rob mclennan & Mark Frutkin reading, Carleton University, October 11, 2018

I am doing a reading at Carleton University this week with the esteemed Mark Frutkin!

Thursday, October 11, 12-1:30pm, Gordon Wood Lounge, 1811 Dunton Tower, Carleton University, Ottawa.

He has a new novel! I have a new poetry book!

free and open to the public! hoping we see you there,

Profile of Mark Frutkin, with a few questions, now up on open book: ontario

My profile of Ottawa writer Mark Frutkin, with a few questions, is now up at Open Book: Ontario.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUNBURST AWARD ANNOUNCES 2007 WINNER OF ITS $1,000 LITERARY PRIZE

Toronto (September 28th, 2007): The Sunburst Award Committee is pleased to announce that the winner of its 2007 award is Fabrizio's Return by Mark Frutkin (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, ISBN 0-676-97727-8). The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a prized and juried award presented annually. It is based on excellence of writing and awarded to a Canadian writer who has published a speculative fiction novel or book-length collection any time during the previous calendar year. Named after the novel by Phyllis Gotlieb, one of the first published authors of contemporary Canadian speculative fiction, the award consists of a cash prize of $1,000 and a hand-crafted medallion which incorporates a "Sunburst" logo, designed by Marcel Gagne.

The Sunburst jury said, "Fabrizio's Return is a complex drama of faith, love, church politics, and art, set in 17th- and 18th-century Cremona. The story explores the events surrounding the mission of a 'devil's advocate' sent by the church to investigate the life of a local 'saint.' Frutkin's narrative is probing in its exploration of ordinary human nature. Rich in humour, a sense of irony, and celebrating the power of passion, this novel blends fantasy, realism and historical authenticity to create a unique and engaging work of art."

The jurors for the 2007 award were Steven Erikson, James Alan Gardner, shortlisted works as representing the finest of Canadian fantastic literature published during the 2006 calendar year.

The other shortlisted works for the 2007 award were:
Martine Leavitt, Keturah and Lord Death
Carrie Mac, The Droughtlanders
Peter Watts, Blindsight
Robert Wiersema, Before I Wake

Mark Frutkin is the author of three books of poetry and six of fiction, including Atmosphere Apollinaire, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, the Trillium and the Ottawa Book Award. He lives in Ottawa.

The 2008 Award jurors will be Timothy Anderson, Kelley Armstrong, Barbara Haworth-Attard, Dena Taylor and Robert Wiersema. In 2008, there will be two Awards: for adult and for young-adult (YA) fiction.

For additional information about the Sunburst Award, the nominees and jurors, as well as previous awards, eligibility and the selection process, please visit the website at http://www.sunburstaward.com/

Contact: Rebecca Simkin, Secretary at:
The Sunburst Award
2 Farm Greenway
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M3A 3M2

Ottawa poet Riley Tench, d. November 2006

A sad email yesterday morning from Mark Frutkin:

Hi Rob,

I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind sending around an announcement on your Ottawa literary list. Not a happy one, I'm afraid. We just heard this morning that Riley Tench died yesterday of a heart attack. His wife (Wendo) called to tell us and asked that we inform the Ottawa literary community. I'm not sure how old he was (early fifties, I think), but he was a fine poet and a gentle man, as well as an old friend.

Thanks for your help.
Best,
Mark

Predominantly active as a poet and publisher throughout the 1980s, Tench [see John W. MacDonald's photo here] was part of a group of poets that included Michael Dennis [I reference same in my note on Michael here], Maggie Helwig, Dennis Tourbin and others in a scene in the early part of the decade out of Peterborough, Ontario and Trent University; in this interview, Calgary poet Richard Harrison (at Trent the same time) even cites Tench as an influence. Moving to Ottawa from Peterborough around the same time in the 1980s (roughly) as Tourbin and Dennis, Tench performed at numerous venues around town, and was both an active poet and small press publisher. From what little I'd heard of his literary activities, he was both writer and instigator (in the good way), getting others to do things that they might otherwise might not have.

I knew Riley through the ottawa international writers festival, since he was a friend of Neil Wilson's, and was hanging around for a couple of years before I even knew he had written/published. He was even starting to hang around a number of jwcurry events (including this bill bissett reading; Tench said he'd first heard bissett perform in the 1970s at Collingwood...), and was always interested, engaged and willing to be supportive, even with that trademark snarl. He hadn't produced anything publicly in years, and had a rough go of existing during the last year or so, but he and I had actually been negotiating not only bringing out a number of his previously published work, but potentially a chapbook of new material he claimed he had been working on, slowly and quietly, over the years.

I always liked seeing him. I will miss seeing him. I really should have returned his call before I left home, nearly a month ago...

Arrangements, according to Frutkin, are "this Saturday at St. Martin's Anglican Church behind Carlingwood Mall [map here]. We don't have the exact time yet, or even if it will be morning or afternoon." It would be nice, perhaps, in a week or two to hold a memorial for him somewhere in Ottawa, with some readings of his poems, I think.