WASN'T THAT A PARTY! NEW ORPHIC REVIEW TURNS SIXTEEN

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Last night lovers of the written word crowded into Oxygen Art Centre in Nelson to celebrate an auspicious occasion. Ernest Hekkanen has been publishing the New Orphic Review for sixteen years! He does this without any grant assistance from the government (and just as well, as the pool that was once grant assistance for literary ventures dries up a little more every year). 

I was featured poet in the NOR in the spring 2012 issue. I blogged about it here.

There was, of course, a book table.

There was champagne and the clinking of glasses.

Ernest, his partner and editor of the NOR, Margrith Schraner, and Tom Wayman.

There's my Ted chatting with Tom Wayman, in whose creative writing class we met in 1991. And today, as it happens, is our sixteenth wedding anniversary. Best class I ever took!

Margrith talked about the biography she wrote, "The Reluctant Author: the Life and Literature of Ernest Hekkanen".

And then the readings began. What a great audience! I read some poems.

Ross Klatte read from the beginning of his new novel. 

Jane Byers read some of her wonderful poetry.

Sandra Hartline read a short story.

Art Joyce looking on.

Anne Champagne, another NOR contributor. 

What a wonderfully enthusiastic audience!

Intermission meant schmoozing, champagne, and a delicious cake. 

Another clutch of folk talking words.

And another!

Ernest and Margrith sharing a laugh.

A masked Art Joyce in front of one of Ernest's paintings that was also one of the NOR's covers.

The man of the evening, who made it all possible.

If there'd been an award for most innovative presentation last night it would have gone to Susan Andrews Grace, who celebrated the occasion by reading from page sixteen in each of her five books!  

Here, Tom Wayman illustrates a head-scratching passage from a very funny story that's in the current issue of the NOR.

And here we are, readers of the evening, all proud to have been published in the New Orphic Review.

Back Row l-r: Linda Crosfield, Susan Andrews Grace, Sandra Hartline, Jane Byers, Linda Hunter, Ross Klatte

Front Row l-r: Ernest Hekkanen, Margrith Schraner, Art Joyce 

Where it all happens, and hopefully will continue to happen for the next sixteen years!

If you're looking for a home for some of your words, you might want to check it out. Short stories by NOR authors have twice been shortlisted for the Journey Prize Anthology. 

Submissions to the New Orphic Review may be sent here:

The New Orphic Review

706 Mill Street 

Nelson, B.C.   

V1L 4S5 

Canada

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