This issue of Broken Pencil lists the results of the Indie Writer’s Deathmatch, in which Nana K. Adjei-Brenyah emerged victorious. The revised winning story, and two runners up are on display. Running underneath the stories are comments which appeared on the website during battle (including one from me). Contentious stuff. I love it.

Natalie Zina Walschots’s profile of Annie Koyama and the comics press she founded is excellent, and was timely, appearing on newsstands just before TCAF.

Also inside, tons of reviews, including my review of the zine Super Fun Satan Club, and a few poetry books.

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, The Globe and Mail recently changed up their Books section staff. There was an outpouring of goodwill on Twitter, which was heartening to see. More info on Q&Q, and an even-handed response from the Literary Press Group.

As a result, they’re hiring a new Books Editor. If you’re interested, you need a “robust metabolism” for some reason. Do they eat books there? Is that why the Books section keeps shrinking?

Whatever the state of your metabolism, if you’re a woman, and you can learn the job, you should apply.

• Snarky graphic designers respond to customer complaints. People actually say these things…
• On a related note, creativity is not inspired by time.
• Kudos to Scott Griffin and House of Anansi Press.
• Greystone Books will rise out of the ashes of Douglas & McIntyre.
• Is poetry dead?, someone asks, yet again. I’ve written zombie poetry, but I don’t think that’s quite what she means.
• The correct answer to the above question is: of course not.  Here’s your CanCon, plus A Dark Boat, by Patrick Friesen, probably my favourite book of poetry that I read from 2012.⁽¹⁾
• The biggest book craze in China right now is apparently James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.
• Stephen King wrote a brief book about gun control, highlights here.
• Who isn’t John Galt? Short answer: you, probably.
• Crazy text-based window art from Micah Lexier and Christian Bok.
• Toronto used to have Johnny Cash machines.
• The male gaze, skewered.
• Haters gonna hate, especially women.
• So, you better learn to write like a motherfucker.

Meanwhile, these three guys have been playing tag for 23 years.

Footnotes:

1. My review Friesen’s book can be found in Broken Pencil, issue 57. [↩]

Another great issue of Broken Pencil, of course. Especially the feature on the rise of books about punk rock. For so long no one felt they were marketable, now we have an explosion of them, and it’s wonderful.

In this issue I reviewed Mark Hazelbower’s You Can’t Get There from Here,⁽¹⁾ Cordelia Strube’s Milosz, Emma Healey’s Begin with the End in Mind, and last but not least, Nicole Markotic’s collection with the gorgeous cover, Bent at the Spine.

Some of BP‘s stories may end up on their new app, the Nub, so check that out too.⁽²⁾

Footnotes:

1. The image above my review of You Can’t Get There from Here isn’t the same as the cover of the zine I reviewed. It’s a little awkward as I go into detail about how much I liked the cover. I don’t know if the author sent another edition, or how it appeared there, but these things happen. [↩]
2. The front page looks a little funky on my Android, but it’s brand new, and I’m sure the kinks will be worked out as it goes along. [↩]