had composed a long, almost considered, posting which included
lamentations on the demise of my mouse & subsequent inaccessibility of
e-mail etc, when the computer crashed in a bizarrely escalating
demonstration of computer-power. Ergo, a hasty rehash:
1. if Douglas Clark would like to use for other purposes the space taken
up by his Veronica Forrest-Thomsons, I'd be willing to put in a bid
2. if a main thrust of the proposed transantlantic anthology of younger
poets (how about transgenerational) is to stimulate younger British men
& women to write in the adventurous mode (a new one? - Vancouver's
JazzFest is divided into Traditional & Extreme) then would an ongoing
magazine have more impact, along with the conferences suggested?
3.a) Gender prevalence: went through recent fragmente, Angel Exhaust,
Salt, Open Letter, West Coast Line & Raddle Moon & had done the
counting, but can't face the recount: memory tells me that the order
noted is the increasing order of women to men in these issues of these
magazines (from 3w:19m for f to 9w:4m for RM - EAPoe is left sans
gender). Is it too simplistic to note WCL has a 50/50 wm editorial
board & RM is currently 100% women? (Well, it's a true observation, but
is it the only explanation?)
3.b) I don't have enough history of the Kootenay School of Writing to
know what factors have led to the current prevalence of women writers in
that collective (a recent Matrix from Montreal featured only women in a
portfolio from there). Maybe Peter Quartermain has a sense of it & of
whether that might be something instructive to other centres.
Later I'll post the ideas I'd found in the extract I read from "Poetic
Artifice" : that had been my intent, not to discuss VFT's merits or lack
thereof as poet or critic, but thanks for that anyway. Genre bending
seems to owe something to her example?
Breathing sigh of relief as computer resumes its former neutrality,
Pete.
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