Argo Bookshop -

Poet Walid Bitar (The Empire’s Missing Links), acclaimed poet launches his fifth book, Divide and Rule, a new collection of dramatic monologues, variations on the theme of power structured in rhymed quatrains alongside the launch of the wonderful poet Anita Lahey’s (Out to Dry in Cape Breton) second book of poems, Spinning Side Kick. Come out and listen to these fantastic writers read their work on April 30th at our fine shop @ 7PM.

c/o Coach House: In Divide and Rule, Walid Bitar delivers a sequence of dramatic monologues, variations on the theme of power, each in rhymed quatrains. Though the pieces grow out of Bitar’s personal experiences over the last decade, both in North America and the Middle East, he is not primarily a confessional writer. His work might be called cubist, the perspectives constantly shifting, point followed by counterpoint, subtle phrase by savage outburst. Bitar’s enigmatic speakers are partially rational creatures, have some need to explain, and may succeed in partially explaining, but, in the end, communication and subterfuge are inseparable – must, so to speak, co-exist.

Walid’s Bio:
Walid Bitar was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1961. He immigrated to Canada in 1969. His previous poetry collections are Maps with Moving Parts, 2 Guys on Holy Land, Bastardi Puri and The Empire’s Missing Links. He lives in Toronto. His latest book, published by Coach House Books this April, is Divide and Rule.

c/o Vehicule: Anita Lahey’s second collection, Spinning Side Kick (Vehicule Press), is a hard-knuckled look at the other half. These lively poems mix a girl-about-town cockiness with an all-too-rare emotional honesty about men, love, and relationships. Whether the subject is a one-man chimney demolition, the lifelong fidelity of seahorses, a lover at war in Afghanistan or a kickboxing match, Lahey confronts the enduring disconnect between the sexes in a language that is slangy and quick, punctuated with jabs. She eyes those moments–in a day, in a life–when the normal clues we rely on disappear, shifting the line between domesticity and danger. In Spinning Side Kick, a talented poet returns with sharper aim.

Anita’s Bio:

Anita Lahey’s second collection of poems, Spinning Side Kick, was released by Véhicule Press in 2011. Her first book, Out to Dry in Cape Breton, was nominated for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and the Ottawa Book Award, and she is a past winner of the Great Blue Heron Poetry Prize and the Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem, among others. Her work has been shortlisted several times for the CBC Literary Award for Poetry. She worked as editor of Arc Poetry Magazine from 2004 to 2011, and is also a journalist who has written on a wide range of topics for Canadian publications such as The Walrus, Cottage Life, Maisonneuve, Canadian Geographic, Quill & Quire, and several others. She has lived in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, and currently lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The event will be hosted by poet and editor Carmine Starnino. Doors @ 7PM, reading @ 7:30PM. Admission is free.

In collaboration with the Writers’ Chapel of St. James the Apostle, the Argo Bookshop will be presenting an evening of discussion devoted to the life and work of CanLit’s last decadent, the infamous Montreal memoirist, poet, translator and pornographer John Glassco. The discussion will be held by editor and poet Carmine Starnino alongside scholar and author Brian Busby on Friday, April 27th @ 7PM, located at 1439 Sainte-Catherine Street West.

To celebrate the release of two new books devoted to Glassco, ‘John Glassco and the Other Montreal’ (a new selected poems/essay edited and selected by Carmine Starnino) and Brian Busby’s lauded authoritative biography ‘A Gentleman of Pleasure’ (currently a finalist for the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Canadian Literary Criticism), the two authors of said books will be holding a lively discussion on Glassco’s work. Among these fantastic authors, there will be surprise guests!

Wine and food will be served, admission is free, and the following three books will be for sale, which can be purchased for $85, saving $10:

1. “John Glassco and the Other Montreal“, selections and essay by Carmine Starnino and an original portrait by Wesley W. Bates… This limited edition book is one of the few collections of Glassco’s work currently available. “The bindings and print are made with archival and acid-free 80 lb. Mohawk Eggshell Text. Typeset in ‘Filosofia’ designed by Zuzana Licko of Émigré Fonts with titling in ‘Tisa’ designed by Mitja Miklavcic. 88 pgs.” (Frog Hollow Press)

The price is $35 ($5 off the online price).

2. “A Gentleman of Pleasure: One Life of John Glassco, Poet, Memoirist, Translator, and Pornographer” by Brian Busby… “In a lively account of a man given to deception, who took delight in hoaxes, Busby manages to substantiate many of the often unreliable statements Glassco made about his life and work. A Gentleman of Pleasure is a remarkable biography that captures the knowable truth about a fascinatingly complex and secretive man.” (McGill-Queens Univeristy Press)

The price $40 for the hardcover edition (paperback has not been released).

3. “Memoirs of Montparnasse” by John Glassco, “…a delicious book about being young, restless, reckless, and without cares. It is also the best and liveliest of the many chronicles of 1920s Paris and the exploits of the lost generation. In 1928, nineteen-year-old John Glassco escaped Montreal and his overbearing father for the wilder shores of Montparnasse. He remained there until his money ran out and his health collapsed, and he enjoyed every minute of his stay. Remarkable for their candor and humor, Glassco’s memoirs have the daft logic of a wild but utterly absorbing adventure, a tale of desire set free that is only faintly shadowed by sadness at the inevitable passage of time.” (New York Times Book Review)

The price is $20.

It’s that time of the month again! Wednesday, April 18th!Present your written work and music at the Argo Bookshop’s monthly Open Mic! Poetry, prose, drama, essays and music are all welcome, rough or polished drafts.

Tell your friends and family, all are welcome. Doors are open and the sign-up sheet begins at 7PM. The reading will begin at 7:30PM… and if you can’t make it, invite some of your Montreal pals out in your stead!

And if this won’t be your cup of tea, check out Art’s Stars in Hollywood-Screening and readings @ 2 rue Sainte-Catherine Est, local 301, Montréal (www.artexte.ca). It takes place at 5PM, so you could fit both into your evening for a full-bodied soiree of unbridled fun!

 

April is National Poetry Month!

We here at the Argo are celebrating by offering
a 20% discount off all poetry throughout the month.

Check out our great selection of
national and international titles…

Rumi! Wendell Berry! Zach Wells! Norm Sibum! Irving Layton! Bryan Sentes! Gerard Hopkins! Don Coles! Ezra Pound! Anglea Carr! Gillian Sze! Petrarch! Edmund Spenser! Erin Moure! Ken Babstock! Christian Bok! Robert Lowell! John Donne! Jack Kerouac! Dante! Phil Hall! Michael Ondaatje! Jorge Luis Borges! Osip Mandelshtam! Baudelaire! Asa Boxer! Allen Ginsberg! E.J. Pratt! Pablo Neruda! Carmine Starnino! Goethe! Gary Synder! Basho! Jay MillAr! Homer! Robert Frost! Mark Goldstein! Chaucer! bp Nichol! E.E. Cummings! Robbie Burns! William Blake! Wallace Stevens! D.H. Lawrence! Gregory Corso! Langston Hughes! Robinson Jeffers! John Milton! Arthur Rimbaud! John Dryden! John Keats! Christopher Logue! Jon Paul Fiorentino! Rilke! Kate Eichorn!…

…and much, much more!

Just so you know, if we don’t have the poetry you’re looking for,

we can order it for you, also at 20% off!

Come on in before it’s too late!