Elizabeth Bachinsky

Thrilliterate, Feb 24

2012-01-31T07:52:00.000-08:00

Come say goodbye to Thrilliterate with me at Rhizome Cafe, Feb 24, 7:30pm and thank series curator Amber Dawn for five years of amazing fundraising.

The thrilLITERATE Reading Series has showcased some of Vancouver's most acclaimed queer and allied authors to raise funds for the women's literacy program at WISH, a drop-in centre for female survival sex workers in the Downtown Eastside. After nearly five years, organizer and host Amber Dawn is saddened, but ready to retire this community literary event, BUT NOT WITHOUT A FINAL FAREWELL!

Friday February 24 and Saturday 25! Two nights of poetry, storytelling and celebrating literacy as a basic human right!

Friday February 24 Readers include: Elizabeth Bachinsky, Afuwa Granger, Shana Myara, Donna Dykeman, Aaron Chan, Cathleen With, Antonette Rea and Tony Correia,

Saturday February 25 Readers include: Tash Wolfe, Larissa Lai, Terra Poirier, Sonnet L'Abbe, Crystal Sikma, Sigal Samuel and Amber Dawn

Rhizome Cafe, 317 E Broadway

Sliding Scale $5 - $20. 100% of the door goes to the WISH Learning and Literacy Program. Doors 7 pm. Show 7:30, both nights.

Trampoline Hall, January 29

2012-01-16T09:07:00.000-08:00

Hi there. Been a while since I checked in here, but I should mention I'll be speaking at the Trampoline Hall lecture series later this month, a lecture series praised for its “eccentricity and do-it-yourself inventiveness” (The New Yorker) where none of the lecturers are experts on their subject. Vancouver's Trampoline Hall is hosted by Misha Glouberman and curated by Lee Henderson.

Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright St. Jan. 29, 7 p.m. $24, 604-605-8284, pushfestival.ca

Room Service, Nov 5

2011-11-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm having a bed-in to celebrate the Van East Culture Crawl. Come on up to room 115 at the Waldorf Hotel between 8-8:30pm, Nov 5, and hear me read poems from a limited edition copy of GREY MATTERS: The Peace Arts Anthology (1985). Introduction by Margaret Lawrence, poems by Bronwen Wallace, Joy Kogawa, bill bissett, George Bowering, and more. Wear Your PJs!

HAIR PEACE!

Liz at the V125PC

2011-08-25T16:11:00.001-07:00

I'm looking forward to the V125PC. I'll be reading in and hosting a few events in Vancouver. Hope to see you there.

Oct 19

4:30 pm

Segal Building 500 Granville Street, Vancouver

Stephen Collis
Elizabeth Bachinsky
Evelyn Lau
Donato Mancini

Reading and in conversation with Michael Turner

Oct 20

1:00pm

SFU Harbour Centre 515 West Hastings Street

Matthew Zapruder
Sue Goyette
David McGimpsey

Reading and in conversation with Elizabeth Bachinsky

8:00 pm

The Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference Cabaret

Revue Stage, Granville Island

Hosted by Elizabeth Bachinsky. Plus musical guest Rick Maddocks.

*Please note that this is an event at the Vancouver International Writers Festival and it requires a separate ticket. Tickets go on sale for the Writers Festival on September 7th. And after that date information can be found at www.writersfest.bc.ca

Daylight Shines on the Whitehorse Poetry Festival

2011-06-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from the Whitehorse poetry festival where twenty-four hour sunlight illuminated us all. Many thanks to the organizers and volunteers who made our trip so spectacular. And to the poets with whom I shared the stage, you are brilliant. Read more about the Whitehorse Poetry festival here on the Talonbooks website. xo e

Liz at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words, July 14-17

2011-06-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

The Saskatchewan Festival of Words is happening July 14-17 in Moosejaw where I lived for for the first year of my life. I'll be there again this July. Please check out the festival lineup here and I hope to see you there.

Lovely UFV

2011-06-02T21:57:00.001-07:00

I had such a lovely time as the University of the Fraser Valley's fourth Writer in Residence. Tomorrow, I meet with John Carroll, UFV's Creative Writing Department Head, for lunch and to say goodbye. If you are curious to know what kind of lovely is happening at UFV, click here to read more.

Liz at the Whitehorse Poetry Festival, June 24-26

2011-06-02T17:55:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to read at the Whitehorse Poetry Festival. Here's the line-up: Elizabeth Bachinsky, bill bissett, John Pass, Miranda Pearson, Clea Roberts, David Seymour, Karen Solie and Rhea Tregebov, with Host Eleanor Wachtel.

Find out more about the poets and the festival.

Join the Whitehorse Poetry Society.

Call for Submissions

2011-04-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

This is a call for submissions for:

Room's Annual Poetry Contest

(I'm judging)

and the Incongruous Quarterly's latest Science Issue

(I'm editing)

Event Magazine's Annual Nonfiction Contest

(I'm the Editor)

Send in your poetry and nonfiction, asap. Deadlines are your friends!

Write-up about a Reading at UFV

2011-04-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

If you're curious, here's a little report on one of the readings I've hosted at UFV.

Thanks, Montreal

2011-04-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Synapse for the lovely review and the terrific night. Hope to see you again soon.

Wrap party at UFV, April 7

2011-03-29T23:22:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe my residency is almost over at the University of the Fraser Valley, but I'll be saying goodbye next week by reading some of my new work and sharing the stage with a handful of the talented young writers I've been working with at the University. Please come and join us for this final reading in this year's UFV Writer in Residence Reading Series.

Featuring:

Elizabeth Bachinsky

Thursday April 7, 7pm

Indo Canadian Centre

Room F125

University of the Fraser Valley

Abbotsford

Free to the Public

With Special Guests:

Jenny Ahuja

Sophie Isbister

Katie Stobbart

Joel Enns

Miriam Huxley

Jennifer Delamore

Gregory Eliason

after party at the Phoenix Pub.

Bachinsky * Bociurkiw * Grekul * Kostash * Ledohowski * Luciuk * Magocsi * Motyl * Salamon, April 29, University of Toronto

2011-03-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

Come celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto and the 120th anniversary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada.

Friday, 29 April 2011, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm

Faculty Club (41 Willcocks Street)

University of Toronto

All lectures are free and open to the public.

9:30am Welcoming Remarks: Paul Robert Magosci

Session 1, 10:00am-12:00pm

Opening Remarks: Lubomyr Luciuk

Chair: Lisa Grekul

Speakers: Lindy Ledohowski, “Poet Pedagogues”

Myrna Kostash, “The Gulag, the Crypt, and the Gallows”

Daria Salamon, “Putting the Babas Back in the Book”

12noon-2:00pm Lunch Break

Session 2, 12:00pm-4:00pm

Chair: Lisa Grekul

Speakers: Marusya Bociurkiw, “They Call me Diaspora”

Elizabeth Bachinsky, “Membership

to The Ukrainian Co-op Denied?”

Alexander J. Motyl, “Concluding Reflections”

Linocut by Michelle Winegar

4th Annual Mission Readers and Writers Festival Saturday, March 12

2011-03-08T21:25:00.000-08:00

I'm giving the keynote address at the Mission Readers and Writers Festival this Saturday. Looks like a lot of fun. Come out! Be great to see you. You can find out all the info here.

Reading in Gibsons, BC, April 22

2011-03-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

If you're on the Sunshine Coast, I'll be reading at the Gibson's Live Poets Series on April 22, 7pm at Wheatberries. Looking forward to it.

UFV Writer-in-Residence, Spring, 2011

2011-01-03T11:33:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to announce that I'm going home...to the Fraser Valley! I am the Writer in Residence for the University of the Fraser Valley January -April 2011. While at UFV, I'll be working with one-on-one with emerging writers, hosting and reading in author events, and visiting classrooms—as well as working on some new writing. My office hours are all day Thursdays and by appointment on Fridays. Please contact me at Elizabeth.Bachinsky@ufv.ca for more information. Hope to see you out in the Valley.

Some Readings Coming Up, Spring 2011

2011-01-03T11:03:00.000-08:00

In Vancouver:

Locution

January 13, 7pm

Pulpfiction Books

2422 Main Street

Featuring Elizabeth Bachinsky,

Chris Urquhart, Tariq Hussein,

Clare Middleton and Meredith Hambrock

On Edge Reading Series

January 20, 7 pm

Emily Carr University

South Building, room 406

Vancouver

Featuring Elizabeth Bachinsky in conversation with Jacqueline Turner

In Kingston:

Thrive Reading Series

Tuesday February 8th, 8 p.m

the Grad Club, 162 Barrie St. at Union

Dept. of English, Queen's University

Wednesday Feb. 9th, 11.30-1

Watson Hall, Room 517

Bader Lane, Queen's Campus.

In Montreal:

Atwater Poetry Project

Thursday, February 10, 7 pm
Atwater Library

1200 Atwater Ave

Montreal

Featuring Elizabeth Bachinsky and George Sipos

Stay tuned for upcoming readings in Abbotsford, BC, Spring 2011.

Liz Teaches at Douglas College

2010-11-25T15:08:00.000-08:00

Douglas College, where I am an instructor for the Department of Language, Literature and Performing Arts, has done a little writeup about me for their website. I'm so flattered! I love teaching at Douglas. You can check out the article here.

Reading in Victoria at Open Word

2010-10-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

I'm reading at Open Space in Victoria on November 2. Here are the details:

Elizabeth Bachinsky

Tuesday November 2, 7:30 p.m.

Open Space, 510 Fort Street, 2nd floor

Victoria, British Columbia

followed by a conversation with Yvonne Blomer

CV2 Coast to Coast 35th Anniversary Reading

2010-10-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

I'm reading this Saturday at W2 with Donato Mancini, Bren Simmers, and Billeh Nickerson. It's also Donato's Birthday. Between CV2's 35th anniversary celebrations and the birthday hooplah, I'm betting there will be cake.

Reading starts at 8pm. Venue: W2 Storyeum, 151 W. Cordova.

For more information contact Michelle Elrick at michelle.elrick@gmail.com

Reading at Spartacus Books

2010-10-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

I am reading with Gary Barwin and Jordan Scott at Spartacus Books in Vancouver, Oct 5, 8pm. Click here for more info.

New Poem Roundup

2010-09-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

New poems of mine have been published in The Dublin Poetry Review (Ireland) and Eleven Eleven (US). I love it when my poems get to go places I've never been, or seldom go. And I especially like the Dublin Poetry review's hand-drawn logo.

It's The First Day of School. Don't Forget Your Pencils!

2010-09-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

Toronto's Kalpna Patel (aka Ghostface Knittah) is the crafty gal behind The Pencil Project. This summer Kalpna asked a few poets and writers, including me, to contribute an original line of text to be engraved onto wooden pencils. Lines could be a one-line poem, an aphorism, or any kind of line that could stand alone. The only real constraint was that the line had to fit onto a pencil. The pencils will be sold at a couple of independent shops in Toronto as a fundraising endeavour to send some much-needed cash to a newly-built Elementary school in the village she's from in Gujarat, India. Kalpna had a chance to visit the school earlier this year and saw that in addition to school supplies and computers, many of the children are in need of basic things, like shoes. A few Canadian dollars go a long way in Gujarat. If you'd like to purchase a pack of pencils and help out, please contact Patel at oldweston@gmail.com

Curio Reviewed at Canadian Literature

2010-08-27T13:16:00.001-07:00

Check out the review here.

The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature

2010-08-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

God of Missed Connections has been shortlisted for the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. The other shortlisted works are Where the Blood Mixes by Kevin Loring and A Thousand Dreams by Larry Campbell, Neil Boyd, and Lori Culbert.

THE GEORGE RYGA AWARD

FOR SOCIAL AWARENESS IN LITERATURE

Sponsored by The George Ryga Society, BC Bookworld, CBC Radio (Kelowna) and Okanagan College, this annual literary prize is awarded to a BC writer who has achieved an outstanding degree of social awareness in a new book. Excerpts are aired on CBC Radio One's Daybreak Program. The award is announced in conjunction with George Ryga Week in November . Winners receive a full-page advertisement in BC BookWorld and a commemorative sculpture by Reg Kienast.

The criteria for the award are: 1. social awareness - in keeping with Alberta-born George Ryga's status as a marginalized Ukrainian Canadian who was deeply concerned with justice, the judges will select an outstanding work of both literary and social value that opens up discussion of social and cultural issues. 2. bc writer - a writer who has lived in BC for three of the last five years. 3. book - a full-length book (not a chapbook) published during the preceding calendar year.

PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS

2004 - Maggie De Vries, Missing Sarah
Adjudicator: Craig McLuckie, Chair, English, Okanagan College
2005 - Robert Hunter, The Greenpeace to Amchitka: An Environmental Odyssey
Adjudicator: Ross Tyner, Chair, Library, Okanagan College
2006 - Leslie Robertson and Dara Culhane, In Plain Sight: Reflections on Life in Downtown Eastside Vancouver
Adjudicator: Myrna Kostash
2007 - Harold Rhenisch, The Wolves at Evelyn
Adjudicator, Sharon Josephson, Chair, Communications, Okanagan College
2008 - Leilah Nadir, The Orange Trees of Baghdad
Adjudicator: Ivan Townshend, Chair, Geography, University of Lethbridge
2009 - Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo
Adjudicator: Robert MacDonald, Publisher in Residence, Okanagan College

God of Missed Connections reviewed at Re:Verse

2010-05-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

GMC reviewed here.

Old School Scream

2010-05-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

Found this clip of a reading from Home of Sudden Service I gave at The Scream in High Park in 2007. Such a good memory. I'll let you decide about the reading. "Wolf Lake" starts at 4:40 with a nod to Matt Rader and Michael V. Smith.

Interview and New Poems at CV2

2010-05-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

I'm very pleased to have been interviewed at CV2. The issue is on newsstands now or you can read a snippet here.

Chapbooks Alive and Well in New Westminster

2010-04-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

Hello there. If you've noticed I haven't posted in a while, it's because I'm an instructor of creative writing. Most of my days this season have been spent with my students. This term my Advanced Poetry students at Douglas College in New Westminster, BC, made chapbooks—most of them for the first time. The books are beautiful, the poems even better, and I know they worked like poets to get these done. This post is for them. Well done, all of you!

God of Missed Connections Nominated for the Pat Lowther Award

2010-04-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

Good Morning. God of Missed Connections has been nominated for the Pat Lowther Award for Poetry. I'm proud to be on the list with many excellent poets including Sina Queyras, Laisha Rosnau, Damian Rogers, and Karen Solie. A fifth, Ronna Bloom, is unknown to me, but I will fix that shortly.

The Pat Lowther Award is given for a book of poetry by a Canadian woman published in the preceding year and is in memory of the late Pat Lowther whose career was cut short by her untimely death in 1975. The judges for this year's award were Gloe Cormie, Maureen Hynes, and Rhea Tregebov. Here's what they have to say about the book,

"God of Missed Connections is an ambitious and valiant collection that boldly addresses the fraught history of Ukraine with delicacy and outrage, grace and indignation. Bachinsky’s adroit poetry takes on Stalin’s holodomor (death by famine) of the 1930’s, as well as the lasting devastation of the 1986 nuclear reactor meltdown at Chernobyl. Canadian history also is implicated in the catalogue of injustices, as Bachinsky powerfully documents the internment of Ukrainian-Canadians (and others) during and after the First World War. The complex subjectivity in which these poems are grounded generates a clarity of political intent, making for poems imbued with a compelling integrity."

Blackout's Closing Ceremonies

2010-02-26T17:10:00.000-08:00

During the Olympics Vancouver writer Alex Leslie and I have conducted a public art project called BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR, asking members of the public to black out sections of Olympics coverage to create erasure poems. We have collected over 300 hilarious, confrontational, elliptical and/or nonsensical refractive miniatures of the media overwhelm that is and was the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

Thanks to The Candahar’s curators, writer Michael Turner and Reid Shier of Presentation House Gallery and artist Theo Sims, for the use of The Candahar as our project space and for their support of the BLACKOUT project. Thanks to everyone who made a poem; our contributors were all ages and were from Vancouver and away.

Alex and I will be presenting a little talk/video presentation about the project on Sunday at 3:30. Here are the details,

Last Call at the Candahar Bar

February 28, 3:30pm

Playwrights Centre Theatre, 3rd floor

1398 Cartwright Street

Granville Island

Featuring Ensemble Sisyphe's Clock, Elizabeth Bachinsky & Alex Leslie, Clint Burnham, Jeff Derksen, Peter Dickinson, Ken Lum, Anu Sahota, Trevor Boddy & Matthew Soules/ Stan Douglas DJ

BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR acknowledges the support of SubTerrain magazine, the City of Vancouver, Presentation House Gallery, and the 2010 Cultural Olympiad . The best of the blackouts will appear inSubTerrain magazine.

The Candahar at the New York Times & MacLean's Magazine

2010-02-22T11:15:00.000-08:00

Great news. BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR has received a mention in the most recent edition of MacLean's magazine (on newsstands now) and a write-up about The Candahar has appeared in the New York Times.

BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR has become a runaway hit—a truly collaborative public art project—with over 300 hilarious, contrary & sometimes contentious, poems generated in just over a week. Thrillingly, Theo Sims, creator of The Candahar, has invited us to wallpaper the pub with your blackouts for display on last night of the show, Sunday Feb 28. After then, The Candahar comes apart forever. There is still a week left in the project, plenty of time to come down and be a part of BLACKOUT. And, if you've already made a piece, make sure to come out on Sunday and see the project come together in the space.

The details:

Last Call at the Candahar

February 28, 7pm

Playwrights Centre Theatre, 3rd floor

1398 Cartwright Street

Granville Island

Featuring Ensemble Sisyphe's Clock, Elizabeth Bachinsky & Alex Leslie, Clint Burnham, Jeff Derksen, Peter Dickinson, Ken Lum, Anu Sahota, Trevor Boddy & Matthew Soules/ Stan Douglas DJ

What is BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR?

2010-02-13T15:39:00.000-08:00

photo by Nikki Reimer

During the sixteen days of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, I'll be working nightly at the Playrights' Centre Theatre on Granville Island with Vancouver writer Alex Leslie on a public art project we're calling BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR.

In response to the censorship that's been a part of the 2010 Olympic PR machine, Leslie and I have collected months worth of Olympic coverage from local and national newspapers as source material for your found poetry.

Poems of erasure (blackout poems) have been a part of collagist literary tradition for over a century. Now it's your turn to give it a try. Your materials at The Candahar include an avalanche of Olympic coverage, black markers, Olympic- coloured electrical tape, scissors, and a very nice pint of lager. The beauty of the blackout? You don't have to write a thing. Just come on down and start blacking out.

Still not sure what I'm talking about? Come on down to The Candahar, catch a show, and find out.

BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR acknowledges the support of SubTerrain magazine, the City of Vancouver, the 2010 Cultural Olympiad and Presentation House Gallery. All poems will be shown during the last few nights of the salon and the best of the blackouts will appear in SubTerrain magazine.

March 4th, The Kobzar Literary Award Ceremony

2010-02-11T20:07:00.000-08:00

God of Missed Connections has been nominated for the Kobzar Literary Award. I'll be at the ceremonies on March 4 in Toronto. The Ceremony is a fundraiser for the Shevchenko Foundation, a very worthy cause. Here are the details,

Thursday, March 4th

Palais Royale Ballroom

1601 Lakeshore Boulevard W.

Toronto, ON

Cocktails 6pm, Dinner 7:30

Tickets $250 per person

to purchase tickets, please call 416-243-0122

or email christine@shevchenkofoundation.com

And, for those of you who can't be there, here is Ivan and Palagna's wedding scene from from Sergei Parajanov's Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors which played behind me at Supermarket last time I was in TO. It appears in God of Missed Connections. I can't get enough of this scene.

The Real Vancouver Writers Series at the W2 Culture + Media House

2010-02-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

February 17th, 7pm – Hosted by Elizabeth Bachinsky

112 West Hastings Street across from the refurbished Woodwards Building in Downtown Vancouver

Teresa McWhirter, Lee Henderson, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Heather Susan Haley, Nikki Reimer, Chris Hutchinson, Dina Del Bucchia, Amber Dawn, Donato Mancini, Sonnet L’Abbe, Jonathon Wilcke, Catherine Owen.

The Real Vancouver Writers Series consists of 4 weekly events showcasing local Vancouver writers, publishers and creative literary artists at the W2 Culture + Media House.

These evenings are designed to show the city and the world real and diverse Vancouver culture and real creative individuals in the literary and publishing communities at a time when the eyes of the world are on our city.

Countless millions of people will want to know what real Vancouver culture looks like.

We are determined to take the opportunity to show the world just how amazing, diverse, talented and fun our literary and publishing culture is!

These events will occur every Wednesday during February beginning at 7pm.

Each night will showcase local writers doing short readings their work and/or interacting with a moderator, taking questions from the audience and will include book sales, signings, a multi-media component, music, cash bar, raffles and give-aways.

Every night will consist of writers that will give the in-house audience a glimpse of the variety of cultures, ethnicities, forms and skills of writers living and working in Vancouver.

It will showcase the writers, their books, their publishers and other support structures within the local community and the larger culture and publishing communities.

In conjunction with Books on the Radio and Geist Magazine.

BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR

2010-01-31T11:47:00.000-08:00

"Aunt Mamie Talking About Supper" by Able Parris.

During the sixteen days of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, I'll be working nightly with Vancouver writer Alex Leslie on a project we're calling BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR.

BLACKOUT is a site-specific collaborative installation featuring the found visual and process-based works of audience members, artists, and curators of the arts salon at The Candahar. Leslie and I will be on-site, providing the opportunity for our collaborators (that's you) to selectively erase months worth of local and national pre-Olympic news with a bucketful of Sharpies. All poems will be shown during the last few nights of the salon and the best of the blackouts will appear in SubTerrain magazine.

Presentation House Gallery is staging The Candahar at the Playwrights Centre Theatre on Granville Island as "a locus for social interaction and the host site for an ambitious series of nightly events — musical programs, theatrical presentations, and performances. Highlights include an opening intervention and inquiry into the pub itself by Vancouver based artist Rebecca Belmore (Feb 12), presentations by authors Timothy Taylor (Feb 22) and Lee Henderson (Feb 15) musical performances by The Rodney Graham band (Feb 26), Tom Anselmi’s Hello World, (Feb 20), Lisa Marr (Feb 14) and Kevin Schmidt (Feb 27), talks by Nicolaus Schafhausen (Feb 13) and Skeena Reece (Feb 19) a performance by Althea Thauberger (Feb 21) as well as video screenings of Olympic interviews by Nardwuar the Human Serviette (Feb 16 and 23). Evenings are capped by guest DJ’s including Vancouver artists Stan Douglas, Adrian Buitenhaus, Stephen Murray and Tim Lee as well as an Olympic “wrap up” salon with talks by Jeff Derksen, Peter Dickenson, Clint Burnham and Ken Lum among many others. For precise program details and regular updates visit www.presentationhousegall.com beginning February 1. The Candahar is programmed by Vancouver author Michael Turner and invited guests.

BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR acknowledges the support of SubTerrain magazine, the City of Vancouver, and the 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

God of Missed Connections Reviewed in the Toronto Star

2010-01-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

Barbara Carey has reviewed God of Missed Connections, alongside John Barton's Hymn, in the Toronto Star.

Vancouver's Best Literary Crawl, Saturday Jan 9

2010-01-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

The painting is Michael Morris’ The Problem of Nothing, 1966.

Be like me. Do the best poetry crawl of 2010 (so far). There are three events: 1pm, a talk with the remarkable American poet, Charles Bernstein (you will never hear another poet like this); 3pm, a curatorial talk by Vancouver author Michael Turner for his new gallery show at SFU called to show, to give, to make it be there: Expanded Literary Practices in Vancouver: 1954-1969; 6-8pm follow everything up with an afterparty for the show at Vancouver artist Geoffrey Farmer's amazing project space, Every Letter in the Alphabet, on Powell street at Victoria. Walked by it last night on the way to the beer and wine. Look for the dream machine in the window. Don't miss it.

Here is the info for all the events. Get in your cars/on the bus/on a bike and just GO.

1: SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010 1pm: CHARLES BERNSTEIN: Is Art Criticism 50 Years Behind Poetry? Or Aren't You the Kind that Tells? (Introduced by Jacqueline Turner) at ARTSPEAK 233 Carrall Street, Vancouver.

2: SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010 3pm: OPENING OF “to show, to give, to make it be there”: Expanded Literary Practices in Vancouver: 1954-1969. Where: Simon Fraser University Gallery, Burnaby – the Gallery is in the south side of the AQ in room AQ 3004 – one level below the pond, one above the main mall outside the Library. The opening is 2PM-5PM, with a 3PM tour

3: SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010 6-8pm: after-party for “to show, to give, to make it be there” at Geoffrey Farmer's project space, Every Letter of the Alphabet, located at 1875 Powell Street (at Victoria Drive) 6PM-8PM. All are welcome.

God of Missed Connections at the Malahat Review

2010-01-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a blurb from a review by Mitchell Parry of the Malahat Review. Refreshingly, you won't find the whole thing online. You'll have to subscribe for which you will receive an actual literary journal in the actual mail.

"There's a confident, edgy humour throughout [this] collection, in spite of the darkness of the subject matter...Bachinsky balances the tone precicely. Her control over form—and her willingness to bend form when necessary—ultimately make God of Missed Connections a deeply moving and tremendously satisfying read."

You'll also find new poems by George Elliott Clarke, Jan Zwicky, Barbara Nickel, and lots of others, as well as reviews of newly released works by Margaret Avison, Robert Bringhurst, David Zieroth, Barry Dempster, and others.

Heart Beats: Warriors Against Violence

2009-12-23T16:34:00.001-08:00

A few years ago, I wrote a song with the ridiculously talented Vancouver musician and community builder Russell Wallace. The song What Shall I Sell? is now available on the benefit CD Heart Beats:Warriors Against Violence. All the proceeds from the CD go to help fund the Warriors Against Violence Society, Family Healing, Violence Prevention, and Youth Services. Email warriors@wavbc.com to order your copy.

God of Missed Connections at the Advent Book Blog

2009-12-23T11:25:00.000-08:00

Hey, Neat. God of Missed Connections has been recommended not once, but twice (twice!), on the Advent Book Blog.

See it Recommended by Angela Rawlings.

See it Recommended by Megan Adam.

Better yet, head on up to my neighbourhood bookstore People's Co-op Bookstore and buy the book. I spotted two copies there a couple of days ago. Thanks for keeping it in stock, PCB.

And thanks to Sean Cranbury and Julie Wilson for keeping the blog up and running. What a cool idea. I made a little recommendation myself. And one more for good measure!

Happy Holidays!

November/December Report

2009-12-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm checking in to report on my activities this fall. I've been pretty busy, so I haven't been keeping up with this blog as much as I'd like. So, here goes: My last big readings were at Calgary's WordFest and the Vancouver International Writers Festival. Calgary was a lot of fun. We stayed at the Paliser Hotel downtown and performed at the Vertigo theatre, which is attached to the hotel via a network of underground tunnels. I read with Billeh Nickerson, Alexis O'Hara, Chris Demeanor, Hal Niedzviecki, and Roland Pemberton, and a jazz ensemble directed by Mario Allende. It was a pretty fun reading. Hal gave a visual presentation on his book The Peep Diaries, Alexis O'Hara made a lot of great noise, Billeh read from his new book McPoems, Roland Pemberton read with the jazz trio, and Kris Demeanor surprised me with a great short story about a Ukrainian couple recently relocated to Calgary. His reading was a nice segue from my God of Missed Connections. I was also on a Sex-in-Your-Writing panel with Zoe Whittall, Thomas Trofimuk and Barry Callahan in which I spoke too much and too vehemently about, well, sex—and after the readings in Calgary, we were shuttled out to the Banff Centre for a Poetry Bash hosted by Lorna Crozier. It was the best poetry reading I'd seen in a long time. It was particularly delightful to see Karen Solie read—whom I'd never seen read before—and to meet Shani Mootoo who was my date for the evening, a wonderful writer and a truly delightful person to spend time with. Then I was off to read in Vancouver, the highlight of my year, I think. I read at the Poetry Bash at Performance Works on Granville Island with Robert Bringhurst, Xi Chuan, Carol Anne Duffy, Heather McHugh, and Greg Scofield. It was a real honour for me to read there since I've been going to that event for as long as I can remember and I've seen a lot of great poets on that stage. This night was no exception. The other readers were hilarious and strange and erudite and warm. It was thrilling to read with each of them, so much so I didn't quite know what to say, so I didn't say much. I was so nervous before the reading, I thought I'd pass out. I opened the night with a set from God of Missed Connections with the help of a group of Ukrainian folk singers from Vancouver's premier Ukrainian folk chorus, Zeellia. Special thanks to my singing teacher Beverly Dobrinsky for making that happen. Dearly wish someone had recorded us singing. If you did, please let me know. I'd love to post it. I was particularly thrilled to meet Carol Anne Duffy and Heather McHugh, two poets I admire very much and whom I may never meet again. Wow. OK, that's enough for now. Later.

God of Missed Connections & Curio at the Northern Poetry Review

2009-10-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

Click here to read Alessandro Porco's double review of God of Missed Connections and the reprint of Curio: Grotesques and Satires from the Electronic Age at The Northern Poetry Review. It's kind of hard to excerpt, but who could help but pull out this nugget:

"At her best, Bachinsky displays a wild vocabulary and a cheeky wit that other poets of her generation can only hope to attain...But what I most admire is that Bachinsky...seems willing to do, say, or try anything at least once. That exploratory sensibility serves her well both in Curio as well as God of Missed Connections."

Right on. Which reminds me...I'm reading an anthology right now called American Hybrid. The introduction by Cole Swenson is particularly great. Check it out.

Liz Reads in Vancouver, Oct 24

2009-10-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

The Poetry Bash

Saturday, Oct 24, 8:00 pm
Performance Works, Granville Island

Elizabeth Bachinsky
Robert Bringhurst
Xi Chuan
Carol Ann Duffy
Heather McHugh
Gregory Scofield

Host: Clea Young

Always a Festival favourite event, The Poetry Bash brings to Vancouver’s stage this year six poets who are titans in this field. England’s poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy joins Pulitzer Prize nominee Heather McHugh, CanadianRobert Bringhurst, winner of the BC Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence, and China’s Xi Chuan, widely translated and recognized as one of the most dynamic poets living in China today. Rounding out the team is relative newcomer Elizabeth Bachinsky, herself nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry, and Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize winner, Gregory Scofield. This is a formidable line-up, sure to please the ear of word and image lovers everywhere.

$23
Buy tickets online at Vancouver Tix.

Liz Reads in Calgary, Oct 15 & 17

2009-10-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

29 - Word of Mouth

Thursday, October 15, 9:30pm
Vertigo Theatre Centre, Studio
Calgary

Elizabeth Bachinsky, Kris Demeanor, Billeh Nickerson, Hal Niedzviecki, Alexis O'Hara and Roland Pemberton
An event not to be missed with a lineup that will leave you speechless. Wordsmiths play with music and, as a bit of a surprise, you may find yourself spilling some of your own secrets! Authors are joined by the WordFest house band under the musical direction of Mario Allende.This event is sponsored by CJSW 90.9 FM.

Tickets are $20.00, $10.00 for students and seniors – call WordFest at 403.237.9068 for more information.

52 - Afternoon Delight

Saturday, October 17, 2:30pm
Vertigo Theatre Centre, Studio
Calgary

Elizabeth Bachinsky, Barry Callaghan, Thomas Trofimuk and Zoe Whittall
These four authors have an honest, in-depth discussion about sex and sexuality and how it ends up in their work. Warning: this event may cause reddening of cheeks and/or hysterical laughter. This event is sponsored by SWERVE Magazine.

Tickets are $15.00, $7.50 for students and seniors – call WordFest at 403.237.9068 for more information.

Sexy News Roundup of the Week

2009-10-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

Here, the Calgary Herald prepares you for "Afternoon Delight: Writers Talking about Sex," one of the performances I'll be part of at Calgary's Wordfest this Saturday. Come out and listen to what Yours Truly, Barry Callaghan, Zoe Whitall, and Thomas Trofimuk have got to say about writing sex.

and Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine caught up with me to talk about God of Missed Connections at the Thin Air Festival last month. My favourite quote? "Ukrainians are deadly sexy..."

The things girls say...

God of Missed Connections at Prairie Fire

2009-10-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

This week God of Missed Connections was reviewed at Prairie Fire magazine. Here reviewer Gillian Harding-Russell discusses the title poem:

"Reminiscent of Gwendolyn MacEwen's "Dark Pines Under Water," Bachinsky's poem "God of Missed Connections" employs changing metaphors to reveal her conception of the nature of the mind and unconscious. Unlike MacEwen's poem, which creates an implicit metaphor in the landscape it describes, Bachinsky likens the mind to a alluvial plain with layers of geological markings, only to depart from this ingenious concept and find another analogy in "split obsidium," whose variant smoothness becomes an image for the mind looking back at itself."

I love MacEwen's "Dark Pines Under Water." Incantatory, iconic, chilling—I hadn't considered a debt to MacEwen before now, but it is due. Enjoy.

Dark Pines Under Water

Gwendolyn MacEwen

This land like a mirror turns you inward

And you become a forest in a furtive lake;

The dark pines of your mind reach downward,

You dream in the green of your time,

Your memory is a row of sinking pines.

Explorer, you tell yourself this is not what you came for

Although it is good here, and green;

You had meant to move with a kind of largeness,

You had planned a heavy grace, an anguished dream.

But the dark pines of your mind dip deeper

And you are sinking, sinking, sleeper

In an elementary world;

There is something down there and you want it told.

from The Shadow Maker (1969)

Happy Thanksgiving.

God of Missed Connections Nominated for the Kobzar Literary Award!

2009-10-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

Holy Crow. God of Missed Connections (Nightwood Editions, 2009) has been nominated for the Shevchenko Foundation's $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award. The Kobzar Award is a biennial award recognizing outstanding contributions to Canadian literary arts through presentation of a Ukrainian Canadian theme with literary merit. I'm thrilled. Please Click here for more information about the award.

The Other shortlisted titles are: Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems by Randall Maggs (Brick Books); Redemption and Ritual: The Eastern-Rite Redemptorists of North America, 1906-2006 (Redeemer’s Voice Press); and Zo by Murray Andrew Pura (Windhover Marsh)

Award ceremony will take place on March 4, 2010 in Toronto.

Adjudicators: Sandra Birdsell, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Kerri Sakamoto, Richard Scrimger

God of Missed Connections Reviewed at the Mansfield Press

2009-10-07T12:29:00.000-07:00

Click here for the whole review.

God of Missed Connections

Reviewed by Spencer Gordon

God of Missed Connections
Elizabeth Bachinsky
Nightwoord Editions, 2009
80 pages, $17.95

“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” So says Stephen Dedalus, famously, in Joyce’s Ulysses. To the speaker of Elizabeth Bachinsky’s God of Missed Connections, history can indeed be nightmarish — the hard facts of torture and war and famine; the inability to solve or resolve its contradictions and cruelties. But history, both private and collective, can also be drenched in the sunlight of nostalgia — the happy illusion that things were, at some uncertain point in the past, better. So we dwell in old family photos, use our mothers’ handed-down recipes, stoop to smell our fathers’ coats. What else can we do? For Bachinsky, reminiscence is inevitable; “what was lost / returns,” she writes. We ceaselessly dwell and uncover, though that which we unearth can be both beautiful and horrific. As one poem states, “we can neither love [it], nor turn away.”

God of Missed Connections Reviewed in Halifax

2009-09-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

George Elliott Clarke has reviewed my new book God of Missed Connections in the Halifax Chronicle Herald. Hells yeah. Click here to read the review.

Winnipeg's Thin Air Festival

2009-09-25T13:06:00.001-07:00

Image from Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg

Thanks to Charlene Diehl, festival director at Winnipeg's Thin Air Festival, I got to stay in my dad's hometown, Winnipeg, for a few nights and perform this week. I stayed at the Inn at the Forks where the Assiniboine and Red rivers meet. My hotel room overlooked the Oodena Celebration Circle (wow) and also the Winnipeg Children's Museum, which used to be the main stables for the CNR back in the day when my great grandfather worked there as a janitor. The road outside the hotel is paved with the same stones that were there a hundred years ago. My great grandfather would have walked over those stones every day to get to work. It was pretty weird to sit in the hotel lounge with an interviewer with those stones and stables just outside. It gave me the same creepy feeling as sitting in the great hall at the Banff Springs Hotel. The great hall at the Banff Springs overlooks an old quarry site at Tunnel Mountain where Ukrainian prisoners of war quarried stone during WWI for the reconstruction of the hotel. The prisoners made 25 cents a day; my champagne cocktail cost $16.

I didn't get to see a lot of the festival authors perform while I was in Winnipeg since the festival wranglers kept me really hopping, but I did get to see the headliners on opening night. Lauren Kirshner read wonderfully from her first novel Where We Have to Go. She was dry, funny, and nervous as heck, which is always delightful, and I bought her novel straight away at the intermission. Jon Paul Fiorentino killed with a reading from his first novel Stripmalling and made me laugh so hard the author actually heckled me from the stage. Rhea Tregebov, my date, laughed so hard she almost choked on her chewing gum. I thought I'd have to give her the Heimlich. On a very different note, my favorite Maple Ridge boy, Gregory Scofield silenced the house with poems from his kipocihkân: Poems New and Selected and Bonnie Burnard made Rhea go for the Kleenex. Burnard read from her new novel Suddenly. I was especially impressed with the way she writes so tenderly and straightforwardly about sex. It was a great reading.

Special thanks to Tavia Palmer who pointed me in the right direction and Michael Van Rooy who got me there. Thanks to you, I was able to chill out often enough to experience My Winnipeg. It was all over the place.

Come and Do The Geist Poetry Workout with GJ & Liz!

2009-09-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

That's right, it's finally time to get your poetry-loving ass totally kicked at a swanky hotel. Thanks to Stuart Ross who inspired me with his awesome poetry bootcamp a couple of years ago, Gillian Jerome and I are leading the Geist Poetry Workout September 19, 1-4pm at the Listel Hotel in Vancouver. We have a great lot of fun, write some awfully good poems, and then Geist gives us all some really nice literary swag to take home. Yeah! Here's the deets:

The Geist Poetry Workout

A workshop to strengthen your poetic muscles! Poets Elizabeth Bachinskyand Gillian Jerome will put you through your poetic paces in a sweaty, fun-filled three-hour session. Eat a hearty breakfast beforehand because you’re gonna need all the energy you can muster.

Ten exercises. Ten poems. Three hours. Super fun. Wear a sweatband.

(We’re not kidding!)

The Geist Poetry Workout

Saturday, September 19, 2009, 1–4 p.m.
Listel Hotel
1300 Robson St., Vancouver

Workshop: $50 (includes a one-year Geist subscription for yourself or a friend)

Workshop Bundle: Register for two fall workshops for only $75 (this option also includes a one-year Geist subscription).

Register Now Online:

For more information, call Geist at (604) 681-9161 or e-mail geist@geist.com.

Return from Down Under

2009-08-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

Hey there. How ya goin'? I'm back from Brisbane and reeling from the beauty and the poetry of Queensland. What a beautiful place! What beautiful people! The Queensland Poetry Festival was a blast. I am particularly in love with the poetry I caught by Aussies Jessica Tong, Paul Magee and Jane Williams, all of whom gave wonderful readings at the festival. UK poet A.F Harrold had us all in stitches (I especially enjoyed his tribute to Leonard Cohen) and beloved Australian folksinger/poet Neil Murray kept everyone in thrall with his perfect voice and lyrics; Arts Queensland's poet in Residence, New Zealander Hinemoana Baker, opened the festival with a set complete with bull-roarer and delay pedal (think Laurie Anderson meets Jane Siberry meets John Giorno); and Santo Cazzati blew everyone away with a perfect, ingenious, continuous, beautifully rhythmic, twenty minute set that included his own (invented) commercial breaks. Why oh WHY doesn't he have a website or a CD or a clip on youtube? I was also totally charmed by self-proclaimed tough guy Geoff Goodfellow, who also happens to be Australia's best-selling poet of all time (imagine an Aussie Bukowski, and you'll be on the right track). Goodfellow's poems about his battle with throat cancer were down-to-earth straightforward cautionary tales that can, and do, travel everywhere.

So, I came home with a stack of books that nearly broke my back with all the shlepping from plane to plane, but I'm thrilled to have seen and taken home a little bit of Queensland. I miss it already. And to the sweet boys at the Deli New Farm in Brisbane who told me to go to Noosa after the festival, I went to Noosa. And Peregian. And Coolum. My first sub-tropical beaches, ever. So, there's a beach girl in me after all. Who knew? I loved every minute of lying on the sand and leaping in the sea. hee. Special HUGE thanks to the amazing Julie Beveridge and Graham Nunn who were the kind of warm, hospitable hosts every performer dreams of. They totally rocked the party.

Liz in OZ

2009-08-15T12:38:00.000-07:00

Calling all Australians. I'm reading at the Queensland Poetry Festival at the Judith Wright Center for the Performing Arts in Fortitude Valley August 21-23. Click here for details.

Northern Exposure in the M-K

2009-08-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from (and changed by) the remarkable Muskwa-Kechika Artist Camp in Northern British Columbia where I hiked and rode and camped with nine other artists to raise awareness about this unique wild place. The Muskwa Kechika Management Area is the largest untouched boreal forest in North America and is under threat of exploitation by big oil and gas companies. Artists of all disciplines are encouraged to attend the camp. The catch? Once you're out, you've got to create work that focusses on some aspect of the M-K. No problem.

Some notable alum include poets Sue Sinclair, Tim Lilburn, and Don McKay; naturalist Ben Gadd; travel writer and activist Shirley Roburn; and visual artist Brian Jungen. Special huge thanks to Donna Kane and Wayne Sawchuk who brought me out for the camp. And to all of you who were there, don't be strangers.

Want to see me at 6400 ft? Click here.

Want to go and see the M-K for yourself? Download the application form here.

Curio Reviewed at the Globe and Mail

2009-07-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

The 2nd Edition of Curio: Grotesques and Satires from the Electronic Age got a glowing review in the Globe and Mail last week. The edition was redesigned and rereleased by Bookthug, Spring, 2009. In addition to a snazzy new cover and some significant rewrites, this edition includes an afterward by delightful avant garde poet K. Silem Mohammad from Ashland Oregon.

For the love of poetry, click here to buy the book.

Poetry and Perogies at the Vancouver Courier

2009-07-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a pic. Shawn Conner and photographer Rebecca Blissett at the Vancouver Courier caught up with me last week for Ten Questions. Read on to find out more about my bingo-playing Baba, what to eat on a road trip through the prairies, and what I did on Canada Day.

God of Missed Connections at Agora Review

2009-06-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Aaron Tucker at Agora Review who just put up a very nice-looking interview I did with Rob Mclennen after a short trip to Ottawa to help launch How the Light Gets In, an anthology of Canadian Poetry that was just released in Ireland. Here's a snippet from the interview,"

"I wanted to write the book I couldn’t find. When I began this project I found it fascinating how many (hundreds!) of academic texts, memoirs, interviews, short stories, poems, documentary films, videos, paintings, collages, sculptures, websites, blogs, etc. are dedicated to the history of Ukraine and of Ukrainians in Canada—yet very few of these resources are produced by Ukrainian-Canadian authors of my generation. And almost none of these are creative works."

Thanks, Aaron.

Shout Out to the Students at CCVS

2009-06-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

This week, students from Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School in Cornwall, ON, contacted me to ask some questions about the business of writing (a special shout out to Elizabeth, Kayla, and Kasey). Here's what they asked:

1) What was the level of education you needed in order to pursue your writing career?

You don't *need* any higher education to be a writer, but it helps. I have a BA in English & Creative Writing and an MFA in Creative Writing. I went to a community college (Douglas College) for the first two years of my BA and transferred to the University of British Columbia for the rest of my education. I worked part time in a coffee shop while I was in school and went to school part time. It was kind of hard at the time, but it was worth it.

2) What job opportunities did you have for options, and how did you apply?

After I finished my MFA, I was a writer in residence in my hometown, Maple Ridge, BC, for two years. That gave me time to finish my first two books and find publishers. Then I moved to Vancouver and got a job in a bookstore. But I always made sure to have some sort of teaching work while I was doing these jobs, so I was always building up my teaching experience and my resume. I taught creative writing at the Arts Centre in Maple Ridge while I was Writer in Residence and then later at Vancouver Film School and Douglas College. I teach almost full time at Douglas College now and will teach a workshop at the Sage Hill Writing Experience next summer as well. I teach classes as they arise. I also edit for Event magazine and do a bit of freelance writing for magazines and websites. And I perform all over the place, which also pays a bit and lets me travel, which I love to do.

So, are there opportunities? Yes. But I wouldn't have heard about them if I didn't go to school and then keep my eyes and ears open. When you are (or want to be) a professional creative person it is important to be involved in your community. That's how readers (and employers) find you. Taking part in literary activities in your town or province or country can be really important. Volunteer at your local or provincial arts festival. Do internships. Take classes at colleges and universities. Go to the Banff Centre for the Arts or Film School or wherever. But most of all just keep reading and writing. *Everything* starts with your writing.

3) How does one end up getting published?

You start by writing and reading. Get good at that, and then start thinking about publishing. Enjoy the time you have as a young writer where your work is really yours. Read, write, share what you've written with writer friends you trust. Don't have any of those? Find them. Take writing classes. Read at open mics. Make chapbooks. Get obsessed. Eventually, you'll have an overwhelming need to share your work with a larger audience and, by then, because you've worked so hard, you might have written something that's actually worth printing!

After that, here’s the formula: most, if not all, writers get their start in literary magazines. So start there. Submit to literary magazines and start building a portfolio. Collect your rejection slips like badges of honour. Eventually you'll have a big stack of rejections, a little list of publications, and something that's starting to resemble a manuscript. Put together the manuscript and send it out to publishers. Celebrate more rejection. Keep writing. Keep reading. Then just wait. In the waiting time, write another book...and then another. Publishing is a *lot* about waiting and being patient. It's real crazy-making stuff.

4) Are there any challenges you came across throughout your career?

Too many to mention all of them. But probably my biggest challenge is time management. It's hard for me to decide what's important and what's not sometimes. I get totally smashed by emails, for example, and can't imagine how to answer everything and everyone. It's overwhelming.

5) What is one of your biggest satisfactions through writing?

I love it when someone from really far away finds my work and then takes the time to write me and tell me what they thought of it. That's amazing. I also love to travel. This summer I'm going travel to, and write about, the Muskwa Kechika, one of the last untouched boreal forests in North America. It's way up north and we get to fly in by floatplane, ride packhorses into the bush, and camp out for a week or so. The deal is I get to write and raise awareness about wild places. How amazing is that? And later this summer, I'll read at the Queensland Poetry Festival in Australia. Australia! I've never been there and I can't wait to go and meet Australian poets. It's going to rock. That's the other thing, when you are a writer; you get to meet other writers. You realise pretty quick that you are part of a rather big community of like-minded people. Of course everyone has different opinions and thoughts and experiences, but you are all connected through this thing you feel impelled to do: writing. It's humbling and enlightening and you get to learn a lot about people. I love what I do.

Take care and keep writing,

Liz

God of Missed Connections at Canadian Literature

2009-06-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

Evgenia Todorova at Canadian Literature kindly spent some time with me to talk about God of Missed Connections (and other stuff too). The interview is now up at their website. Here's a snippet.

"The politicizing of work tells me a lot about readers.... Writing is a funny thing; it doesn't really exist until it is out in the air, until other people have something to say about it. So many books just disappear. Maybe this book it will disappear too, I don't know. I guess I'm interested in that kind of stuff. So is this a political book? Maybe. (Laughter) I'll put it as a maybe."

Click here to read the full interview at Canadian Literature.

Elizabeth Bachinsky

Thrilliterate, Feb 24

Trampoline Hall, January 29

Room Service, Nov 5

Liz at the V125PC

Daylight Shines on the Whitehorse Poetry Festival

Liz at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words, July 14-17

Lovely UFV

Liz at the Whitehorse Poetry Festival, June 24-26

Call for Submissions

Write-up about a Reading at UFV

Thanks, Montreal

Wrap party at UFV, April 7

Bachinsky * Bociurkiw * Grekul * Kostash * Ledohowski * Luciuk * Magocsi * Motyl * Salamon, April 29, University of Toronto

4th Annual Mission Readers and Writers Festival Saturday, March 12

Reading in Gibsons, BC, April 22

UFV Writer-in-Residence, Spring, 2011

Some Readings Coming Up, Spring 2011

Liz Teaches at Douglas College

Reading in Victoria at Open Word

CV2 Coast to Coast 35th Anniversary Reading

Reading at Spartacus Books

New Poem Roundup

It's The First Day of School. Don't Forget Your Pencils!

Curio Reviewed at Canadian Literature

The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature

THE GEORGE RYGA AWARD

FOR SOCIAL AWARENESS IN LITERATURE

PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS

God of Missed Connections reviewed at Re:Verse

Old School Scream

Interview and New Poems at CV2

Chapbooks Alive and Well in New Westminster

God of Missed Connections Nominated for the Pat Lowther Award

Blackout's Closing Ceremonies

The Candahar at the New York Times & MacLean's Magazine

What is BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR?

March 4th, The Kobzar Literary Award Ceremony

The Real Vancouver Writers Series at the W2 Culture + Media House

BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR

God of Missed Connections Reviewed in the Toronto Star

Vancouver's Best Literary Crawl, Saturday Jan 9

God of Missed Connections at the Malahat Review

Heart Beats: Warriors Against Violence

God of Missed Connections at the Advent Book Blog

November/December Report

God of Missed Connections & Curio at the Northern Poetry Review

Liz Reads in Vancouver, Oct 24

Liz Reads in Calgary, Oct 15 & 17

Sexy News Roundup of the Week

God of Missed Connections at Prairie Fire

God of Missed Connections Nominated for the Kobzar Literary Award!

God of Missed Connections Reviewed at the Mansfield Press

Click here for the whole review.

God of Missed Connections

Reviewed by Spencer Gordon

God of Missed ConnectionsElizabeth BachinskyNightwoord Editions, 2009 80 pages, $17.95

God of Missed Connections Reviewed in Halifax

Winnipeg's Thin Air Festival

Come and Do The Geist Poetry Workout with GJ & Liz!

The Geist Poetry Workout

Return from Down Under

Liz in OZ

Northern Exposure in the M-K

Curio Reviewed at the Globe and Mail

Poetry and Perogies at the Vancouver Courier

God of Missed Connections at Agora Review

Shout Out to the Students at CCVS

God of Missed Connections at Canadian Literature

God of Missed Connections
Elizabeth Bachinsky
Nightwoord Editions, 2009
80 pages, $17.95