Announcing wererabbit, my new solo ambient music project . . . coming soon!

For the last five years, A.G. Pasquella and I have been making music together as LASERGNU, and we're going to keep doing that. I will also be releasing solo music projects under the name wererabbit, with my first album coming soon. Please follow @wererabbitmusic (Twitter, Instagram, Bandcamp) to stay in the loop.

New LASERGNU release: WE CAN REBUILD HIM (E.P.)

LASERGNU's second pandemic release comes out nearly two years since our last E.P. Six tracks of oddball electronica, from adventure pop to metaoccult ambient, this album is guaranteed not to summon demons, poltergeists, elder gods, disgruntled extra-dimensional beings, or any other supernatural or metaphysical adversaries.

Some sample tracks from the E. P. 

CLICK HERE TO VISIT LASERGNU.COM

New Video for my poem "Hush"

I created a new video for my poem "Hush." I wrote the first draft of this poem in 1995 and revised it for my 2018 book Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy. It was collected again in my most recent book Shared Universe: New and Selected Poems 1995-2020. Enjoy. 

Spacescapes

I want to put down some thoughts about the paintings I've been working on lately. Since June, 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, I've been working on a series of paintings I'm calling "spacescapes" (until I think of something better). 

Beginning with "Polka Dot Asteroid Field," and with the most recent painting being "Dodechahedron in Pixellated Space" (as of February 10, 2022), there are seven "full-sized" canvases so far, with a handful of studies on smaller canvases and paper. This is perhaps the most sustained series of visual works I've ever produced--though it incorporates some design elements that have been present in my paintings for years, namely the confetti-like, multicoloured "polka dots" (circles) and "pixellizations" (squares)--and I feel it may be the beginning of truly sustained project, if not a signature style. 

More thoughts to come. 

"Ruby Icosahedron in Pixellated Space"

24" x 24", acrylic and canvas, 2022.

"Blue Tesseract in Pixellated Space"

24" x 30", acrylic and canvas, 2022.

"Dodechahedron in Pixellated Space"

30" x 24", acrylic and canvas, 2022.

"Radioactive Monolith in Pixellated Space"

24" x 30", acrylic and canvas, 2022.

"Negative Space with Polka Dot Asteroids"
24" x 30", acrylic and canvas, 2021.

"The Pillars of Creation with Polka Dot Asteroids"
36" x 24", acrylic on canvas, 2021.

"Black Hole with Polka Dot Asteroids"

24" x 30", acrylic and canvas, 2021.

"Polka Dot Asteroids in the Vicinity of Planet X"
30" x 24", acrylic on canvas, 2021.

"Polka Dot Asteroid Field"
24" x 30", acrylic and canvas, 2021.

Quarantine Review Podcast Episode 3

The latest episode of The Quarantine Review podcast is live, and this one features writers Catherine Bush, Hollay Ghadery, and myself. I'm reading my poem "Liturgy for the Formal Exoneration of the Serpent in Genesis" from my book Shared Universe: New and Selected Poems 1995-2020.

Click here to listen.

Self-Publishing Seminar at Wild Writers Literary Festival

Self-publishing is good for many things.

It's also not very good for many things.

From revolutions to ripoffs, I'll be talking about all of those things as part of the Wild Writers Festival, presented by The New Quarterly, on November 17.

Details here:

I'll be appearing at Western University, in London ON, on October 20 as part of the Write Now! series. I'll do a reading and a Q&A with the audience about poetry, writing, and publishing. Ask me anything!

It starts at 4pm in UCC56, and is free and open to Western students, staff and faculty. I'm looking forward to getting back to my UWO roots.

Find all the details here.

The Ampersand Review of Writing & Publishing is set to launch June 23

For the past year I've been working with a marvellous team of faculty and students from the Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing & Publishing program at Sheridan College to develop a new literary magazine called The Ampersand Review of Writing & Publishing, and we are set to launch our first issue next week! 

In this debut issue, we are proud to include new work by some of Canada’s most exciting contemporary writers. This issue features an exclusive interview with Amanda Leduc, new fiction by Jordan Abel and Jess Taylor, poetry by two former Sheridan writers-in-residence Liz Howard and Gary Barwin, among many other treasures.

We will be having a virtual launch for the debut issue on June 23 at 7pm EDT. 

To register for the event, please click here.