Don Quixote!
I have already read it 28 times, in English, French (once), and Spanish. Every time I read it, I dig a little bit deeper and discover a little bit more about the art of narrative and the craft of fiction.
I always assume that everyone has seen the classic cult film Harold and Maude, featuring iconic performances by Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort and a fabulous soundtrack by the young Cat Stevens. But when I mention the film now to my students, often no one in the room has even heard of the movie, let alone watched it. It is a unique and unparalleled love story that is very much of its time and place (California at the start of the 70s—Vietnam, ecology, weed, all manner of cultural and social revolution) but is very
Excerpt of "What’s yer fadder’s name?" translated by Sophie M. Lavoie from Joannie Thomas's "La fille à Colette à Robert à John"
HURRAY! IT’S THE SUMMER POETRY ISSUE! The summer poetry issue has always been an event for me. Even before I was editor of The Fiddlehead, I looked forward to its arrival. The section titles, drawn from lines within the poems, always made the issue feel like an occasion, showed how closely the editors were reading the work featured, and I got to read some of the most engaging, reorienting, challenging and/or delightful poetry written that year. I still feel this sense of occasion, and I rub imaginary hands together in my mind as I anticipate what readers will find here.
Phil Hall’s new book, The Ash Bell, undoes me. His work makes me read below the below and out the corners of my eyes. Drops me down under understanding, echos of words like backlit other words waving their fronds. I read the word “worship" and see “warship." It's blunt, raw, funny and true. Cumulative. I do not understand, I stand under, happily.
