Edmonton
poet, fiction writer, reviewer, editor, and micro-press publisher Mark McCawley
has died.
[A 2008 photo of
McCawley (in the background) from my Factory (West) Reading Series; see the post it came from here] An enthusiast for what
he referred to as “transgressive, urban post-realist writing,” he founded
Greensleeve Editions in 1988, a press that produced over fifty chapbook titles,
including works by writers such as Janice Williamson, Daniel Jones, Neil
Scotten, Ken Rivard, Richard Stevenson, Andrew Thompson, sd edwards, Faye
Francis, Michael C. McPherson, Giovanni Testa, Beth Jankola, Shannon Sampert,
alan demeule, James Thurgood, Carolyn Zonailo and Stephen Morrissey. According to
one bio, “From 1986 to 1993, Mark taught poetry and fiction as a creative
writing instructor for Continuing Education (now Metro College).” Since 1993,
he’d edited and published the litzine, Urban Graffiti, a print journal that shifted to online publication in May, 2011
with issue 11. Well-known as both curmudgeon and contrarian, McCawley railed
against monotony in literary writing and culture, and was a fierce and loyal
supporter of a number of writers across Canada, from Amanda Earl, Stuart Ross, Liz Worth and Thea Bowering to Matthew Firth, Catherine Owen and Julie McArthur, among so many, many others, whether through Greensleeve Editions and Urban Graffiti,
through numerous interviews he’d conducted, and reviews posted via his Fresh Raw Cuts. His dedication to the late Daniel Jones, for example, meant that he worked to keep Jones’ work in
constant print, as Nathaniel G. Moore revealed in an article for Poetry is Dead:
Yet other work still remains in limited edition
quantities. Mark McCawley, editor of Edmonton’s Greensleeve Editions and the
underground literary journal Urban Graffiti, published Jones just before his
death and kept the letters the late writer sent him. “I published a chapbook of
Jones’, The Job After The One Before,
in 1990. Ever since, I have endeavored to keep the chapbook in print,
re-printing whenever necessary.”
His
own fiction and poetry appeared widely in Canada in magazines and in the
anthologies Burning Ambitions: The Anthology of Short-Shorts, edited by Debbie James (Toronto ON: Rush Hour
Revisions, 1998) and Grunt & Groan: The New Fiction Anthology of Work and Sex, edited by Matthew Firth and Max
Maccari (Toronto ON: Boheme Press, 2002). He himself was the author of nearly a
dozen chapbooks of poetry and fiction, including Fragile Harvest - Fragile Lives (Greensleeve Editions, 1988), The Deadman’s Dance (Greensleeve
Editions, 1989), Last Minute Instructions
(Toronto: Unfinished Monument Press, 1989), Voices
from earth: selected poems/ with R. Kurt (Calgary: Prairie Journal Press,
1990), Scars and Other Signatures : prose
poems (Greensleeve Editions, 1991), Thorns
Without the Rose: fictions & prose poems (Greensleeve Editions, 1991), Stories for People with Brief Attention
Spans : fictions (Greensleeve Editions, 1992), Just Another Asshole : short stories (Greensleeve Editions, 1994), Collateral Damage (Montreal: Coracle
Press, 2008) and Sick Lazy Fuck
(Ottawa: Black Bile Press, 2008). As Black Bile Press editor/publisher Matthew
Firth, a long-time friend of McCawley, once said of him: “His own writing is
straight-shooting, pulls no punches, honest and drenched in authentic
experience.”
Far
more active over the past decade or so than he’d been during the early 2000s,
he blogged regularly for Sensitive Skin,
posted music podcasts (here and here), provided essential critical and personal support to numerous
writers, regularly started arguments and kicked against the pricks. I know he
had a series of ongoing, and rather serious, health issues, some of which were due to his two-decade battle with chronic pain (and a medical system that often managed to make things worse) stemming from an accident.
During
my year as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta (2007-8), we hung
out a couple of times, and he even participated in a reading through my Edmonton reading series, The Factory (West) Reading Series. He was gruff, grumpy and engaged, and
even startled that anyone wished to speak to him about writing, having been
dismissed enough times that he’d begun to expect it. During our first coffee afternoon
at The Garneau Pub [see the post I wrote after we hung out here], he complained
of being kicked out of the English Department at the University of Alberta
during his student days. When I pointed out that, since I was picking up the
tab, technically that same department was buying his coffee, he lightened, and
laughed. We’d kept in touch pretty regularly since, trading emails and a
variety of links, and he was kind enough to review a number of above/ground
press items, as well as conduct the occasional interview for ottawater (including one he did with Christine McNair)
I
shall miss his complaints, criticisms and contributions, all of which were offered with enthusiasm.
He
is survived by his son, Devin McCawley
Some
further Mark McCawley links worth paying attention to:
