A-R International: Anne Sorbie
Anne Sorbie
Authors-Readers International
Photo credit: Monique de St. Croix
Anne Sorbie is an author, editor, and creative writing instructor.
Her fiction, poetry, essays and book reviews have been published by The University of Alberta Press, Frontenac House, House of Blue Skies, and Thistledown Press; in magazines and journals such as Alberta Views, Geist, and Other Voices; and online with Brick Books, CBC Canada Writes, Geist, and Wax Poetry and Art.
Her first collection of poetry, Falling Backwards Into Mirrors, was released by Inanna Publications in October 2019.
As a past editor of Dandelion Magazine and as publisher at Skyview Press, Anne has combined her love of visual and written art to create both periodicals and chapbooks.
This year, along with writer, Heidi Grogan, Anne will co-edit the (M)othering Anthology for which you can find more information on her website.
Anne has lived in Calgary since 1973 when her parents immigrated there from Cumbernauld (near Glasgow) Scotland.
Anne Sorbie first approached me for help with promoting her books on the advice of Calgary poet and professor, Tom Wayman. As well as my assistance with her promotion, Anne was also a big help to me when it came to the literary salons I was, at that time, preparing to organize. Anne jumped in and offered to create and publish, under her imprint of Skyview Press, limited quantities of chapbooks for each salon that could then be sold. The proceeds of those sales all went to the authors who had participated in each salon. Anne also hosted one of those salons at her own home. Her enthusiasm for this series and for the promotion they generated for all the participating authors was greatly appreciated! I still have all five chapbooks she published, and most of the authors signed their contributions in my copies. What a terrific keepsake! And here they are:
Falling Backwards Into Mirrors is a book that merges poetry and memoir. At the same time, it is a collection grounded in the body, naked and spare, wounded and wonderful. Through vivid, sensual images that evoke feeling, the speaker embraces the naked architecture of her own flesh and bones. In moments of give and take, this healing journey echoes the kind of deep explorations once undertaken by Adrienne Rich and Sylvia Plath. After a fall from a boat, water, distortions of light, and the blur of close reflection inspire the speaker to question the consistency of her own surface. She is hamstrung, literally and figuratively. She can’t stand unsupported. She can’t walk. She can’t sit. While supine for long stretches of time, her mirror becomes a vehicle for metaphor, for seeing, for reflecting, and refracting. Falling Backwards into Mirrors begins with a sudden trauma and moves forward as the surface of the speaker’s skin becomes like vellum, and landscape and love, family and community are grafted to hope.
What Anne is doing now …
In addition to Falling Backwards Into Mirrors, I published a chapbook called Songbook for a Poet this year. The backstory is on my website: 26 short poems, 13 by Robert Kroetsch and 13 responses by me, with the permission of his literary estate.
I’ve also been working on an anthology called the (M)othering Anthology this year with Heidi Grogan, which is now with a publisher.
Photo credit: Monique de St. Croix
For more information about Anne Sorbie, her books and writing, please see her website.
2012 – A Year of Alberta Books Canada Literary Salons
Since Nov. 2011, Alberta Books Canada hosted a series of literary salons in Calgary that brought together readers with Alberta authors in the intimate setting of a private home for readings and discussions about books and writing. Now that this series has come to an end, I wanted to recap all the salons and share with everyone a list of the authors who took part.
What made these salons different from the usual readings in bookstores and libraries, besides being held in private homes, is that they were based on the model of music house parties where the audience is charged an admission fee and all money collected is paid to the artists. My intention in setting up the salons in this way was so the authors would receive payment for having entertained us, and the audience would realize they should not expect authors to perform for free. After all, the amount any author receives from the royalties of book sales is a mere pittance. We need to show our appreciation for their work in more ways than just by buying a copy of their book – although that does help. As one author said when asked how much she made from each book: “I’m lucky to see a dollar, if that.” And we all know that a book published in Canada these days is considered as selling well if it passes 500 copies. 200 copies for poetry.
We experimented with Skype at a couple of these salons, with audience members able to attend and participate from a distance. Pearl Luke of Book Club Buddy took an active part during one discussion while still in her Thailand home. I also read from, and sold (through the cooperation of Monkeyshines), my new eBook that was not yet available in print at that time. At one salon, two of the authors showed videos they had created. And we invited two musicians to join the authors at two other salons and play some of their own music.
Thanks to everyone who was involved in this series. To Sue Hill of Monkeyshines Children’s Books for selling books at each of the salons, and to all the hosts who graciously opened their homes to us so we could enjoy these get-togethers in the true fashion of a traditional European artistic salon.
But a special thanks to Anne Sorbie for creating and publishing limited edition chapbooks that offered a commemorative collection of writing by the authors involved in each of the salons.
And a huge THANK YOU to our very dedicated audience (some of you attended every salon we offered!!) for being so attentive, for buying the books, and for reading! And, as well, to all the authors who participated. We could not have done any of this without your fine writing and generosity in sharing that writing with us!
Nov. 29, 2011
Betty Jane Hegerat
Lori Hahnel
Rosemary Griebel
Bob Stallworthy
Dec. 14, 2011
Aritha van Herk
Anne Sorbie
Gordon Sombrowski
Tom Phillips, singer/songwriter
Jan. 18, 2012 – Current and former Calgary Distinguished Writers’ Program Writers-In-Residence
Jeramy Dodds
Rosemary Nixon
Marcello Di Cintio
Richard Harrison
Mar. 27, 2012 – Self: No longer a four-letter word
Claudette Brown
Derek Donais
Collin Paulson
Susan M. Toy
Andrew Riches, musician
June 13, 2012 – New offerings by established authors
Barb Howard
Maureen Bush
Steve Owad
Weyman Chan
Sept. 30, 2012 – Mentors and Mentoring
Barb Howard and Sudhir Jain
Betty Jane Hegerat and Ali Bryan
Discussion led by Robyn Read and Pearl Luke (via Skype)
Nov. 18, 2012 – Working with a publisher’s editor (cosponsored by University of Alberta Press)
Alice Major
Kath MacLean
Geo Takach
Peter Midgley
From our final salon, Back L-R – Peter Midgley, Kath MacLean, Susan Toy, Geo Takach; Front L-R – Sue Hill (Monkeyshines), Alice Major, Cathie Crooks (UofA Press)
ABC Friday Reads – Two Calgary Fiction Writers
This week I’m recommending books by two Calgary authors. Both Lori Hahnel and Anne Sorbie have published books of fiction (novels and short stories) and have had stories and essays published in literary magazines and anthologies. Anne has had her poetry published in chapbooks and literary magazines. Both women truly represent Calgary and Alberta through their writing. Although neither was born in the city, they have made the place their home for most of their lives. Both women have been teachers and mentors to other writers.
Go to Book Club Buddy for more information about Lori and Anne.
Love Minus Zero
978 0 7780 1331 0
Published by Oberon Press
Nothing Sacred
978-1897235638
Published by Thistledown Press
Memoir of a Good Death
978-1-897235-81-2
published by Thistledown Press
Island in the Clouds – at the salon!
Thanks to Anne Sorbie of Calgary, author of the novel Memoir of a Good Death and collaborator on the Alberta Books Canada Literary Salons and chapbooks, for sending in the latest pictures of reading my novel Island in the Clouds on her iPad.
Here she is at a different kind of salon: Island in The Clouds … While doing a new do! Before…
And after: During yesterday’s snow squall…
Sending you and everyone else back there in the cold and snow some sunny, warm thoughts from Bequia! Thanks for playing, Anne!
Books: Publishing, Reading, Writing 