Last night I did my first poetry reading as a part of Livewords for the advance launch of Carousel #31. The place was packed. It was amazing.

It was also Colin Brush’s first reading, who I kind of know through Broken Pencil. We were pretty psyched for each other, and he was great. And super brave – his first reading and he took the first spot of the night. Incredible.

I was in the second set, after intermission. I opened with “Domestic Secrets” which appeared in the previous issue of Carousel, #30, and followed with a few funny poems I thought would read well. People laughed at the right places, and I got cheers for my zombie apocalypse poem, so that was pretty nifty.

If anyone else has shots from the evening, I’d love to see them because I’m vain.

A big thanks to Mark Laliberte for publishing my poem and inviting me to read, thanks to Edward Nixon for hosting Livewords, thanks to the other fabulous readers, and, of course, thanks to everyone who showed up – you guys were a great audience!

That was definitely something I’d like to do again.

Livewords is pleased to host, in association with National Poetry Month, the Toronto ADVANCE launch of CAROUSEL 31, a free event taking place Thursday, April 04, 2013 @ The Black Swan — 154 Danforth Ave (2nd floor) in Toronto.

The evening will feature readings by the following contributors: Colin Brush, Louise Carson, Sonia Di Placido, Nico Mara-McKay (me!), David Reibetanz, Mary Rykov, Lizzie Violet, Liz Worth, Catriona Wright.

Hosted by: Edward Nixon. Doors at 7:30pm — readings from 8pm.

My poem “Domestic Secrets” appeared in issue 30. I’ll be reading it and a few others – first time ever. Yikes.

Hope to see you there!

July’s reading consisted largely of fiction, poetry, literary criticism, and comics. By the end of the month I’d reached 100 books read in 2012.

82. Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen
(Picador, 2010)

Huh. This is the second month I’ve entered this year reading Jonathan Frazen. I have no idea why. It’s not intentional.

Like The Corrections, it’s a sprawling family epic that tries to cover more social issues than a can be comfortably handled in a single novel, even a longish one such as this. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, environmentalism, feminist and racial politics, infidelity, complex relationships between parents and children – at times it becomes overly preachy (even when I sympathize with the positions expressed) and at others, not enough depth is given to fully realize the characters or scenes.

83. The Fetch, by Nico Rogers
(Brick Books, 2010)

What a lovely first name, and what a gorgeously rich first collection. I had the pleasure of hearing Rogers read a couple of years ago at the Art Bar, and couldn’t pass this up when I came across it again in the bookstore.

These prose poems are drawn from interviews with Newfoundland enders and research from regional archives and museums. They’re brilliantly executed snapshots of people and situations communicated in Newfoundland’s unique dialect, aided in part by the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. Continue reading »