Blaurock Press

APRIL

2012-01-27T15:41:00.000-05:00

Authors, Publishers and Readers of Independent Literature, or APRIL, is a week-long festival in Seattle celebrating small press and independent literature.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1504283058/authors-publishers-and-readers-of-independent-lite?ref=spotlight

Robert Graves on John Milton

2012-01-24T22:59:00.001-05:00

We're a literary press so I offer the following piece of literary criticism. It's mischievous, interesting and controversial, maybe. Any thoughts?

(I suspect the horrible typos are the result of scanning the original print version. Nevertheless...)

"John Milton muddles through" by Robert Graves

From "the Book -- An Online Review at the New Republic" from the section "Lost and Found -- new looks at old books". Archives of May 27, 1957

PW

Welcome to Julie Blake, our new Marketing & New Media Manager

2012-01-12T21:36:00.000-05:00

Christian, Stan and I want to welcome Julie Blake to Blaurock Press. Julie is going to be our new and much needed "Marketing and New Media Manager."

Watch this space for news of our up-coming publication, and other changes to the Press.

News of Andrew Hunt's latest success

2011-11-18T18:28:00.011-05:00

Congratulations to Andrew Hunt for winning the 2011 Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery novel.

Blaurock Press published Andrew's novel "Dahlia Boyz" in 2010.

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2011/11/15/abqnewsseeker/2011-hillerman-prize-awarded.html

ABQJournal Online » 2011 Hillerman Prize Awarded

www.abqjournal.com

Roy Lewis "With you the moments of my life are fading," Starlight, Waterloo

2011-06-03T23:19:00.000-04:00

Photo from Imprint Online, June 3

Literary Matters from OPEN FILE, community powered news

2011-06-02T19:15:00.000-04:00

Literary event reveals local passion for books.

http://waterloo.openfile.ca/waterloo/file/2011/06/literary-event-reveals-local-passion-books

"With you the moments of my life are fading" by Roy Lewis

2011-05-31T09:42:00.000-04:00

Our new title, "With you the moments of my life are fading" by Roy Lewis

From the jacket blurb:

"In thirty-seven short movements of mixed verse, prose and dialogue, the poem chronicles the death of a love, and the ensuing struggles for understanding and dignity. A modern Psalm, an elegy or lamentation, it is steeped in the Bible, the ancient and modern classics, in rich West Indian-inflected cadences. Interlocutors hound the speaker, in the manner of Job’s friends. Bitter reminders of other days, of the extent of his loss, tempt him to self-pity, despair, violence. Then, unexpectedly, a provisional calm descends as the speaker, reflecting on the lives of his immigrant parents, learns something of grace and stoicism, survivorship and redemption."

Go to the website page for cover art and more information:

http://www.blaurockpress.com/2011/05/roy-lewis/

May 30 – Indie Lit at the Starlight

2011-05-26T22:20:00.000-04:00

May 30 – Indie Lit at the Starlight

On May 30, acclaimed independent Canadian presses Coach House Books, ECW Press, Goose Lane Editions and K-W's own Blaurock Press have organized multi-author book launch at the Starlight Lounge (47 King Street North). The semi-annual event, organized by Words Worth Books, brings some of the country’s best indie press authors to Waterloo, and is totally free!

The four publishers will be teaming up to present seven new books of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Indie Lit at the Starlight is your chance to hear the authors read from their new titles, hot off their respective presses, as well as pick up copies of their new books, get them signed and chat with the writers in person.

Featuring readings by:

Jonathan Bennett (Civil and Civic, ECW)
Tony Burgess (Idaho Winter, ECW)
Sean Dixon (The Many Revenges of Kip Flynn, Coach House)
Gerry Fostaty (As You Were: The Tragedy of Valcartier, Goose Lane)
Helen Guri (Match, Coach House)
Roy Lewis (With you the moments of my life are fading, Blaurock Press)
and Gillian Sze (The Anatomy of Clay, ECW)

Starlight Lounge, 47 King Street North
Waterloo, ON
Doors at 7 p.m.
Free
Book sales by Words Worth Books!

"Dahlia Boyz" by Andrew Hunt, a review

2011-05-18T12:59:00.000-04:00

"The horrific 1947 slaying of a Los Angeles woman named Elizabeth Short caused a news media sensation. And in the decades since, the so-called Black Dahlia case has been the inspiration for books, pop songs, movies and even video games. University of Waterloo history professor Andrew Hunt uses the continuing interest in the unsolved murder as a backdrop for this darkly funny novella, published by Blaurock Press of Kitchener. As the story opens, young Colin Ellis, owner of the struggling Bazooka Video & Media shop in Atlanta, is summoned by his Aunt Harriet who begs him to cross the country to track down his Uncle Gordon, the estranged younger brother of Colin’s father, Melvyn. Melvyn has Alzheimer’s disease and it’s distressing to Harriet that he is calling out for Gordon, an odd duck who is believed to be in Los Angeles leading guided tours of sites with connections to the Black Dahlia case. Colin’s cousin, Dwight Sperry, agrees to join the mission and together they fly west. Dwight’s a colourful character who speaks in an appropriately colourful way, but he more than meets his match when the two pals finally catch up to Uncle Gordon. Hunt, who was born in Calgary and raised in the United States, has an ear for the spoken word and the lively conversations that he has penned are an entertaining feature of this tale, which is a carefully crafted blend of scenes both funny and forlorn".— Jon Fear, May 14, Waterloo Region Record, Ontario, Canada

Jason Schneider's interview with Mike Downing. NightLife, May 2, 2011

2011-05-02T20:01:00.000-04:00

The launch of Molasses at the Church of the Good Shepherd in downtown Kitchener will certainly be a memorable affair, with most of the musicians who played on the album taking part, including a choir.

Michael Downing novel/CD release; Saturday, May 7, 7 p.m.; Church of the Good Shepherd, 116 Queen St. N., Kitchener; $15 or $12 in advance at Old Goat Books, Waterloo/$15; www.blaurockpress.com

“Downing, who was born in Trinidad, drew heavily from his family’s history for the framework of Molasses. Loosely explained, it follows the lives of two young women who each face an identity crisis when the man they both love, Molasses, suddenly leaves. “This idea of loss forcing someone into an external odyssey that really is an internal journey is a part of my personal story,” Downing says.
“As a child, the death of my grandmother when I was 12 precipitated my immigration to Canada where suddenly everything that I knew about life was thrown into question. This profoundly shaped the way I engage with the world. I think the journey of (the book’s main characters) Ophelia and Amanda Vrazda are personifications of my own quest to reconcile loss with identity.”
As a writer, Downing describes himself as a sensualist, trying to draw from all five senses. He is also keenly aware of the rhythmic potential of words. “The experience of reading Molasses, I’m told, is very confusing at times but rewarding if you pay close attention to the unfolding sensations. I’m very fond of Michael Ondaatje — another colonial island child-immigrant — Albert Camus and Kathy Acker. But I really think my love of jazz and punk rock music like Miles Davis and the Clash, and the hymns I learned on my grandmother’s lap in Trinidad, has had more influence on how I write.” — The Record, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Blaurock Press Book Reading, Mike Downing video

2011-02-10T14:22:00.000-05:00

Check this out!

Terrible news for Canadian book publishing

2011-02-09T11:30:00.000-05:00

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/demise-of-hb-fenn-latest-blow-to-canadian-publishing/article1894813/

Blaurock Press Book Reading Photos

2011-02-09T11:18:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all who came out and supported the Press and our authors, and Literature. The evening was a great success. These are some photos of the event. Probably more to follow.

Christian Snyder

Stan Johannesen

Andrew Hunt

Mike Downing and Back up

Mike Downing

Penny Winspur

"Molasses" by Antonio Michael Downing, a review

2011-01-31T10:29:00.001-05:00

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/salon/article/1374993

Book Reading

2011-01-27T09:08:00.000-05:00

We'd love you to join us for this event. The word is that there will be music!

"Molasses" by Antonio Michael Downing

2010-12-09T20:33:00.000-05:00

Yet more good news and just in time for Christmas. We are about to publish our latest book and the second this winter, "Molasses" by Mike Downing".

From the jacket blurb:

“My real name is Amanda Vrazda and I suppose I owe you a story.” Thus begins an extraordinary narrative. In passage after passage of virtuosic prose, from erotic fantasy to Bible thumping to John Donne, from urban Ontario to hillbilly Tennessee to French Quarter New Orleans, the metaphysical and psychological pressure on the narrator, and on the reader, mounts seamlessly towards an unforgettable and inevitable conclusion, the true identity of the shape-shifting Molasses.

See more:

Antonio Michael Downing

Molasses

ISBN 978-0-9864924-2-6
$20.00

You can also order your book here:
Order here

F.G. Bressani Literary Prize: Pictures of the ceremony

2010-12-05T23:45:00.000-05:00

We've just received pics from Michelle Alfano from the ceremony in Vancouver where she was awarded the F. G. Bressani Literary Prize for her book "Made up of Arias".

Many congrats again, Michelle. We're really happy for you, and for us! Follow her blog:

The (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends

notsoniceitaliangirls.blogspot.com

"Dahlia Boyz" by Andrew Hunt

2010-11-16T10:33:00.000-05:00

Hot off the press, Dahlia Boyz by Andrew Hunt

Colin and Dwight are on a mission to Los Angeles to find Uncle Skip, who
is obsessed by the unsolved 1947 Black Dahlia murder. “She wasn’t some
self-loathing skank who turned tricks for drugs and money,” Skip
admonishes them, “She was Elizabet...h Short. Born twenty-nine July in
nineteen and twenty-four in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and murdered—very,
very savagely—on, or around, the fifteenth of January, nineteen hundred
and forty-seven . . . I want you to show her the respect she deserves.”
A five-pound-burrito-challenge, a near-death curbing and one titty-bar
later, a kind of truth emerges. The Dahlia Boyz learn something about
respect and dignity.

See More:

Andrew Hunt | Blaurock Press

www.blaurockpress.com

ISBN 978-0-9864924-1-9 $20.00

You can also order your book here: Pandora Press

F.G. Bressani Literary Prize: Great News for Michelle Alfano and Blaurock

2010-11-03T10:13:00.000-04:00

Michelle Alfano's book “Made Up of Arias” has been awarded First prize in the 2010 Edition of the biennial F.G. Bressani Literary Prize for the category Short Fiction.

ICC - The Vancouver Italian Cultural Centre

Congratulations Michelle! The Blaurock Three.

CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS

2010-07-17T13:40:00.000-04:00

E-mail queries with attachments are welcome. No poetry, genre fiction, how-to books, children’s books. Creative non-fiction and hybrid or experimental forms of writing may be considered. The editors are especially interested in submissions of short novels, novellas and collections of stories.

Christian Snyder, Publisher and Editor

S.K.Johannesen, Senior Managing Editor

Penny Winspur, Editor and Web Inquiries

The Yellow Room by S.K. Johannesen

2010-04-26T11:00:00.000-04:00

Book Review by Andrew Hunt, The Record, Friday, April 23, 2010

"Johannesen’s latest, The Yellow Room, shines on all levels. Like his first two works, it is impressionist literature that explores the inner thoughts and experiences of its protagonist. In this case, the first-person narrator is Jørgen Mikkelsen, a man whose life has been all over the map: artist, anti-Nazi resistance fighter, skilled cabinetmaker and a man haunted by the ghosts of his past.

"The richness of the story is found in its memorable vignettes of the people Mikkelsen encounters in his journeys. The time he spends in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Denmark gives him plenty of opportunities to reflect on his past, and his memories are strikingly vivid. Those memories are the subject of his writings while holed up in a room that is “pale yellow. Almost white where the sun is reflected.”

and:

"...every sentence, every word, is beautifully rendered, like a painting."

and:

"The Yellow Room reminded me of E.L. Doctorow’s Homer and Langley.... The stories are quite different .... But the two books share a powerful narrative voice in which dialogue is spare, yet the descriptions are so vivid that you remember scenes long after you’ve put the book down."

Rounding out the year

2009-12-07T18:25:00.000-05:00

The press is approaching the fulfillment of a goal. In this our third year of operation we will have published five books, making eleven altogether in print. So far this year the very ambitious and gratifying project of publishing Karen Mulhallen's Acquainted With Absence: Selected Poems. Then two fine short novels, Eric Schachter's Dry Bones, and Jason Schneider's Philip Snowcroft's Finality. (Eric and Jason made us hugely proud with readings at our November Bookstravaganza in Waterloo, held jointly with Coach House and House of Anansi.) All of these books may be purchased of course through our Blaurockpress website (worth visiting anyway to admire Penny Winspur's elegant new design.)

The new books, due to appear within the next week or two, are Colin Fullerton's Like a Road, and S.K.Johannesen's The Yellow Room. Watch for the covers to appear on our website. In the meantime, here are the advance blurbs.

Like a Road, by Colin Fullerton

"My name is Jerry Carson." And so it begins. All Carson men leave home early, and between departure and return, between flight and reconciliation lies the journey. Trial by water and by fire, trials of betrayal, imprisonment, loneliness and loss. As in all fairy tales there are Helpers and Instructors: canny old men, carny freaks, a pair of hoboes, a miner, a shaman, a fortune-teller, Mary of the yoga class, Marie of the hot-air balloon. New Orleans, Hawaii, Alaska, Montana, Florida, by truck, boxcar, ship, horseback. The final trial, however, is back home in the trailer park, in a letter from the dead.

Colin Fullerton lives and writes in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This is his first novel.

The Yellow Room, by S.K.Johannesen

The final days of Jørgen Mikkelsen. Artist, drifter, reluctant Resistance fighter, a man with intolerable burdens of memory and regret. Alone with his thoughts, a curiously lucid madman imprisoned in an attic, he conjures out of his past, in Europe and in America, an unforgettable parade of characters. Dominating Jørgen's disjointed narrative, however, is the demanding, imperious, tragic figure of Anna Hauge, whose circuits ran up and down the seamy streets of Vesterbro in wartime Copenhagen.

S.K.Johannesen is editor of Blaurock Press

_______________________________________________

In other news, Blaurock Press have expanded to the point we feel the need for wider distribution and publicity of our books, and so we are exploring a new partnership to this end. We are grateful for the loyalty and patience of our authors and readers. Stay tuned.

Kitchener-Waterloo Bookstravaganza

2009-10-27T13:26:00.000-04:00

Event Date: November 2

Please join us for a celebration of new Canadian literature, happening in Waterloo on Monday, November 2nd. Toronto has its International Festival of Authors. Ottawa, Kingston and Eden Mills have their Writers' Festivals. And now, Kitchener-Waterloo has its BOOKSTRAVAGANZA!

Featuring 8 authors reading from their new books and representing 4 Canadian publishers, the Kitchener-Waterloo Bookstravaganza promises to be a one-stop-shop (or event) for all your literature needs, whether it be fables set in the Manhattan art world, poems about Quantum Theory and Detroit's sixties-era radical underground, novels about teenagers with three mothers and few options or books that reveal the afterlife is really just a romance publishing house. We hope to see you there!

The Kitchener-Waterloo Bookstravaganza!

with readings by
David Derry (Sentimental Exorcisms, short fiction, Coach House Books)
Damian Rogers (Paper Radio, poetry, ECW Press)
Eric Schachter (Dry Bones, novel, Blaurock Press)
Jason Schneider (Philip Snowcroft's Finality, novel, Blaurock Press)
Emily Schultz (Heaven is Small, novel, House of Anansi)
Cordelia Strube (Lemon, novel, Coach House Books)
Matthew Tierney (The Hayflick Limit, poetry Coach House Books)
Zoe Whittall (Holding Still for as Long as Possible, novel, House of Anansi)

Monday, November 2, 2009
Starlight Lounge, 47 King Street North
8 p.m.
Free!

Brought to you by Blaurock Press, Coach House Books, ECW Press and the House of Anansi.

Location:

Starlight Lounge

47 King Street North

Waterloo, ON

Canada

See map: Google Maps

Swimming to Fatima by Sylvia Markle-Craine

2009-10-27T12:46:00.000-04:00

Review from Off the Shelf (published by the Book Shelf, of Guelph), September/October 2008

"With some basic ingredients she cooks up just enough magic to make perfect little fables from what on some level amounts to an album of small town gossip. By inviting readers behind closed doors, she reveals worlds rich in character, the quirky opinions and pursuits of those characters, and the diner-friendly language they use to communicate with one another." " ....at the intersection of strangeness and character Markle-Craine writes her most descriptive, sensual sentences to help us tune into the smaller details of daily existence."

Made up of Arias by Michelle Alfano

2009-07-02T15:51:00.000-04:00

Julie Booker, Book review in Partners, Spring 2009 issue of Italian Chamber of Commerce Toronto magazine

"Made Up of Arias is all the voices of childhood, all the stories that allow a child's imagination to safely try on adult themes. Alfano is a keen observer, with an eye for detail and a gift for humour. ... This charming story is well worth reading."

Wave Mechanics: A Love Story by Ricardo L. Nirenberg

2009-06-30T19:50:00.000-04:00

JoSelle Vanderhooft a reviewer at PedestalMagazine.com has just reviewed this book.

She says:

"...Ricardo L. Nirenberg’s exquisite 2007 novel Wave Mechanics ... addresses the circumstances surrounding the creation/discovery of physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s wave equation in 1926, a discovery that substantially altered the landscape of Western physics and chemistry in the last century, along with Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle—which some readers may note are more or less mathematically identical. "

and:

"...Wave Mechanics is just one hell of a complicated, smart, sexy, and all-around good story."

and:

"It is a feast for the senses, a challenge for the mind, and a book I cannot praise enough. In fact, my only regret about this book is that it will not likely get the readership it deserves as a small press release. Those readers or audiences who enjoyed such speculative explorations of 20th Century science as Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen (a play about Heisenberg, his uncertainty principle, and Nazi Germany) will definitely want to order a copy of Nirenberg’s book, as will those who found Copenhagen lacking in passion and heart."

Headlong into the New Year

2009-01-14T19:20:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends,

Blaurock greeted the new year with verve and vigour with three manuscripts lined up for our Spring catalogue. We are excited about what is to come for Blaurock in 2009.

At the same time, we are reflecting back upon our first full year in existence and want to take the time to thank everyone who has helped make our little press a going concern. So, thank you to our authors, artists, designers, editors, and production staff. But most of all, thank you to you, our readers. May we enjoy each other further in the future.

Wishing everyone well,
Blaurock Press

Blaurock Press and Coach House Books Present

2008-11-17T14:39:00.000-05:00

Blaurock Press authors Michelle Alfano (Made Up of Arias), Michael Linhares (Autumn Hollow) and Sylvia Markle-Craine (Swimming to Fatima) share the stage with Coach House poets Kyle Buckley (The Laundromat Essay), Margaret Christakos (What Stirs) and Jeramy Dodds (Crabwise to the Hounds) in Waterloo on December 1. Take shelter from the cold of late autumn at Starlight for Waterloo's greatest Monday night literary review ever.

December 1, 2008
Starlight, 47 King Street North
Waterloo, ON

Doors at 7:00 p.m.

Made Up of Arias

2008-11-11T17:36:00.000-05:00

Lilla, Joey and Clara Pentangeli, their father Salvatore and their mercurial mother Seraphina live on Paradise Street behind a giant billboard, in a charmed world filled with operatic heroines. Seraphina idolizes Maria Callas. Between bouts of housework, she re-enacts Violetta’s death scene from La Traviata, dresses in a kimono like CioCioSan in Madama Butterfly, and concocts outrageous tales for her three enchanted children. She also reveals one or two secrets from her past. At last real-life tragedy overtakes the house on Paradise.

Michelle Alfano is a Toronto writer. Her short story “Opera” on which this novella is based, was a finalist for a Journey Prize anthology. Her fiction and non-fiction work has been widely published in Canada and in the U.S.

Edition Numbers

2008-10-02T14:02:00.000-04:00

If you look at the inside front cover of any Blaurock Press book you will find a number. That number is the edition number, unique to every book. So if you have, for example, number 120 on the inside cover, that book was the 120th book off of our press. Not earth shattering I know, but one more way that we set ourselves apart from the mass market.

Swimming to Fatima Book Launch

2008-09-23T08:17:00.000-04:00

It was a marvelous night at the eBar in Guelph for the launch of Swimming to Fatima. The place was packed, Sylvia was brilliant, sales were brisk and Dan and the staff at the eBar were wonderfully accommodating.

Blaurock Press would like to thank everyone who came out and everyone who worked behind the scene to make it happen.

Sylvia Markle-Craine and her son Nick Craine.

S. K. Johannesen and Penny Winspur

Christian Snyder and Penny

Dan, Sylvia, Christian, Penny and Stan

Swimming to Fatima Book Launch

2008-09-19T16:14:00.001-04:00

Blaurock Press and the eBar launch Sylvia Markle-Craine's "Swimming to Fatima" on Monday the 22nd of September @ 7:30. Admittance is free.

Autumn Hollow

2008-09-19T16:14:00.000-04:00

A first collection in the tradition of the strange, the weird, the uncanny tale. Set in a ghost- and ghoul-haunted woodland, located somewhere between horror and fantasy, in which past and present intertwine, these stories throb with recurring motifs or symbols—a horse, a dog, a weathervane, a wheelbarrow, a length of wire fence, snow, ice, a river, a coffin—with the eerie insistence of dreams, in a mad loop of no beginning, no ending and no escape.

Written by Michael Linhares

Blaurock Press

APRIL

Robert Graves on John Milton

Welcome to Julie Blake, our new Marketing & New Media Manager

News of Andrew Hunt's latest success

Congratulations to Andrew Hunt for winning the 2011 Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery novel. Blaurock Press published Andrew's novel "Dahlia Boyz" in 2010.http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2011/11/15/abqnewsseeker/2011-hillerman-prize-awarded.html

Roy Lewis "With you the moments of my life are fading," Starlight, Waterloo

Literary Matters from OPEN FILE, community powered news

"With you the moments of my life are fading" by Roy Lewis

May 30 – Indie Lit at the Starlight

"Dahlia Boyz" by Andrew Hunt, a review

Jason Schneider's interview with Mike Downing. NightLife, May 2, 2011

Blaurock Press Book Reading, Mike Downing video

Terrible news for Canadian book publishing

Blaurock Press Book Reading Photos

"Molasses" by Antonio Michael Downing, a review

Book Reading

"Molasses" by Antonio Michael Downing

Antonio Michael Downing

Molasses

F.G. Bressani Literary Prize: Pictures of the ceremony

We've just received pics from Michelle Alfano from the ceremony in Vancouver where she was awarded the F. G. Bressani Literary Prize for her book "Made up of Arias".

Many congrats again, Michelle. We're really happy for you, and for us! Follow her blog:

"Dahlia Boyz" by Andrew Hunt

Hot off the press, Dahlia Boyz by Andrew Hunt

You can also order your book here: Pandora Press

F.G. Bressani Literary Prize: Great News for Michelle Alfano and Blaurock

Michelle Alfano's book “Made Up of Arias” has been awarded First prize in the 2010 Edition of the biennial F.G. Bressani Literary Prize for the category Short Fiction.

CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS

The Yellow Room by S.K. Johannesen

Rounding out the year

Kitchener-Waterloo Bookstravaganza

Swimming to Fatima by Sylvia Markle-Craine

Made up of Arias by Michelle Alfano

Wave Mechanics: A Love Story by Ricardo L. Nirenberg

Headlong into the New Year

Blaurock Press and Coach House Books Present

Made Up of Arias

Edition Numbers

Swimming to Fatima Book Launch

Swimming to Fatima Book Launch

Autumn Hollow

Congratulations to Andrew Hunt for winning the 2011 Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery novel.

Blaurock Press published Andrew's novel "Dahlia Boyz" in 2010.

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2011/11/15/abqnewsseeker/2011-hillerman-prize-awarded.html