James Reaney On The Grid

‘Set up a trellis for flowering plants to climb all over: it’s there but unseen, supporting all that floral leaf-green beauty.’ In James Reaney on the Grid, Stan Dragland examines an artist fiercely loyal to his artistic practice, deploying the metaphor of the grid to explore the inherited literary patterns and archetypes underpinning works of London poet, playwright and educator James Reaney. With extensive references to Reaney’s considerable oeuvre (from early publications such as A Suit of Nettles and The Box Social to what is arguably his master work, The Donnellys), and to an eclectic collection of theorists, artists and contemporaries whose ideas inform and respond to Reaney’s, Dragland seeks to reveal not only what Reaney’s work is about but also what it does. In so doing, he takes readers by the hand in a surprisingly personal ramble through the processes and productions of one of Southern Ontario’s most influential writers.

In a small corner of what was once known as North America, in the not-too-distant future, Neo-Toronto emerges as a prosperous island enclave after decades of war and unrest. In this world, knowledge is downloaded, learning is obsolete, cybernetic communication is the norm and even time travel is within reach. Citizens wholeheartedly embrace a doctrine of immortality, hoping to achieve Singularity—a state of autonomy so complete that human contact is rendered unnecessary. Jarrett Heckbert’s Metamorphadox presents a cautionary tale of a society that loses touch with physical reality. This suite of 81 wood engravings chronicles the chilling journey toward posthumanity in a dystopian future-world in which experience is always mediated and reality is undeniably, inescapably virtual.

Based on a true story, these three plays explore the saga of a secret society and massacre that stunned the Canadian public in 1880.-Based on a true story, these three plays explore the saga of a secret society and massacre that stunned the Canadian public in 1880.

The poems in Souwesto Home are fresh, youthful meditations on such diverse subjects as the Little Lakes near Stratford, Ontario, the flora of Elgin County, the Donnelly feud, lichens, a Department Store Jesus, and so on. The collection ranges widely in tone and technique, from the lyrical to the satirical, from the direct and straightforward to the linguistically playful. As ever, Reaney's signature voice, his inimitable combination of sophistication and child-like simplicity, may be heard in every line. Like his contemporaries, P.K. Page, Margaret Avison and Colleen Thibaudeau (his wife), he has lost nothing of his poetic prowess to advancing years

The Box Social & Other Stories gathers together nine of James Reaney's short fictions written in the 40s and early 50s and never previously collected in book form. The collection takes its title from a short piece the author originally published in the University College Undergrad and which provoked a firestorm of eight hundred angry letters from subscribers when it was republished nationally in the New Liberty in the late 40s. It also thwarted the young author's designs on the editorship of the Undergrad because of his clear moral unsuitability for such an august position. (This is doubtful, because the Undergrad eventually came to be edited, thirty years later, by PQL publisher Tim Inkster.) `The Box Social' is remarkable, not only that it introduced the theme of date rape to Canadian literature some thirty years before the phrase was coined, but also that it is told from Sylvia's point of view, and yet again that it ends with one of the quietest lines of literary vitriol imaginable ... ` ``I hated you so much, '' she said softly.' If Alice Munro has put the sexually awakening female under glass in Lives of Girls and Women, then The Box Social could just as easily have been titled Lives of Boys and Men. In `The Bully', the brutality of what passes for etiquette in secondary school is contrasted with the simpler life of the farm personified in Noreen who drops grain in the shape of letters to feed her chickens -- `so that when the hens ate the grain they were forced to spell out Noreen's initials or to form a cross and circle. There were just enough hens to make this rather an interesting game. Sometimes, I know, Noreen spelled out whole sentences in this way, a letter or two each night, and I often wondered to whom she was writing up in the sky.' `The Bully' was included in The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories edited by Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver. The young Margaret Atwood first encountered `The Bully' as an undergraduate. She read the story, oddly enough, in an anthology edited by Robert Weaver, and the experience was apparently seminal to her own development as a writer of fiction ...

George Bowering has been an inimitable, witty, eclectic and electrifying voice in Canadian letters for decades. The author of over 20 poetry collections, novels, criticism, memoirs, and recently, "unauthorized" histories of Canada, Bowering has won the Governor General's Award for poetry and fiction. In 2000, in recognition of his extraodinary accomplishments, Bowering was appointed Canada's Poet Laureate. Changing on the Fly collects the best of Bowering's poetry in one fascinating, revelatory and immensely readable volume.

Calling all people to become stewards of the earth, this exquisite edition is a heartfelt plea for the planet's preservation. The Declaration of Interdependence—both an enlightening creed and a passionate call to action—was composed by David Suzuki and a team of activists and environmentalists in 1992, in recognition of the United Nations' Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. This compelling statement of environmental principles progresses through three stages: “This We Know,” “This We Believe,” and “This We Resolve.” In this exquisitely designed edition, artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas brings this powerful creed to life using imagery from cultures around the world, interpreted through his dynamic Haida Manga style. The declaration is followed by an inspiring essay by David Suzuki. An epilogue by Tara Cullis, president and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, reveals the history and achievements of the foundation, one of North America's most active and successful environmental organizations. Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation.

Machine generated contents note:Alice Munro: Not Bad Short Story Writer /Douglas Gibson --Looking, Imagining /Jack Hodgins --The Boy with the Banana in His Mouth /Judith Thompson --Einstein's Hammer and the Painting Pachyderm: Reading Alice Munro in the Digital Age (every day is trying to teach us something) /John B. Lee --An ABC to Ontario Literature and Culture /James Reaney --All Things Considered: Alice Munro First and Last /Reg Thompson --Remembrance Day 1988: An Interview with Alice Munro /J.R. (Tim) Struthers --Too Little Geography; Too Much History: Writing the Balance in Alice Munro /Dennis Duffy --"The Region That I Know": The Bioregional View in Alice Munro's The View from Castle Rock /Alec Follett --Intimate Dislocations: Buried History and Geography in Alice Munro's Souwesto Stories /Coral Ann Howells --Society and Culture in Rural and Small-Town Ontario: Alice Munro's Testimony on the Forty Years from 1945 to 1985 /John Weaver --Alice Munro and the Huron Tract as a Literary Project /Ian Rae --Alice Munro's Black Bottom; or Black Tints and Euro Hints in Lives of Girls and Women /George Elliott Clarke --Alice Munro as Small-Town Historian: "Spaceships Have Landed" /Warren U. Ober --Killer OSPs and Style Munro in "Open Secrets" /William Butt --Not for Entertainment Purposes Only: Ethnicity and Alice Munro's "Powers" /Shelley Hulan --Thoughts from England: On Reading, Teaching, and Writing Back to Alice Munro's "Meneseteung" /Ailsa Cox --Giving Tongue: Scorings of Voice, Verse, and Flesh in Alice Munro's "Meneseteung" /Louis K. MacKendrick --"Pearl Street is another story": Poetry and Reality in Alice Munro's "Meneseteung" /Marianne Micros --A Bibliographical Tour of Alice Munro Country /J.R. (Tim) Struthers.