A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman (Vintage)

I'm enjoying re-reading Diane Ackerman's fascinating book about the fives senses, called A Natural History of the Senses. She explores, with humour and poignancy, each of our senses. Several years ago I wrote a music/theatrical piece using quite a lot of text from Ackerman's book, having gotten permission from her publisher. I've enjoyed performing my piece, which I've titled "In a Sense" to several different audiences, all of whom loved the text. My piece is for spoken text, a thumb piano, wind chimes and movement. It's fun to be re-reading this delightful book.

The Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein by Gertrude Stein (Vintage)

Another book I'm reading for the second time is The Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein. I've used several sections of text, particularly from her Tender Buttons, in a major multi-media theatrical work. Of mine which combines piano, percussion, live electronics, spoken text and movement. My one-woman piece is called "McIntosh, the Stein Way"! (But I've often performed it on a Baldwin or Yamaha piano!) Stein loved using words for their rhythm and sound rather than for their meaning, and I play with this idea in my piece. Re-reading this book by Stein, I'm again astonished at how original and fresh it remains today - considering it was written in the middle of the last century. It's a big book with several chapters. My favourite are The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Tender Buttons and Three Portraits of Painters. It's best read out loud!

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Diana McIntosh is an acclaimed Winnipeg-based musician with a long history in performance and composition, and one of the founders of the GroundSwell new music series. She joined us at our Grant Park location on February 24th to launch her most recent recording Pinnacles.

I've never thought too hard about science fiction and fantasy poetry. I knew it existed. I knew that Robert J. Sawyer's wife Carolyn Clink was one of the form's noted practitioners. But like many fantasy readers, I've been guilty of skipping the poems or the songs that inevitably find their way into fantasy epics.

So why am I talking about it now?

In October 2010, I attended the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio. At one of the many parties, this one hosted by Canadian publisher ChiZine, a poetry reading broke out amidst the launch of Paul Tremblay's In the Mean Time and Robert Boyczuk's Nexus: Ascension.

Sandra Kasturi, ChiZine co-publisher declared we would listen to a poem because "she'd bought the beer". She read a poem from her first collection The Animal Bridegroom called "Frankenstein's Monster's Wife's Therapist."

Amazing.

Now, lo and behold, one of Canada's two major SF&F awards, the Prix Auroras, have added a poetry category. Both Clink and Kasturi published numerous poems in 2010, also notable is Helen Marshall's "Waiting for the Harrowing". Even the "Dean of Canadian Science Fiction", Robert J. Sawyer has an eligible work; his prose poem, "The Transformed Man".

No longer a category I'll be ignoring.

A list of 2010 publications

Nominate for the Auroras

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White Egrets Poems$28.95 add to cart

Caribbean poet Derek Walcott, currently a scholar in residence at University of Alberta in Edmonton, has won the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, for his collection White Egrets. He won the $24,000 Cdn prize in London on Monday evening and was presented the award by Valerie Eliot, widow of the great 20th century poet. Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize in 1992, writes most frequently about the Caribbean and its post-colonial history.

People have often asked me why I chose to write spiritual poetry. This is what I always tell them: "Poetry is the language of the soul. It is also the only art form that can be used to tackle any topic, even those that we would find difficult to talk about." As a writer, I want to challenge my readers to think differently, to look at themselves in Life's mirror. I want them to re-connect with their inner child in order to experience growth and well-being.

As a reader, I expect nothing less. All the books that I have read have helped me to understand myself. In the list below, you will find the four books that have literally changed my life. The fifth one is a recent discovery that I also recommend warmly.

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