wild words

If you’re in town, and interested, I’m speaking at Wild Words: 2005 Alberta Centennial Literary Celebration tomorrow at the lovely hour of 8:30 AM in the MacEwan Hall Ballroom (3rd Floor) at the University of Calgary. I’m on a panel with Jay Gamble, Carmen Derkson and Derek Beaulieu. I’ll be talking about carnival in Hiromi Goto’s Chorus of Mushrooms.

It’s part of my diss. I’m interested in strategies of subject construction– this one looks at the inversion of the daylight world in order to produce a new kind of subaltern, more empowered than the protagonists of much realist fiction. It’s full of fun stuff– gender-bending, cannibalism, seaweed paste, beer and an old lady rides bulls under the moniker “The Purple Mask” at the Calgary Stampede. Yahoo!