In Defense of Burning

A Celebration of Daryl Hine

Roseanne Carrara — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:02:02 +0000

Along with a host of fabulous poets, I’ll be reading from the work of Daryl Hine to celebrate the posthumous release of his book, A Reliquary and Other Poems. See you at Ben McNally Books, 366 Bay Street, Tomorrow Evening, May 14, 6 pm!

Zeppelin, poems

Roseanne Carrara — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:03:49 +0000

My husband, Blaise Moritz, just launched his second book of poems, Zeppelin (Nightwood Editions, 2013).

You can purchase Zeppelin now! In Toronto, Book City is highly recommended! Online: direct from Harbour Publishing or via Indigo,Amazon (Canada), Amazon (U.S), Barns and Noble.

And, check out Blaise’s Website: http://www.blaisemoritz.com where you can find all of the details and follow along as he blogs about the individual poems!

Reading: Pivot at the Press Club, April 10

Roseanne Carrara — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:04:34 +0000

I’ll be reading poetry and perhaps a bit from the novel at the Pivot Reading Series.
Also featured are Jessica Hiemstra and Christine McNair.

Pivot Reading Series
Wednesday, April, 10, 2013, 8:00 p.m.
The Press Club
850 Dundas St. W.
Toronto, ON
M6J 1V5

Hope to see you there!

For more info, check out the Pivot Readings website.

Rapid Progress in Advent?

Roseanne Carrara — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 19:38:05 +0000

Advent is always a particularly busy time in our house. And, for the past few years, I haven’t felt much like a writer at this time. Over on The Lunchbox Season, I’ll have a post up daily, as I keep a virtual Advent Calendar for the kids. As in years past, we do something together every day. And, while there are days in which the activity takes mere minutes to perform, things usually take a few hours to complete. Then, there’s the additional energy of actually posting it online. If you were wondering, in any case, why, as an artist and professional writer, I even bother to post that kind of stuff, there are two simple answers: first, I do it for family, far away, so that they can stay informed with what the kids are up to; second, I do it as a way to keep all of my recipes and project ideas in one easily accessible place. I have no other idea how to format the sites as anything other than a how-to or DIY style journal or scrapbook. This is the best I can do with record keeping. I ardently disike the terms “mommy blog” and “Martha Stewart.” So, in a way, it is a challenge to produce things that come close in style and substance, especially as they take time away from other writing projects, and as they make me appear, at times, like some sort of smug afficionado of the domestic sphere. But, I don’t really have time to be concerned about those tag lines. And, I’m learning to enjoy these very public exhibitions for what they mean only to me. I have to say, by far, my favourite days, thus far, in Advent, have been our Sundays, when we’ve been reading and illustrating The Winter’s Tale together (See our latest Sunday post here.)

This year, to make things easier on myself, I plotted the whole Advent calendar out far ahead of time, pre-writing my online journal posts, all or in part, so that I have more time to devote to working on my own projects during the day. Strangely, over the past few weeks, which, along with March Break and our Summer of Funner holdays, tend to be the busiest time of year, I’ve written more than I have over the past several months. That is, to say, things have been going well with The Week in Radio. I”m finding myself in a rapid writing phase – which is rare. The sex, (I mean the sex in the book) is finally good, and the first big night is “over.” I’ve moved on to the easier romance of the section based on Die Walkure, and what I see as the good humour of the early phases of Siegfried, at least as they translate, strangely enough, into the lives of my fictional, radio-centric families. These are people whom I know, I have to say, rather intimately, by now. I’ve also been trying to write a few poems a week as my own particular Advent challenge. And, so far, so good. There’s one about “Toast” that I now commonly refer to as “the anarchist poem.” I’ll be looking forward to reading some of this at the Pivot at the Press Club reading series in late January…I’ll post more about that event in weeks to come.

In any case, who knew?

Summer Progress on The Week in Radio

Roseanne Carrara — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 16:06:53 +0000

This summer I am taking a break from new fiction writing, per se, to concentrate on editing the first 1/4 of the novel-in-prgress, The Week in Radio (see Fresh Coals for a bit of a precis). I’m happy to report that things are going smoothly on the editing front, even or especially with the big, difficult-to-write ”sex scene” I’ve finally tackled. (I’ve got an article about editing this admist the unfortunate “fifty shades phenomenon” planned for the fall.) This is going to be a long-ish book (the first section’s by far the longest), and it has required a lot of research, namely reading about, watching, and listening to Wagner… So, it’s nice to be deep into an “editing” stage, even though the manuscript itself is not complete. This type of work jives well with my summer hours, which, of course, take on a different shape. I’m home with the kids at least three full days a week! Feel free to check out the completely different feel and contents of summeroffunner.com for all the family highlights. I’m toying with the idea of posting a snippet of the novel here on-line. It would be interesting to have your feedback….I’ll certainly drop a few more hints as to plot and characterization in the upcoming months.

This site’s going to have a bit of an overhaul, as well, for fall, with more frequent updates on the novel-in-progress and with new poems, too. So stay tuned!
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HEAR/HEAR Reading Tonight!

Roseanne Carrara — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:23:48 +0000

HEAR/HEAR is a bi-monthly reading series featuring writers from the Now Hear This! program. NHT! connects professional writers with students in the Toronto Catholic School Board for 10-week writing workshops. The best of this student work gets published in a swanky annual journal. Last spring, I was lucky enough to spend my time with the talented women at Notre Dame Catholic school in the East End. And, I just learned that I’ll be joining them again this Fall.

HEAR/HEAR: Come celebrate with the writers of Now Hear This!

TONIGHT!! ~~Tomorrow Night!~~ TONIGHT!!

October 12, 2011

I’ll be reading with Colin Frizzel and Elizabeth de Mariaffi

The Supermarket, 268 Augusta Ave (1/2 block south of College)

6:30 pm

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Word on the Street: Taking A Trip Down Literacy Lane With S.W.A.T. & N.H.T.

Roseanne Carrara — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:41:59 +0000

Meet me at Toronto’s Word on the Street this Sunday, September, 25, from 3:30-4:oo p.m.

I’ll be on Literacy Lane with the folks from Now Hear This!

This Sunday, you’ll find me at Word on the Street with the coordinators of the Now Hear This program. We’ll be holding court on Literacy Lane, spreading the word about the S.W.A.T. program. S.W.A.T. brings professional writers into high school classrooms around the G.T.A. for a series of creative writing workshops. The program culminates in the production of a swank literary annual published by the good people of Descant magazine, featuring poetry, fiction, and personal essays written by students in the program. This spring, I was delighted to teach for the S.W.A.T. program at Notre Dame High School in Toronto’s East End. I’ll be checking in to the N.H.T. booth between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m to talk it up! Come check out our journals and enter our book raffle!

See you there!

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Quick Links for Mobile Users:
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The Lunchbox Season

Roseanne Carrara — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:39:12 +0000

The summer holidays are over, which means that I have time to work on the remainder of my debut novel, The Week in Radio, as well as the poems for my second collection, Spectral Evidence! I’m looking forward to the readings I will participate in this fall as well as the launches of some fabulous new fall books, especially Carleton Wilson’s The Material Sublime! I’ll be sure to send updates and invites as we get closer to these events.

This also marks a change in venue for my more domestic entanglements…I’ve moved over from the Summer of Funner site to The Lunchbox Season! This will be a less frequent yet no less exhilerating look at what I’m up to with the kids after the school bell rings. Have no doubt, the science experimenting, comic book creation, canning, cooking, song writing and public protests will continue throughout the year. Be sure to check it out!
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Quick Links for Mobile Users:
In Defense of Burning: Afire : Books Burnt : Fresh Coals : Hot Type : Warm Hands : Summer of Funner : The Lunchbox Season

A New Blog Entry: Library T-Shirts and a Ford Protest Song

Roseanne Carrara — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:31:46 +0000

I don’t usually cross-post with my Summer of Funner 2011 blog, but last night’s entry, Library T-Shirts and a Ford Protest Song deserves some extra mention here. The kids and I wrote an imitation of the famous “Charlie on the M.T.A. Song” to address our concerns about Mayor Rob Ford’s proposed ”Culture Cuts.” Be sure to take a look!

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Quick Links for Mobile Users:
In Defense of Burning: Afire : Books Burnt : Fresh Coals : Hot Type : Warm Hands : Summer of Funner 2011

Bedtime Stories Gone Bad?

Roseanne Carrara — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:18:04 +0000

I have a guest blog entry up today at 4 Mothers, 1 Blog ! Be sure to check it out!

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Quick Links for Mobile Users:
In Defense of Burning: Afire : Books Burnt : Fresh Coals : Hot Type : Warm Hands : Summer of Funner 2011