E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

In Canada the next fortnight: I will be reading from, and launching, two new collections from the past two years, which complement each other, England Is Mine (Punchy Books, Montreal, 2011) and When All My Disappointments Came At Once (Tightrope Books, Toronto, 2012).  I haven't been to Canada since 2007, so I look forward to catching up with friends, and meeting new poets and poetry readers.  Dates below. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28 MONTREAL, QUEBEC PILOT READING SERIES 8 pm, Sparrow, Blvd. St Laurent THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1 KINGSTON, ONTARIO 7 pm, Novel Idea Bookstore SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4 HAMILTON, ONTARIO 7.30 pm, Lit Live Reading Series Homegrown Hamilton 27 King Williams Street MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5 TORONTO, ONTARIO 7.30 pm, Rower's Pub Reading Series Victory Cafe 581 Markham Street TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 TORONTO, ONTARIO TIGHTROPE BOOKS LAUNCH 6 pm, Ben McNally Booksellers FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9 MONTREAL, QUEBEC BEST CANADIAN POETRY LAUNCH 7.30 pm, Argo ...

This is an open invitation to a launch reading-reception, at Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London, to be held 7 pm, Thursday, August 16th, 2012. This will be for my 8th poetry collection, When All My Disappointments Came At Once , from Tightrope Books (Toronto, 2012). I will be joined by three other Canadian poets, Ian Burgham, Catherine Graham , and Griffin-winner A.F. Moritz , who will each read with me. It is vital to know the names of those attending in advance, so if you are able to attend, please do rsvp me no later than July 16.  toddswift at clara dot co dot uk . I look forward to hearing from you soon. kind regards Todd

This is an excerpt from an essay taken from Best Canadian Essays 2009 , edited by Alex Boyd and Carmine Starnino .  The 2010 anthology will be out soon, edited by Boyd and Kamal Al-Solaylee .  Worth investing in, I'd say. Get A Real Job In Grade 8, I joined an extracurricular social studies club called Project Business, designed to help young people learn about supply and demand economics. I signed up because Krista Copper was in it. She had brown feathered hair, eyes like a stunned deer, and wore a corduroy jacket buttoned right up to her chin, which gave her a look of impenetrability that I found alluring. We were to make peanut brittle and sell it at lunch hour, calculating the cost of the peanuts, sugar, molasses and labour time, and fixing a price that would recoup our costs or, even better, make a profit. The club was divided into three competing groups. I made sure I was in Krista’s, and she set the strategy. The key, she said, was the quality of our peanut brit...