Letter to TDR
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
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