Subject: Shane Neilson's review of I.V. Lounge Reader 

Date: December 10, 2001

Dear TDR:

I would like to point out some inaccuracies found in Shane Neilson’s review of The I.V. Lounge Reader which appears on your website. As the editor of this anthology, I feel it is important to bring to light the truth behind allegations brought against it, or me.

First of all, because the obvious bulk of the contributors to this anthology are Torontonian, the reviewer accuses it of suffering from “centre-of-the-worldishness,” that is the belief that many non-Torontonians have that all people from Toronto are incapable of looking beyond their own city’s limits. Allow me to remind the gentle readers that The I.V. Lounge Reader is indeed based on the I.V. Lounge Reading Series, which is a small grassroots project located in downtown Toronto. Since the series actually happens there, and since it is run without any funds whatsoever, writers cannot be flown in from across the country for the mere sake of being geographically inclusive....though I do try, when given enough advance notice, to accommodate touring authors who wish to participate. Even so, the bulk of the readers are nonetheless local. It is not because I believe that Toronto is the centre of the world that individuals hailing from that city make up the bulk of the I.V. Lounge alumni, in fact I have no such delusion about TO, but rather the Toronto-heavy roster is the result of insufficient teleportation technology which would otherwise allow more writers from across Canada (or the World even) to come to the series, or indeed, for the series to come to them.

Now that we’re thinking globally but acting locally, I’d like to address my next concern. The reviewer accuses me of having an agenda, though he never states what this agenda might actually be, it has something to do with George Bowering (from BC) having more pages of poetry in the anthology than John Stiles (from NS, but now living in Toronto). The reviewer should not presume to know the process by which these works were selected. The simple truth is this: John Stiles only gave me permission to use three poems (even after I asked him for more), whereas George Bowering submitted a suite that amounted to ten pages of verse. The quantity of work any one author has contributed to the anthology is largely the result of the authors themselves deciding what they wanted to publish, which is a rather contributor-friendly way to edit an anthology, I think. It was never my agenda to repress the voice of rookie poet John Stiles in order to make room for the established Bowering. In fact, as poetry editor of Insomniac Press, I fully intend to publish a collection by Stiles in the fall of 2002. The collection in question is about Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, from which the poet hails, and quite a ways away, I understand, from downtown Toronto’s cool urban hipsterism. Which isn’t to say the Annapolis Valley isn’t cool. John Stiles himself assured me it is very cool. And I believe him, being from rural Canada myself, and hope to go there someday.

Regards,

Paul Vereersch