The president and vice-president DO NOT travel together. I think we should have limits on the number of Ottawa literati allowed to attend any given Writer’s Fest event. Some sort of quota system. I don’t know. Maybe they could arrange it as part of fire codes: poet capacity. I teased some people (Kate Hunt?) that we’d have been totally snookered if something happened in that room (Salon A) yesterday (during the Rob Winger, Stephen Brockwell, John Pass reading). I think we should consider an Ottawa poets’ natural disaster strategy – you know, just to be on the safe side.

I say that because one shock-and-awe attack yesterday from, say, Cornwall, and our infrastructure would be pretty much shot, between Sean and Neil Wilson (Ottawa International Writers’ Festival); rob mclennan and Emily Falvey (Factory Reading Series); Dave O’Meara (Plan 99); Dean Steadman (Tree Reading Series); Anita Lahey (Arc Magazine); Amanda and Charles Earl (Bywords); Max Middle (AB Reading Series); Pearl Pirie and John MacDonald (web stalwarts); James Moran (event organizer, including tonight’s Transgress); poets Michelle Desbarats (Last Child to Come Inside), Shane Rhodes (The Bindery, Holding Pattern, The Wireless Room), Monty Reid (author of a dozen books, including the Archibald-Lampman Award winning Disappointment Island, Flat Side, Crawlspace: New and Selected Poems, Dog Sleeps: Irritated Texts, The Last Great Dinosaurs, These Lawns and Karst Means Stone), Sandra Ridley (Diana Brebner award honorable mention, 2006), Sean Moreland (John Newlove Award winner 2007), Rolond Provost (John Newlove Award winner 2006), Rona Shaffran (John Newlove Award finalist 2006), Jacqueline Lawrence (author of an in/words collection whose name I can’t recall), Anita Dolman (Scalpel, tea and shot glass); U of O Professor Chris Jennings; documentary film maker Josh Massey (Heard of Poets); Writer’s Fest staple and freelance editor Carmel Purkis; cabaret singer Glenn Nuotio…

...anyway, I'm super excited about Transgress tonight, with Ivan E Coyote, Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco, Joey Comeau and Mikiki. See y'all there.