Some Book Covers I Designed

The Barista and I. Insomniac Press. Art by Maryanna Hardy.

Entry Level by Julie McIassac. Insomniac Press. Art by Ghislain Garlin.

Thumbscrews by Natalie Zina Walschots. Snare Books.

Fake Math by Ryan Fitzpatrick. Snare Books

The Olive and the Dawn by Ian Orti. Snare Books.

Asthmatica by JPF. Insomniac Press.

SKULK HOUR

All love is careless

bleating sadly into some thing or other or

mainlining its way into varicose

The millionaires of summer

swelter away in Old Montreal

delve deep into marry me’s

I’m scared all the way

down the skill hull

it’s always a point of almost-pride

No setting to this poem

but your mind’s alright

and the pediatricians are sleeping

so just skulk softly

Summary: Condensation and Displacement

Official Statement Regarding Snare Books

After this year’s publication of the 2012 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry winner, Snare Books will no longer be publishing books as an independent press. We received no funding for the second year in a row and there is no way forward for the program in its current incarnation. I sincerely regret that it has come to this. Two years ago we were ranked very high in the Canada Council for the Arts Emerging Publishers Program. Since then, we completed two very strong years of amazing titles. Unfortunately, the Block Grant juries were not as receptive to us, and we were unable to acquire funding.

I want to express my immense gratitude to all of the Snare authors for letting me play a part in their writing careers. I cannot adequately describe the pride and good fortune I feel for having had the opportunity to bring all of their books into the world. I am especially thankful to the authors who trusted me with their first books. One of the early mandates of Snare Books was to showcase emerging poets and experimental writers. I would like to thank Angela Carr, Melissa Thompson, Jason Christie, ryan fitzpatrick, Natalie Zina Walschots, Sarah Dowling, Ian Christopher Goodman, Ian Orti, Geoffery Hlibchuk, Mike Spry, Helen Hajnoczky, Sheryda Warrener, Laura Broadbent and Lesley Trites for allowing me the privilege of being there at the beginning of their careers.

Robert Allen and I began scheming in 2004 about a press that would provide a much-needed space for the kind of strange, experimental, innovative and distinctly non-mass-market writing that we loved. He loved Will Self, Gilbert Sorrentino, and Gail Scott to name a few. I could not get enough of Robert Kroetsch, Nicole Brossard, and bpNichol to name a few. Our hope was to publish books in this risk-taking tradition of the writers we loved. I loved Robert Allen so much as a writer, thinker, mentor, and friend. It is not an exaggeration to say that he saved my life by showing faith in me and giving me the opportunity to work with him. When he passed away in 2006, I vowed to keep his memory alive through Matrix and Snare. My personal attachment to Snare has so much to do with the fact that Rob and I started it together. It was our thing. We started it in part because we saw a need. But as I look back on it now, I realize that we also started it because we thought it would be fun. And it always was.

When Rob died, I was not sure I could make a go of it with Snare. And I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the mentorship and guidance of so many friends and colleagues. Snare Books survived for seven years because of the guidance of Robert Kroetsch, Alana Wilcox, Karis Shearer, Marisa Grizenko, Karl Siegler, Darren Wershler, Alex Porco, Bill Kennedy, Jason Camlot, Neil Besner, Sina Queyras, Sachiko Murakami, Dennis Cooley, John Goldbach, Karis Shearer, Mike O’Connor, Michael Holmes, David McGimpsey, Rachel Zolf, Elizabeth Bachinsky, and Christian Bok. I am in their debt. I would also like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts for their early support of Snare. I must also thank the people I have worked with on the design and marketing of Snare: Gillian Savigny, Jocelyn Parr, Melanie Bell, Lorne Roberts, Leigh Kotsilidis, Genevieve Robichaud, Chris Tucker, Tyler Morency, and Georgia Webber as well as the staff at LitDistCo and the LPG. 

Thankfully, there is exciting news to report as well. From now on, Snare Books will be the name of the poetry imprint at Invisible Publishing. Further, I am pleased to announce that Invisible has agreed to take on the back list Snare titles and the titles will continue to be available to book buyers. I am thrilled to announce the continuation of The Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. The administration of this award will fall under the purview of Matrix Magazine in partnership with Invisible Publishing and these books will be published every fall by Invisible under my editorship and the Snare imprint. The prize will be awarded annually to the best poetry manuscript by an emerging Canadian writer (a writer who has published two books or less). Each year the winning manuscript will be selected by established and well-known Canadian writers. The 2013 award will be judged by innovative poet and BookThug mastermind, Jay MillAr. I am also pleased to announce that the first title under the Snare imprint will be kevin mcpherson eckoff's new book, Forge.

Just a few months ago, I was absolutely heartbroken to discover that Snare Books could no longer operate as an independent publisher. But then a series of astonishing and inspiring events happened as a result of the goodwill and genuine interest of astonishing and inspiring people. Nic Boshart and Robbie MacGregor from Invisible reached out to me immediately with a simple message: Snare Books is not dead. When we began formal discussions, I was instantly thrilled to discover that I was dealing with kindred spirits – people who believe that literary innovation has a future in Canada. Beyond this, I was made acutely aware through my observations of the way their publishing co-op works, that there is potential to make the kind of work I love more available to readers through multiple platforms. In its five years, Invisible has already become a vital and cutting edge publisher. And the people behind it are exemplary human beings. In the course of a few weeks, one of the most devastating events of my adult life was transformed into an uplifting and re-affirming experience. I am so lucky, so grateful.  

Jon Paul Fiorentino

October 15, 2012

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A Complete List of Snare Books 2006 – 2012

2012

OH THERE YOU ARE I CAN’T SEE YOU IS IT RAINING? by Laura Broadbent (Robert Kroetsch Award Winner)

2011

Thirsts by Pearl Pirie (Robert Kroetsch Award Winner)

easy peasy by kevin mcpherson eckhoff

echoic mimic by Lesley Trites (Expozine Best English Book Award Finalist)

seen of the crime by derek beaulieu

2010

HARD FEELINGS by Sheryda Warrener

The Lateral by Jake Kennedy (Robert Kroetsch Award Winner)

Update. by Bill Kennedy and Darren Wershler

THREE DEATHS by Josip Novakovich

Poets and Killers by Helen Hajnoczky (Expozine Best English Book Award Finalist)

2009

The Olive and the Dawn by Ian Orti (Expozine Best English Book Winner)

The Taste of Penny by Jeff Parker

Generator by Ian Christopher Goodman

Thresh by Kim Minkus

Security Posture by Sarah Dowling (Robert Kroetsch Award Winner)

2008

All our Grandfathers are ghosts. by Pasha Malla

JACK by Mike Spry (A.M Klein Poetry Award Finalist)

Variations on Hölderlin by Geoffrey Hlibchuk (Robert Kroetsch Award Winner)

2007

FAKE MATH by ryan fitzpatrick

Thumbscrews by Natalie Zina Walschots (Robert Kroetsch Award Winner)

the small blue by Jay MillAr

2006

The Emily Valentine Poems by Zoe Whittall

Dreadful Paris by Melissa A. Thompson (McAusland First Book Award Finalist)

Ropewalk by Angela Carr

Canada Post by Jason Christie

A SLOW, STUPID METRONOME

With decades behind, one still boorishly chases the dull candles

held by those somehow traipsing through the uncomplicated

life; one just an acknowledgment page away from calling it now

one page away from a done. Over it. So very over it

With a brisk rendering of complexity, shrill and shrugged

repeats of days and one is an unparented swiller and one’s tonic and

balm no longer enough. Soon there will be no verb. The countables

wreck their own units; static laughs; lit up and tweak-weary

Diplomacy taints the micropolitic. Countless hours, of course,

spark sluggish decades and one loses games one isn’t even aware of

There is this one thing that all things are made of, one says

and the dull-witted say yes, this. One does not, should not. Still rhetoric eases

The peculiar sting of fact-unchecked quirk factor hymnals and yet, one

chases slow moving candles and one fattens and withers in season –

slow metronome. A slow, stupid metronome. Then, at some point,

there is no real verb but an unrelenting need to call it and to call it

in time, listlessly, to call one’s own over it

IT IS OK AND IT’S OK

If you bandy about protocols for the dance card; it is ok and it’s ok to speak in clear sentences even though there isn't a dance (there never will be) 

You may propose and propose. Let us be clear and let’s be precise. Your purpose of things is borne out of exalted forecasts, broadcasts 

The broadcasts diminish in real time as we diminish slightly faster. It is ok to speak in clear sentences and it’s ok to say a thing before the broadcast’s end 

It is sooner than you applied for. The quickened wretched hubris calmed you as an HDMI swaddling. The thing is, it is ok. It’s ok to speak in a clear sentence or to even 

Risk more than one. It’s ok to not let the terrible, accurate tunage squelch; it is ok and it’s ok to feel alone and dopplered. That is what it does and that’s what. 

Totally ok to have lost it in the process of nothing other than losing. Totally and it is ok. I promise. Although these things called promises are often stupid. Promise

Moda

 

MODA 

for Elizabeth Bachinsky

No, I don’t want to stay at your place

I need time and space and odder hours to deal with

a spectacular national celebration unequalled

since Expo ’67 in Montreal. It’s not fair to

expect me to adhere to your eccentricities

No, I don’t want to stay at your place

I will have my own. What a city! But no

I’m coming, but no. I can’t possibly stand

a spectacular national celebration unequalled

since the 1851 World’s Fair in London

I found a hotel. It’s cheap. A legacy project. Moda. So

no, I don’t want to stay at your place

Travel, uneasy. Your city, stifling

Everyone clamours their cultural capital there, at

a spectacular national celebration unequalled

since Deculturation. I will write a poem, meet for whiskey

You will bring me a gift and I will get sick and you will insist, but

no, I don’t want to stay at your place

I’m sure it’s spectacular, unequalled

Pantone 185C

Lemon Hound was nice enough to run my poem about living in Montreal right now. Here it is.

Salut Sérotonine 2

Here is another translation by Xandère Sélène. This one is of my poem "Neurotransmission" from Hello Serotonin. A series of her translations of my poems appeared in Revue Le Quartanier in 2005.

NEUROTRANSMISSION

Une autre tactique de rêve statique – ne me rappelle pas à la maison sur

ce ton; je deviens pensif quand tu n’appelles pas.

Le remords est une lettre à la langue de miel. Je traîne, a-t-elle

écrit; le comptoir ne luisait guère derrière son éclat.

Quand le téléphone sonne, ma mémoire se déclenche, trébuche;

une neurotransmission se fait trébucher plus vrai, filmique.

Elle chuchote quelque chose et il semble que quelqu’un

grivoise toute la nuit: une berceuse caféinée, rêve sous valium.

La culpabilité parapleut vers le ciel en trépanation courante –

coup de pied à l’humour encore.

Voici une neurotransmission avortée –

froide comme une baisse d’octave, continue comme la tonalité.

*

NEUROTRANSMISSION

Another static dream tactic – don’t call me home with

that tone; I get wistful when you don’t call.

Remorse is a honey-tongued letter. I’m traipsing along, she

wrote; the bar glistened weakly behind her sheen.

When the phone rings my memory triggers, trips along;

a neurotransmission trips itself more real, filmic.

She whispers something and it sounds like someone

thrushed all night and a ca°Ëeine lullaby, valium dream.

Guilt umbrellas skyward from the trepanation stream –

kicked in the wit again.

Here is an abortive neurotransmission –

cold like an octave drop, relentless like the dial tone.

Salut Sérotonine 1

Here is a translation by Xandère Sélène of my poem "Astrocytes" from Hello Serotonin. A series of her translations of my poems appeared in Revue Le Quartanier in 2005.

ASTROCYTES

Les astrocytes nourrissent les neurones
racontent des conneries métatrophiques à l’axone et à la dendrite
de même, dépolarisent la dose de glucose.

Les astrocytes revendent au noir les cellules gliales
distribuent l’amour neuronal partout, tout
autour, accordent des strophes au compte-gouttes.

Les astrocytes exigent l’extase
veulent planer via la reconnaissance et la transmission
mais, s’envoyer en l’air se prend avec le temps.

Les astrocytes chantent des berceuses
signalent la latence la plus triste
Donc, cette fois c’est terminal.

*

ASTROCYTES

Astrocytes feed neurons
talk metatrophic trash to axon and dendrite
alike, depolarize the glucose fix.

Astrocytes deal from glial cells
spread neuronal love all over, all
around, dole out strophes.

Astrocytes need bliss
want the highs of recognition and transmission
but, starfucking is an acquired agency.

Astrocytes sing lullabies
signal the saddest dormancy
so, this time it’s terminal.

23 Books! (Oops! 24 books!)

I have edited 23 books in 10 years! Below is a list of the amazing titles I have had the great privilege of working on:

Editor of The Barista and I by Andrew Szymanski. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2012. (forthcoming) Editor of Entry Level by Julie McsIaac. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2012.
Editor of Easy Peasy by Kevin McPherson-Eckhoff. Montreal, Snare Books 2011.
Editor of Metraville by Jamie Popowich. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2011.
Editor of Distillery Songs by Mike Spry. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2010.
Editor of Bird Eat Bird by Katrina Best. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2010. (Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book)
Editor of The Lateral by Jake Kennedy. Montreal: Snare Books, 2010.
Editor of Update by Darren Wershler and Bill Kennedy. Montreal: Snare Books, 2010.
Editor of Selected Blackouts by John Goldbach. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2009.
Editor of Thresh by Kim Minkus. Montreal: Snare Books, 2009. (Robert Kroetsch Award Winner) Editor of Blues and Bliss: Selected Poetry of George Elliott Clarke. Kitchener: Wilfred Laurier, 2008.
Editor of We could be like that couple… by Sarah Steinberg. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2008.
Editor of Variations on Holderlin by Geoffery Hlibchuk. Montreal: Snare Books, 2008.
Editor of Thumbscrews by Natalie Zina Walschots. Montreal: Snare Books, 2008. (Robert Kroetsch Award Winner)
Editor of Delible by Anne Stone. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2007.
Editor of The Emily Valentine Poems by Zoe Whittall. Montreal: Snare Books, 2006.
Editor of Canada Post by Jason Christie. Montreal: Snare Books, 2006. (with ryan fitzpatrick)
Editor of The Coward Files by Ryan Arnold. Montreal: Conundrum Press, 2006.
Editor of Post-Prairie. A Poetry Anthology. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005.

 (With Robert Kroetsch)
Editor of Cherry by Chandra Mayor. Montreal: Conundrum Press, 2004.

 (Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award Winner)
Editor of Career Suicide! Contemporary Literary Humour. Montreal: DC Books, 2003.


Editor of August Witch by Chandra Mayor. Winnipeg: Cyclops Press, 2002. 

(Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book Winner)
Editor of The Cyclops Review. An Anthology. Winnipeg: Cyclops Press, 2002.


Editor of Trains of Winnipeg by Clive Holden. Montreal: DC Books, 2002.

 (with Robert Allen)

My Tribute to Robert Kroetsch

This piece first appeared in the September 2011 issue of the Quill and Quire. The text below is slightly longer and less edited:








ROBERT KROETSCH: ONLY HIS BOOKS
Jon Paul Fiorentino

Summer Literary Seminars. Montreal, Quebec. June 22, 2011.

Tonight I read with emerging writer, Tom Burke, American novelist, Kevin Canty, Montreal poet, Katia Grubisic. The DeSeve cinema amphitheater was over half-full. I always count the audience (it calms my nerves). Tonight there were 58 people in the room: participants and instructors from all over North America, here In Montreal to study and write in a new context. There were people I loved, people I wanted to impress. I read from new work -- a comedic text--and I struggled. I flubbed lines, failed to convey the rhythm of the prose, apologized to the audience, and did pretty much everything else you aren't supposed to do when you present your work. When I was done with the new stuff, I felt relief and regained my composure. Then I read some selections from a text I had been reading all day: “Towards an Essay: The Upstate New York Journals” from Robert Kroetsch's The Lovely Treachery of Words. I wasn't ready to read Seed Catalogue (my favourite). But I needed to share with this audience a sense of the man. The journal is not that long. It documents a time in the 1970s when he was teaching. Some the entries are matter-of-fact. Most contain gems: his brief encounter with Basil Bunting and the secrets Bunting revealed about his own poetry and about the title of a certain TS Eliot text, the image of Gwendolyn MacEwen at the 1969 Governor General’s Literary Awards ceremony, sitting alongside her young Greek lover alongside, George Bowering with his green velvet suit and extravagant silk shirt, so many small ruminations, striking in their intellectual acuity. I read a passage where Kroetsch had just found out that he was to receive the GG for his novel The Studhorse Man and he proceeded to recall 20 years earlier when he received first ever acceptance letter for a story (to be published in The Montrealer.) Then I read my poem "Civic Poem" which is inspired by and dedicated to him. When the reading was over. I swiftly exited the theatre without looking anyone in the eye. I ran to my office and cried.

I found out via text message that morning that Robert had died in a car accident. Once I could confirm it, I broke down instantly. Never has anyone been so encouraging, kind, and inspiring to me as Robert Kroetsch. It was enough that his books taught me so much, but the fact that he took a particular interest in me and my writing was astonishing. I am aware of the fact that he had similar relationships with countless other writers. If you were a reader or a writer, he had time for you. We met around 11 years ago. In Winnipeg. I remember sitting across from him at the restaurant in McNally Robinson. I was in awe. I had some poems I wanted him to look at and to my surprise he had brought me some poems of his to look at too. I remember thinking, "Why on earth would he want my opinion on new poems?" I had just started volunteering for Matrix magazine in Montreal, and he asked if I might like to publish them. The poems were exquisite of course. And being the young, hyper-ambitious guy that I was, I insisted that he let me interview him as well. Obviously, he said yes. He always said yes. In 2007 he said yes to lending his name to my fledgling literary press, Snare Books. The Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry was established. My favourite annual email was the one he would write after he reading the latest winner. His enthusiasm for new poetry, for new ways of poetry was awe-inspiring. As our friendship grew and our conversations became more sophisticated, he kept telling me: "It's your turn to talk." (And I tried. And I'm trying.) But it always provided more pleasure, more bliss, to listen to him.

In the upstate journals, Kroetsch writes about Charles Olson's passing, observing that he “is only his books." The elegance of Kroestch. The staggering peculiarities of his language. The way he changed our language. The imperceptible ease with which he articulated so much wisdom. He was always fascinated with the poem he "could never complete." But the truth is, he was the complete poet. The complete writer. He approached language and life with a sense of rigorous play. Now he is only his books. I will visit him there for the rest of my life. You will too.


Jon Paul Fiorentino is the author of Stripmalling, Indexical Elegies, and the editor of Matrix Magazine and Snare Books. He lives in Montreal.

Golden Beaver!

So, Indexical Elegies has been nominated for the CBC Book Club Award for best book of poetry. A Bookie! The trophy is a golden beaver! For real! Obviously I would love to have a golden beaver in my home.

If you read IE and liked IE, please vote for me here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/bookclub/2011/02/more-bookies-nominees-revealed-get-your-votes-in.html

sincerely,
Jon Paul Fiorentino
Poet Dude

Indexical Elegies Readings!

Hello blog. It's been too long. Throughout this fall, I will be reading from my new book, Indexical Elegies:

Toronto Coach House Book Launch.

Vancouver International Writers Festival.

Winnipeg My City's Still Breathing Conference.

And a few more to be confirmed (Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg again, Toronto again)...

I'm looking forward to getting out west, seeing old friends and making new ones!!!

Some Spring Readings!

I will be at AWP in Denver next week:

Friday, April 9, 2010
4:30pm - 6:00pm
The Dikeou Collection, Colorado Building
1615 California Street, Suite 515

Please join the Denver Quarterly and Coach House Books for an off-site AWP reading on Friday, April 9, from 3 - 6 pm at The Dikeou Collection, located in downtown Denver, just a two-block-walk from the Colorado Convention Center. There will be free wine and snacks, and no charge for the event.

Coach House will be presenting The Cross-Border Avant-Garde Extravaganza, featuring Canadians Christian Bök (Eunoia), Jen Currin (The Inquisition Yours), Jon Paul Fiorentino (The Theory of the Loser Class) and kevin mcpherson eckhoff (Rhapsodomancy) and Americans Rachel Levitsky (Neighbor) and K. Silem Mohammad (The Front). Hosted by Coach House senior editor Alana Wilcox, it promises to be a phenomenal afternoon of out-there poetry, with Flarf, surrealism, visual poetry and more! A Peace Bridge of Poetics! http://is.gd/bcElZ

Later this month, I will be at Blue Metropolis as a host for this:

SATURDAY APRIL 24 @ 9:00 PM
THE AFTER-HOURS LITERARY LUAU
DELTA CENTRE-VILLE
777 University Street
Salon ST-LAURENT

This Blue Metropolis after-hours party presents short readings from some of the small press world’s finest poets and fiction writers in a casual atmosphere. Come out after the discussions and lectures and have some fun! Cash bar.

Presented by Coach House Books, Insomniac Press, Invisible Publishing, Matrix magazine, and Snare Books.

With Katrina Best, Jen Currin, John Goldbach, Kevin Mcpherson Eckhoff, Ian Orti, Alan Reed, Mike Spry, Thom Vernon, and Rachel Zolf.

And your host, Jon Paul Fiorentino. http://is.gd/bcErC

And next month in Vancouver for this:

May 13, 2010, 7pm at the UBC Library/Bookstore at Robson Square: David Derry, Jon Paul Fiorentino, and Matthew Hooton. http://is.gd/bcEjD

The QWF Gala

November 17th, 2009. Lion D'or.

It was a lovely evening. Snare Books was honoured with a A.M. Klein prize nomination for Mike Spry's Jack.

I was honoured with a Hugh MacLennan Prize nomination for Stripmalling.

Friends Gillian Sze, Patrick McDonagh and David Homel were also nominated for book awards.

Most important, Adrian and Lucille King-Edwards from The Word Bookstore were honoured with the QWF Community Award. Long overdue!

It was particularly exciting for me to have the opportunity to bring my folks out to a classy event. They didn't know I had it in me!

Here are some photos.



Me and my girlfriend, Marisa



Adrian!



Mike Spry, David McGimpsey




Mike Spry, Gillian Sze



Me and my pops!

Stripmalling Climbs the Winnipeg Charts!

Stripmalling has momentum! So close to a number one hit! I feel just like Engelbert Humperdinck when "There Goes My Everything" made it to number two. Do you know what I mean?

Stripmalling makes Winnipeg Bestseller List!

Thanks to an amazing launch with Guy Maddin and the very hard working staff of McNally Robinson, I made it to number 3 on the Winnipeg Bestseller List! Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg is #1 in the Non-Fiction category!

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Wake
Robert J. Sawyer. Science Fiction.

2. Assegai
Wilbur Smith. Fiction.

3. Stripmalling.
Jon Paul Fiorentino. Fiction.

4. The Gargoyle.
Andrew Davidson. Fiction.

5. Wicked Prey.
John Sandford. Fiction.

Hold on, 'peggers!

Here I come Winnipeg!

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Ok, so I have received quite a few reviews for Stripmalling now. The reviews have been an interesting mix. I am lucky to have received very positive assessments from (in my opinion) the most important venues -- The Quill and Quire, and the Globe and Mail. Other rags and mags have been less positive. And one review is so ridiculously negative that it fails to cite the book at all and actually makes claims about my life instead! (Mmmm! Now that's good literary journalism!)

Anyways, as per usual, my two hometowns are home to the harshest criticism. And, overall, I am very pleased with the response to the book.


Here's the good, the bad and the ugly:
________________________________________________________________________________
THE GOOD

Stripmalling is the first novel by Jon Paul Fiorentino, and a very funny one it is.... Amid the hilarious scenes that make up Stripmalling — gas-station hot-boxing, desperate ploys for sex, moderate success in the writing world — Fiorentino produces peaks of warmth and true sadness.
— Globe and Mail

It's a Canadian triumph. It's not pretty, but it's a great romp. A funny, funny romp.
— Lemon Hound

Stripmalling is an entertaining, occasionally disorienting trip through the wires of Jonny, a presumably semi-fictional character working in and around a strip mall in suburban Winnipeg.... Outrageous, intriguing and quietly powerful, Stripmalling offers readers the curious and ultimately rewarding experience of stepping outside their own stories.
— Scene Magazine

Stripmalling is an author’s memoir freed from the tyranny of facts. Jonny shares his personal issues with an off-the-wall candour.... From the top of Stripmalling, you see a keen mind at work under the quirky surface.
— Xtra

There’s a welcome what-the-hell bent to the fictionalized part-memoir, part-graphic novel collage that is Jon Paul Fiorentino’s Stripmalling.
— Toronto Star (Arrivals)

...poignant, politically savvy and laugh-out-loud-funny...
— Montreal Mirror

Stripmalling is worth reading for its wry, sardonic humour and delightfully self- deprecating tone . . . Thoroughly enjoyable.
— Montreal Review of Books

[Stripmalling has] a poignant tension between narrative and fragmentation, hopefulness and cynicism. . . . [Fiorentino has] become one of Montreal's — and Canada's — most prolific and accomplished young writers.
— Hour

A collage-like experience, Stripmalling is a hybrid book forged out of multiple angles and perspectives. It is also a funny and clever experiment in tale-telling.
— Quill and Quire

Stripmalling is an amusing, breezy read ... well-paced fun
— Complete Review

THE BAD

He certainly does bits well: the comic strips "Helen Keller’s Voice Mail" and "Dubious Toasts" are tastelessly hilarious, aided considerably by Munday’s understated cartooning. Nor is Fiorentino without insight. What he needs to do next time is supply a final act.
— Winnipeg Free Press

Sometimes the line between hipster irony and boringly bad is too narrow to discern.... If everybody's alienated and nobody cares, what's the point of reading any further? There's a reason why The Simpsons isn't a novel.*
— Toronto Star (Column)

THE UGLY

It should never be enough to simply regurgitate one's lack of a significant life... Sadly, instead of building on his strengths, Fiorentino wallows in his weaknesses – lack of plot, banal observations, cheap characterization, hipster posing.
— Montreal Gazette
________________________________________________________________________________

An aside: It's interesting to note that in the most scathing indictments of Stripmalling, the word "hipster" is invoked. I think these days, "hipster" is scribe code for "young and/or threatening." See Carl Wilson's excellent response to Russell Smith for a more nuanced and complex discussion of this.

Another aside: *(Hey, Toronto Star dude: Actually, writers of The Simpsons care very much about cultural literacy and intellectual/literary practice. Stop being reductive and try reading John Swartzwelder's wonderful novels. He wrote 59 episodes of The Simpsons and his books are brilliant.)

So there you have it. The responses to my book so far. It obviously hits a nerve with readers. I am thankful for the good and bad reviews. The ugly one is just ugly. Is Stripmalling hipster posing and boringly bad? Or is it funny, clever and poignant? Go buy it and let me know what you think.

Now let's all sit back, relax, and listen to the clearly not hipster band The Smoking Popes!