Press Release: August 21, 2005
Award-winning Toronto author Emily Pohl-Weary visits Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to read from her sexy and spirited novel, A Girl Like Sugar, about a slacker girl who’s haunted by her dead rock star boyfriend, and her upcoming poetry collection, Iron-on Constellations.
Sunday, September 11, 4 pm
at Venus Envy
1598 Barrington St, 902-422-0004
Halifax, Nova Scotia
with poet Sandra Alland!
Monday, September 12, 7:30 pm
at The Biscuit Eater, 16 Orchard St., 902-624-2665
Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia
with poet Sandra Alland!
Wednesday, September 14, 8 pm
at Attic Owl Bookshop
115 Queen Street, 506-855-4913.
Moncton, New Brunswick
All events are free.
Sponsored by the Canada Council and the Writer’s Union of Canada.
During September and October, look for copies of A Girl Like Sugar in your local bookstore’s Take a Joy Read, Canada! display.
Praise for A Girl Like Sugar
“Crisp, intelligent and alert, like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer directed by John Waters.” – author Michael Turner
“Racy enough to keep you turning the pages, but witty enough to legitimize it.” – Fashion 18
“Pohl-Weary [captures] what it feels like to figure out who you are in a world steered by consumerism, social standards and impossible expectations.” – Shameless Magazine
“An absolutely delightful and devastating account of one young woman’s rage against the machine.” – Popmatters.com
“Wonderfully explicit” and “quietly redemptive.” – The Globe and Mail
Advance Praise for Iron-on Constellations
“Poetry rarely does anything for me, but I like these. They’re sad, and hopeful, and refuse the easy slide into numbness.” – Jim Munroe, author of An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil
“These sensual poems have everything to do with the physical. Ugliness and pain are expressed in terms of a body slammed against the world, whether it’s the world of machines or the natural world or some mundane thing made magic by juxtaposition.” – Ken Sparling, author of Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall
About Emily Pohl-Weary
Emily Pohl-Weary has been called “an unconventional and modern-day hero to many young female writers” (Halifax Chronicle-Herald), “the new, sleazy, Judy Blume” (Winnipeg Uniter), and “mistress of the empty girls” (Broken Pencil).
Her debut collection of poetry, Iron-on Constellations, is launching in fall 2005. Over the past year and a half, she has toured across North America with her novel, A Girl Like Sugar, and her critically acclaimed anthology, Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks. In 2002, she co-authored Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril, a biography of her grandmother’s life. It won a Hugo Award and was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award.
For six years, she has edited Kiss Machine magazine, a conga line of culture (www.kissmachine.org). She’s currently writing a four-part series of comics called Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, with artist Willow Dawson, about two girls who find adventure on the high seas. Her young adult mystery novel, the first of a series, is forthcoming from Annick Press in 2006.
More info about Emily Pohl-Weary and online photos
About Sandra Alland
Writer and performer Sandra Alland reads from her first full-length poetry collection, Proof of a Tongue, a book that eloquently establishes a new voice in Canadian poetry.
Sandra Alland is a writer, performer, photographer, bookseller, and micro press publisher. Her work has been published and presented in Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Spain, and the United States. Some highlights include Literary Review of Canada, Rampike, This Magazine, The Common Sky: Canadian Writers Against the War (Three Squares Press), Red Light: Superheroes, Saints, and Sluts (Arsenal Pulp Press), Harbourfront, The Scream, The Hillside Festival, Word on the Street, and the performance installation “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” (with Anna Camilleri and Karen Augustine, Mayworks 2005).
In 2002-2003, Sandra was one of ten Canadians selected for an international exchange with Mexico (sponsored by FONCA and the Banff Centre). Recently, she was curator of the literary components of The Salvador Allende Arts Festival for Peace, Artscape’s Queen West Art Crawl, and Canada’s first ever Silent Slam.
Sandra’s press, sandraslittlebookshop, has published four chapbooks, including the acclaimed multilingual and multi-authored Broken Telephone/teléfono descompuesto/au téléphone. This fall, Book Television/Bravo is featuring Sandra for the pilot of their new series, The Heart of a Poet.
Praise for Alland’s Proof of a Tongue
“Sophiscated…this poet is climbing to the top one stanza at a time.” – Young People’s Press
“Alland’s poems will move through you like a memory; sensual and startling.” – Anna Camilleri
“A striking first collection of poetry.” – Word
“A collection of sophisticated, free verse poetry about everything from love to war.” – Kane County Chronicle
“Laid back enough to draw the reader in, with profound thoughts to keep you glued to the page…Alland writes poems that linger in the mind.” – Gaiety.ca Magazine
For press copies or further information about Proof of a Tongue or A Girl Like Sugar, contact Ann Decter or Zoe Whittall at McGilligan Books: info@mcgilliganbooks.com, 416-538-0945 or 416-706-4686.
For press copies or further information about Iron-on Constellations, contact Halli Villegas at Tightrope Books: miss.halli@sympatico.ca
