the peter f yacht club christmas party/reading/regatta: a (small) report,

above/ground press helped close off 2012 with the annual Christmas party/reading/regatta for the journal/group The Peter F Yacht Club [see John W. MacDonald's report on the 2005 event here and my report on the 2007 event here], with various contributors reading selections of new work, as well as from issue #17 of The Peter F Yacht Club.

The evening featured readings by Amanda Earl (top, with Janice Tokar in foreground), Marilyn Irwin (above, with Craig Calhoun in foreground), Roland Prevost, Janice Tokar, myself and Montreal's Kirya Marchand (accompanied by her Ottawa-based family), and an audiencethat included Rhonda Douglas, Craig Calhoun, jwcurry, Rachel Zavitz, Charles Earl, Christine McNair, Grant Wilkins and David Blaikie, as well as the very late Jason Wiens (who recently guest-edited a Prince George section of filling Station magazine, due out shortly).

Amanda Earl made a point of doing a "final reading" of her ghazal manuscript; final, at least, until the work is accepted as a full trade collection. Kirya Marchand has been an intriguing discovery, and she read the piece I first noticed of hers from a recent issue of Grain magazine [see my review of such here]. Marilyn Irwin read from her small chapbook [see my review of such here]. She is doing the most amazing things with small spaces, and now has work forthcoming in New American Writing. Janice Tokar read work that wasn't in the issue, due to the fact that the issue included some of her visual pieces (she and Grant Wilkins discussed the possibility of performing said works, so keep an ear out). I've been increasingly impressed with the work she and Roland Prevost have been doing over the past couple of years, and am interested to see what the new year brings for both of them.

As always (being the very nature of an event between Christmas and New Year's), there were those able to make it, and others who weren't, with notable absences (due to travel and/or family) by Pearl Pirie, Sandra Ridley, Anita Dolman, Vivian Vavassis, Stephen Brockwell, Monty Reid, Cameron Anstee and Gwendolyn Guth. The night was long, but we managed to make it longer, with the five of us (above: Marilyn, Christine, Jason, Craig and myself) lingering on into late hours I don't want to think about. A great night, overall.

Looking forward to 2013, and already scheming a half dozen new publications for the first three months of the new year! Jordan Abel? Joshua Marue Wilkinson? Abby Paige? Deborah Poe? Helen Hajnoczky? Wanda O'Connor? Subscriptions are still available for 2013 (of course).