October 14, 2005 Source: University of Waterloo:
http://newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news.php?id=4610 Paintings, Plays and Poetry is latest New Quarterly issue WATERLOO, Ont. -- The University of Waterloo's resident literary magazine, The New Quarterly, is staging an Indian Summer launch of its summer issue next Thursday (Oct. 20) from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Waterloo Public Library. The issue, "Paintings, Plays and Poetry," features a small anthology of poems selected by Montreal poet, essayist and fiction writer Robyn Sarah; a gathering of behind-the-scenes pieces about life in the theatre; and local artist Shannon Reynolds' "Dramatis Personae -- an archetypal cast in paint and text." Sarah will read from her work and mull over the question of what makes a good poem good. Sima Rabinowitz, in a review of the issue, says, "Sarah clearly favors plain diction, narrative impulses, strong, authentic voices and emotional integrity. The poems in this issue bring us close to the heart of the (subject) matter, whatever the matter may be." Reading with Robyn Sarah will be local poets Erin Noteboom and Kay Weber, both represented in the issue. The evening will also include a slide talk by portraitist Shannon Reynolds, whose series "Suspect Profiles" is currently on display at Kitchener City Hall. The New Quarterly features another "delightfully inventive hybrid," her series of paintings based on theatre's iconic character roles, parts for which the models auditioned. They subsequently collaborated with the artist on costuming, staging, props and script. The series is presented as a playbill complete with actor profiles. The artist casts herself as director and sees the portraits as explorations of the fine line between art and artifice. Local readers will recognize some of the cast: teacher and New Quarterly editor John Vardon plays the sage, landscape architect Michelle Purchase plays the coquette, DJ and drag performer Muffy St. Bernard plays the dandy, and Quill & Quire editor Derek Weiler plays Fifth Business. In an accompanying essay, Weiler describes the collaboration from the subject's perspective and confesses to distress on learning he thinks of himself as a minor character. The evening is sponsored by the Canada Council through the Writers' Union of Canada and by the Waterloo Public Library. (To download a copy of the issue's cover -- Shannon Reynolds' rendering of The Tragic Lovers -- go to www.newquarterly.net/images/tnq_096_cover_proof.pdf) Contact:
Kim Jernigan, Editor, (519) 884-8111, ext. 8290
Release no. 227 -- October 14, 2005 2005-10-14 15:11:50
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