Category Archives: About Brian
Shimmer Report book launch @ The Word Bookstore
Early in the evening; people (J-P Pelletier & Hugh Hazelton) still coming in the door
Adrian King-Edwards, owner of the Word & Moi
Cathy Watt, Hope Diario, John Markle — friends, fans, fellow bodhisattvas of the earth!
Adrian & Wanda Potrykus
Jean-Pierre Pelletier & moi
Jan Jorgenson & her husband, Ted
Maxianne Berger & J-P Pelletier
Cora Siré & Moi
About forty guests came to this launch at The Word, a storied, steadfast brick-and-mortar bookstore in the McGill Ghetto. Thanks Adrian and Donna for your enthusiasm in hosting the event and arranging the food & drinks, to all of you who attended! It was a great evening!
SHIMMER REPORT
The Ekstasis Editions catalogue is now online, with Shimmer Report in it. The launch is scheduled for Aug. 27 in Victoria B.C. (details TBA), but you can order in advance here.
Here’s the text on the back of the book:
Shimmer Report tells of a couple who do not fall in love so much as ascend together into love from their own dark places. He, a poet, musician, teacher; she, a visual artist and author, has also had to endure the psychiatric system. Life and love are but a shimmer—but this is a report on hard realities, as well as on flashes of colour, delight, and whimsy.
Years of suffering
like gas into flame
have drawn air
into your light—
a leaping, lambent figure
in mist, burning bright“Shimmer Report is a book of searing honesty and shy grace. To read its poems becomes an act of witness as Brian Campbell explores his city and his heart, evoking the requirements of love as well as the vexed nuances of survival. I admire his courage.”
~ Mark Abley, author of The Tongues of Earth
“In Brian Campbell’s Shimmer Report, the poet asks, “What dilemma is this now?” Using urban, multi-language Montreal for a backdrop, and a palette of telling details in shades of wit and compassion, Campbell explores today’s creativity and relationships through echoes and upshots of complicated pasts. These are poems of love and survival—in spite of, and because of, the curiosities of the world we live in.”
~ Maxianne Berger, author of un renard roux/a red fox
A review by yours truly online
My review of un renard roux/a red fox by Maxianne Berger and La voix de l’ombre by Annie Molin Vasseur is now online with Rover.
These two small poetry books, both bilingual editions, carry far greater impact than their diminutive size might suggest.
ROVERARTS.COM
A Private Collection
On Saturday night I launched my new Sky of Ink chapbook, A Private Collection, a series of ekphrastic poems inspired by works of art in my home. Appropriately enough, it was a private launch in my home. About 25 people were present, including a number of artists (some of whom are featured in the chapbook) and writer friends. We all had a wonderful time.
http://youtu.be/wYVXCqLk5Ho
What’s New?
So what’s up now? While my latest manuscript seeks publication, I’m in an in-between state. A new creative project: a series of ekphrastic poems on paintings and sculptures in my house. So far, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve done five, including a homage to a dead friend, a surrealist cat, a humanesque figure made of paint squiggles. Most of these are works that I’ve lived with for years, done by friends. The only two artists that are at all well known are Barbara Sala and Nathalie Trépanier. Many are abstract. Some I doubt really work without viewing the works they are inspired by. If I do enough of these, and I’m really happy with them, I’ll publish them with photos of the works on line and eventually, in a rather pricey limited edition chapbook. A beautiful, if rather personal, project.
Update
Because I like the formatting better on my old blog, Out of the Woodwork, I’ve decided to reopen it — for quotes, poems by myself and others, musings, critical forays, etc. This page here will be reserved for announcements and mementoes of events, publications, videos, etc., newsy things that get easily pushed out of sight on an active blog.
Brian Campbell 