Events

Hot femme readings and performances!

w/ Nicky Click, Meliza Banales, and Luna Allison!

Saturday, October 24, 2009
8:30pm - 10:00pm
Venus Envy Ottawa,
320 Lisgar

An evening of cakes and ale and entertaining wordsmithery with the three sole and founding members of the SHLS.

I'll be launching a new chapbook.

PWYC

This was just about the perfect reading for me. About 25 or so people showed up - lots of familiar faces, a couple of surprises. For instance, I hadn't told my across the street neighbours that I wrote porn.

Colin and Jennifer's stuff was great - Jennifer's story made me laugh out loud. I was going to read the new zine as well as part of a story, but it was getting pretty stuffy in the Raw, and I'd picked last reader. I read just the zine, and people seemed to like it. We rose nearly $100 for the Venus Envy Bursary Fund.

Having music between readers is such a good idea that I'm going to steal it.

I read a couple of old pieces: "Writers Block" & the Hey Baby about sodomy. Then I read the end of a new story called Welcome to the Jungle.

A nice crowd, lots of friends, a couple new faces too, though. My favourite piece of Ben's was the Argosy, a retelling of the Odyssey through the eye of Odysseus' dog. Lisa absolutely knocked my socks off. All the praise she's getting for her collection is well-deserved.

I read a selection of Weekly doses after an excerpt of what will hopefully be something book length. Not much happens in it, but afterwards, Amanda Earl came up to me and said "All that detail! I loved it!" and that felt very good to hear.

It's the venus envy 8th anniversary party!

Starring Sasha Van Bon Bon

w/
The Puff Sisters
Megan Butcher
Sexual Overtones
and more...

Hosted by Excedera

Music by CPI and Bear Witness

March 6, 2009
Doors 9pm, show 10pm
Club Saw
67 Nicholas

$10, $7 in advance at Venus Envy

All proceeds to the Venus Envy Bursary Fund

Sponsored by:

Ivan E. Coyote is one of Canada's most acclaimed storytellers; her first three collections were insightful, deeply personal stories about gender, identity, and community. Ivan's most recent book, Bow Grip (2006), was her first novel; it won the ReLit Award, was shortlisted for the Ferro-Grumley Fiction Prize in the US, and was named a Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association.

With The Slow Fix, Ivan returns to her short story roots in a collection that is disarming, warm, and funny while at the same time subverting our pre-conceived notions of gender roles. In "By Any Other Name," Ivan gets into some serious male bonding with her Uncle Rob; in "The Curse?" a cousin's stepdaughter helps her to overcome her lifelong dread of buying tampons; and in the title story, she does her best to fix what's wrong in the world by telling the homophobe in the barber's seat next to hers to shut up.

Ivan excels at finding the small yet significant truths in our everyday gestures and interactions. By doing so, she helps us to embrace not what makes us women or men, but human beings.

With local favourite Megan Butcher.

Thursday November 20
Doors at 7:45, limited space
Venus Envy, 320 Lisgar

Limited space indeed! Ivan packed 'em in - the doors were closed at 7:50, full to capacity, and my date had to bang on the door and demand to be let in. I read my Kissing Kegger story, and am happy to report that people laughed in all the right places.

Ivan was his usual charming self, and told 4 or 5 engaging stories. We could have listened to him for hours longer.

The Dating Life Cycle is a veritable minefield of possible missteps and misunderstandings. The Ms Manners and Etiquette will take you gently by hand and illuminate the way to your assigned seat squarely in the glorious action section. And just in case things go awry whilst you are here, they will also show you how to make your exit with grace and dignity.

Ms Matilda Manners

Ms Manners has spent the bulk of her career studying at the International School of Extreme Politeness in Berne, Switzerland. In 2002, she was awarded her PhD of Mannerly Arts. Her doctoral thesis "The Tea Service as an Ongoing Paradigm of Modern Moral Disarray" is seen as one of the school's groundbreaking texts.

Ms Edwina Etiquette

For the past 20 years, Ms Etiquette has dedicated her life to helping those less mannerly than herself. After completing her studies at the Institute for Painstaking Politeness in Vienna, she has filled the position of Gentle Instructress at the Emily Post Memorial Halfway House for the Formerly Rude. She also volunteers as an "Excuse Me, But Please Would You Stop That" ambassador on the OC Transpo system.

Great fun! We looked fabulous, and the dozen or so people there laughed very hard on more than one occasion. There was some grumbling about the flow chart, which quite possibly was less self-explanatory than I gave it credit for. Still, grand times.

Sat May 3 2008

w/
Chandra Mayor
Jennifer Whiteford

Join us for the launch of Chandra's new book.

Venus Envy
320 Lisgar Ave
8:00pm - 10:00pm

What a great evening. More than 40 people showed up, and as always in Ottawa, listened attentively and were generally charming.

Chandra was an unexpected pleasure. I hadn't had time to dip into her books, so had no idea really what to expect. The first two selections she read were crazy bleak, but the punchline to the last selection was a perfect counterbalance.

Sun Oct 7 2007

w/
Jonathan Messinger
Jennifer Whiteford

Straight from Chicago - no boring stories, and also, there's booze.

The Avant Garde Bar
135 1/2 Besserer St.
8:00pm - 11:00pm

A small crowd, mostly family and friends. It was Thanksgiving. I read a version of the "She's So Heavy" series. My mom was there. She almost cried while I was on stage, but we talked about that period in my life for the first time in years.