This might be of interesst to some on the list, one of those events I wish
I had been there for, but there I was on the other side of the continent at
the time...
THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF TISH
> VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL WRITERS FESTIVAL, 2001
>
> Forty years ago in September 1961, five young poets and their friends at
> the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,
> launched the first issue of the mimeographed literary magazine,
> anagrammatically named TISH, which they sent by mail to about
three-hundred
> pre-selected subscribers, mostly poets and other literary people in North
> America, but also in England and other countries.
>
> An active participant in the earliest run of TISH has recently described
> the genesis of TISH:
>
> "One of the main socio/historical sites for the development of radical
> poetics in Canada was the magazine Tish: A Poetry Newsletter, Vancouver.
> The first issue appeared in September 1961, following a year or so of much
> talk about poetry and poetics by a group of student writers, young
> professors, and other literary aficionadoes at the University of British
> Columbia. But the genesis of Tish goes back to 1958 when several would-be
> writers arrived at UBC. By the late 1950s, a community of writers had
> formed, including Frank Davey, George Bowering, Fred Wah, Jamie Reid, and
> David Dawson, who became the founding editors of the magazine. Lionel
> Kearns; Gladys Hindmarch and Robert Hogg (who published a couple of issues
> of a companion, fiction magazine called Motion); and Daphne Marlatt were
> also a vital part of the working group, though not officially editors. The
> group published nineteen issues in less than two years, more or less
> keeping to their goal of providing a monthly poetry newsletter." (Pauline
> Butling, "Tish and "The Problem of Margins," Open Letter, Spring 2001)
>
> When TISH ceased publication in 1965, no fewer than 44 issues had been
> published under three different sets of editorial boards. Peter Auxier,
> David Cull, Gladys (now Maria) Hindmarch, Robert Hogg, Daphne Marlatt, Dan
> McLeod and Stan Persky participated in the second and third editorial
> boards. The contribution of the members of the TISH movement to the
> literary life of Vancouver and Canada can be measured in the ongoing
> accomplishments of its former editors as writers, educators, critics,
> editors and publishers: George Bowering has twice been awarded the
Governor
> General's Award; Fred Wah is also a Governor General's winner; Frank Davey
> has successfully completed thirty five years as the editor of Open Letter,
> one of the most important journals of literary theory in contemporary
> Canadian letters; Dan McLeod was one of the founders of the Georgia
> Straight, a celebrated Vancouver entertainment newspaper and today remains
> its publisher; Stan Persky is a well-known columnist in the Vancouver Sun.
> Almost all of the editors of TISH have continued to write and to publish
> new books of poetry, criticism, fiction and non-fiction over the
> intervening 40 years. A short list of the influential magazines edited
and
> produced by the former TISH editors includes "Open Letter,"
> "Imago,""DaDaBaBy," "Tessera," and "Sum," among others.
>
> TISH was one of the first examples of what has now become a common
> phenomenon in literary life - the writing collective. Inspired by the
> influence of the New American Poetry that began to be published in the
late
> 1950s and early 1960s, TISH was part of a continent-wide innovative
> movement in the practice of poetry which saw the emergence of many new
> literary magazines throughout Canada and North America, and the creation
of
> a new community of poets throughout the continent and the English-speaking
> world.
>
> Alma Lee, the Artistic Director of the Vancouver International Writers
> Festival has graciously agreed to the sponsorship of a celebration of the
> 40th anniversary of TISH as one of the events in the festival this year.
> The TISH celebration will take place on October 20, 2001.
>
> You are warmly invited to attend the readings and other events which will
> be organized as part of this celebration. Further events may be finalized
> and publicised later.
>
> For further information, please contact:
> Jamie Reid 382 East 4th Street North Vancouver, B.C. V7L 1J2
> Telephone: (604)980-9361; E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
I am afraid. I said that. I said that
for you.
Phyllis Webb
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