Front & Centre (1999-2016): bibliography, and an interview

this interview was conducted over email from August to September 2017 as part of a project to document Ottawa literary publishing. see my bibliography-in-progress of Ottawa literary publications, past and present here

Matthew Firth was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario and has lived in Ottawa since 2000. He is the author of four full-length short story collections, most recently Shag Carpet Action, published by Anvil Press. Some stories from these four collections were translated into French and published by 13E Note Editions in Paris in 2013 under the title Made in Canada. He has run the micro press Black Bile Press since 1993. From 1998-2017 he was co-editor of the literary magazine Front&Centre. He works by day for a national trade union.

Q: How did Front&Centre first start?

A: Front&Centre evolved or emerged from an older zine I published in the 90s: Black Cat 115. That was more of a scrambly, chaotic thing with poetry, fiction, rants, grocery lists, old weather reports, graffiti-style art, etc. Front&Centre represented a move toward something more distilled and focused: short fiction, author features, book reviews. But I tried to keep the same edge by publishing salty short fiction with an urban vibe. Logistically, F&C started about 1997-98. It was co-published in Hamilton and in Scotland. In March 1998 I moved to Scotland for a couple years, as my wife had a job in St Andrews. So the first few issues were a blend of writers from Canada and the United Kingdom, although there was a guy from Finland who somehow heard about us and was in the first issue. The first 5 issues were designed by Jason Copple in Hamilton, an old friend of mine. The mags were printed there too; he used to ship me a box while I was in the UK. In 2000, we moved back to Canada; Hamilton for a bit and then moved to Ottawa. Front&Centre followed me around. 

Q: How was work gathered for each issue? Were you purely soliciting, or had you a call for submissions out anywhere?

A: Work was always gathered via call for submissions. I listed the mag in newsletters, mags, online, put posters up in bookstores, etc. We did not solicit submissions. It was an open process. 

Q: Had the shift from a journal that included poetry to one that focused on fiction something that came from a shift in your own writing, or were they simultaneous? What do you think Black Cat 115 taught you about putting a magazine together that you were able to bring to Front&Centre?

A­: The shift to fiction-only was more just part of an overall notion to streamline Front&Centre, compared to Black Cat 115. BC115 was more this “anything goes” sort of zine. F&C tried to put more order to the chaos. And part of that was its preference (more than preference, really – mandate, more like) to only have salty, urban (mostly), realistic fiction in the Carver/Bukowski/Selby et al tradition. Nothing obscure, contrived or flowery. Tell readers a story and don’t fuck around doing it, sort of approach. Yeah, that does reflect a bias, as that’s the sort of fiction I wrote and preferred to read. We (Jason, Leona and I at the start, and later Harold Hoefle and then Bill Brown for many years) all preferred the immediacy of fiction. Well, one thing BC115 taught me – and this was reinforced over the many years of doing F&C – was not to get too excited about the whole thing. By that I mean: keep expectations in check. And do the thing on our own damned terms. So, we didn’t sell advertising, didn’t search out grants or any form of financial support, didn’t set firm publishing schedules, etc. We took a more organic approach: the fucking thing will be read by those few dedicated souls who really want to read it and we will publish it when we have enough decent work to comprise an issue, simple as that. And no ass kissing, asking for this or that writer to send stuff. The only time we asked someone if they’d be in the mag was for the author features, which were interview based, so obviously you have to ask writer X if he/she would speak with us. The reviews were all small and micro press books, 95 per cent of it fiction. We knew we weren’t going to get rich, famous; that no one was quitting their day job; that this would be a labour of love, a passion toiled on when the time was right around the regular rigours of our day-to-day lives (jobs, kids, commitments, etc.). So, we made a concerted effort to have no illusions about the enterprise. Some writers/readers loved it and supported us for years. Others surely gave nary a shit about us. I always appreciated the support and interest from someone I’d never met in Calgary, Kamloops, Stoney Creek, or Omaha. I didn’t lose sleep over the billions of people who never heard of Front&Centre or the few snobby writers who likely turned their noses up at what we did. In the end – and it is the end now – the only thing that mattered was that a few dozen writers were heartened by having their fiction published by us and a few dozen more readers were perhaps gleeful momentarily to read what we deemed to be good shit. End of story.

Q: How were issues distributed? How did you get copies out into the world?

A: The usual, old-fashioned way: in the mail, handled and delivered by unionized workers. Way back, we sold a few on consignment at bookstores that would have us, but that’s never very effective. Word of mouth. Online listings. Reviews here and there. Black Bile Press website, etc. There was a loyal but small bunch of subscribers. I offered to buy them each a beer now that the thing has gone under but, so far, no one has shown up at my door.

Q: What was the response to the journal? Were there any surprises?

A: I guess it’s best to say the response “met expectations,” recalling what I wrote earlier. There was a time, way back, when I was doing BC115 where I expected more: submissions and orders to jam my mailbox every day. I gradually tempered by expectations and realized that F&C was a niche thing, a bit cultish. Those who loved it, loved it a lot. Those who were indifferent or underwhelmed or pissed off that they were rejected – we never heard from again. But there were enough repeat offenders and enough occasional surprises (a beauty story that dropped out of the blue from a completely unknown writer in Moose Jaw or whatever) to sustain our faith in the endeavour. It did garner respect and praise from some parties, which was gratifying. And whenever someone said something nice and sent a $12 cheque; that perks you up at the end of a work day. But it was never going to last forever, I suppose. And my interests and commitments began to change, so things literary were pushed to the back burner. 

Q: Part of my question about surprises was in terms of authors who you might not have known about, had it not been for the journal. What authors did Front&Centre introduce you to? Who were the authors submitting that startled your sense of prose, if at all?

A: I did not know the work of the vast majority of the writers who were published in Front&Centre. I’d say, 90 per cent were unknown to me until I tore open their envelopes and read their stuff. There were a few carry overs from BC115 and my days on the zine scene early on but that dissipated quickly. Honestly, right through to the final issue I was mostly publishing writers I’d never heard of before and not by design, that’s just the way it went. Plus I was never one to read university journals or too many other mags at all; never had the inclination or time for it – so I had (and have) no idea who the up-and-comers were/are or whatever.

Writers who startled me via F&C:

David Rose, Salvatore Difalco, Raymond Soltysek, Iain Bahlaj, Harold Hoefle, Christina Decarie, Zsolt Alapi, Virginia Ashberry, Donald Avery, Joel Williams, Martin West, Jeffrey Griffiths.

Q: What kind of print runs were you doing for the journal?

A: Varied depending on our level of optimism. But generally highs around 200-250. Then steady around 100 the last ten years or so when all copies went to subscribers and contributors.

Q: I’m curious as to if and how your own writing might have been affected through editing Front&Centre. Did the journal cause any shifts in the ways in which you approached short fiction?

A: No, I honestly don’t think editing Front&Centre had much impact on my own writing. Like most things in my life, I sorta compartmentalized/separated the two. There was time for editing the mag and reading submissions and then other times for writing. Now, there are similarities between what I wrote and what I published but I also didn’t want F&C to be this circle jerk type of thing where there was no nuance, no variety. So we (me and other editors) looked for and appreciated writing that came at us from different angles, while having a certain saltiness to it.

Q: You managed to keep Front&Centre afloat for an impressively long time, especially for a journal without distribution, marketing or funding. What was behind the decision to stop?

A: The thrill was gone. After nearly 20 years, it started to become too much like work and not the gratifying/job-well-done type of work. More like having to grind it out. And my life got in the way. I have other commitments and passions that usurped Front&Centre’s place in my daily life. Hitting issue #30 seemed like the perfect place to pull the bus over and tell everyone to get out; the ride was over. You do also start to get a bit cynical after a while. I did start to wonder why I kept at it all those issues, publishing literally hundreds of stories, while losing money, losing sleep, losing time. But basically the spark went out so we snuffed it.

Front&Centre bibliography:

#1 (1999) Editors: Matthew Firth, Jason Copple, Leona MacCharles

Feature: Daniel Jones & 1978.

Fiction: Eric Ellul “Girl found hanging”; Catherine Smith “House Hunting”; John Swan “Snare”; David Rose “Biedermeir”; Sari Pauloma “Bloody Love”; Jim Ferguson “A Fried Egg”; Jonathan Goldstein “Horse’s Ass”; Simon Skinner “Flatmate”; Tom Schmidt “The Wrong Lois”; Michelle Berry “A Course in Miracles” Mark Jarman “Skin a Flea for Hide and Tallow”; Julie Roorda “Advent”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Jason Copple, Leona MacCharles

Photography by: Jason Copple

#2 (1999) Editors: Matthew Firth, Jason Copple, Leona MacCharles

Feature: Maxim Jakubowski & The State of Montana.

Fiction: Jennifer Footman “Sisters”; Dan Buck “Better Hard”; Gregory Santo Arena “A Language by Itself”; Colin Mackay “Sniper’s Bridge”; Heath Carra “Indestructible”; Rob Payne “Shit Night”’ David Williamson “First Sex”; Michael Bryson “Crow teaches City Boy a new lesson”; Alex Zelenyj “Poppy, the girl of my dreams, and the alien invasion I can detect like radar through my braces”; Patricia Cleveland-Peck “The Silence between the Sounds”; Elizabeth di Mariaffi “I am Happy”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Jason Copple, Anya Wassenberg, Steve Shikaze, Andrew Hook

#3 (2000) Editors: Matthew Firth, Jason Copple, Leona MacCharles

Feature: Laura Hird & Nail and other storeis & Born Free.

Fiction: Daithidh MacEochaidh “Just the Essentials”; Philip Quinn “Holes”; Kenneth J. Harvey “Last”; Sam Difalco “Stones”; Susannah Rickards “Cots”; Shirley Kitchen “Vacation for Sandy”; David Rose “Gravel”; Ian C. Smith “Listen to me”; Raymond Soltysek “Twitchy”; Arcey Hamilton “Effluvie”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Jason Copple, Steve Shikaze, Andrew Hook

#4 (2001) Editors: Matthew Firth, Jason Copple, Leona MacCharles

Feature: Kenneth J. Harvey Skinhound (there are no words)

Fiction: Jason Copple “Whale River”; Allen Ashley “Swim to Daddy”; Stan Rogal “Tell him you’re married”; Ian Bahlaj “This is not Los Angeles”; Ken Sparling “Threatening Coherence”; Kaith Murphy “Crossing India”; Frederick Lightfoot “The Death of Dona Herrera”; Lindsay Tipping “Loving Courtney”; John Swan “Buying the Farm”; Tom Murray “Dreaming of sunshine” 

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Jason Copple, T. Anders Carson, Kerry Schooley

Photography by: Jason Copple

#5 (2002) Editors: Matthew Firth, Jason Copple, Leona MacCharles, T. Anders Carson

Feature: Alexandra Leggat & Pull Gently, Tear Here

Fiction: Andrew Hook “The Summer of Hate”; Hal Niedzviecki “Breathe”; Katia Grubisic “Kissing Lindsay”; Matthew Firth “Minimum Wage”; Andy Brown “Reunited”; Kathleen Whelan “Hush Puppies”; Stephen Wade “An Open Heart”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Jason Copple, Joy Hewitt Man

Photography by: Jason Copple, Andrea Firth

#6 (2003) Editor: Matthew Firth

Fiction: Todd Besant “I really liked it and you liked it too”; Andrea Samuelsson “Don’t”; Alan Ram “Puncture”; Rick Taylor “Box 4335”; Laura Hird “The Happening”: Harold Hoefle “Czechs”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

#7 (2003) Editors: Matthew Firth, Harold Hoefle

Fiction: Jodi Lundgren “Sexual Relations”; Lowell Blood “Small Favours”; Steven Manners “Mirror”; Nathaniel G. Moore “Heel Turn”; Jon Boilard “The Moon, Wherever”; Nichole McGill “Number Ten”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Lorie Boucher, Philip Alexander, Harold Hoefle

Art by: Sam Firth

#8 (2004) Editors: Matthew Firth, Harold Hoefle

Fiction: Philip Alexander “Housesitting”; Graham Baron “Business”; Philip Quinn “NightClub Dream”; Helen Kitson “The Jubilee Café”; John Swan “Thin Line”; Vern Smith “Beckman’s Whore”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Lorie Boucher, Harold Hoefle, Chris Robinson

#9 (2004) Editors: Matthew Firth, Harold Hoefle

Fiction: Marcie McCauley “Notes for a Working Draft”; Mark McCawley “Screaming my Face Off”; Mark Anthony Jarman “Your Very Own Personal All-Canadian Marxist Hockey League”; Clint Wastling “Obligato for one”; Christina Decarie “Lite and Brite”; PG Tarr “King Shivers”; Brian Ray “Saturday Night Live”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Philip Alexander, Bill Brown, Frances, Ward

#10 (2004) Editors: Matthew Firth, Harold Hoefle

Fiction: Tony D’Souza “The Hard Life”; Thea Atkinson “Green Means Gone”; Jason Heroux “Kingston”; Anya Wassenberg “Little Finger”; Bill Brown “When Jupiter’s Aligned with Mars”; Zsolt Alapi “Eva”

Reviews written by: Nathaniel G. Moore, Matthew Firth, Chris Robinson, Harold Hoefle, Barry Doyle

#11 (2004) Editors: Matthew Firth, Harold Hoefle

Fiction: Hannah Holborn “World’s Greatest”; Daithidh MacEochaidh “More than an Angel”; Len Gasparini “A Day in June”; Bilbo Poynter “The Parade”; Philip Quinn “One Summer She was Beautiful”; Cathleen Kirkwood “Grangran Warmfeather’s Sitting on a hot bingo”

Reviews written by: Mark McCawley, Richard Van Camp, Zachary Houle, Bill Brown, Matthew Firth, Megan Butcher

#12 (2005) Editors: Matthew Firth, Harold Hoefle

Fiction: Robert Osburn “Photos”; Thelma Wheatley “The Looney Bin”; Dave McIntyre “Gridlocked”; Shannon Campbell “Caryatid”; James R. Cooley “Born on the Fourth of July”

Reviews written by: Len Gasparini, Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Art by: Willem Firth

#13 (2005) Editors: Matthew Firth, Harold Hoefle

Fiction: Len Gasparini “Ghosts”; Shelagh Rowan-Legg “Take Me There”; Kara Sievewright “The Golden Egg”; David Rose “Back to Descartes”; Virginia Ashberry “Gnomes”; Alan Ram “Make sure there’s something in the freezer”

Reviews written by: Lorie Boucher, Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Christina Decarie, Chris Robinson

#14 (2006) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Michael Bryson “Hercules”; Randall Brown “The Bone Orchard”; Salvatore Difalco “Proportion”; Lucy Policelli “Reinventing Love”; Gerald Locklin “Insignificance”; Susan Raby-Dunne “Denny and Me”

Reviews written by: Philip David Alexander, Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Lorie Boucher, Megan Butcher, Mark McCawley

#15 (2006) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Virginia Ashberry “Passages”; Peter Martinez “Oh Uncle”; Tania Hershman “Exchange Rates”; Richard Milward “Cotton Wool”; Jon Boilard “Capp Street Incident”; Nathan Graziano “Pissing on my own leg, or how I found fiction”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Salvatore Difalco

Art by: Nathan Graziano

#16 (2007) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Tony O’Neill “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”; Ian Colford “The Cure”; Carrie-May Siggins “Lately”; Jeffrey Griffiths “Living on Easy Street”; Tom Leins “Paigton Noir” 

Reviews written by: Lorie Boucher, Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Salvatore Difalco

Photography by: Bill Brown

#17 (2007) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Steven Mayoff “The Same Machine”; Philip Quinn “Street Images”; Amanda Earl “Caught in the Rain”; John Swan “Christie”; David Burke “Maria”; Dennis E. Bolen “Fractionacting”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Photography by: Bill Brown

#18 (2007) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Mark Fleming “Kola”; Katherine Coldiron “Fucked”; Parker Dorris “The Courier”; Tom Johns “Bar Fly”; Donald Avery “Window”; David Rose “Empire”; Blas Ulibarri “The Way a Road can Lead You”

Reviews written by: Lorie Boucher, Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Salvatore Difalco

Photography by: Bill Brown

#19 (2008) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Matt Peake “Record Stores”; Cynthia Watson “Golden Shower”; Craig Barron “The Annex”; Don McLellan “Horse”; Claudia Labin “Romania”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Jeffrey Griffiths, Bill Brown

Photography by: Jason Copple

#20 (2008) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Bill Brown “Opera Quiz”; Laura Caigle “Contraction”; Tom Lane “Out for the Night”; Janset Berkok Shami “The Devil”; Drew McDowell “Four on the Floor”; Jeffrey Griffiths “Little Man”; Christina Decarie “Hot Ketchup and Vinegar”

Reviews written by: Virginia Ashberry, Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Mark McCawley

Photography by: Bill Brown

#21 (2009) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Catherine A. O’Toole “Maddalena”; Salvatore Difaclo “Four shorts”; Len Gasparini “Forbidden Fruit”; Jim Christy “A Free Bindle Stiff”; Tyler Keevil “Retribution”; Ryan Turner “The Bear”; Ben Hart “Intersection”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Lorie Boucher, Jeffrey Griffiths

Photography by: Bill Brown

#22 (2009) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Julie McArthur “20 Grit”; Victor Sakalauskas “Flowers of Despair”; Drew Gates “The Oracle”; Lisa Foley “The Hitch”; Joel Williams “Tyrannosaurus Sex”; Zdravka Evtimova “Banno”; Gregory K. Betts “Before you were born”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Photography by: Bill Brown

#23 (2010) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Corrine Wasilewski “Five”; Elaine McCluskey “A Great Nation”; Kathy Meagher “I want to me a man like Raymond Carver”; Dave Newman “This has to be better than that”; J.R. Helton “The Good Stuff”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Lisa Foley

Photography by: Bill Brown

#24 (2010) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Fiction: Grant Flint “A Mouthharp in the Shadows”; Kathryn Sussman “Dirty Old Motel Room”; Gary F. Iorio “The Academic”; Peter Stockland “Orange and Peel”; Salvatore Difaclo “Five shorts”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Photography by: Bill Brown

#25 (2011) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Feature: Salvatore Difalco

Fiction: Zsolt Alapi “The Balcony”; David Burdett “The Road to Happy Destiny”; Christine Catalano “Fuck the Mets”; Julie McArthur “Orchestrated Disaster”; David Rose “Like It”; Daniel MacIsaac “Old Christmas”; Chelsea Novak “Smashed”; Jeremy Hanson-Finger “Grandmother Two Tongue”; Stacey Madden “Mammary Man”; Zachery Alapi “Gap-Toothed Genevieve 

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Photography by: Matthew Firth

#26 (2011) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Feature: Zsolt Alapi & Zachery Alapi  and Siren Song Publishing

Fiction: Raymond Soltysek “A Gathering of the Clan”; Elaine McCluskey “Victor”’ M.L. West “Dog Breath”; Christina Decarie “Lipsmackers”; Michael Cuglietta “My Wife and My Two Kids”; Jim Read “The Librarians

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Photography by: Bill Brown

#27 (2012) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Column: Joel Williams “Writing is my Bitch”

Feature: Liz Worth & Treat Me Like Dirt

Fiction: Heather Babcock “Half Off”; Ivano Stacco “Loose Tendons”; Kit Jenkin “Love Letter #6”; Lisa Foley “Skinny and Unavailable”; Tyler Keevil “The Silver Grin of the Glass Eater”; S.C. Armstrong “Monson Crescent”; J.T. Siemens “Scar me for Love”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Photography by: Bill Brown

#28 (2013) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Column: Joel Williams “Inside Insights”

Feature: Christine Catalano’s photography

Fiction: Steven Manners “Eclipse”; Becky Blake “Make Believe”; Chris Walter “Devil’s Elbow Bridge”; Michael Laverty “Divination Hour in Valhalla”; Philip Quinn “The Quarry”; Catherine Owen “Things You Don’t want to Hear”, “Johnny” & “Pow”; James P. Hanley “The Realtor” Madison Glover “The Becker’s Bum”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth

Photography by: Christine Catalano

#29 (2014) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Feature: Chris Walter & Gofuckyerself Press

Fiction: David Haggerty “Waiting on the Stress Boxes”; Keith Ebsary “Packer”; Isabel Wolfe-Frischman “If only I Lived in the Next Universe Over”; Stan Rogal “The Criminal’s Tale”; Tomek Dzido “Going Out”; Donald Avery “Hindenburg”; Mark Sampson “In the Middle”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Lisa Foley

Photography by: Jen Dodds, Darren Lulka

#30 (2016) Editors: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown

Feature: Salvatore Difalco & Mean Season

Fiction: Duncan Kluwak “Tangiers”; Skylar Radojdovic “Radiator”; Brian Kaufman “Cruel Cargo”; Virginia Ashberry “Jan Webster”; Zsolt Alapi “The Session”; Martin West “Hours in Between”; Lynda Zamkotwich “Rough Trade”; S.C. Armstrong “The Golden Years”; Jeffrey Griffiths “Lake Bashkung”; Stacey Madden “The Funny Game”

Reviews written by: Matthew Firth, Bill Brown, Zsolt Alapi

Photography by: Bill Brown

12 or 20 questions: with Bill Brown

Bill Brown’s work has appeared in Boheme Press’s Grunt and Groan: The New Fiction Anthology of Work and Sex, Urban Graffiti X, McGill University’s The Veg, Siren Song Publishing Writing at the Edge. In addition his stories and book reviews have appeared in Front&Centre, which he now co-edits with Matthew Firth. Firth also captains Black Bile Press, which in 2003 published Bill’s chapbook, Folly. Bill’s newest collection of stories, When Jupiter’s Aligned with Mars, has been published by Siren Song Publishing, 2009. It will be launched at the Manx, 5 pm on September 19, 2009. Bill and his husband, John, live in Ottawa.

1 - How did your first book or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?

My chapbook, Folly, (Black Bile Press, 2002) did two things: it gave me some idea of how stories can work together to enliven one another and, after selling out two printings (okay, mostly a hometown crowd) suggested that my stories were striking at least a thin chord. What, until then, had seemed like heightened masturbation, had, surprisingly gathered a crowd without losing the intimacy of scale, the limited scope and the freedom from commercial consideration, that fit so snugly with my intent in writing the stories.
When my husband John was asked to do the layout and design, the book became a family affair. And finally, Matthew Firth's editing, not only honed some of my writing skills, but cemented a new friendship and led to an invitation to co-edit Front&Centre.
Though my most recent collection, When Jupiter’s Aligned with Mars, (Siren Song Publishing, 2009) has a spine (I liked Marcus McCann’s take that, for most, if it’s got no friggin’ spine, it’s not a real book.) working with Zsolt Alapi at Siren Song has been a breeze.
We need some sort of anthem to those who continue to keep small presses going and continue to give many writers a first leg up. Yourself included, rob.
Changes in my work? If I’ve been successful, my most recent work should have a sparer feel to it. I’ve been inspired by others (Levine, Griggs, Metcalf, Carver) who have (more) successfully applied something like the implied line of the visual artist. If done well it serves to both clarify and deepen the experience for both reader and writer.

2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?

Poetry, though a longtime interest, intimidated me; non-fiction didn’t interest me. I quickly settled on the short story believing it has more in common with poetry than it does with the novel—including its loose boundaries. The short story would allow me to come at poetry through the side door.

3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing intitially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?

My writing projects are quickly started. And though the paths followed vary, for the most part my writing slows down almost at once. I’m not a writer with things worked out beforehand; my ideas spring, mingle and speak to each other through the act of writing. This will explain why my initial draft rarely looks anything like the final piece. Occasionally a story comes out in a rush, but it’s rare. My stories tend to be worked, maybe a few at a time, over months or years. Several stories may find themselves, over time, flowing into a single one. And though, from time to time I use notes, for the most part it’s simply a matter of spending time with the stories themselves.

4 - Where does fiction usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?

For me, fiction can begin almost anywhere: eavesdropping, a poem, a painting, an anecdote. And though a single “event” may trigger a story, pretty soon other bits of this and that I’ve been gathering (many unknowingly) will muscle in.
I have never set out to write a book. I write stories. It happens that enough of them, at least so far, have enough of a common thread that they work as a book and might catch the eye of a publisher. A few of my completed stories don’t seem to work at all with the others; but then, that’s not why I wrote them.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

Though it happens rarely, I like being read to. And since I read my stories aloud to myself, doing the same for others isn’t much of a stretch. Being relaxed with the cadence and intent of my stories I would much rather read them than talk about them.

6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?

My theoretical concerns don’t go much beyond taking the scraps of ideas, experiences, concerns, and puzzles that I have gathered over my life and refashioning them in ways that try to make some sense to me. I want to explore: how they might, like pieces of a puzzle fit together; how they might inform one another; how one facet might shed light on another; how I might draw the universal from the particular; or even how to shed my own light on a certain historical period. Given all this, it’s inevitable that you’ll find a gay thread through most of my stories: I am, in some of these, exploring the movement from deep inside the closet to being as out there as I wish. And yes, it’s an old story, but I hope it’s told with a new voice that might connect with the experiences of someone—anyone—who has found themselves marginalized, paralyzed, or doing stupid things.

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Does s/he even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?

Speaking the truth(s) isn’t going out of style any time soon. Writers provide readers with the opportunity to step aside from the hubbub of their lives and through the experience of reading examine a truth that might otherwise have been passed by in the rush and noise. Having said this, I don’t see fiction writers as activists. Our stories need not directly protest anything; the very act of writing them is protest enough. And need I state the obvious: such writing is only rarely synonymous with commercial success.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?

I consider someone with the skill, interest and time to comment on my work, to be a blessing. Such people (my friend Liz, my husband John, my teacher Rita, my editor and friend Matthew) have all helped me with everything from digging deeper for the core of the story to stylistic changes that enliven or refine.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?

If you want to be a writer, then write. Only from that can the rest, in time, flow.

10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?

Most days my writing routine is the same: I rise around 5 am and after my first cup of tea, write for the next three hours or so. I might come back to it later in the day, but most often I don’t. I might use some of the afternoon to work on related tasks: reading manuscripts for Front&Centre, sending out my own work, reviewing books, administering Black Bile Press’s website and reading.

11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

My first stop is poetry. But there are a few short story writers that I also turn to: Norman Levine, Charles Bukowski, Mavis Gallant, Raymond Carver, Terry Griggs, Elise Levine, Leon Rooke, Sherwood Anderson, John Metcalf. Though an eclectic list, I find something in each one whenever I go back.

12 - What did your favourite teacher teach you?

Rita Donovan, Ottawa’s most underrated novelist, through her astute comments and observations, taught me to have confidence in my work. She was the one who said: “Write, write, write.”

13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?

The visual arts: with John and I collecting art for three decades, our apartment is awash in paintings, photos, drawings, and sculpture, providing a trove of material to reflect on. Alberto Manguel, in his excellent book, Reading Pictures: A History of Love and Hate, encourages us to “read” the visual world (including architecture—a longtime, untutored passion of mine) for its hidden stories and riddles. This sort of reading has occasionally broken one of my many logjams.

14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?

I’ve already mentioned many of these. But at Humber School for Writers, Wayson Choy’s encouragement came at the right moment to keep me moving towards my chapbook, Folly, which came out in 2002. Working on the chapbook with Matthew Firth not only ended with us being friends, but my being introduced into a constellation of edgy writers: Sal Difalco, Mark SaFranko, Zsolt Alapi, Laura Hird, Matthew Firth, Tony O’Neil, Harold Hoeffle.

15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

Write poetry.

16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?

I spent 31 years teaching. And though teaching provided me with both stimulation and pleasure, in balance these were eventually overwhelmed by the strict regime of timetables, bells, clocks, paperwork, reports, and routines that for me sapped much of teaching’s joy.
Even though, as a young man, I chose the closet as both a queer and a writer, I’ve stopped beating myself up about it and now use that period to inform my life as both an out-there, married queer and a published writer.

17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?

After 31 years of doing something I was only superficially suited to, what else was I going to do but follow my gut?

18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?

Book: Thin Ice by Norman Levine. Film: Let the Right One In a 2008 Swedish vampire movie.

19 - What are you currently working on?

My next short story.

Doing what I can to help Siren Song Publication sell my newest collection, When Jupiter Aligns with Mars.

Weeding the garden and keeping various Bridgehead cafes afloat.

12 or 20 questions (second series);

Ongoing notes: late May, 2007

Will I see you at the ottawa small press book fair, or the reading on the night before at the Carleton Tavern (upstairs), 7pm? Chaudiere Books just put out our seventh title (without funding or investors, I might add; purchase our books so we can afford to make more!), the collection Decalogue 2: ten Ottawa fiction writers; see here for Amanda Earl's report on such, as well as photos of the readers by Charles Earl here, here and here. If you were on facebook, you'd not only be able to already see them all, but the pictures Jennifer Mulligan took from her recent trip to France. Did you see that Nath. G. Moore apparently liked my review of his book, my named dropped by Brian Campbell, or this enormously sweet posting by Sharon Harris? Did you read Pearl Pirie's report on the recent Haiku Canada weekend, or this recent review in The Ottawa X-Press of my new book and Nicholas Lea's new book? Decalogue 2 contributor Matthew Firth even reads at this year's WESTFEST, along with Montreal writer/publisher Andy Brown and a whole bunch of others; check out the Chaudiere Books blog for further information on upcoming author readings, new publications, where to get them and submission calls.

My book Ottawa: The Unknown City is in its final stages [see my previous note on such here]; if you know of anything in the city I might be missing, tell me now [Amanda Earl even makes reference to the project...]! I've been working 24/7 for the past few weeks, desperately wanting this done and out of my house, finally… I've been useless for just about anything else for quite some time now...

Ottawa ON: Grant Wilkins has been producing his small chapbook magazine Murderous Signs for a few years now, and has just put out the 15th issue of his small semi-annual (you do the math), with a short essay by Toronto writer Edward McDermott and poems by Tim Conley, author of the most magnificent book of short fiction, published last fall.

Reflections in an Imaginary Snow Globe

There is a thing in my eye. When you hold it, just in that
certain way, it looks like the place where you were born.
Seldom is the journey uninteresting,

but the reward is never posted. Did you hear, in my eye,
how do you say fish it out, is it because it is swimming?
You hardly look. When she asks whether this or that outfit
looks good how can the answer go naked, that was the
reply, ripe I thought at the time,

but then no one sees the point.

At the end of the issue is series of pieces that translate an Archibald Lampman poem with structures borrowed from bpNichol's Translating Translating Apollinare (Milwaukee: Membrane Press, 1979), "an experiment in the application of various forms of translation/transformation to a sonnet." Wilkins' magazine has always shown his interest in the Confederation Poets as well as more current strains of avant-garde, whether Max Middle or jwcurry (and he's been doing an informal study on concrete/visual poetry now for years), so it's entertaining to watch him blend the two ideas. Here he takes the poem "Voices of Earth" and replaces each of the words with ones that rhyme with the originals:

Be calve lot furred be few sick dove fee shears,
Flea gong glove bar dew bar, cut bare mar bounds
Fore keep fan bedpan soy band divan beers,
Chat creature fuses bin fur bonbon founds;
See gall love beams, glee buy shove grins fat bane
Key folk, lee boaring dove me pea's dirge, fight
Shove blunder caking sitar doff, for sane
Gnat balls cry spinets din see drummer flight.

Breeze far sea choices love berth's chic vet hole,
Buttering she agony bomb ditch tea fame.
Clue dim flew shears gem beef abscond enscroll
Nor toy conveyable myth rout ma came,
Bakes sin quiz mart lots dreaded fair, uncurled,
Restore we dearth land faking shove me hurled.

Unfortunately, this is the last issue of his free little magazine; as he writes in his editorial:

Changing personal interests and priorities are also a contributing factor. I've recently found myself becoming more and more interested in the physical elements of literary production, and have been moving towards "book arts" orientation for The Grunge Papers (the business entity through which Murderous Signs is published), actively exploring letterpress printing, hand papermaking, hand binding & notions of fine printing.

For copies of this or other of his publications, either go through his website, or come directly to the ottawa small press book fair.

Chicago IL: Canadian expat Suzanne Buffam read at the TREE Reading Series recently [see my review here of her magnificent first poetry collection], bringing some new poems as well as copies of her chapbook Interiors (Montreal QC: Delirium Press, 2006) with her. There is just something about her poems that I don’t seem to find in anyone else's writing, with a combination of heartfelt wondering with the right amount of distance, a pondering without being pondering, and a ghazal-like leap from line to line that seems almost unbelievable for the way the poems hold themselves together, and so well.

EXIT

Low cirrocumulus clouds in the west.
War in the east.

Lift teabag from cup.
Add milk. Ask if it is happiness

or pleasure you prefer.
Watch the storm churn to the surface.

Shadows gather in the valley below.
To count them is to know their many shapes

cannot be counted.
They must be numbered among.

A writer we have to wait and wait and wait for, apparently she's also in a new anthology of Chicago poets that just came out, which I have yet to find. See photos of her reading by Charles Earl and John W. MacDonald, Ottawa's own literary paparazzi.

Oakland CA: I swear, someday I'm going to get myself into an issue of Xantippe [see where I saw my first and discovered Rachel Zucker here; see my subsequent interview with Zucker], but so far, it just hasn’t happened. Recently the combined 4/5 double issue arrived in my mailbox, featuring poetry, biography (a fragment of that perpetually-forthcoming Robert Duncan biography Lisa Jarnot is working on) and a swath of poetry book reviews.

The Port of Seattle

Teetering free of grating vanes
Fall hand-sized flakes of rust

The signal yet unsounded
Nestled in bright life vests

The rigging sprinkled with rot
A nautical sign for rest

Better now than never
Better never say

None of your physics persist
For long, none

Of your bromides cut
The air where

Once our lichen bloomed
The sea where

Twice the riptide blitzed
The sand where

Once a drifting splinter lay
Guttered, culled & grey

Two long, one short:
A warning unrequited. (Chris Pusateri)

I'm not entirely sure why they did a double issue as opposed to two singles, but I almost wish every issue was this large, with this much poetry and this many reviews, and the Lisa Jarnot stuff on Robert Duncan makes me very much want to read the final book, supposedly out this fall with the University of California Press.

Montreal QC: Anyone paying attention to the late Montreal poet Robert Allen[1946-2006; see my note on him here]'s poetry over the past twenty years has certainly been aware of his ongoing project, "The Encantadas," collected into a single volume by Andy Brown's Conundrum Press. Published in 2006, soon before Allen died, his continuing sequence of poems on the Galapagos Island (The Enchanted Isles) have been appearing in various of his poetry collections over the years, including Magellan's Clouds, New and Selected Poems (1990), Ricky Ricardo Suites (2000) and Standing Wave (2005), his last three poetry collections. Twisting like an adventure novel, Allen's The Encantadas read almost like a life's work in a single volume, rushing and burning like a standing wave of its own.

57

fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue ― do you
see him springing from the serpent's teeth you sowed? Yes, you. Are you
happy up there in the top hat of America? Can you sail clear

of the white, ice-jammed straits, find shade from a predatory
sun? / One morning I awoke at the crosshairs of a dream,
ascending a green beanstalk into a land of solid cloud. Child-

hood things lay strewn everywhere, a chicken laying opal eggs, a steam
train sadly chugging, the ruins of a petrol station, nosed by a three-wheeled Cooper
in British Racing Green. Some giant kid was bawling

It's not that often that the great poem of an authors life is published just before the author dies; as sick as he was, it was great that he was able to not only oversee the final part of the project, but see it come to bear as a publication, and Conundrum Press has done extremely well by producing a graceful book, a "collected poem."

Saskatoon SK: It's not that often that a particular project will take up more than one volume of poetry in Canadian writing, and even less often that the volumes occur with different poetry publishers, so for that reason alone, the publication of Saskatoon poet Steven Ross Smith's fluttertongue 4: adagio for the pressured surround (Edmonton AB: NeWest Press, 2007) is worth noting. The only other project I can think of could be the four-volume bpNichol project that included love: a book of remembrances (Vancouver BC: Talonbooks, 1974), Zygal: a Book of Mysteries and Translations (Toronto ON: Coach House Press, 1980) and Truth: A Book of Fictions (Stratford ON: The Mercury Press, 1993). Long a student of the work of bpNichol and the Four Horsemen, Smith is the author of a number of volumes of poetry and fiction over the years, as well as one of the founding members of the 1970s and 80s sound poetry group Owen Sound (which came from, ironically, Owen Sound, Ontario). fluttertongue is a project that Smith has been working on for some time, and include the volumes Fluttertongue Book 1: The Book of Games (Saskatoon SK: Thistledown Press, 98), Fluttertongue Book 2: The Book of Emmett (Regina SK: Hagios Press, 99) and Fluttertongue 3: disarray (Winnipeg MB: Turnstone Press, 2005); why would he deliberately work his project through different publishers? It's as though the project, although a unit, is less about the structural considerations of being a specific single unit, but one instead meant to spread out across the page.

A poem of 1078 numbered stanzas/lines, Smith works through his relation and relating through language with his father, one of Smith's constant themes, there are even parts of word-play that have echoes of Toronto poet Phil Hall, working his word combinations and twists into something about birds, and something that rattles and shakes into something so much further, more.

A mossfringed grove. above, an eagle circles. stretches a talon to
scratch her underwing, plucks, from her body, settling adrift, a
single white feather.

feather floats, as she thermals up. away.

feather, current-borne, hollow-shafted — cleft, wordless.

utterance is loss.

my (Father, a roil of words.

loss unutterable.

a crumbling shore. breaking sky.

forage for words. store them in cloth pockets, in satchels, in every
room of my house. they fall away. from every stitch and seam.
from every clasp.

on the verge of
a phrasing of birds awing in the grove. wrentit chatter-rattles.
chickadee, warbler, towhee. scuffle and trill.

ears atingle with chitter and chat. i sit still.

Prince George BC: For some reason, Prince George poet Rob Budde, who I'm almost always a fan of [see a previous note on him here, and another here], has produced poem's poem (Prince George BC: wink books, 2007), a small chapbook of poems that don’t quite do it for me. What's happened? I know he has a book or two out this year that I'm very much looking forward to. He still works the longer line, almost prose-poemy, and working the self-reference (check out the "pizza guy" reference that works into his 1999 collection traffick, for example), but for some reason these aren’t really doing anything for me; is this part of a larger project or structure I'm just not seeing? Otherwise, these poems about poems, which are difficult enough, and load themselves already just through their structure, seem aimless, and not exactly formless, but moving for the sheer sake perhaps of only moving. What are these poems all about?

Poem in the Overcode

Poem is a good boy, disturbs
the flow of pedestrians as little
as possible, mixes oil-based paint in
prescribed ways, eats the fictional
food groups, redeems his air
miles, watches hockey, thinks
about mutual funds and international
security, gets hopped up on
caffeine and sugar, has a full
medicine cabinet, frets over
fuel prices, is curious
about porn, submits regularly
to established magazines, finds
unique ways to create
vivid description and surprising
but comforting comparisons, breaks
the line right where it should, hears
screams at night, has a mellifluous
reading voice, is suspicious of
postmodern pomposity, dreams of the city
falling apart, demons
fouling the internet, resists discussing
the trivialities of language indeterminacy,
knows where he is going, tries
to get there on a straight straight overpass

Ottawa ON: With it's sixteenth issue, I've finally seen a copy of Matthew Firth's Front & Centre magazine, filled with "hard-hitting new fiction" by Tony O'Neill, Ian Colford, Carrie-May Siggins, Jeffrey Griffiths and Tom Leins, as well as a slew of fiction reviews. Published through his Black Bile Press, which he started out of Hamilton, Ontario about ten years ago to publish the poetry and fiction journal Black Cat 115, he has even produced some single-author chapbooks along the way, these days focusing on fiction, and leaving the poetry behind.

In many ways, Firth is a roughneck version of John Metcalf, kicking against as many pricks as he can in his search for not only good writing, but great writing. The guest editorial by Salvatore Difalco even echoes classic Metcalf (but with more swearing), writing:

Okay, so we all know the Giller Prize is bullshit. We just know. Nothing they tell us or show us will alter that opinion in the near future. But this year's Giller's took the cake. Now, I don’t mean this as a slur to a fellow writer. He's a patsy from the looks of it. But the word astonishing kept creeping up on me these past few months, indeed kept hitting me over the head, and I want to take a moment now to express my astonishment, because I really am astonished.

I read, or tried to read, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures before it made the shortlist for the Giller. My wife had bought it for herself, and after she started it and dropped it abruptly with no comment, I had a look at it. I liked the cover; it was cool, blood red, with this pencil sketch of a human heart. I hate grandiose blurbs and the back cover had the best: "Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures is an astonishing literary debut…" Stop. There was that word again. I read the acknowledgments and found it interesting that Margaret Atwood and Michael Winter and a few other prominent writer types were mentioned. The guy had connections. Good for him.

If you're a fan of any kind of fiction, I would certainly recommend going through the rest of this editorial, and even the rest of the fiction in the magazine. There aren’t that many people left working to be great instead of merely passable. To get a copy, go through his website.