A reading by Vancouver writer/musician/teacher Michael Turner concludes the S.C. Arts Council's fall reading series on Saturday, Nov. 27, at 8 p.m.
Possibly a novel, certainly a fiction, Turner's newest work, published last year to much buzz, is entitled 8 X 10. Suggesting some kind of publicity photograph of standard size, in this case the title refers instead to eight characters caught up in 10 events.
Like Turner's other works, 8 X 10 is unconventional in the truest sense, as he plays fast and loose with the most basic conventions of the novel. None of the characters has a name, for instance, and the setting is not identified, but the randomness and disconnectedness of the events seem to make some kind of sense in view of the unsettling subject matter of war, immigration and dislocation, which in our age of globalization are everywhere the same, affecting people, whoever they are, in similar ways.
An award-winning author of fiction, criticism and song, Turner is perhaps best known for Hard Core Logo (1993) and The Porno-grapher's Poem (1999). Hard Core Logo, composed of interviews, journal entries and letters, attempted, according to Turner, "to demystify the romance of being in a band."
Turner would have personal knowledge of that, having been a founding member of the folk-rock group Hard Rock Miners in the early '80s. He received a Genie Award for the song Who the Hell Do You Think You Are, his contribution to the soundtrack of the movie based on his novel.
Most recently, Turner served as writer in residence at Simon Fraser University. He is currently working on another novel, or as he probably would prefer, another "piece of fiction."
The reading will be held in the Doris Crowston Gallery of the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt. Admission is by donation.
-Submitted
