Category: Uncategorized

John Robert Colombo’s letter for Tracing the True North

John Robert Colombo
42 Dell Park Avenue / Toronto M6B 2T6 / Canada
Phone 1 (416) 782 6853
E-mail [email protected]
Webpage www.colombo.ca

19 May 2021

Dear Anna Yin and Terry Barker:

Many thanks are due to the two of you for drawing my attention to Tracking the True North, the reading of which gave me great pleasure, that of reminding me of what I already knew and of introducing me to what was new to me.

SureWay Press has produced an agreeably informative text and a volume that has the distinguishing characteristics of being two essays and indeed two texts in one – a detailed and exact narrative about conceptions about the “lost past” and a wealth of commentaries on ever-present (albeit hard-to-find) source materials.

I am sorry you did not notice in passing Colombo’s All Time Great Canadian Quotations (1994), which has hundreds of chronologically arranged quotations, the first of which begins in 1,000 B.C. (from the Vedas) and the last to A.D. 1995 with Judith Merril embracing the vision of the Voyager Interstellar Record then approaching outer space. There is also is the “Polar World / Tropical Valley” section of the final thirty pages of Mysterious Canada (1988) which covers some of your material from highly imaginative and conceptual perspectives including the Theosophical one.

The author has done an amazing amount of reading and has bravely embraced the imaginative and intuitive dimensions of human desire, illusion, knowledge, history, hope, and achievement. It puts “Canadian” history in the widest of possible perspectives. I hope Tracking the True North sets the compasses of young readers spinning and awakens their sense that history is a story that may indeed be true.

Congratulations,

JRC

 

Living Your Dream Life interview videos -Anna Yin by Iris He

Anna Yin (1)The Flowering Mind Summit Founder Iris He invited Anna Yin to share her poems and her poetry journey at the Living Your Dream Life Summit (Jan 11- Jan 20 free event) to help others to find their passion and fulfil their dream.

 

Here is a short video summarizing the interviews in English.  Thanks the League of Canadian Poets for funding.

 You also can watch longer interviews at  the Living Your Dream Life Summit 
Preview YouTube video Anna Yin Interview EN    (40 minutes)

Frank Jiang’s poetry collection in Chinese/把时光绕进诗里——江南诗选 (SureWay Press, 2021)

江南/Frank Jiang,  作者/Author
把时光绕进诗里——江南诗选
Winding Time into Poetry/Frank Jiang
First book edition Feb, 2021
ISBN 978-0-9739148-4-9 (book)
 
Editor/编辑：Anna Yin (星子安娜)
Cover Designer/封面设计：Oliver Yang (杨鸿)

                          

 

《Mirrors and Windows/镜子与窗户》will be published on Oct 1, 2021

 

Mirrors and Windows is a selection of representative work of 56 Canadian, American and Chinese modern poets with translation by Anna Yin. It includes 36 accomplished English-language poets’ work with Anna’s Chinese translation, and 20 skilled Chinese-language poets’ work with Anna’s English translation. It provides various styles and topics from the work of a wide range of ages of modern poets of East and West.

Thank  Guernica Editions for scheduling the book for fall 2021 launch on Oct. 1 2021

In 2020, Anna Yin hosted Poetry in Translation /East Meets West (4+1) with four contributors: George Elliott Clarke, Molly Peacock, Alice Major and A. F. Moritz.

Here are videos for these events. Stay tune for more in 2021.

 

 

Group Session: Poetry In Translation/East Meets West/ Oct 3

The Series of online Poetry in Translation seminars has been successful, the final one was a group session which was on Oct 3, afternoon 3:00-4:30 with all four featured poets and Michael Mirolla, Guernica Editions joining us.

  • Guest poets reading and group discussion: 3:00-4:00PM
  • Open Mic / 4:00-4:30pm

Thank you all join us. Thank the League of Canadian Poets for funding.
Co-host by The East and West Learning Club

We are also happy to share Review and Feedback

 

Sept 22: the Art Bar Poetry Series (Frances Boyle and Anna Yin)

The Art Bar Poetry Series Feature  Frances Boyle and Anna Yin
host: Mike Lipsius
https://www.facebook.com/groups/artbarpoetry
on Sept 22, from 20:00-21:30
Reading online (facebook)
Anna Yin was Mississauga’s Inaugural Poet Laureate (2015-2017) and has authored five collections of poetry. Her poems/translations have appeared at ARC Poetry, New York Times, China Daily, CBC Radio, World Journal etc. Anna won the 2005 Ted Plantos Memorial Award, two MARTYs, two scholarships from West Chester University Poetry Conference, three grants from OAC and 2013 Professional Achievement Award from CPAC. She performed her poetry on Parliament Hill and has been featured at 2015 Austin International Poetry Festival and 2017 National poetry month project etc. She teaches Poetry Alive at schools, colleges and libraries. Her website: annapoetry.com
Frances Boyle is the author of two poetry books, most recently This White Nest (Quattro Books, 2019). She has also written Seeking Shade, a short story collection (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2020) and Tower, a novella (Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2018) as well as several chapbooks. Her writing has appeared throughout North America and the U.K. including recent and forthcoming work in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, Blackbird, Prairie Fire, Event, Dreich, Feral¸ Parentheses Journal and Cypress. Frances served on the editorial board of Arc Poetry Magazine for over ten years, and now writes reviews for that journal and for Canthius: feminism and literary arts. She lives in Ottawa. Visit www.francesboyle.com and follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @francesboyle19.

George Elliott Clarke – Review Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac by Anna Yin

Thank Live Encounters publishing George Elliott Clarke – Review Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac by Anna Yin

Anna Yin is a startling dreamer. Poems that seem Romantic veer into Surrealism or Symbolism. Tutored in Sylvia Plath and William Carlos Williams, among many other poets (mainly American and Canadian), Yin issues poems that are nightmare dreams or dreamy nightmares: Here’s a world where the natural becomes unnatural, the unnatural natural: “the police-monkey escorts a well-suited rat / followed by his cloned brothers…” Some poems are parables, such as the story of a man- a father-who refuses to leave his home, even while it and others are being reduced to rubble: “I received a copy of the photo in the local newspaper. / My father looked so small on the top of the ruins. / It was titled, ‘The Last Temple.’”
In another poem, the speaker says, “You are tired of his / molding, over and over, / thrashing, nailing / into you.” There’s a fierce feminism here, reinforced by readings of Dot Livesay and Dame Atwood. Though it’s tricky following Yin’s wicked, impressionistic juxtapositions, her painterly imagery is deliciously lustrous.
Yin is endlessly perspicacious, endlessly compelling: “The autumn gusts feel warm / as if it’s spring…. / last night by accident I cut my finger… / slowly, on the rice paper, red roses grew.” She brings to Canadian poetry a sense of classicism and aestheticism and minimalism, all nicely mixed up with sensuality.
Yin’s bravura poems – so exquisite and extraordinary – merit bravo upon bravo.

Publisher’s website:

Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac

The 4th Poet Laureate of Toronto (2012-15) and the 7th Parliamentary/Canadian Poet Laureate (2016-17), George Elliott Clarke is a revered artist in song, drama, fiction, screenplay, essays, and poetry. Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1960, Clarke was educated at the University of Waterloo, Dalhousie University, and Queen’s University. Clarke is also a pioneering scholar of African-Canadian literature. A professor of English at the University of Toronto, Clarke has taught at Duke, McGill, the University of British Columbia, and Harvard. He holds eight honorary doctorates, plus appointments to the Order of Nova Scotia and the Order of Canada at the rank of Officer. His recognitions include the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellows Prize, the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry, the National Magazine Gold Award for Poetry, the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction, the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry (US), and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award. Photo Credit of George Elliott Clarke : Harvard University.

Anna Yin was Mississauga’s Inaugural Poet Laureate (2015-2017) and has authored five collections of poetry. Her poems/translations have appeared at ARC Poetry, New York Times, China Daily, CBC Radio, World Journal etc. Anna won the 2005 Ted Plantos Memorial Award, two MARTYs, two scholarships from West Chester University Poetry Conference, three grants from OAC and 2013 Professional Achievement Award from CPAC. She performed her poetry on Parliament Hill and has been featured at 2015 Austin International Poetry Festival and 2017 National poetry month project etc. She teaches Poetry Alive at schools, colleges and libraries. Her website: http://www.annapoetry.com/

© George Elliott Clarke/Anna Yin