10 Myths About Poets - David McGimpsey

Not all poets are introverted. They aren't always thinking away at some clever line they can't actually speak of. Poets are just alone because of their poor life choices. So, when you see a poet, don't think of some wild bard whose pent-up verbal hurricanes may suddenly destroy your world, think more of a sad kid holding the scrap of a recently punctured balloon.

David McGimpsey, arguably Canada's most irreverent poet, speaks to the CBC for National Poetry Month and dispels some myths about poets.

Please check it out HERE.

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Dingers in The Globe & Mail

Dingers: Contemporary Baseball Writing recently got a shout out from Martin Levin in the April 12th Globe and Mail:

Last, and a favourite, is Dingers: Contemporary Baseball Writing, edited by Montreal poet and ball fan David McGimpsey (DC Books, 150 pages, $18.95). This anthology, which explores the relationship between writer and game in poetry and prose, features writers both well known - George Bowering, Dave Bidini, Steven Hayward - and those well worth discovery - Mary Milgram, Greg Santos, Anastasia Jones.

More here.

Copies of Dingers can be purchased through the DC Books website,through Amazon, and Amazon.ca.

Get 'em while they're hot!

Dingers: Contemporary Baseball Writing

I have three pieces appearing in the anthology Dingers: Contemporary Baseball Writing, edited by David McGimpsey.

A big thank you to David for including me in this fun and eclectic anthology devoted to America's favorite past-time.

May Youppi! live on forever...

Book Description:

Baseball and Literature have long lounged side-by-side in the dugout. The writer, Papa Hemingway-like, watches the game and yearns to hit one more novelistic home run, while the customarily laconic ball player describes a slick piece of fielding as “pure poetry.” In this collection, essayists, fiction writers, and poets describe and celebrate baseball’s combinations and forms, seeking to plumb its meaning as a game and maybe metaphor for Life’s deeper truths. The epic game is dramatized in all its variety, from the major and minor leagues, down to the Little Leagues and pickup games in sandlots. Somebody once said that baseball is more about losing than winning. A good batter only succeeds thirty percent of the time and only one team triumphs in The World Series. Hence baseball bears a resemblance to fine writing, which may explain its extraordinary appeal to the ink-stained class. In Dingers the reader will find the odes and laments of some our best writers-cum-baseball wannabes such as George Bowering, Robert Allen, Timothy Morris, Arjun Basu, Jason Camlot, David Tabakow, and Dave Bidini.

More info here.

Bookishness in New York

Poet and funny guy David McGimpsey was in The Big Apple recently, touring some New York bookstores for The Globe and Mail's Travel section:

Nothing makes me happier than indulging in the city's literary sensibilities through a holiday book-buying spree, which I'm certain must end at a hotel where your purchases are spread out over the bed and, realizing you're not likely to read them all yourself, you concede to giving a few away as gifts.

With hundreds of bookstores large and small, NYC is unmatched in terms of volume. Many shops are devoted to literary niches — rare Asian books, for example, or comic books, or mystery books (at Murder Ink, get it?). In short, a roving bookworm like me feels right at home in the Big Apple...

Morningside Heights, around the campus of Columbia University, is my regular stomping ground and some of the bookstores McGimpsey writes about, like Labyrinth Books and Morningside Bookshop (where I happily discovered a book on guillotines for Maryn) are where you can often find me browsing for unusual finds.

Read Reading to New York by David McGimpsey.

The Winner of the CBC Poetry Face-Off 2006 is...

Toronto's Michelle Muir

Second place goes to Regina's Holly Luhning

Third place goes to Montreal's own David McGimpsey (Congrats on making it to the top three Dave!)