Event – 2003

An absolutely sensational cover on this terrific Canadian journal — “Avalok,” a painting by Chris Woods creates a “clash of perspectives” with an astoundingly life-like image of a server / goddess at McDonald’s with her sacred offerings of chicken nuggets / croquettes and cookies / biscuits (bilingual fast food in Canada, of course!). What’s inside is just as exciting. More than three dozen poems, most the work of poets with strong, quirky, original voices, four equally original stories, a personal essay, and several thoughtful reviews of books from noteworthy indie presses. It’s not hard to see why many of the writers published in Event rake in the big Canadian literary awards. Every piece here is truly an event. Poetry by Canadian writers Andy Stubbs and Sue Wheeler and by Californian John Randolph Carter is particularly striking, though all of the poetry in this issue is worth savoring; a story by Edward Maitano of New York could restore a cynic’s faith in the fate of short fiction. The volume opens with the marvelous translation by Jeffrey Angles of the work of widely published Japanese poet Keiz? Aizawa, a fitting invitation to the work that follows in this very memorable issue. Here is an excerpt:

An absolutely sensational cover on this terrific Canadian journal — “Avalok,” a painting by Chris Woods creates a “clash of perspectives” with an astoundingly life-like image of a server / goddess at McDonald’s with her sacred offerings of chicken nuggets / croquettes and cookies / biscuits (bilingual fast food in Canada, of course!). What’s inside is just as exciting. More than three dozen poems, most the work of poets with strong, quirky, original voices, four equally original stories, a personal essay, and several thoughtful reviews of books from noteworthy indie presses. It’s not hard to see why many of the writers published in Event rake in the big Canadian literary awards. Every piece here is truly an event. Poetry by Canadian writers Andy Stubbs and Sue Wheeler and by Californian John Randolph Carter is particularly striking, though all of the poetry in this issue is worth savoring; a story by Edward Maitano of New York could restore a cynic’s faith in the fate of short fiction. The volume opens with the marvelous translation by Jeffrey Angles of the work of widely published Japanese poet Keiz? Aizawa, a fitting invitation to the work that follows in this very memorable issue. Here is an excerpt:

“Pour words of the flesh

These words of the flesh are a bronze battle-axe
Swinging in a great, downward arc toward my ears,
And as it strikes,
My flesh sends up a spray of blood
That transforms into the petals
Of infinite flowers.”

[Event, Douglas College, P.O. Box 2503, New Westminster, B.C. Canada V3L 5B2. Single issue $8. http://event.douglas.bc.ca] – SR