING. For one thing, the bulk of the poems in the book are narrative, and there are two recurring fictional characters who weave their way through the poems—Lin and Chao. I am also working on a second manuscript of poems, which deploys similar strategies, but is set in the deserts of the American Southwest.

  2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
  I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most people come to poetry out of an impassioned, albeit wholly misguided, notion that facility with the stuff will somehow (a) ennoble them and/or (b) endear them to the opposite sex. The ones who continue writing poetry and thus one day come to call themselves poets are the ones whose moderate-to-great success with (b) continues to fuel and add fodder to their sense that they are achieving (a). I was not an exception.

  Apart from that, I think I was drawn, as an angst-y, overserious teenager, primarily to the immediacy of poetry and what felt to me like a direct conduit to the senses, the imagination, and the inner life. A lot of the appeal was also the visual nature of free verse on the page and the concentration of the short line. The concept of free verse itself was radical to me. That you could write a poem without rhyme and without meter? This went against everything I had learned about poetry up until that point. The enjambed line and the white space surrounding the poem were like a creative revelation. And then when I tried my hand at it, I loved it. It felt exhilarating to open up myself to language and consciousness and let them lead me imaginatively.

  3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
  Poetry comes relatively quickly, and everything else comes slowly and painfully, with a lot of hand-wringing and nail-biting and second-guessing. The same thing goes for revision. Once in a while I’ll get to a scene in a story that flies out of me and is a total blast to write, but right now, I still feel like a novice, so I worry about everything I put down.

  4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
  A poem usually starts with a fragment of a sentence, or even a couple of words that get snagged on my brain and want to get written down. It’s harder for me to conceive of a “book” and write toward that goal. I am doing that with the second manuscript of poems, and it’s much slower going. There are many more things to consider. That doesn’t mean that XING emerged fully formed; far from it. But that was more of a process of throwing out poems toward the aim of bringing together a cohesive manuscript.

  5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
  I usually love to do readings, especially if I have something new to read that I’m very excited about. I try to aim for that every time I read but it can’t always be achieved.

  6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
  XING dealt with themes of Christianity, doubt, race, ethnicity, and otherness, and my fiction tends to have a component of social satire to it. But mainly, I think the concerns of any good writing tend to be the same: to capture the experience of being human, to inhabit the curious realm of living. There’s a Neutral Milk Hotel lyric that says it well: “How strange it is to be anything at all.”

  7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in large culture? Does s/he even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
  The role of the writer is the role of any artist, and that is to contribute creatively and critically to the life of the mind and to the culture, even if that culture often seems largely indifferent to what you are doing.

  8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
  Poetry doesn’t get edited very much. It’s usually accepted for publication wholecloth or not at all. Although Henry and the staff at Saturnalia did give me lots of very wise suggestions for my book in the final pass before it went to print. I appreciated all of those comments. They helped pull the book together into its final form.

  As for art writing, which is where I get edited the most, it really depends on the editor. I’ve worked with editors who have put me through what felt like a meatgrinder, and I’ve also worked with editors who have challenged me, bettered me, and expanded my scope, and for whom I have nothing but the greatest respect and admiration. I feel that way about Roger White, editor of the n+1 art journal, Paper Monument, as well as Brian Sholis, who used to be my editor at Artforum.com and took a chance on me when I had almost no critical reviewing under my belt. They are both stellar art critics, writers, and editors.

  9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
  1)A fiction writer friend of mine once told me, Take only the criticism that resonates with you. It seems very obvious, but when you’re in a workshop setting and people are telling you so many different things about your work, you can lose your head a bit, get overwhelmed, and not know which direction to go in. The thing I used to like to say about myself in this regard was: Even when I take criticism well, I take it badly. But I’d like to think I’m getting better at it, the more I receive it.

  2)Leave no stone unturned. Every word counts. Don’t write a lazy sentence, don’t write a half-assed line. Be your own exacting editor. A reader worth having doesn’t read by skimming; they read every word you’ve written. Make sure you’ve done your best.

  3)Believe in yourself unfailingly and what you want to achieve, even in the face of staggering rejection. When I was in the third grade, I played short stop on the girls’ softball team. Every time I came up to bat, I felt sure, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that I would hit a home run. I don’t know why I believed this. I had never gotten farther than second, and I had rarely gotten to first at all. But somehow, deep in my bones, I believed that the possibility of a home run resided solely in the will to hit a home run and nowhere else. So every time I got up to bat, I tried to tap into that sense of myself, thinking, “This time it’s going to happen, I’m sure of it.” When I look back on this memory now, I can’t believe that kid was me—fearful, neurotic, anxious adult me. Doubt is the lesson we learn as we grow--it’s the eventuality of experience and disappointment, but, when it isn’t delivering us toward a stronger critical understanding of something, it is only landing us at the door of cynicism and limitation. If you really want to write, and you are not some kind of insane prodigy, you need to find some grain of that belief in yourself. You need to summon up in yourself that kid who intuitively realizes every moment is singular and every moment is a new chance. It’s really the only thing that will work.

  10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to fiction to critical prose)? What do you see as the appeal?
  By chance, I was watching this PBS program with Jason Alexander on craft last night, and so much of what he was saying about acting could easily be translated to writing. He said that very often young actors are applauded for being able to access and draw from some purely emotional place in order to play a part, which is all to the good, but ultimately that kind of instinctual work can only carry you so far. If you don’t have a practical understanding of how to get from A to B and B to C, then you’re simply relying on a feeling, and feelings are fleeting and mercurial and dependent on circumstance. This really resonated with me with respect to the differences in writing poetry and writing prose. Which is not to say that one doesn’t need to have a solid understanding of the mechanics of poetry to write good poetry—one absolutely does—but the writing of poetry and fiction require very different muscles and very different disciplines. The impulse for writing a poem is usually grounded—for me, at least—in something emotional—a triggering set of words, an image that resonates outward—and there is a real sense of purity to being able to capture that impulse relatively quickly, perhaps in one or two sittings. (Eileen Myles says that poets are people with short attention spans who have decided to study that short attention span, and in contemporary poetry that may well be true.) But anything longer than a page or two is going to require that you come out of that state and return to it, again and again. If you can’t find your way back, if you’re just sitting around waiting for that same impulse to strike again, you’re in trouble.

  Writing fiction has taught me to write from a different, more intentional place. It has pushed me out of my comfort zone and challenged me in very new ways. For one thing, I have to invent people who are not me and do the work of off-the-page planning: building complex characters, making decisions and being committed to those decisions, replotting my course when I find it no longer works, etc.

  My decision to write critical reviews was a pragmatic one too. Essentially I came to the point where I had to confront the fact that, as a poet, I was not writing the power discourse of our time. I decided I had to at least push myself to do two genres—poetry and criticism—well, especially since, at that time, I felt I could not write fiction, that I was really terrible at it. Also, I liked the idea of following in the tradition of the poet/art critic as practiced by O’Hara, Ashbery, John Yau, and others.

  11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
  I try to write every day, even if it’s not 5oo words like Hemingway. But it’s important for me to be doing something for my writing everyday—whether that be write down a few lines of poetry, work out a plotline in my head, jot down story ideas, research a topic I will use in a story, or read.

  12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
  Recently I’ve been going back to Zoe Heller’s Notes on a Scandal and Lorrie Moore’s Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? The George Saunders’ story “Tenth of December,” which was recently in the New Yorker has been helpful too. He is so brilliant at capturing a child’s imaginative life in it. I also read an amazing piece of historical fiction, Michael Dahlie’s “The Pharmacist from Jena,” recently in Harper’s. It was so bold and fearless in all its narrative decisions, and I always admire someone who can convincingly conjure up an era they never lived in.

  13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
  Everything my mom cooks. If I also take this question to mean, what are your favorite fragrances, then: chlorine, jasmine tea, paint thinner, sea air, snow, and Christmas trees.

  14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
  Many of the poems in XING were inspired by visual art and film, which includes Diane Arbus, Joseph Beuys, Jean Cocteau, and Andrei Tarkovsky. I once wrote a series of poems to be read alongside the scores of Satie’s Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes. They were inspired by the unconventional notes on playing in his scores. But I took them out of XING because they didn’t go with the other poems in the book.

  15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
  Mayakovsky, Rimbaud, Grace Paley, Lorrie Moore, Annie Proulx, John Ashbery, John Berryman, Sylvia Plath, Denise Levertov, Wallace Stevens, John Berger, Joan Didion, George Saunders, Joyce Carol Oates.

  And Harper’s magazine.

  16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
  Visit Turkey, Greece, Africa. Write a novel. Drive across the country, doing a Stephen Shore-esque photographic documentation. Curate an art exhibition. Live in the desert. Have a family.

  17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
  I don’t think I am well-suited to any other occupation, really, but I do think I have a good eye for art and design. It would have been nice to be a practitioner. I write about art, because that’s the closest I can get as a non-maker.

  18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
  When I was sixteen, I got into the NJ Governor’s School for the Arts for creative writing. It was, in short, the luckiest, most amazing month of my life up until that point. One of our teachers would send us off to corners of the building to write and then we’d return and read to everyone else what we’d written. I couldn’t believe I was being given permission to do the one thing I wanted to do, and even crazier than that, the state was funding my ability to do it. That was the summer I first read Denis Johnson, Lorrie Moore, Raymond Carver, and Pam Houston (thank you, Ben Schrank!). Our teachers showed us Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” and “Stranger in a Strange Land.” It was a ball, and even more than that, it was a real education. (I was very dismayed to discover that the program no longer exists. There’s one for science, but I think that may be it.)

  Despite all this, I still didn’t believe that being a writer was a thing you could actually set out to do. I tried to escape the fate of becoming an English major by studying pre-med, but all my attempts were eventually overtaken by my natural predisposition toward the written word. (Also, I broke a lot of glassware in my chemistry classes and bombed my finals.)

  19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
  Fiction: My friend Eleanor Henderson’s debut novel, Ten Thousand Saints, which the New York Times voted as one of the top five novels of 2011. Poetry: Monica Youn’s Ignatz. Gorgeously tight, inventive, and astonishing poems based on George Herriman’s comic strip characters, Ignatz Mouse and Krazy Kat. Nonfiction: Joyce Carol Oates’ memoir, A Widow’s Story, about losing her husband Raymond Smith.

  I recently saw “Pina” in 3D at BAM, a tribute to the late choreographer and dancer Pina Bausch. I am embarrassed to say that I had never heard of her before or seen her work, but all the pieces in it were brilliant and the film itself amounted to a very succinct, and moving, introduction. Bausch used such simple, almost elemental movements in her work—falling down or balancing branches on one’s arms or crawling into the small space beneath a chair—that the line between dance and life became blurred and negligible. The filmmakers capitalized on this lack of distinction by staging the dances in the world—on street corners, beneath trams—and that juxtaposition of the everyday context with the elevated gesture foregrounded the humanity of the dancing even more.

  20 - What are you currently working on?
  I’m working on fiction and a second book of poems right now. We’ll see how it goes.

  12 or 20 (second series) questions;
  Posted by rob mclennan at 9:01 AM
  Labels: 12 or 20 questions, Debora Kuan, Saturnalia
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  Cervates' bones, words(on)pages
  King Kong, above/ground press
  The Rose Concordance, above/ground press
  Honeymoon. (sketches, Knives Forks and Spoons Press
  Mouth of the Rat, Porkbelly Press
  Texture: Louisiana, above/ground press
  Now that fall has fully broken in, Shirt Pocket Press
  How the alphabet was made, [an instructional] above/ground press
  Acceptance Speech, phafours
  from Hark: a journal, above/ground press
  The creeks, above/ground press
  The Laurentian Book of Movement (with Christine McNair), above/ground press
  Mother Firth's, Gaspereau Press
  Trace, above/ground press
  The Uncertainty Principle: stories, Sacrifice Press
  Notes, on the subject of marriage;, above/ground press
  Lemonade, polydactyl (or, the cat with twenty two toes, Grey Borders Books (St. Catharines ON)
  Miss Canada, corrupt press (Europe)
  Sextet: six poems from Songs for little sleep, above/ground press
  The underside of the line, above/ground press
  , lake, &this&this (Christchurch NZ; pdf)
  C., little red leaves textile editions (Houston TX)
  red notebooks, The Red Ceilings Press (e-chapbook, England)
  house: a (tiny) memoir, AngelHouse Press (Ottawa ON)
  Your torn, infectious bliss, (e-chap), Gold Wake Press
  Some Forty, above/ground press
  how it is I am not married / I want to sleep in the runcible spoon, lipstick press (Vancouver Island BC)
  Poems for Lainna, above/ground press
  Ottawa: A Field Guide, above/ground press
  two chapbooks published by Edmonton's Olive Reading Series
  the acts, Rubicon Press (Edmonton AB)
  sex at thirty-eight: letters to unfinished g.
  The Geography of the Present
  avalanche
  ottawa poems (blue notes) (AMERICAN EDITION)
  Perth Flowers (out-of-print)
  generations
  g h o s t s
  2 small poems-for-all
  the true eventual story of buffalo bill (pdf)
  search & rescue
  a translation: stones & ice
  a little white li(n)e
  voice-over 1.0 + 1.5
  now available! 2017 above/ground press subscriptions
  NOW AVAILABLE! 2017 above/ground press subscriptions
  rob essays/reviews/articles
  Joel W. Vaughan reviews Four Stories (Apostrophe Press, 2016) at Broken Pencil
  Pearl Pirie on rob mclennan + mentorship : The League of Canadian Poets (September 2016)
  Pearl Pirie on rob mclennan : Celebration of Canadian Poets, Brick Books (September 2016)
  from the desk of rob mclennan, at Real Pants (May 2016
  "Publishing Tips: On Attention," at The Malahat Review, January 2016
  a review of my "a (short) history of l." by Elizabeth Kate Switaj at Poets' Quarterly
  a review of my "wild horses"
  a short write-up on the reading I did in November 2015 with David O'Meara and Brecken Hancock through the Ottawa Arts Council
  reviewers on reviewing, for CWILA, November 2015
  One More Thing, August 2015
  Profile of Ben Ladouceur, with a few questions, at Open Book: Ontario, June 2015
  Janet Nicol reviews Notes and Dispatches: Essays, at The Maple Tree Literary Supplement
  article by Catherine Brunelle on rob's many online schemes, Apartment613
  review of Why Poetry Sucks: An Anthology of Humorous Experimental Canadian Poetry (Insomniac Press, 2014) now up at Arc Poetry Magazine
  review of Pearl Pirie's the pet radish, shrunken (BookThug, 2015) at The Small Press Book Review
  review of Pattie McCarthy's x y z & & (Ahsahta, 2015) at The Small Press Book Review, March 2015
  "World's End: Alta Vista," at Atticus Review, February 2015
  Family Literacy Day, some recommendations, All Lit Up blog, January 2015
  "On Writing" at Catina Noble's blog, January 2015
  "Life Is Too Short For A Long Story," a new essay up at Numero Cinq, January 2015
  rob mclennan: recommended reading, at Readerby (November 2014)
  Brian Mihok reviews The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014) over at Rain Taxi
  review of 70 Canadian Poets (Oxford, 2014), ed. Gary Geddes, at Cordite Poetry Review
  review of Redell Olsen's Film Poems (Les Figues, 2014) at The Small Press Book Review
  All Lit Up Fall Preview: rob mclennan anticipates Stan Dragland's The Bricoleur & His Sentences (Pedlar Press, 2014)
  Ryan Pratt reviews "Acceptance Speech" (phafours, 2014) over at the ottawa poetry newsletter
  Profile of The Rotary Dial, with a few questions, at Open Book: Ontario
  Profile of Stuart Ross' Proper Tales Press, at Open Book: Ontario
  Author's Note, at matchbook lit, September 2014
  "Ottawa Lit: fall 2014 preview," at Open Book: Ontario
  review of The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (2014) at Necessary Fiction
  review of The Uncertainty Principle; stories, (2014) at Broken Pencil magazine
  "rob mclennan on Elizabeth Smart," re-posted at Literary Mothers
  review of Eric Baus' The Tranquilized Tongue (City Lights, 2014) at The Small Press Book Review
  Profile of Jason Christie, at Open Book: Ontario
  "(further) notes on the archive," at Open Book: Ontario
  "On starting a new poetry journal: Touch the Donkey," at Open Book: Ontario
  review of Lisa Jarnot's a princess magic presto spell (Solid Objects, 2014) at The Small Press Book Review
  "John Newlove at 76," at Open Book: Ontario
  Where Do You Write, My Lovely? (June 2014)
  "Literary mothers: rob mclennan on Elizabeth Smart" at Open Book: Ontario (June 2014)
  review of Pearl Pirie's Quebec Passages (2014) at The Small Press Book Review
  Aaron Daigle discusses How the alphabet was made, (2014) over at the Flat Singles Press blog
  review of Cecily Nicholson's From the Poplars (Talonbooks, 2014) at The Small Press Book Review
  review of Emily Kendal Frey's Sorrow Arrow (Octopus Books, 2014) at The Small Press Book Review
  "Writing, fatherhood (fragments," at Open Book: Ontario (May 2014)
  At the Desk: rob mclennan at Open Book: Ontario (April 2014)
  review of Angela Carr's Here in There (BookThug, 2014) at The Small Press Book Review
  review of Endi Bogue Hartigan's POOL [5 CHORUSES] (Omnidawn, 2014) at The Small Press Book Review
  review of The Uncertainty Principle: stories, by Ryan Pratt, at the ottawa poetry newsletter
  review of Anne-Marie Turza's The Quiet (Anansi, 2014) at The Small Press Book Review
  Pearl Pirie discusses How the alphabet was made, (2014) over at her blog,
  review of The Uncertainty Principle: stories, at The Small Press Book Review
  WHAT IS YOUR FRAGMENT IV: rob mclennan responds
  review of Sarah Gridley's Loom (Omnidawn, 2013) at Jacket2
  Scott Gridley reviews Mother Firth's (2013) in Broken Pencil #62
  "Writing Fatherhood, pt. 4," at Open Book: Ontario
  Ryan Pratt reviews The Laurentian Book of Movement (2013) at the ottawa poetry newsletter
  "Writing Fatherhood, pt. 3," at Open Book: Ontario
  "Writing Fatherhood, pt. 2," at Open Book: Ontario
  "Writing Fatherhood," at Open Book: Ontario
  Gordon Bolling reviews missing persons (2009) at Canadian Literature, October 2013
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  en route : Ottawa's Literary Scene Stacks Up, October 2013
  Ryan Pratt reviews The creeks (above/ground press, 2013) over at the ottawa poetry newsletter
  Alejandro Bustos discusses Songs for little sleep, and Mother Firth's, over at Apt 613,
  John Lent reviews Songs for little sleep, over at Arc poetry magazine
  review of Marie Annharte Baker's Indigena Awry (New Star, 2012) at Vallum magazine,
  Ryan Pratt reviews my chapbook, Trace, (above/ground press, 2013) at the ottawa poetry newsletter
  Introduction, "Stan Rogal's Brautiganesque," on The Toronto Review of Books
  Alejandro Bustos profiles me for Apartment613, April 2013
  Alejandro Bustos profiles my enormously clever blog for The Ottawa Blogging Library, April 2013
  Some notes on Lisa Jarnot's 'Sea Lyrics,' at Jacket2
  (brief) profile by Lucy Morrissey
  Edric Mesmer reviews (among other things) my chapbook Sextet: six poems from Songs for little sleep, (above/ground) at Galatea Resurrects #19
  review of Hoa Nguyen's As Long As Trees Last (Wave Books), at Galatea Resurrects
  review of Dorothea Lastky's Thunderbird (Wave Books), at Galatea Resurrects
  review of Steven Ross Smith's Fluttertongue 5 (Turnstone Press) at Turntable + Blue Light, December 2012
  a note on "Miss Canada," at Bywords.ca
  Daily Offerings: a note on "Songs for little sleep," at Branta
  Matthew Hall reviews A (short) history of l. (BuschekBooks, 2011) in Canadian Literature
  Cameron Anstee reviews my chapbook/essay, The stone-boat heart: letters to Andrew Suknaski over at his blog,
  shorthand: eleven short essays on fiction, at The Puritan
  j/j hastain reviews Glengarry (Talonbooks) and C. (little red leaves) over at Turntable + Blue Light
  Pearl Pirie responds to the Call and Response/SPAO end-of-project reading (June 2012)
  Andrew Burke's article on collaboration in Southerly, that mentions myself + Christine McNair,
  review of Jake Kennedy's Light & Char (Greenboathouse, 2010) at The Antigonish Review
  Notes on Five Canadian small (micro) publishers for Cordite Poetry Review (May 2012)
  review of Jamie Townsend's MATRYOSHKA (little red leaves) + Edward Smallfield's Equinox (Apogee) at Turntable + Blue Light,
  review of my Glengarry (Talonbooks) with Andy Weaver's Gangson (NeWest) by Sean Braune in Canadian Literature
  a short review/mention of a (short) history of l. (BuschekBooks) in the Halifax Chronicle Herald,
  reviews of my grief notes: (BlazeVOX) and a compact of words (Salmon Publishing) by Rupert Loydell
  review of my grief notes: (BlazeVOX) by Jordan Fry
  Profle of The Emergency Response Unit, with questions at Open Book: Ontario
  rob's "Top Eleven (Canadian) poetry books of 2011," on the Dusie blog
  "Roy Kiyooka's 'Pacific Windows,'" on The Capilano Review blog
  "collaborating with Lea Graham," on The Capilano Review blog
  review of Elizabeth Robinson's Three Novels (Omnidawn) at Galatea Resurrects #17
  review of Jake Kennedy's Apollinaire's Speech to the War Medic (BookThug) at Galatea Resurrects #17
  rob recommends Dirty Semiotics by Jesse Patrick Ferguson (Broken Jaw Press, 2011) at the Advent Book Blog, December 20, 2011
  Profile of Ottawa's Mother Tongue Books at Open Book: Ontario
  On Richard Brautigan's Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962-1970 (1972) at We Who Are About To Die
  Profile of Ottawa poet Pearl Pirie at Open Book: Ontario
  Profile of Ottawa poet Sandra Ridley at Open Book: Ontario
  "There was something about the body: Sylvia Legris," on The Capilano Review blog
  Profile of the ottawa international writers festival + questions with director/co--founder Sean Wilson at Open Book: Ontario
  Eileen R. Tabios on my work-in-progress "The Uncertainty Priniciple: stories,"
  Profile of Cameron Anstee's Apt. 9 Press at Open Book: Ontario
  "Four Questions for Deborah Barnett, Someone," at Open Book Toronto
  "Ottawa's Thriving Literary Scene," by Vera Grbic
  "A second time around: a conversation between rob mclennan and Stephanie Bolster," on seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry + poetics
  "Sainte-Adele: redux," Open Book Ontario
  Mark McCawley reviews rob mclennan's chapbook "First you know, and then so ordinary," (above/ground, 2010)
  A short interview with Michael Blouin, Open Book Toronto
  Robert Kroetsch (June 26, 1927-June 21, 2011), at Branta
  "Call and response: a note on Phil Hall, and 52 flowers (or, a perth edge)" at Maple Tree Literary Supplement
  "an old poem embedded in thoughts on the ottawa river" at Open Book Ontario
  review of Ken Belford's Decompositions (Talonbooks)
  longer article/interview by Patrick Connors, on rob mclennan's Pivot Reading, May 4, 2011, at Open Book Toronto
  "an old poem embedded in thoughts on the manx pub," at Open Book Ontario
  article/interview by Maja Stefanovska, Writers History
  review of wild horses (U of Alberta) by Ryan Porter, The Bull Calf;
  article/interview by Patrick Connors, on rob mclennan's Pivot Reading, May 4, 2011;
  "An old poem embedded in thoughts on my mother" at Open Book Toronto
  "the glass manifesto: on blogging" at Open Book Toronto
  group review of Oana Avasilichioaesi, Meredith Quartermain, Sachiko Murakami & George Stanley at Maple Tree Literary Supplement
  "Anticipating The Man who Killed Don Quixote" at Rain Taxi
  review of M NourbeSe Philip's Zong!
  "writing and reading glengarry county" at Open Book Toronto
  "the green-wood essay: a little autobiographical dictionary" at Open Book Toronto
  review of Marcus McCann's Force Quit (The Emergency Response Unit) in The Antigonish Review
  "writing and reading glengarry county" at Open Book Toronto
  review of missing persons by Cassie Leigh
  review of David Donnell's Watermelon Kindness, at Prairie Fire Review of Books
  "Translating Pessoa: Winnett, Taddle, Garrison" at Open Book Toronto
  "Casa Mendoza" at Open Book Toronto
  review of wild horses by Jeramy Mesiano-Crookston, Ottawa X-Press
  Love, Anne Carson: a fictional essay in the wrong order
  "G20" at Open Book Toronto
  "Walking Brun's Wick: on bpNichol's The Martyrology Book 5" at Open Book Toronto
  on prairie poet Andrew Suknaski
  "Bloomsday, High Park" at Open Book Toronto
  "Wide Awake in High Park North" at Open Book Toronto
  "Nights below Front Street East" at Open Book Toronto
  rob's participation in Gary Barwin's Heine Project
  review of Larissa Lai's Automaton Biographies
  "Valentine's Day, the Royal York Hotel" at Open Book Toronto
  Judith Fitzgerald reviews rob's wild horses for Globe and Mail book blog
  "Alberta Redux" at Open Book Toronto
  "Spring, and all" at Open Book Toronto
  Globe and Mail book blog: rob mclennan on Robert Kroetsch
  "Canadians in New York: The Chelsea Hotel" at Open Book Toronto
  "Queen City Chronicles" at Open Book Toronto
  "The implied," on Branta
  Globe and Mail book blog: rob mclennan on Pearl Pirie
  Globe and Mail book blog: Judith Fitzgerald on rob mclennan
  Reading and Writing Glengarry County: The Long Sault Hydro Electric Project
  Douglas Barbour at 70, Jacket
  how to love everything: thoughts on rereading Sarah Manguso, Moria
  review of Eric Baus' Tuned Droves
  review of Monty Reid's The Luskville Reductions
  "lake, my pretty name" at Open Book Toronto
  "the cn tower" at Open Book Toronto
  review of Catherine Wagner's My New Job
  "Dispatches from the Future Bakery" at Open Book Toronto
  article on rob for Guerilla mag by Nigel Beale
  review of on bondage by Trisia Eddy & Lainna Lane El Jabi
  "lake, oh pure contradiction" at Open Book Toronto
  "sleeping in toronto" at Open Book Toronto
  Robin Blaser obit for the Xtra chain
  review George Bowering's According to Brueghel
  review of Alberta dispatch in the Ottawa X-Press
  review of Margaret Christakos' What Stirs
  review of George Bowering's Kerrisdale Elegis
  reviews of Roger Farr's Open Text: Canadian Poetry in the 21st Century
  reviews of Sachiko Murakami and Oana Avasilichioaei
  rob as part of Runaway Jury 5 (GG poetry shortlist, 2008)
  review of white
  review of Rob Budde's Finding Ft. George
  review of Dennis Cooley's correction line
  as part of Shawna Lemay's Capacious Hold-All project
  Stephen Brockwell's The Real Made Up and David McGimpsey's Sitcom
  Rereading Sheila Watson and Elizabeth Smart at the Garneau Pub, Edmonton
  Amanda Earl on rob's blog (5 years!)
  review of Donna Stonecipher & Serge Gavronsky, Verse magazine
  review of Some Answers by George Bowering
  review of Patrick Friesen's Interim: Essays & Meditations
  review by Judith Fitzgerald
  rob in Calgary's ffwd weekly
  Susannah M. Smith's mention of white
  new review of aubade (Intercapillary Space, UK)
  Dennis Cooley's fictions: "love in a dry land" (Vallum magazine)
  review of white in Vue Weekly (Edmonton)
  Phil Hall’s surrural: Ontario gothic, the killdeer, the music of failure and the distraction of shifting ground
  review of white in The Globe and Mail
  review of Sarah Lang's The Work of Days
  some short little poetry reviews i wrote for The Ottawa X-Press
  review of George Bowering's Vermeer's Light: Poems 1996-2006
  article on the U of Alberta website
  article in The Gateway (U of Alberta student newspaper)
  short piece by Nathaniel G. Moore, Critical Crushes Volume 3, No. 7
  article in The Edmonton Journal by Todd Babiak
  review of Rachel Zolf's Human Resources (Vallum magazine)
  review of Susan Briante's Pioneers in the Study of Motion (Vallum magazine)
  Myrna Kostash's All of Baba's Children (or, "on once not staying at Myrna Kostash's house")
  review of name, an errant by John Stiles
  review of The Ottawa City Project (Ottawa X-Press)
  a brief note on the poetry of Sandra Ridley
  article in The Ottawa Citizen by Patrick Langston
  On (not) Being an Alberta Writer: or, anticipating UofA
  review of Transversals for Orpheus & the untitled 1-13 by Garry Thomas Morse
  a brief note on the poetry of Michelle Desbarats
  review of Jay MillAr's Sporatic Growth
  article on rob on new literary press Chaudiere Books
  a brief brief note on the poems of Karen Massey
  review of Birk Sproxton's Headframe: 2
  review of Dennis Cooley's Country Music: New Poems
  a brief note on the poetry of Michael Dennis
  some notes on aubade by Amanda Earl
  an accumulated retreat: four chapbooks from BookThug
  a brief note on Rhonda Douglas
  another review of name, an errant
  John Newlove's "Ottawa poems"
  the stone-boat heart: letters to Andrew Suknaski
  review of Graham, mclennan above/ground press items
  review of name, an errant
  review of F.T. Flahiff's A Life of Sheila Watson and Barbara Caruso's A Painter's Journey, 1966-1973
  review of Andy Weaver's Were the Bees
  a brief note on the poetry of Max Middle
  notes on geography: Meredith Quartermain, John Newlove, William Hawkins & The Ottawa City Project
  Writing the Terrain: Travelling Through Alberta with the Poets and Post-Prairie: An Anthology of New Poetry
  review of Open Field: 30 Contemporary Canadian Poets, ed. Sina Queyras
  Clare Latremouille & the moon
  on Changing on the Fly, The Best Lyric Poems of George Bowering
  on Barry McKinnon's The Centre: Poems 1970-2000
  best practices, small press action network - ottawa
  The Trouble with Normal: Breathing Fire II, Pissing Ice and the State of Canadian Poetry
  Smaller than small: small press article by Matthew Firth, Ottawa X-Press
  review of rob's red earth, etc. (Arc)
  on Margaret Atwood's Survival
  review of rob's what's left
  Sex at Thirty-One -- McKinnon, Fawcett, Gold, Stanley, etc.
  review of Di Brandt, Suzanne Zelazo & nathalie stephens (Coach House Books)
  on John Newlove's "The Death of the Hired Man"
  Notes on Andy Weaver's "Three Ghazals to the constellation Corvus (The Crow)"
  a. rawlings' micropress essay
  review of Stephanie Bolster & Stephen Brockwell
  review of rob's paper hotel, etc. (Arc)
  review of rob's harvest: a book of signifiers, etc. (Arc)
  review of rob's bagne, or Criteria for Heaven
  another review of rob's bagne, or Criteria for Heaven
  yet another review of rob's bagne, or Criteria for Heaven
  What's Love Got To Do With It?: two Margaret Christakos poetry collections, wipe.under.a.love & Excessive Love Prostheses
  review of Stuart Ross' Razovsky at Peace (ECW)
  review of Robert Allen & Jan Conn
  review of Alice Burdick
  review of Carmine Starnino & Aurian Haller
  review of Susan Gillis
  rob interviews
  rob mclennan interviewed on above/ground press for Entropy mag, December 2016
  by Julienne Isacs, "On the Art of the Literary Interview," The Town Crier
  by Lea Graham, Atticus Review, February 2015
  by the editors, Canadian Literature
  by OttawaWrites on Chaudiere Books and our big Indiegogo Campaign
  by The Review Review on ottawater and Touch the Donkey, August 2014
  by Nathaniel G. Moore, Verbicide magazine, August 2014
  with Jon Paul Fiorentino for The Rusty Toque, July 2014
  by Susan Toy, "Reading Recommendations," July 2014
  by David Prosser, barsetshirediaries, June 2014
  by Poets Touching Trees, May 2014
  by The League of Canadian Poets, April 2014
  by the editors, on The Mackinac #2, August 2013
  by Jessica Kluthe on "The Uncertainty Principle: stories," July 2013
  by Kimberly Ann Southwick on the 20th anniversary of above/ground press, Boog City 80, May 2013
  by Ribbon Pig (conducted May 2012) on "How the alphabet was made," April 2013
  by Alison Lang, on the 20th anniversary of above/ground press, the Broken Pencil blog, January 29, 2013
  by Finn Harvor, on Conversations on the Book Trade, December 18, 2012
  by Jonathan Ball, "What are you working on right now?," September 8, 2012
  by Evan Munday, on Canadian Poets Petting Cats, July 3, 2012
  with David O'Meara, in/at Ottawa Magazine
  by The South Townsville micro poetry journal (interview + poem), March 15, 2012, Australia
  by Janet Vickers, Lipstick Press; a little (birthday) interview, Gabriola BC
  by Rusty Morrison, Omni-Verse (the Omnidawn blog), on Canadian poetry, blogging/reviewing + above/ground press,
  by Cassie Leigh, Grey Borders Reading Series blog, St. Catharines ON
  by Darryl Salach, The Toronto Quarterly blog; a new poem + a little tiny interview,
  by Kim Jernigan, on Ottawa as a literary capital, for The New Quarterly blog
  by derek beaulieu, 10 questions for rob mclennan on above/ground
  by James Pickersgill, Poetry'z Own Weekend Festival, Cobourg ON
  by Kevin Spenst, on editing & revision,
  by Nathaniel G. Moore, "The state of short fiction in Canada, part one" at Open Book Toronto
  by Sina Queyras/Lemon Hound, "On reviewing"
  by Jonathan Ball, "Mass Interview 1: Marginalia"
  by Eric Schmaltz, Grey Borders Reading Series blog
  rob answers the Proust Questionnaire, Open Book Toronto
  by Jacob Mooney, The Torontoist
  by Peter Simpson, The Ottawa Citizen
  by Susan Olding, Proved on the Pulses
  by Bruce Deachman, The Ottawa Citizen
  by Open Book Toronto
  by Jonathan Ball
  by The Danforth Review, on the ottawa small press book fair
  with Elizabeth Bachinsky
  some answers to questions and a poem at Canadian Literature (UBC)
  with Sachiko Murakami
  with Sandra Ridley
  with Melanie Little, editor, Freehand Books
  by Ryan Saxby, on the ottawa small press book fair
  by Broken Pencil, on the Departures chapbook
  rob answers his own '12 or 20 questions'
  by ryk mcintyre for GotPoetry (part two)
  by ryk mcintyre for GotPoetry (part one)
  12 or 20 questions project (interviews with various authors)
  by Lea Graham, for MiPOesias
  with Rob Budde
  by Didi Menendez, Men of the Web Wide Poetry World
  with/by K.I.Press, responding to my "anticipating Alberta..."
  by Haas Bianchi
  by Cameron Anstee
  with Stephen Brockwell
  with Shane Rhodes
  by Matthew Firth, on Chaudiere Books
  by Nathaniel G. Moore, on Chaudiere Books
  with Rachel Zolf
  with Chris Turnbull
  with Monty Reid
  with Adam Dickinson
  with Amatoritsero Ede
  with Dave Cooper
  by Amatoritsero Ede
  by Sheila Murphy
  with William Hawkins
  with Jay MillAr (on BookThug)
  with John Barton
  with Max Middle
  with Meredith Quartermain
  by james hörner
  with Stephen Cain
  with Stan Rogal
  with Douglas Barbour
  by donato mancini
  with Gil McElroy
  with/by Stephanie Bolster
  by Michael Bryson
  by Michael Bryson (on above/ground press)
  writer (etc) blogs i often read
  (NEW!) rob's list of blogs by Canadian writers
  Jonathan Ball, Calgary AB
  John Barlow, Toronto ON
  Gary Barwin, Hamilton ON
  derek beaulieu, Calgary AB
  Charles Bernstein, New York NY
  Gregory Betts, Ste. Catherines ON
  Biblioasis blog, Windsor ON
  Joe Blades, Fredericton NB
  Michael Bryson, Toronto ON
  Rob Budde, Prince George BC
  Mairead Byrne, Providence RI
  Stephen Cain, Toronto ON
  Jason Camlot, Montreal QC
  Jason Christie, Calgary AB
  Cormorant Books blog
  Brad Cran, Vancouver BC
  Peter Culley, Nanaimo BC
  Marita Dachsel, Edmonton AB
  Lauren B. Davis, Princeton NJ
  John Degen, Toronto ON
  Conrad DiDiodato, Toronto ON
  Nate Dorward, Toronto ON
  Amanda Earl, Ottawa ON
  Jon Paul Fiorentino, Montreal QC
  ryan fitzpatrick, Calgary AB
  Tom Fowler, Ottawa ON
  Corey Frost, Montreal QC / New York NY
  Laurie Fuhr, Calgary AB
  Ariel Gordon, Winnipeg MB
  Spencer Gordon, Toronto ON
  Kate Greenstreet, New York NY
  Helen Hajnoczky, Calgary AB
  Sharon Harris, Toronto ON
  Jill Hartman, Calgary AB
  Amy King, New York NY
  Dawn Marie Kresan, Kingsville ON
  Ben Ladouceur, Ottawa ON
  Larissa Lai, Calgary AB
  Shawna Lemay, Edmonton AB
  Rachel Loden, Palo Alto CA
  Annabel Lyon, Vancouver BC
  John MacDonald, Ottawa ON
  Robert Majzels, Calgary AB
  Billy Mavreas, Montreal QC
  Marcus McCann, Ottawa ON
  Max Middle, Ottawa ON
  Jay MillAr, Toronto ON
  Nathaniel G. Moore, Toronto ON
  Sachiko Murakami, Vancouver BC
  Wanda O'Connor, Montreal QC
  Susan Olding, Kingston ON
  Paul Pearson, Edmonton AB
  Pearl Pirie, Ottawa ON
  Harriet, the Poetry Foundation blog, US
  ross priddle, Calgary AB
  Sina Queyras, Montreal QC
  a. rawlings, Toronto ON
  nikki reimer, Vancouver BC
  Brent Robillard / The Backwater Review, Athens ON
  Stuart Ross, Toronto ON
  Mari-Lou Rowley, Saskatoon SK
  Maria Scala, Scarborough ON
  Brenda Schmidt, Creighton SK
  Jordan Scott, Toronto ON
  Ron Silliman, PA
  Natalie Simpson, Calgary AB
  Jessica Smith, Mid-Atlantic
  Susannah M. Smith, Vancouver BC
  Juliana Spahr, Oakland CA
  nathalie stephens, Chicago Il
  Anne Stone, Vancouver BC
  Kate Sutherland, Toronto ON
  Mark Truscott, Toronto ON
  Michael Turner, Vancouver BC
  Daniel Scott Tysdal, Moose Jaw SK/Toronto ON
  Vehicule Press blog, Montreal QC
  Aaron Vidaver, Vancouver BC
  Natalie Zina Walschots, Calgary AB
  Darren Wershler-Henry, Toronto ON
  Thomas Wharton, Edmonton AB
  Ian Whistle, Nepean ON / Winnipeg MB
  Michael Winter, Toronto ON / St. John's NFLD
  Rachel Zucker & Arielle Greenberg, New York NY
  Heather Zwicker, Edmonton AB
  Atlanta Poets Group
  Trans-scribing Canada (between Taiwan and Canada, but not in the Pacific Ocean)
  Calgary blowout blog
  Chaudiere Books blog
  ottawa poetry newsletter
  alberta, writing
  thirdfactory list of other poetry blogs etc
  list of Canadian writers' blogs from the Canadian Literature Centre, University of Alberta
  rob's list of other blogs
  other books/sections edited
  Guthrie Clothing: The Poetry of Phil Hall, A Selected Collage
  Tuesday poem, Dusie blog, April 2013 etc
  Halvard Johnson's TRUCK, August 2012
  Douglas Barbour section, Jacket
  Open Letter: A Canadian Journal of Writing and Theory; "new Canadian poetries" issue
  Decalogue: ten Ottawa fiction writers
  Decalogue: ten Ottawa poets
  George Bowering section, Jacket
  evergreen: six new poets
  side/lines: a new Canadian poetics
  new Canadian poets section, Jacket
  YOU & YOUR BRIGHT IDEAS: NEW MONTREAL WRITING
  Written in the Skin: a poetic response to aids
  cauldron books (rob mclennan, series editor)
  Cauldron Books (Broken Jaw Press)
  ancient motel landscape, shauna mccabe
  Dancing Alone, Selected Poems, William Hawkins
  Groundswell: best of above/ground press, 1993-2003
  resume drowning, Jon Paul Fiorentino
  This Day Full of Promise, poems selected & new, Michael Dennis
  Shadowy Technicians: New Ottawa Poets
  some other lit sites worth reading
  Aaron Tucker's Agora Review, Toronto ON
  branta: celebrating the might of write (Goose Lane blog), Fredericton NB
  Peter Darbyshire's CanCult, Vancouver BC
  Trevor Cole's Authors Aloud, Toronto ON
  Chicago Postmodern Poetry
  The Danforth Review, Toronto ON
  ditch: the poetry that matters
  Doppelganger, Vancouver BC
  Dooney's Cafe :: A News Service
  The Goose
  Intercapillary Space, UK
  It's Still Winter, Prince George BC
  Jacket magazine, AUS
  jwcurry/Messagio Galore page (with links)
  LEXICAN RADIO, Vancouver BC
  Narrativity
  Northern Poetry Review
  The Parliamentary Poet Laureate "Poem of the Week"
  paperplates, Toronto ON
  Parser: New Poetry & Poetics, Vancouver BC
  Phillytalks
  Stephen Collis' Poetic Front, Vancouver BC
  PoetryReviews.ca
  rabble.ca
  The Rain Review of Books, Vancouver
  Rain Taxi
  ReLit Awards
  Shampoo Poetry
  stonestone, Prince George BC
  Louis Cabri's Talknophical Assumnacy, Windsor ON
  W magazine (KSW), Vancouver BC
  UbuWeb
  /ubu Editions
  more here
  rob's audio/video
  rob's first post-Alberta Ottawa reading at the Dusty Owl Reading Series, Sunday, June 8, 2008
  on Bookmark, CKUA Radio (Edmonton), March 16, 2008
  on Breakfast Television for Ottawa: The Unknown City, A Channel, Ottawa, March 14, 2008 (YouTube)
  on Trevor Cole's Authors Aloud, reading from The Ottawa City Project
  Reading at the Atwater Library, Montreal, Thursday, February 16th, 2006
  a new poem, "The Key of L," on On Barcelona, September 2013
  two short stories in Sassafras #1, September 2013
  two new poems in Tarpaulin Sky, August 2013
  new poem, "from Hark, a journal: 1864-1967," in Himalayan Walking Shoe, July 2013
  new poem, "Origin story:," in The Wonder Book of Poetry, Jully 2013
  new poem, "Conditions of the shudder," above/ground press broadside #319, June 2013
  four new poems, in The Avatar Review #15, June 2013
  two very short stories, in The Barnstormer, May 2013
  collaborative poem with Christine McNair in Gritty Silk #1, May 2013
  new poem, "Testament: a short sequence of poems after housewares," in The Wonder Book, May 2013
  2 poems from "Songs for little sleep," in foam:e 9, May 2013
  new poem, "Conditions of the shudder," up at the LPG National Poetry Month blog, April 19, 2013
  new poem, "Bank Entire," up at The Steel Chisel, April 2013
  new short fiction, "A Short Film About My Father," on Numero Cinq, April 2013
  new poem, "King Kong Goes to Cambridge," on Dr. Hurley's Snake Oil Cure, March 2013
  new poem, "Liner notes: empty, for an era," on On Barcelona, March 2013
  new poem, "Birthday Poem for Gwendolyn Guth," on Peter Ganick's experiential-experimenta-literature, March 2013
  new poem, "King Kong Goes to Parliament Hill," on Centretown Nonsense, February 2013
  new poem, "Self-portrait, with infant," on Konundrum Engine Literary Review, February 2013
  four prose poems, "Notlake Utanikki," on Talking Writing, January 2013
  new poem, "King Kong Goes to Stratford," on On Barcelona, January 2013
  new poem, "A SINGLE STREAK, PURE WHITE OF SKY," on the Verse magazine blog, December 2012
  new poem, "Imaginary Fred," on Peter Ganick's experiental-experimental-literature, November 2012
  new short story, "The Matrix Resolutions," on The Puritan, November 2012
  from "Songs for little sleep," in On Barcelona, October 21, 2012
  Field Notes: Dear Lea Graham, on Centretown Nonsense (October 2012)
  two poems from an untitled collaboration with Christine McNair, in summer stock (September 2012);
  from "Songs for little sleep," in TRUCK, August 31, 2012
  from "Songs for little sleep," in Newark Review, August 2012
  a short short story at Reader's Digest Canada (online), July 2012
  from "Songs for little sleep," in The Offending Adam (with little write-up), June 20, 2012
  from "Songs for little sleep," in Truck, June 13, 2012
  from "The underside of the line," in Turntable + Blue Light, May 2012
  from "Songs for little sleep," in foam:e 9, April 2012
  from "Songs for little sleep," in Prompt #1, April 2012
  from "how the alphabet was made," at NationalPoetryMonth.ca
  sequence "Notes on the subject of marriage" at Quarter After #1 (March 19, 2012)
  three new poems at NAP 2.4 (March 12, 2012)
  untitled short story at Fortunates (January 29, 2012)
  Subject; , on Scott Howard's RECONFIGURATIONS: Volume 5: Disappearance (January 21, 2012)
  Territory is not Map--, on Halvard Johnson's On Barcelona (January 16, 2012)
  two poems from "Songs for little sleep," on Dear Sir, (January 2012)
  a small handful of poems, in BlazeVox Winter 2011 issue (January 1, 2012)
  two poems from an untitled Sainte-Adele collaboration with Christine McNair, in TRUCK (November 24, 2011)
  "lake, verse," in Canadian Literature #208 (spring 2011)
  "The Carleton Tavern, shadow," on Mad Hatter's Review blog, August 8, 2011
  from "Songs for little sleep," on Lily, August 1, 2011
  "A (broken) line of ants," poems responding to Warren Dean Fulton's last Ottawa Pooka Press pub crawl, at Upstart, July 7, 2011;
  two lake poems, on Apparent Magazine, July 4, 2011
  "Vancouver, specifically," on Sachiko Murakami's Project Rebuild, July 6, 2011
  "They will take my island," June 30, 2011
  four poems online at Stride magazine (England), June 13, 2011
  Poemaday 12, May 13, 2011
  National Poetry Month blog, The League of Canadian Poets, April 2011
  Prick of the Spindle, 4.3, Sept. 2010
  Otoliths, summer 2010
  late nights on bank street: a concordance, from Branch 2.1
  AngelHousePress, Nat'l Poetry Month, from "grief notes"
  monday poem, leaf press, January 18, 2010
  shampoo 36
  turntable (BC)
  angelhousepress' national poetry month, 2009
  a poem and brief write-up at The Globe and Mail blog
  black robert journal
  pf poetry
  leaf press, Monday's Poem
  milk
  rob mclennan feature at Poet's Corner - Fieralingue
  three poems on the TREE Reading Series "open mike" page
  ars poetica
  lexican radio
  another new rob poem on The Parliamentary Poet Laureate Poem of the Week
  rob mclennan feature on Other Voices International
  Starfish Poetry #8
  rob on MayDayPoems, daily during May, 2008
  blue skies poetry
  Forget Magazine
  BlazeVOX
  ditch: the poetry that matters
  OCHO #11
  Bywords.ca
  Puritan Fiction Magazine
  Walrus, Toronto ON
  Stylus Poetry Journal
  Shearsman magazine 69/70
  Shadowtrain 13
  stonestone, winter 2007
  Dusie 5
  Sidebrow
  Otolith 3
  Jacket 31
  Murderous Signs 13
  Drunken Boat 8
  melancholia's tremulous dreadlocks 4
  "intercapillary space"
  listenlight 01
  aught 15
  The Parliamentary Poet Laureate Poem of the Week
  luzmag
  RealPoetik
  zafusy
  Nth Position
  The Argotist Online
  Spillway Review
  P.F.S. Post
  Moira Poetry Journal
  Shampoo 23
  Malleable Jungle
  Stylus Poetry Journal
  Jacket 28
  Hutt
  Cordite Poetry Review
  Sentinel Poetry
  Honouring Mothers
  The Alterran Poetry Assemblage
  stonestone
  the muse apprentice guild
  Pettycoat Relaxer
  Gumball Poetry
  Milk
  Flatlands
  Shampoo 18
  greenboathouse books

8/13/17, 7(46 AM
Print Marked Items
The Naked Blogger of Cairo: Creative Insurgency in the Arab World
ProtoView.
(June 2016): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 Ringgold, Inc. http://www.protoview.com/protoview
Full Text:
9780674737082
The Naked Blogger of Cairo: Creative Insurgency in the Arab World Marwan M. Kraidy
Harvard University Press
2016
293 pages
$39.95
Hardcover
JQ1850
Kraidy argues that he essential medium of political expression in the Arab uprisings of 2010-12 was not cell phone texts or Twitter, but the human body. His sections are In the Name of the People, Burning Man, Laughing Cow, Puppets and Masters, Virgins and Vixens, and Requiem for a Revolution. Detailed topics include the dictator's two bodies, a bad rap, down and out in Tunis, a digital body politic, the poodle and the bear, the aesthetics of disrobement, blue bra girl, the dilemma of the liberals, and the creative-curatorial-corporate complex. ([umlaut] Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Naked Blogger of Cairo: Creative Insurgency in the Arab World." ProtoView, June 2016. PowerSearch,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA454540680&it=r&asid=9d1babaaa400a97ca1f2b1d6cf1b950e. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A454540680
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8/13/17, 7(46 AM

"The Naked Blogger of Cairo: Creative Insurgency in the Arab World." ProtoView, June 2016. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA454540680&it=r. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017.

• Heavy Feather Review
  https://heavyfeatherreview.com/2017/01/03/lunch/
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  LUNCH PORTRAITS by Debora Kuan
  Heavy FeatherJanuary 3, 2017book reviews, poetryPost navigation
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  Lunch Portraits, by Debora Kuan, Brooklyn, New York: Brooklyn Arts Press, December 2016. 104 pages. $16.00, paper.

  In Debora Kuan’s Lunch Portraits, the everyday is silly, surreal, and biting. There is an abundant playfulness, both of language and subject matter, style and execution. In these poems, Kuan blends tongue-in-cheek references to movies, childhood memories, and medical maladies in ways both stunning and heart-warming (and at times, nausea-inducing). At the center of these poems is the body—what one puts inside it, how it feels, how it moves in the world, how it relates to others—the body is the question and the answer of this collection. The ephemera surrounding it—food, clothes, water—serve to highlight the fragility, ridiculousness, and beauty of how we conceptualize the self.

  In her poem “Portrait of My Stalker” Kuan takes a subject marked as frightening and objectifying and manifests an underlying emotion of self-consciousness and regret:

  When my stalker stopped stalking me
  I died the death of
  a million fat blue genies.

  The poems in this collection aren’t easy, and they don’t provide neat narrative moments. At times the world of the poems gets almost too weird—the poet plays with the edge between ridiculous and challenging, and it would be understandable for a reader to be disappointed by the lack of payoff in some of these poems. There is a connection here to childhood storytelling—the ideas are fanciful and strange and larger-than-life, but narrative threads and resolutions are largely absent. The poems hint toward sense, but cut off just before the proverbial finale. However, upon closer examination, dead-ends and logical lacunae are the point. Kuan is interested in isolating sensations. She wants the reader to make the jump, or at least enjoy the rush of letting go.

  Kuan delights in bad puns and other forms of verbal performance. In the poem “Teen Mammal” from the second section (of three) in the book, the voice of the poem is nodding along at how silly it all is:

  The whale dons
  her psychological blubber
  and it tastes so seal

  It’s difficult to talk about this collection without at least mentioning Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems. Kuan shares O’Hara’s whimsy and breathy quality of pace, the innate sense that the reader should be running along with the poem, trying to keep up. Occasionally Kuan’s playfulness bleeds into the grotesque—the horrors and embarrassments of having a body. This is especially apparent in the first section, wherein the poems are the “Portraits” of the book’s title, such as “Portrait of My Black Hole,” “Portrait of a Lounge Singer,” and “Portrait of Leah”:

  I was inspired by Leah’s ear infection
  because why wouldn’t I be?

  She texted me in the middle of the day
  to tell me she was lying on her side

  at the free medical center
  with stool softener in her ear.

  Of course it was my fault
  for having invited her to the Russian

  bathhouse in the first place,
  where bacteria make mince-meat

  of our mealy substrates
  and we sit there welcoming them in

  like they’re Mormon missionaries

  Although the collection is full of oddities, Kuan is not merely performing strangeness. The second-to-last poem in the collection, “121 Memories of an American Childhood,” is one of the strongest and most emotional pieces in the book. A take on Joe Brainard’s I Remember, these isolated sensations and childhood recollections are at once still and affecting. Kuan conjures nostalgia and place without veering into cliché or saccharine sentimentality. The memories presented are surprising, neat, and often funny. They offer a glimpse into a childhood world of wonder and loss and joy:

  White yarn tights whose crotches drooped down my thighs

  The taste of kissing my forearm

  Being afraid of Gene Hackman

  My dad’s lap when he was Santa Claus at the Chinese Community Center and the delicious secret of knowing it was him

  In this poem, Kuan takes Brainard’s form and adds a different kind of depth to it, using the seemingly simple prompt to investigate the relationship between memory and self. A standout of this section is the use of a child’s judgment of one’s parents, such as in the line, “My father’s miniature beers in the refrigerator and how scandalized I felt seeing them, because we were Mormon.” Her observations of intimacies and distances are uncomfortable and stunning, enough to leave one reeling long after you’ve left the poem.

  One of the most invigorating aspects of Lunch Portraits is the quality of the voice present throughout. The speaker of these poems is forthright, brave, and unafraid of judgment. She is nimble, moving through space and time, juggling referents as varied as Wild Strawberries and ham hoagies, Super Bowl Sunday and Claes Oldenburg. This voice is one that can unite a wide register of experiences and perceptions:

  Joy is the opposite of fear.
  Joy is a vertical stripe,

  maybe red,
  like the signage of

  the Fulton Hot Dog King
  where there is no need

  for dread,
  which is why I eat there,

  because even the nothing
  between stripes

  is a stripe.
  Even the sorrow

  between stripes
  is joy

  Overall, this collection is challenging and rewarding, sour and sweet. Kuan trusts the reader to make sense (or not) of the world they are dropped into—to form connections and parallels between voice, style, and meaning. Her work is both frustrating and endlessly satisfying. These poems are delicious and filling—a reader could sit with just one for a whole afternoon.

  Buy Lunch Portraits at Amazon

  Buy Lunch Portraits at Powell’s Books

  Buy Lunch Portraits at Small Press Distribution

  Buy Lunch Portraits at Brooklyn Arts Press

  ***

  Emily Brown’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Prelude, Sonora Review, The Des Moines Register, Chicagoist, Bennington Review, Lambda Literary’s Poetry Spotlight, and elsewhere. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Seattle.

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