Taddle Creek Launch / Four Minutes

Hey there, sportsfans. Or, you know. Whatever you are. Below are details for the upcoming Taddle Creek launchxtravaganza. My story, Four Minutes, is in it. I read it in London and someone coughed awkwardly, so there you go.

Taddle Creek No. 30 launches Friday, June 14, at the Jet Fuel Coffee Shop, 519 Parliament Street, in beautiful downtown Cabbagetown. As is now the tradition, there will be a barbeque for meat eaters and non–meat eaters alike, and free beer, courtesy of the Good Beer Folks at Steam Whistle. As is also tradition, there will be readings, this time by the Good Literature Folks of Michael Lista, Andrew MacDonald, and the one-and-only Michelle Winters. Doors are at 8:30 p.m.; magazines are five dollars (cheap!).

The month of June also will see the Jet Fuel host the Second Taddle Creek Art Show: Cover Star, a retrospective of original cover photos from Taddle Creek’s first decade (1997–2007) in their original context, uncropped, uncoloured, un-type-ified, blown up really big. The show will run from June 1–30, with the launch party doubling as the show’s opening.

But back to that thirtieth issue: It’s jam-packed with new fiction and poetry by Dani Couture, Jim Johnstone, James Lindsay, Michael Lista, Andrew MacDonald, Emily Pohl-Weary, David Ross, Nick Thran, and Michelle Winters. Plus: Lorenz Peter’s ironically black-and-white comic about rainbows, Clive Thompson looks back at a hundred and thirty-five years of Acta Victoriana covers, Jay Somerset investigates the fate of the Toronto Reference Library’s film collection, Juliet Waters talks to Saleema Nawaz, and Dave Lapp makes you uncomfortable with the latest installment of People Around Here. With a cover by the Doug Wright Award–winning Nina Bunjevac!

How could you even think of missing such an awesome night? (If you don’t show up, how will you complain that the free beer and food aren’t to your liking?) Taddle Creek so hopes to see you on June 14th.

The drawing, which is so perfect it hurts my junk, is courtesy of Matthew Daley.

Random Thingies

I should really have more of a web presence. Apparently, if you google "Andrew MacDonald writer Toronto" my picture comes up a lot. In one of them I'm drinking. That's fun, right? In the next few months, I've got three stories coming out in three different publications:

1. "Four Minutes" in Taddle Creek

2. "Blindspots" in The Windsor Review: Best Writers Under 35

3. "Something More Vital Than Air" in the Pilot Pocket Book.

Not a lot of people who don't know me know this, but I'm probably leaving Canada soon, and before I do, I'm going to bombard the literary journal circuit with the stories I've been finishing / editing / sitting on for no good reason. Some of these are about . . .

1. Love in an oncology ward

2. A historical-noir set in Renaissance England, featuring two goons who have to reclaim a body (though it's actually about loving family members who disappoint you)

3. One about two guys who try to build a particle accelerator at their cottage (though it's actually about being the family member who disappoints everyone)

4. A woman who tries to find the perfect man for her terminally ill, recently-out-of-the-closet gay husband

5. This dude's relationship with a girl who wants to go to Ukraine to shoot the uncle who abused her when she was younger

6. How a prison librarian in 1980s Romania deals with HIV and a riot that breaks out (note: story features a character called the Peruvian Death Star)

Anyway. Hopefully someone will want to accept one or all of the above for publication.

xo a

Newsy Things

Time flies, don't it. This Thursday, Feb 21, I'll be reading at Fanshawe College, in good ol' London, Ontario (the real London, har har). It's kind of a weird thing - I'm going to be the only reader, and there's supposed to be a book signing, but since I don't have a book, I'll be hawking the Journey Prize Stories 22. So if you're around, come and throw tomatoes at me. I'll even let you pronounce it 'toe-maw-toe.' Anyway. Details . . .

Andrew MacDonald Fanshawe College Letters and Arts Society Reading Series February 21, 2013 Andrew MacDonald was a finalist for the Journey Prize and won the Western Magazine Award for Fiction. His writing has appeared in journals all over Canada and the United States, including The Fiddlehead, Event, Prism International, The Pinch, Riddle Fence, and has been collected in the anthologies The Journey Prize Stories 22: Canada’s Best Young Writers (McClelland & Stewart, 2010) and A Manner of Being: Writers on their Mentors (University of Tampa Press, 2013). He also won the inaugural Adam Penn Gilders Award for Best Graduate Creative Thesis from the University of Toronto (a Fanshawe College grad). Thursday, February 21, 2013, 2:00 p.m. Room D1060, London Campus. Reading: 2:00 to 2:50 p.m. Book sale and signing: 2:50 to 3:00 p.m. The public and book clubs are welcome to this free event. Metred visitors' parking on-site.

- - It's cute that they say 'the public and book clubs are welcome to this free event.' Also newsworthy: Taddle Creek graciously offered to publish my short story, "Four Minutes," in their next issue. Which is boss.

ACROBATICS

A story I wrote about Habit67 is in the first issue of Tightrope's literary magazine supplement thingy, The Acrobat. My story is the only story in it, but there are good poetries and reviews in it, too. And the website for it is weird and insect-related, which you might like. The Acrobats is the title of Mordecai Richler's first novel. Just, you know, FYI. Oh, a story I wrote got third place in the Glimmer Train fiction open contest. Also, just, fyi.

Pilot Book

Probably too soon to announce this, but I'm rogue like that. My story, "More Vital Than Air," about Jewish things and an astronaut and Ms. Ukraine, got picked up by one of my favourite literary publications in the whole country, the Pilot Pocket Book. You're probably wondering why this thing is so amazing. Aside from being a sassy little thing you can keep in your back pocket, you mean? Peep the mission statement! Go on, I say! Peep!

Pilot Illustrated Literary Magazine is a Toronto-based periodical with a mandate to print primarily new storytellers, poets, and artists from Canada and beyond. Pilot has an expressly aesthetic approach. Each story and poem is illustrated by professional artists and illustrators. Each volume includes portfolio pieces from our contributors in beautifully rendered black and white. Pilot is more than just a publisher. It is Pilot’s contention that the work of artists and writers improves when supported by a strong community. We feel that you will enjoy the Pilot Portrait Pages, which replaces the traditional bio section with well-crafted written and pictorial portraits.

I'm hoping this portrait thing will make my bust look bigger. All for now. -a

From the reading.

Me at the reading last night, saying something about the C word that isn't cancer.

Reading: FHP Launch Party

I'll be doing a reading this Monday at The Peacock, where my friend Katie Jordan will be launching her debut collection of poetry. Rumour has it I'll be the only fiction reader there. Anyway, the details live on facebook: FHP Launch Party: Commentary on a Non-Existent Self-Portrait Deets:

Come celebrate the launch of Katie Jordon's debut chapbook with Frog Hollow Press, Commentary on a Non-Existent Self-Portrait. Cover art and illustrations by Hayden Menzies. The evening will be hosted by The Peacok at 365 King West (basement). Doors at 7:30pm. Readings by Claire Caldwell, Andrew MacDonald, Sarah Pinder and Katie Jordon at 8:30pm. Limited copies will be available for purchase. They can also be ordered through the press. http://www.froghollowpress.com/catalogue.html#Commentary Free snacks and $4.50 bar rail. Hope to see you there!

I don`t like readings all that much, but every so often I say yes and do them. So. Get it while it`s hot. It being listening to me read something.