November 18, 2014

November 18th was Rachel Zolf’s launch for her powerful new book, Janey’s Arcadia at McNally Robinson.

Trish Salah, Katherena Vermette, and I were invited to read some of our poetry as well. What an amazing evening and an honour to read with these fine writers!

Rachel Zolf’s fifth book assembles a pirate score of error-ridden historical and current documents – missionary narratives, immigration pamphlets, settler writings – to decry the ongoing violence of Canadian colonialism. It stars Janey Settler-Invader, a foul-mouthed mutant slouching toward the Red River Colony, along with a host of cacophonous, carnivalesque appropriations.

Rachel Zolf’s writing practice explores interrelated materialist questions concerning memory, history, knowledge, subjectivity, and the conceptual limits of language and meaning. She is particularly interested in how ethics founders on the shoals of the political. Her books of poetry include “Neighbour Procedure” and “Human Resources,” which won the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award. She has taught at New York’s The New School University and the University of Calgary.

Trish Salah is the author of the Lambda Award winning book, “Wanting in Arabic,” and the recently published “Lyric Sexology,” as well as co-editor of a special issue of “TSQ:Transgender Studies Quarterly,” focused on Cultural Production, out this fall. She is also assistant professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Winnipeg.

Katherena Vermette is a Métis writer of poetry, fiction and children’s literature. Her first book, “North End Love Songs” won the 2013 Governor General Literary Award for Poetry. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in several literary magazines and compilations. She holds a Master of Fine Arts – Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Her next project, The Seven Teachings Stories picture book series, should be released any day now!