Flash Fiction wins NZ Society of Authors prize!

I won second prize in the New Zealand Society of Authors queer flash fiction writing competition! Yay! for my piece 'black and white' (see above) photo ( : ) which locates me in my family in the prose memoir i am working on 'a girl called brian'.  I am currently working on this book in the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive with Betsy Warland, and will be working on it also at The Micheal King Writers Centre in Auckland.

The winning entries will be published in Express Newspaper Aotearoa/NZ, and I get to pick up my prize Feb 11 at an event, where New Zealand Society of Authors President Tony Simpson, himself a gay non-fiction writer,  will be in conversation with two recent award-winning queer writers. Julie Helean’s first novel, Open Accounts of an Honesty Box, was published in 2010. Earlier this year, she won the coveted Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award. David Lyndon Brown is the outgoing Sargeson Fellow, finishing a book of short stories while in residence at the Michael King Writers’ Centre in Devonport.

This coincides with my interdisciplinary Retrospective Exhibition in Wellington March 5 -10, 2013, Re-Tern:   Hokinga Mahara, curated by Elizabeth Kerekere and Treason Seditio. More about that soon! To which I will be traveling thanks to a travel grant from Canada Council for the Arts, Inter-Arts section.

2012 an Inviting Year!

( * many of the hyperlinks lead to blogposts and photo albums of the events ( : enjoy!)

2012 began with my being invited by Director Betsy Warland, along with a handful of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University alumni from different years, to speak to the 2012 students on their orientation day. About our experience with TWS, writing careers goals and plans for the future. That was fun!

In March and June I completed my elective paper for th TWS course, by attending Betsy Warland’s SFU classes The Reluctant Memoirist and Memoir of Inquiry. Both I found very liberating, and developed a better understanding of creative-nonfiction. If you don’t know things because you weren’t there, writing from another characters point of view, were too young, or weren’t born etc, use your imagination! This led me on some wild and interesting tangents!

June also saw the launch of chapbooks by members of The Independents (The Poetry and Lyric Prose TWS alumni 2011) at a wonderful reading we had at (the alas now closed) Cafe Montmartre, with Jen Currin being a great MC! A manuscript for my poetry chapbook Transit of Venus – about love, public transit, and life transitions, was short-listed for the Doire Press prize. A good time was had by all, lots of photos here.

I participated in 6 anthology book launches and/or readings throughout the year. Including in January an Exhibition of Caregivers Creativity. Leaf Press The Wild Weathers chocolatey love poem anthology launch in February at Historic Joy Kogawa House. March the lively Enpipe Line book launch of opposition to the Endbridge oil pipeline proposal. August I was invited by Poetry is Dead to represent them at a reading for MagScence on Main on a hot summer evening. The the standing room only Queer Issue of Poetry is Dead Magazine in November with a lively interactive launch. I was invited by curator Aileen Penner to participate in The Science of Poetry Vol. 1. An amazing collaboration between 5 poets and 5 scientists, resulting in 10 new poems and beautiful limited edition chapbook. A barely standing room only reading at which my working partner and I, Adrienne Drobnies read our work to the accompaniment of an audio mashup I designed, photos from my Views from Cancer Town series, and an installation of illuminated body casts used to immobilize people during radiation ‘treatment’.

 On the audio-visual front I was invited to present my water photography based new media installations aqwai, tiarika and going coastal in the July mixed media Homecoming Exhibition at Gibsons Public Art Gallery. In August I completed the video poems Jest or Malice and Freedom, which have been languishing on my hard drive for a number of years, without music and titles, and posted them online!

September I was invited to fly to Canmore, Alberta  as one of two professional artists representing the province of BC, at the BeyondAccess2012 gathering of 14 artists from across Canada who work inside and outside disability and arts and culture. Had a great time amongst my peers, worked really hard, met great artists across disciplines. We resolved to form DACAC – Disability Arts and Culture Canada. In preparation for this event and next 2013’s Retrospective Exhibition in NZ ( see below) I created a 90 slide power point presentation tracing my development across artistic disciplines in the past 20 + years. Using the themes of my arts practice: - collaboration, cross-cultural, mentorship, and interdisciplinary. It is interesting to observe your own work in that way and see how things and people come back around in different forms years later. 

The year was completed by my graduating from SFU, along with about 10 of my fellow 2011 graduates, our certificates presented by new TWS Director Wayde Compton. I especially enjoyed the speech by writer and publisher Mary Schendlinger whose very informative SFU course Getting Published: From Manuscript to Book I recently completed. She talked about the need for both amateurs and professionals in writing, the 10, 000 hours it takes to become a good writer, the importance to language to children’s development, and some very humorous asides!

2013 is already shaping up to be a good year! I applied to and was accepted into Betsy Warlands VMI program - Vancouver Manuscript Intensive. I will be working with her in the Creative Nonfiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Mixed-genre group, (with fellow TWS Poetry and Lyric Prose alumni Yaana Dancer). Yay! On a manuscript of 33 plus auto-biographical stories in a girl called brian, (because my life is far stranger than anything I could make up!) Below an excerpt from a flash fiction opening premise. I am very much looking forward to shaping this manuscript with Betsy, especially given her current Oscar of Between project.

  “Black and White: A photo you will find when you are twenty-five years old. Two older women with babies on their knees’, everyone is laughing. It will defi(n)e everything you have been told. This is what you need to know: you will grow into something beautiful. Something in-between. When you are six your older sister will call this something, Brian. Even though your birth certificate says you are a girl.....”

I have been commissioned to complete a number of Video Poems for Stage Left’s 2013 performance festivals. I will likely work on 2-3 of my Views from Cancer Town video poems.

 The ultimate event for me in 2013, which I have been working on all this year in terms of logistics, funding, press, with curators Elizabeth Kerekere and Treason Seditio is Re-Tern: Hokinga Mahara – A Meg Torwl Retrospective. In association with the New Zealand Fringe Festival 2013 Wellington, and LAGANZ present an interdisciplinary exhibition of my video, new media, performance, photography, audio, writing. Thistle Hall Gallery March 5-10. It’s going to be a great experience, I hope to attend! I also received support with this project from the NZ Mix and Mash competition. Through which I applied for and received a Mentor for 2012, Elizabeth Vaneveld, ED of  The Big Idea, Aotearoa/NZ’s online arts community 

Let me know how your 2012 went and your plans for 2013?

Dec 14, 2013 Poetry and Science Reading Vol 1.

    

Meg Torwl photo. Views from Cancer Town series.

What happens when you have 5 scientists, and 5 poets, and ask them to write poems together? Creative chaos! Come and see! I have been having so much fun working on this project with my writing partner genome scientist and accomplished poet Adrienne Drobnies! We may collaborate in the future, so many possibilities! The project was facilitated by Aileen Penner, scientists, poet, environmental communications specialist. There will be a limited edition handmade chapbooks available at the event with a poem by each of the 10 scientists and poets, as well a a collaboratively written poem. We each wrote poems in response to discussion we had, and we will read them together verse for verse, they comment on each other in an interesting way. Adrienne Drobnies will read her new poem day in the lab, night in the cemetery, and I will be reading a new poem enviro-mental, part of a suite of poems I am working on in my Views from Cancer Town series. (see a sample poem below) We plan an audio mashup, a installation with body casts, and photos from my Views from Cancer Town series - photos taken from West 10th, and West Broadway. (see sample photo above) My poem enviro-mental explores health and the environment, references, Rachel Carson, and the movies Karate Kid, and Eat, Pray, Love! There is humor involved! Come check it out! It's gonna be one rockin evening!   Facebook Invite:

It was a GREEEAAAT evening! Checkout photos of the event on Facebook: Integrial Media

     Gallery 1965 Main St, Vancouver, BC. Wheelchair Accessible

    6:30pm doors open.

    7:30 pm – Welcome by Vancouver Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau

    7:35 pm – Introduction By Aileen Penner – Curator

    7:40 pm – Readings by first two poet-scientist pairings

stem cell researcher + poet & novelist
              Ben Paylor + Leanne Dunic

landscape architect + Métis/Icelandic poet
    Kelty McKinnon + Jonina Kirton

    * 10 min break *

    8:10 pm- Readings by last three poet-scientist pairings

          chemist-poet + poet & artist
Adrienne Drobnies + Meg Torwl

biochemist researcher + poet & personal coach
       (Pamela  Lincez) + Olive Dempsey

microbiologist + poet & anthropologist
Lynne Quarmby + Carol Shillibeer

  8:40 – Reception with DJ and Cash Bar

POEM: VIEWS FROM CANCER TOWN: 1

you think you know

the view from cancer town

fluorescent lit rooms

surgical scars

bald chemo heads

bodies

lie on a slab

people

live in cancer town

there are cigarette butts

and hand-knitted blankets

autumn leaves

sunshine

snow

the view from cancer town

 - the best in the city

north shore mountains

with their snow and wind turbine

burrard inlet

anchored oil tankers

compassed

by the tide. 

Meg Torwl.

D.A.C.A.C. - Disability Arts and Culture Association of Canada

The national BeyondAccess 2012 gathering in Canmore, Alberta was amazing! A week with professional colleagues with disabilities working across a range of artistic disciplines. Bliss! Lots of hard work. Learnt a lot. Great connections. The gathering was convened and facilitated by Stage-Left Artistic Director Michele Decottignies, along with Alan Shain. (Stage Left commissioned my solo interdisciplinary spoken word show That's so gay! in 2009).

In the mornings we talked about the 40 year history of disability arts and culture practice in Canada, worked towards establishing common ground, and aesthetics.

In the afternoons, one or two people or groups each took turns to present our visual, media, dance, or theatre work. Our artistic decision making processes, and where possible practical workshops, like integrated dance. I presented on media with filmmaker and academic Danielle Peers.

The other participant from the province of BC was Dr. Kirsty Johnston who wrote the groundbreaking book Stage Turns - Canadian Disability Theatre. How Canadian theatre artists are challenging traditional theatre practices and re-imagining disability on stage.

You can see the list of participants online here. Along with the purpose of the event.

On Thursday night we each screened 10 minutes of work, or excerpts from our work in film, dance or theatre. That was a highlight for me to see the stunning professional solo and collaborative work we all do. I went back to my roots and operated as the projectionist as we sourced work from the web, DVD’s and our laptop computers. 

In the evenings, we often shared a meal in one of the lovely hotel suites we were accommodated in, got to know one another, networked and discussed possible future collaborations.

At the conclusion of the gathering we resolved to form D.A.C.A.C. - Disability Arts and Culture Association of Canada. Which will be launched publicly with an online presence in the spring of 2013.

I realized what a rare experience it was for me to have my knowledge, skills, and artistic practice in disability arts valued. Although of course I also work in the arts community generally. Having at times worked in mainstream media organizations as the lone ‘disability voice’ can be a very wearing and at times combative experience when working for policy change to be inclusive of artists with disabilities.

We talked about the importance of sharing our knowledge and skills as senior artists in our local, national, and international communities. To that end upon my return I joined the Board if Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture - who have been trying to entice me to join for some time. I worked for Kickstart 2009- 2010 on their festivals, workshops, Audio Description Program, (Vocal Eye formerly EarSighted) and BC Regional Inclusive Arts Network (BRIAN). Joining the Kickstart Board continues my commitment to a vibrant inclusive arts community in BC and providing professional development opportunities to artists.

Congratulations to Alan Shain who post conference was appointed to the position of Disability Arts Officer with the Canada Council for the Arts, in Ottawa.

We spent a few hours one afternoon in an improvisational dance workshop outside interacting with a standing stone sculpture by local artist Lucie Bause. I volunteered to document the gathering as much as possible in photographs and video, so you can see photos of dance, the gathering participants, and beautiful Canmore on my Integrial Media facebook page. I was particularly impressed by the collaborative dance work and choreography IDANCE, Propeller Dance, and Frank Hull are doing. You can see a short improvised dance playing with the Albertan wind on the BeyondAccess2012 Youtube channel.

With the rare free time we had I made the most of the great paved bike paths and zoomed along in my chairiot enjoying the fresh air, mountain and river views. 

The location of Canmore was stunning, with mountains all around us. We were treated to great hospitality, snow, rain, sunshine -  and the northern lights to welcome us on our first night.

I survived the long intense work days by the knowledge that come 10pm I could go to the hot tub and soak away the aches and pains of sitting all day, and quiet the whirling mind.

I wrote this poem while I was there which sums up the experience for me.

BeyondAccess

we scan the room

ensuring

everyone has

what they need

to be present

adjustments are made

smiles

across the table

eager to meet

know

share food

belong

disrobing

in the hotel

hot pool

to skin

and bone

bikini clad

spa patrons

chat

amongst themselves

  avert their eyes

in my dreams

we take over

the empty at night

kids water fountain

play area

behind the blue tiled wall

dancing

swirling circles

around one another

splashing

filming

laughing.

Poetry is Dead Magazine - Queer Issue November 2012

I was humbled and honoured to have my poem 'close encounters' included in the great Queer Issue of Poetry is Dead Magazine, guest edited by the wonderful Alex Leslie, who blogs about the issue. It has great art work by Alexandra Sebag, and Sarah Leavitt in a poetic collaboration with Jen Currin, which Sarah Leavitt Blogs about.

All in all it was a great experience!  I represented Poetry is Dead at a Magscene on Main reading in August ‘Write the body’ with Adrienne Gruber and others.

Gave an online interview on the Poetry is Dead website in September, along with many of the other contributors to the Queer Issue, on the topic of failure as success. Queers Fail Better: ‘In her book ‘The Queer Art of Failure’ Judith Halberstam offers alternative ways of knowing and becoming. Instead of valuing the conventional paths of belonging, achievement and completion, she thinks about and champions the ways of “failure”: losing your way, giving in, being excluded, forgetting, awkwardness, coming apart. Not just rejecting the “normal,” Halberstam shows alternatives to success as paths that have always been there, moving away from mastery and coherence. In this series of Q&A’s with contributors to our upcoming Queer issue, we play with these ideas. When we aren’t trying to finish first (or finish anything) where do we end up?’

The Queer Issue of Poetry is Dead Magazine launch and reading November 14^th 2012 at Project Space Gallery went really well! An appreciative crowd packed the space for a lively multimedia presentation! Check out the photos I took of the event here, or the photos Rachel Bauman took here.

I decided to make people laugh more than cry for my reading, so turned to some older work, and took a stroll through the misunderstandings that can happen on androgyny lane. Got some great feedback besides the laughter. Fellow contributor Amber Dawn said I have perfect timing. It’s true I do like to really look at the audience and play with the energy in the room, hold them in the palm of your hand, and then release them. Fellow writer Adrienne Gruber said her partner is not always fond of poetry readings but is still raving about my performance at the Magscene on Main event. Good to know! I do like to think I can make anyone like poetry! I really enjoyed the other contributors readings too! It was a great night to be a part of.

Get your issue of Poetry is Dead here

or at Chapters or other bookstores