Canadian Literary Blogs
[This appeared in the August 22, 2004 edition of the Ottawa Citizen but behind the subscriber wall.]
Writers write. The traditional writers' tools - coil bound notebooks and the laptop filled with sketches, snatches of conversation, books read, rants and poems in embryo - used to be essentially private. No more. Instant publishing via blog to the world, or a dozen of your closest friends, is now reality.
Blogs, a term which describe a multitude of forms and formats which share the single characteristic of being updated regularly, have exploded on the internet. There are literally millions of personal blogs, group blogs and business blogs. And, of course, there are literary blogs. Or, more exactly, blogs about books or blogs written by authors or aspiring authors or, and this is a bit iffy, very well written blogs by literate people. Literary covers a multitude of sins.
Blogging is very much a conversation. A sort of free for all cocktail party in twenty four time zones. Many blogs allow their readers to post comments on the entries and bloggers read other bloggers and comment. Often the best way of finding interesting blogs about literature or the thousands of other topics bloggers cover is simply to begin reading one blog and then follow the links that blogger has put up.
Another way which will lead to specifically Canadian blogs is to go to BlogsCanadaand search for what you are looking for. Take a look at the BlogsCanada Top Blogs - for which I am a volunteer judge - for fresh, quality literary blogs.
Mark Woods of Woods' Lot runs a blog which, if you read it daily, will give you a literary and general education whether you want it or not. While Woods writes from Perth Ontario, his point of view is global. When the last of the Beats, Gary Snyder, has a birthday up goes two full text Snyder poems and eight links to sites by or about Snyder. And before that Thomas Pynchon and Rabindranath Tagore were celebrated. In between the birthdays are poems by Archibald MacLeish, a note on Bernard Lewis, a link to Portable Effects: A Survey of Nomadic Design Practice. Woods is, in the argot of blogs, a linker. What his readers sees is what he's reading, not what he's writing.
At the other end of the spectrum is Ratty's Ghost. Socar Miles is simply one of the best writers in Canada. She writes so well that you forgive her for writing far too often about her giant pouched rat, Stella. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of opera, books, brothels, art, design. Maddeningly, Miles is actually a professional artist rather than writer. Ratty's Ghost blogs the notes for a wonderful, quirky, novel Miles is not aware she's writing. Her descriptions of bad dates, a mysterious shoe in her solarium, landlord visitations and the state of her Visa bill are as fresh, funny and cringe inducing as anything in Lucky Jim. Miles almost never links to other material which doesn't matter.
Caterina Fake, which is her real name, links and writes. Is she an artist or a writer? Hard to say. She was an art director at www.Salon.com. But she is a voracious reader of everything from Romance Writers Report -
Book Ninja is a collaborative blog run by Peter Darbyshire and George Murray who are published Toronto novelists. Not only do they write books, they collaboratively review books, link to readers' and writers resources' and have a wicked, literary, sense of humour.
A more or less pure poetry blog - with photographs and political asides - can be found at Vivid: Pieces from a Writer's Notebook . Erin Noteboom writes from Kitchener Ontario. Her poetry has appeared in Grain, The Malahat Review, Prism International and a number of other literary journals. She often blogs a poem a day. She also posts short stories and excerpts from books in progress. This blog literally takes its reader inside the process of writerly creation. Make a cup of coffee and spend an hour at Vivid Pieces.
Finally, and I am likely missing hundreds, a pure critic. Kelly Jane Torrance is Canadian but writes almost exclusively for American publication. She takes a wide view of the literary world, wide enough to include movies, culture and the arts at large; but for the first ten days of May her topics included iber agent Andrew Wylie, Steven Fry's projected movie adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel, Vile Bodies, David Lodge on Nabokov, and the grim threat of Brad Pitt playing Mr. Darcy in a new version of Pride and Prejudice. Torrance is wonderfully opinionated and writes beautifully with a broad perspective.
Each of these blogs is a jumping off spot into the Canadian and international world of literary blogs. Virtually every blogger puts up links to other bloggers and to the web material they are reading. Following the links is your invitation to a world wide literary conversation.
A warning: once you start reading blogs it is only a matter of time before you decide to build your own. Starting a blog is ridiculously easy, free and highly addictive. Not to mention fun.
Writers write. The traditional writers' tools - coil bound notebooks and the laptop filled with sketches, snatches of conversation, books read, rants and poems in embryo - used to be essentially private. No more. Instant publishing via blog to the world, or a dozen of your closest friends, is now reality.
Blogs, a term which describe a multitude of forms and formats which share the single characteristic of being updated regularly, have exploded on the internet. There are literally millions of personal blogs, group blogs and business blogs. And, of course, there are literary blogs. Or, more exactly, blogs about books or blogs written by authors or aspiring authors or, and this is a bit iffy, very well written blogs by literate people. Literary covers a multitude of sins.
Blogging is very much a conversation. A sort of free for all cocktail party in twenty four time zones. Many blogs allow their readers to post comments on the entries and bloggers read other bloggers and comment. Often the best way of finding interesting blogs about literature or the thousands of other topics bloggers cover is simply to begin reading one blog and then follow the links that blogger has put up.
Another way which will lead to specifically Canadian blogs is to go to BlogsCanadaand search for what you are looking for. Take a look at the BlogsCanada Top Blogs - for which I am a volunteer judge - for fresh, quality literary blogs.
Mark Woods of Woods' Lot runs a blog which, if you read it daily, will give you a literary and general education whether you want it or not. While Woods writes from Perth Ontario, his point of view is global. When the last of the Beats, Gary Snyder, has a birthday up goes two full text Snyder poems and eight links to sites by or about Snyder. And before that Thomas Pynchon and Rabindranath Tagore were celebrated. In between the birthdays are poems by Archibald MacLeish, a note on Bernard Lewis, a link to Portable Effects: A Survey of Nomadic Design Practice. Woods is, in the argot of blogs, a linker. What his readers sees is what he's reading, not what he's writing.
At the other end of the spectrum is Ratty's Ghost. Socar Miles is simply one of the best writers in Canada. She writes so well that you forgive her for writing far too often about her giant pouched rat, Stella. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of opera, books, brothels, art, design. Maddeningly, Miles is actually a professional artist rather than writer. Ratty's Ghost blogs the notes for a wonderful, quirky, novel Miles is not aware she's writing. Her descriptions of bad dates, a mysterious shoe in her solarium, landlord visitations and the state of her Visa bill are as fresh, funny and cringe inducing as anything in Lucky Jim. Miles almost never links to other material which doesn't matter.
Caterina Fake, which is her real name, links and writes. Is she an artist or a writer? Hard to say. She was an art director at www.Salon.com. But she is a voracious reader of everything from Romance Writers Report -
"What three traits do romance readers like in a hero? - Muscles - Handsomeness - Intelligence" to Kaja Silverman, "We expand the body when we feel friendly and loving...and the borderlines of the body-image lose their distinct character." and George Orwell, "Lunatics tend to gravitate towards bookshops."Caterina is just enough of a geek to work for a company which builds photo-based social networking software. Wired and literary.
Book Ninja is a collaborative blog run by Peter Darbyshire and George Murray who are published Toronto novelists. Not only do they write books, they collaboratively review books, link to readers' and writers resources' and have a wicked, literary, sense of humour.
"Apparently the real English patient was gay and lost his Nazi lover to a landmine. I might have got through THAT book. (There's an air of smug superiority here, the kind that seems to go hand in hand with academic "sleuths" who think they've uncovered some sort of deception on the part of a famous author or figure. I guess that'll show 'em for creating something meaningful for you to write about so eight other people in the world with the required specialized vocabulary can listen to you present it at a conference you had to pay to attend, you smarmy ivory tower bastards...)"Tough to beat this sort of entry for illumination or snark.
A more or less pure poetry blog - with photographs and political asides - can be found at Vivid: Pieces from a Writer's Notebook . Erin Noteboom writes from Kitchener Ontario. Her poetry has appeared in Grain, The Malahat Review, Prism International and a number of other literary journals. She often blogs a poem a day. She also posts short stories and excerpts from books in progress. This blog literally takes its reader inside the process of writerly creation. Make a cup of coffee and spend an hour at Vivid Pieces.
Finally, and I am likely missing hundreds, a pure critic. Kelly Jane Torrance is Canadian but writes almost exclusively for American publication. She takes a wide view of the literary world, wide enough to include movies, culture and the arts at large; but for the first ten days of May her topics included iber agent Andrew Wylie, Steven Fry's projected movie adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel, Vile Bodies, David Lodge on Nabokov, and the grim threat of Brad Pitt playing Mr. Darcy in a new version of Pride and Prejudice. Torrance is wonderfully opinionated and writes beautifully with a broad perspective.
Each of these blogs is a jumping off spot into the Canadian and international world of literary blogs. Virtually every blogger puts up links to other bloggers and to the web material they are reading. Following the links is your invitation to a world wide literary conversation.
A warning: once you start reading blogs it is only a matter of time before you decide to build your own. Starting a blog is ridiculously easy, free and highly addictive. Not to mention fun.
posted by jc at 2:40 PM
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