Members' News

2008-08-01

The latest news about our members. If you would like to submit news, visit the ELANews submissions page and we'll try to get it into the next edition.

Barbara Florio Graham

Barbara Florio Graham has sold her Christmas story to yet another foreign textbook. Voices in Time has just been published by Cappelen Damm AS in Norway. This story, which Bobbi wrote when she was 17, has now been published in four foreign textbooks as well as in Canada and the US. Denmark is also the 37th country where Simon Teakettle Ink appears on websites (which range across 11 time zones).

Brian Campbell

Brian Campbell's new prose poetry collection, Field of Gems, will be published by Signature Editions in Spring, 2009. Campbell's poetry has recently appeared in The Saranac Review, Carte Blanche, Umbrella and MiPOesias.  Others are forthcoming in Carte Blanche (again), Vallum and CV2.

Sky of Ink Press, edited by Brian Campbell and Raphael Bendahan, has recently produced two chapbooks, Still Light at Five O'Clock by Nina Bruck and Hot Summer Night by Jocelyne Dubois.  Nina was interviewed about her book on CBC News at Six (Arts Scene) and The Sunday Edition.  Sky of Ink Press was founded with the express purpose of publishing talented poets in finely crafted chapbooks.  (At the present time, Sky of Ink does not accept unsolicited submissions.)

Rachna Vohra

Rachna has been performing at various spoken word shows throughout the US and is currently back in Montreal to join the poetry scene in her hometown. Inscribed Magazine and The Pedestal Magazine recently published two of her poems, and a third poem is forthcoming in August's issue of Cahoots Magazine.

Sylvia Moscovitz

Sylvia Moscovitz just returned from New York City where she had been invited by the Donnell Media Center of the New York Public Library to give a lecture on her approach to composing or improvising piano scores for silent film. After the presentation, she performed a live, improvised piano score for "The New Moon" as part of the Donnell Center's "Meet the Musician" series; this series was dedicated to the films of Norma Talmadge.

Sylvia is invited regularly for the Donnell Center's "Meet the Musicians" series, and to other film festivals and symposia, and looks forward to doing other performances now that the Donnell is in the process of moving its archives and operations to the Lincoln Center. She is eager to introduce a new generation to silent film by developing a school outreach project and would welcome any ELAN member who may want to partner with her in that endeavour.

Erik Virtanen

Erik will be hitchhiking across Western Canada and the prairies this August to find inspiration for some of the 10 songs he is supposed to write about Canada, funded by a CALQ program.  If you see him on the highway, please pick him up, unless you are a murderer.  This comes prior to his Montreal group, The Darling DeMaes', release of their f.a.c.t.or. supported debut LP this autumn or winter.

Martin Dansky

Martin Dansky just finished his first novelette called Actress Found On Beach available on Lulu.com and soon to be distributed on Amazon and other on-line agencies. The book can be ordered in hard copy or downloaded.

Theatre Wakefield

Theatre Wakefield hosted the first-ever Piggyback Fringe Festival on June 29 and 30, 2008 in Wakefield, Quebec. International acts from New Zealand, USA (Chicago, Minnesota and Colorado) and Canada (Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa) delighted crowds with 16 performances over two evenings.

The event "piggybacked" on to the tail end of the Ottawa Fringe Festival. Ottawa organizers endorsed and supported the launch of the new fringe festival in the village of Wakefield, thirty km north of the nation's capital.

More than 500 people came out to see shows, giving rave reviews of the performances and the festival overall. The most popular show, a spoken word cabaret entitled "Busty Rhymes with MC Hot Pink" performed by New Zealand's Penny Ashton, drew crowds of just under 100 each evening at the infamous Black Sheep Inn. Performers loved it too, saying they can't wait to come back next year for the second annual event.

Julie Mahfood

Julie Mahfood has two poems in the current issue of carte blanche and has just had one poem accepted for inclusion in a future issue of the Literary Review of Canada.

Andrew Cuk

Quixote, written & directed by Andrew Cuk is the next production of the theatre company Canis Tempus. It runs from August 21 to September 6 at the Portuguese Association in Montreal. Quixote is 90 minute experimental work based on the life of Cervantes and his novel, Don Quixote. For full details on this performance, see the ELAN Arts Calendar.

David James

The Belfast black granite sculptures by Sutton-based sculptor David James are on display at the winery Domaine des Côtes d'Ardoises, on highway #202, 4 km west of Dunham. They are part of the 8th annual sculpture park, Nature & Creation, that is the largest sculpture park in Quebec, if not all of eastern Canada. Some 70 sculptures by 30 artists are on display until October 14th, just after Thanksgiving weekend.

Aaron Saloman

Aaron Saloman has been playing bass for local artist Eleanore Altman, and was part of her winning performance on STOP!, a musical contest in the Eastern Townships.  Their winning performance on the show, as well as their performance at the awards gala in Waterloo, can be seen on Aaron's YouTube channel.

Several ELAN members

Several ELAN members are taking part in a multimedia and multicultural show honouring the history of the Lachine Canal and its surrounding communities. Julia Ainsworth, Edmund Nash, Faisal Lutchmedial, G. Scott MacLeod, Judith Brisson, and many other artists will be featuring two evenings of performance and music on the third weekend of September. Check out the ELAN Arts Calendar for details about the event, or go to the Reflexions Urbaines website.