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[UPDATED w/ photos]

Good morning. Yesterday's better weather allowed us to tour Gastown and a bit of Chinatown before heading to the bookfair and conference hotels and the mountains that surround Vancouver are really something. Wow. It's a clean clean city, with excellent coffee and the folks are really friendly (minus one surly bartender, but maybe he's an import).

At the bookfair yesterday I finally found Marion Wrenn (who'd been talking up GAMERS with some game designers she'd met the night before) at the PBQ table with Kathleen Miller, and I also got to meet Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Jeannine Hall Gailey, Andy Day from Failbetter, and literally countless other people who stopped by (thanks for keeping me entertained, y'all!).


Marion Wrenn & Kathleen Miller of PBQ. That very clever tee says F*@$ Me/Painted Bride Quarterly. Wanna fund?

Spotted Goldbarth again, and Marie Ponsot (tho I missed her at our table), and Cornelius Eady, and Joshua Clover (who I now recognize from some New School event or other but didn't somehow realize before) and G. C. Waldrep, and etc. Ran into the ever charming Ilya Kaminsky, Lucy Corin, Josh Corey again, Richard Greenfield again, Paul Guest again, Mark Bibbins again, Joelle Hann again, Greg Pardlo, Catherine Daly again, Charles Valle of Fence, Joanna Yas from Open City, and Anna & Matvei from Ugly Duckling Presse (whose party we missed because the reading I went to at 4:30 ran very long).


Ilya Kaminsky


Josh Corey & Matvei Yankelevich at the Ugly Duckling Presse table.


Mark Bibbins & Joelle Hann


The lovely Deborah Landau signing copies of her new book. We chatted with Adrian Metejka about sexy author photos. How photogenic!

Stopped by to get a copy of Deborah Landau's book Orchidelirium during her Anhinga-table signing. Went to the Boston Review 20th Anniversary Reading hosted by Timothy Donnelly: Brenda Shaughnessy, Karen Volkman, Cal Bedient, Bin Ramke, Cole Swenson & Peter Gizzi. Unfortunately I came in after the room was mostly filled and from the back of the room with my poor ears and the baffling tendency of poets not to speak into microphones* I was unable to make out most of the poems. Peter Gizzi, luckily, knows how to deal with audio equipment and came through loud and clear--and I really enjoyed hearing his poems. (Wanted to ask about the rumored collected Spicer but had to hotfoot it out. Next time.)


Kasey Mohammad & Catherine Daly, blurred, at the Boston Review reading.

After that reading, I hunted up hubby in one of the several hotel bars** and we headed over to the Post Road party at the Steamworks Brewery where I picked up the new issue and met some nice peeps. Finally finally met up with Jason Schneiderman & Michael Broder, who'd managed to stay hidden up to that point. We had a chat about the necessity for systematic preservation of online journals and postulated the eventual rise of the rare-manuscript collector equivalent in the weblit world. Pixels are popular for many reasons, but less persistent in archival sense than print. Some online journals are doing print annuals (PBQ and Small Spiral Notebook, for instance). Perhaps some webzine editors could turn their thoughts to this problem and propose a panel for next year's conference.

We wandered over to the Verse/Open City/Fence/Swink party in time to miss the readings but catch the Merle Haggard tunes by Matthew & Joe Wenderoth. The effervescent Denise Duhamel was there and I got to introduce her to Richard--we're bringing out Saints of Hysteria and encouraged her to propose a panel on poetic collaboration for next year's conference when the book will be available. Said hi to Jennifer and Josh Beckman again and a bunch of other peoples but then realized we were starving so headed to dinner. Our plans to hit the Ninth Letter party afterward were waylaid by the sleepies, which hit hard after oysters***, crab cakes*** and [nonisinglassed***] wine.

This morning, we're hitting the bookfair for some fire-sale purchases and trades, then maybe it's over to Granville Island for sushi lunch. Driving back to Seattle to catch a heinous red-eye flight. I did manage to get several photos yesterday, but they will have to wait till I'm back in Brooklyn--dialup ain't got my smile up. AWP Booty List and recommended reading to come, too.

But where oh where are Robin Reagler and C. Dale Young? And the rest of you?

*What is this about? In a cavernous carpeted room yr syllables get absorbed by upholstery. Speak up!

**The lack of a single hotel bar location for gathering and poet-spotting at this year's conference has been disappointing. Last year the bar at the (single) conference hotel made chance meetings more likely. Between the two hotels (kitty-corner across an avenue) each with two or three bars, the odds are reduced.

***[This post has not been modified because I have since gone vegan.]