‘Ninja G on Q this morning

15 comments on “‘Ninja G on Q this morning”

1. Monica says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 10:07 am

   soooooooooo excited, George. Two of my favourite people on the radio at the same time.

2. cityofmushrooms says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

   Just heard it–good show, George! Very even handed.

3. Claire Cameron says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

   Missed this — hope it will be in the podcast?

4. Monica says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 2:25 pm

   Never having met The Great George in person, you sounded just as intelligent as i thought you would. Very nice, George.

5. B.H.Luft says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

   Great interview this morning. I’ve listened to Q since it’s inseption and beleive that
   Jian is one of the best in the business today. He is light but well informed, intellagent
   and has a wonderful sensability and air about him.
   I’m hopping he will be around for a long time to come.

   It was a very fair interview as usual.

   B.H. Luft

6. Lisa from Q says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

   The podcast will indeed be up later today at [see link above]
   (Judith Thompson was caught cabless in a Toronto snowstorm, so it’s GM solo.)
   Counter-arguments from an email from Di Brandt will be read on Q tomorrow.

7. Fish Fish says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 6:32 pm

   Are we in for more imperious finger pointing or will she address the actual issues this time? Tune in to find out, kids!

8. Lisa at Q says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 8:21 pm

   Update: reaction will be from Q listeners only, sorry for wrong info.

9. hysperia says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 8:58 pm

   Good chat Ninja G. I do think it’s more than regrettable that Jacob Scheier’s book of poetry has come in for this kind of publicity, but it does seem necessary – it’s just very much too bad that the Canada Council didn’t see fit to look at conflict issues before it came to this and they bear the responsibility. Scheier’s editor has said that this wouldn’t be happening if he hadn’t been a new young author. What do people think about that notion?

10. ed says:
    December 9th, 2008 at 8:39 am

    Surely Scheier has been beaten up enough over this. His career, and Di Brandt’s, are perhaps forever compromised. Discussion should now stick to the general, rather than the specific, to remediation rather than reproval. I think George is trying to move it in that direction Of all the suggestions I’ve heard the most practical is to simply increase the size of the juries and making that its members come from far and wide.

11. George says:
    December 9th, 2008 at 9:00 am

    Here’s the summary that appeared on the website late yesterday: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/12/08/gg-controversy.html

12. hysperia says:
    December 9th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

    Here’s a comment from the story George cited above:

    “Put it into perspective. The real issue, here, is that they gave a prize to a male poet, while poetry in Canada is the realm of the Feminist Mafia. Perhaps that’s where all the carping comes from.”

    Does that make you a girl, George?

13. Ian LeTourneau says:
    December 9th, 2008 at 10:07 pm

    Did anyone hear the show today (Dec 9)? There were supposed to be letters read. I missed it.

14. Brian Campbell says:
    December 10th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

    I just listened to the interview (it’s on the CBC website): George, you handled the issue in a very decent, even-handed way. If anything, though, you were a tad too gentle, saying the jury process needs to be “tweaked” rather than, as you asserted here, “fixed” because it was “obviously broken”, and “clean[ed] as best we can”. I can relate to your inclination to tailor your message to the medium: hot heads hardly prevail at the CBC. I’d still be inclined to use an adjective like “overhaul”.

    This is a great site, by the way. I now look at it pretty well every day.

15. George Keith Young says:
    December 23rd, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    I think if Canadian writers want to get their panties in a twist they should start challenging the insanely run CBC Literary Contest. They rake in over $100,000/year, pay their jurors more than the winners, and sucker hundreds of writers to spend $20 a pop with NO AUDITED STATEMENT after the contest.

    I think there should be not only jury accountability but we should be getting financial information.

    As well, since when was the Air Canada IN FLIGHT magazine a LITERARY MAGAZINE. Why not support a different existing Canadian literary magazine each year? I suspect that the quality of the stories would improve, as I believe there is censoring going on to fit round stories into that square In Flight magazine. But who knows, issues like this are never discussed.

    Also, what is it with these STUPID contests. We need venues being heavily supported so quality writing can find a home. I detest contests and after my experience with PAYING the CBC $40 last year, and being rejected by judges unknown in the first round (Yes, I know, it sounds like carping, but I sent these people the most amazing work (the short story is The Junk Shops of Montreal and was subsequently published in The Danforth Review: check it out and see if I AM carping)) I am never going to pay to have my work judged again. Fund venues, not contests!!!!

    It is remarkably difficult to find a place to publish in Canada anymore. It seems the spaces are taken by Creative Writing graduates, rather than writers. And where have the readers gone? Are they all only Potter fans, or middle aged women? So much for variety in Canadian literature if that is the case.

    What has happened to Canadian Literature?

Discuss