Tag Archives: Eric Schmaltz

Visual poetry exhibit opens April 1

Vispo Exhibit in Cobourg, Ontario:
TEXTual ARTivity

Location: The Human Bean Coffee Shop
Duration: April 2014
Opening reception: April 1, 7:30 pm, with special guest Bill Bissett

          I continue to be amazed at what a dedicated group of poets can do to put their town — Cobourg, Ontario, about an hour east of Toronto — on the poetry map in a big way. The Poetry in Cobourg Spaces committee (Ted Amsden, Wally Keeler, Katriona Dean, and James Pickersgill) came up with the brilliant idea to host TEXTual ARTivity, a visual poetry exhibition during National Poetry Month at The Human Bean, a coffeehouse in downtown Cobourg. The list of participants includes Canadian and American visual poets, some active since the 1960s.
          The exibition will feature one of my ransom note collages (shown in the image below) as well as work by many others:

Angela Rawlings, Derek Beaulieu, Robert Zend, Bill Bissett, Helen Hajnoczky, Lindsay Cahill, Mark Laliberte, Jenny Sampirisi, Eric Schmaltz, Angela Szczepaniak, Gregory Betts & Neil Hennessy, Pearl Pirie, Eric Winter, Jessica Smith, Ted Amsden, Sharon Harris, Cliff Bell-Smith, Mary McKenzie, Wally Keeler, Katriona Dean, Gary Barwin, Judith Copithorne, michael j. casteels, Alixandra Bamford, Em Lawrence and Dan Waber

Click the image below for a generous article about the exhibit by Cecilia Nasmith in Northumberland Today:
COBOURG VISPO SHOW          Zendophiles will be interested to know that Robert Zend’s typescape Peapoteacock will be on exhibit:

QUOTATION MARKS 7

Robert Zend, who is legendary in the field, will be represented by a playful piece his widow supplied, in which his words form intertwining pictures of a peacock and a teapot.

 
 


Camille Martin

filling Station: The Crow Issue

Three of my poems were recently published in filling Station: Corvine Writing for Corvée Writers (#53).

Thanks to Caitlynn Cummings, the new Managing Editor of filling Station.

The issue features a murder of corvine poets: Mat Laporte, Eric Schmaltz, Darius Kinney, Kris Demeanor, Kim Kautsky, Kevin Stebner, Anahita Jamali Rad, David Goldstein, Christin Miscione, Jason Sunder, Dylan King, Daniel Roche, Justin Foster, Allie Jaynes, Rosemary Griebel, Ursula Jordaan, and Kris Demeanor.

Not to mention an unkindness of raven art, fiction, and nonfiction (including a review of Jenny Sampirisi’s Croak).


Camille Martin

Of bagpipes and pumpkin beer

Photo: Amanda Roth

“Martin’s quick-paced tempo led the audience through a whirlwind of intimate and surreal thought that was entirely engaging.”
— Amanda Roth, Grey Borders Reading Series

         The September 23 Grey Borders Reading began on a surreal note as the poets were ushered onto the stage by Shelby, a young woman playing bagpipes. She happened to be at the Niagara Artists Centre before the reading, preparing for the next day’s annual parade through downtown St. Catharines to celebrate grapes and wine, without which the history of surrealism just wouldn’t have been the same.
         And the surreality of the evening, fueled by wine and spiraling into the weirdness that poetry fiends crave, intensified with the poets’ readings: Shannon Maguire, Aisha Sasha John, Zorras, and yours untruly.
         Afterward, we spilled into the night and settled in a pub lined with giant vats of pumpkin beer, spinning ever more exquisite corpses.


Thanks to Shelby, Eric Schmaltz (curator), the Niagara Artists Centre, and also to Amanda Roth for her photos and report on the evening.


Camille Martin

Trains & poetry were meant to be (fall readings)


I have a great fall lineup of readings, starting with Grey Borders in St. Catharines, Ontario, on Friday, September 23 – two weeks from today.

I’ll be reading with Shannon Maguire, Aisha Sasha John, and Zorras Multimedia Troupe—a treat to be reading with these terrific poets! And many thanks to Eric Schmaltz and the Niagara Artist Centre for making this event happen.

Then on to Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Washington DC, and New York.

I’ll have copies of Codes of Public Sleep and Sonnets at each stop on the tours, but if you’d like to get a copy now, just go to my website, which lists clickable vendors for these books.

I’m doing all these trips by VIA Rail and Amtrak. There’s nothing better for writing than a window seat on a train . . .


Camille Martin