March 28th @ 7PM: A week from today, Bryan Sentes will be reading from and signing copies of his latest publication of poetry, March End Prill, published by Book Thug last year. Copies will be selling for $18.


The book is summarized to be a “periplum [a map constructed in the course of the voyage] songline that charts a way through our S.A.D. Zeitgeist to a thawing of the sources of speech song,” and this description is no shortage of promise for the reading. Sentes has filled his latest collection with rollicking word-work, disjointed phrases and combinations of words that give new meaning to portmanteaux. What we have here is a wonderful recalling of Roman Jakobson’s “organized violence on ordinary speech”, where Sentes is putting the hyper in hypertext, playing with typeface, allusion, personal account and structure, to mention only a few. Here is the first poem of the collection, A Cut to Bear Nigh Thought:
A Cut to Bear Nigh Thought
‘aieZeus I’m mercurial saturnine melancholic
wounduptight hypersensitive hys
terical the smallest slight sets me off
moon low as it gets tonight or not
night always surprisingly early
leaves yellow leprous black spotted
on Mount Royal paths no
rust twig snake warms in the sun
just lean grey squirrels hopping
how much “M39″ freezercoldRussianKartoffelsaft
mgsSSRI/daily melatonin orgone-spikes does it take?!
~
…For some contextualization, here is a link to Bryan Sentes talking about March End Prill. As for the author, he has published two books of poetry, Ladonian Magnitudes (DC Books, 2006) and before that, Grand Gnostic Central & other poems (DC Books, 1998). Sentes was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, earning a B.A. in philosophy (University of Regina, 1986) and an M.A. in English literature (Concordia University, 1990) before, during and after his residence there. Presently, he earns his living teaching English literature and composition at Dawson College and creative writing at Concordia University, both here in Montreal. He has read his poetry widely in both North America and Europe. Aside from poetry, he has published reviews, translations, and scholarship in the sociology of religion, mythology, and popular culture, and has conducted radio interviews with the likes of William Gibson and Martin Amis. He can be found on-line here.
Introducing Bryan Sentes, we have three writers. Here they are in order of appearance:
#1: David Bradford is a man of both mystery and letters.
#2: Jason Freure is a Montreal-based writer, a recent graduate of Concordia University, and a busboy on Crescent Street. He’s the author of Irving Layton Award-winning “St-Laurent Boulevard,” and has been published in The Maynard and the Show Thieves Anthology.
#3: Carina says “I am doing a Masters in Classical Studies. My thesis is going to be about the way that ancient Greek tragedy was used in South Africa during apartheid as a means to protest that regime and then after apartheid as a means to process what was and what could be. I mention Classics and apartheid because these things, though not always apparent, are the main preoccupations and influences in my writing. Besides that, I have lived in Montreal for a while now and like it just fine.”
So please, come on out and witness this extravaganza of excellence! Coffee and tea will be served! A trip to Grumpy’s will ensue!
That’s March 28th, one week from today. Doors at 7PM, and the reading will begin at 7:30PM. Free and open to all.