Category: News
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This ain’t lilith fair
I’m in Montreal for the POP Montreal music festival. Many thanks to Matrix and POP Montreal for arranging the visit as part of the prize for winning Matrix‘s LitPOP fiction award. Flipping through the program for the festival’s eclectic lineup (The Dears…Deerhoof…Laura Veirs…Timber Timbre…Kenny Goldsmith talking at UQAM) I came across this comment on my…
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Work in fall issues
My short story, “People Who Are Michael,” is in the new issue of Matrix. The story won the 2010 fiction contest, judged by rapper Cadence Weapon. A folio of poems from BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR, the public art project I did with Elizabeth Bachinsky during the Vancouver Olympics, will be in subTerrain‘s fall issue. The…
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Writing YouTube: second person stories
Lately I’ve grown interested in writing stories that reflect different media through form. My story “People Who Are Michael” takes a run at structuring a short story as a series of portraits of YouTube videos, all featuring the famed Michael. “People Who Are Michael” has just won Matrix‘s fiction contest (judged by rapper Cadence Weapon)…
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The Bodies of Others
My story “The Bodies of Others” is in the new issue of Event, on stands until September. Also offered is new work by Meredith Quartermain, Jenny Sampirisi, Veda Hille, and many others. “The Bodies of Others” begins as 11 year-old Laura writes on her classroom blackboard: YOU ME : …
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Inside/Outside
This weekend I participated in a writing workshop at Matsqui Institution, a medium-security prison a short drive from Vancouver. For two days, an equal number of writers from the “outside” and “inside” shared our work, wrote as a group, and talked about our process. I was glad to hear one “inside” writer say that this…
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Catalogue of the Coast
Tonight, I heard that my story “Catalogue of the Coast” is on the shortlist for a National Magazine Award for fiction. My thanks to Prairie Fire for nominating my story. Last year, I won a Gold National Magazine Award in the personal journalism category for a piece also nominated by Prairie Fire, a gesture of…
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Fifty images on a screen
Last night, poet Ray Hsu and I performed at 330 W Pender, an early-1900’s bank currently being restored by Heritage Vancouver. We improvised stories, in conversation with each other, which corresponded to fifty random images projected in sequence onto a large screen behind us. At several points during the performance, Ray read from his book…
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Collaborations with poets
This year I’ve had the chance to collaborate with poets for the first time. Fiction writing is a solitary exercise; it’s been interesting and helpful to work on shared artistic terms. So. Several things. Poet Ray Hsu and I will be performing at Heritage Vancouver’s fundraiser later this month. We’ll be doing “slideshow karaoke” —…
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This wall has been erased
One wall of The Candahar was occupied by our BLACKOUT poetry for one day and night, concurrent with the closing of the Vancouver Olympic Games. To preface the slideshow we gave about our project, we read a list of individuals who were censored during the Olympics — this list included the athletes themselves, who were…
Alex Leslie 