3.3.2010 Yesterday the nominees for the Atlantic Book Awards were announced. My novel Migration Songs has been shortlisted for the Dartmouth Book Award, along with George Elliott Clarke's I&I and Linden MacIntyre's The Bishop's Man. I feel pretty amazed to be in that company. The Atlantic Book Awards ceremony will be held April 14, and hopefully I'll be doing some readings from the novel that week, in Halifax and other communities in Nova Scotia.

'RT@cbcbooks Migration Songs by @annaquon is shortlisted for Dartmouth Book Award. Want a chance to win a copy? Tweet a #cbc140 book review!'

9.1.2009 There were plenty of typos in my last post, which I hope are now corrected. It's well and truly September and the world is starting to show its straggly side, as though it's been turned inside out. Lots of goldenrod, cicadas and leaves falling. The world is going beautifully bald. I'm getting ready for my poetry workshops for women with disabilities, for the book tour, and trying to start another novel... which is about like I imagine breastfeeding to be...at times lovely, at others painful, unending and occassionally mind numbing. Let me know if there is another, better way...

8.16.2009 It's been a year since I wrote here and William is indeed running, talking and living it up. He's very attached to his mum and dad, and when Soonya left the house one day leaving me to babysit, William lay down on the floor and cried. I felt so badly for him but sang him Raffi's Baby Beluga and all was ok. Whew. My novel Migration Songs will be coming out a little earlier than I thought... end of September probably. It will be available in bookstores, from Invisible Publishing and possibly from me. I will be reading at Word on the Street in Halifax on September 27 and then off on a booktour in Montreal,Toronto and surrounding areas.Hope you'll pick up a copy! And I'll sign it if I can...

8.26.08William likes green beans and is sprouting himself just like a runner bean, winding up his mother's leg. He burbles and signs for "bird", "ball", "light". He's interested in books, butterflies, and is starting to draw, chalky lines on the shed in the back garden. God is looking over him in that very tightly fenced in yard along with his two solicitous parents, keeping him occupied with the pinwheel planted in between the vegetable rows, the inflatable swimming pool, the breeze tickling the flowers- anything but the escape hatch of an iron gate which is left unlocked for visitors. Our little runner bean will be running soon enough, but hopefully not before he realizes his home is no prison but an edenic island where love for him locks the doors, gates the steps and plugs the electrical sockets.

3.16.08 It’s been… way too long. William is growing up into a real little boy, and soon he’ll evolve into an upright, bipedal creature. Hopefully he won’t bully smaller people, smoke cigars, or wear a hairpiece, just because everyone else is doing it. Hopefully he’ll know how to tell a tulip from a daffodil by age four… but even if he can’t we’ll all still love him, and be patient… because he will soon enough be building rockets and flying kites and eating hamburgers, and then we’ll wish we could go back to the days when he just looked at us with serious eyes, even though he couldn’t say a word. Because he was really looking at us, then, before the wonderful and distracting future intervened. On March 5, 2008, I was in the CBC poetry face off at the Grawood at Dalhousie University. It was a magical night. If you want to hear my poem and that of the four other poets and spoken word artists, tune in to CBC Radio 1 on April 20 at 4 pm Atlantic Standard time.

6.08.07 He's beautiful...absolutely. He's little, but gobbling up lots of mummy's milk and formula and soon he'll be a big strong boy. He was born at cherry blossom time by c-section. As Mickie says, c-section babies want to be opened like presents, and that's what he is. It's funny to be in love with a baby- all the juices gushing through you, like a storm passing, leaving everything fresh and clean... or the way you feel after a good swim. If you want to see him, this nephew of mine, look me up in Facebook- his pics are there. We all stand around him like paparazzi with our cameras, feeling slightly foolish. But his little eyesbrows are so perfect and pale, we can't stop looking at him. Feel his feet- softer than baby bumblebee fur.

6.03.07 I'm tired...exhausted. Thankfully those are not the words that come out of my mouth everytime I open it, as they were three weeks ago...however at this moment, I feel like a cricket must at the end of summer, it's bodily resources spent from making music. I don't have that excuse, but I feel that empty and depleted, like the fragile shell shed by an insect. However, a new life is emerging at this moment... I'll tell you whose when the deed is done.

3.06.07 I'm looking--looking for work again. Something part-time, even very part-time, probably temporary or contract work. Something that involves teaching, or tutoring, or group facilitation. Something that involves creative writing, creative thinking or creative seeing. Something that sings to me, that grabs me by the hair and won't let go. Let me know if you ever come across a job like that and don't want to snatch it up for yourself. I'll care for it like the child I never had.

1.28.07 Sunday-- if the church bells were ringing, they would sound ancient and melancholy as a train whistle. It's the iron. In the cold air it is clear as a fishing spear plunging into still lake. I love Sunday because it is slow-- the sand pours more sluggishly through the hour glass and the sun beams down unendingly. Today is a day to vacuum, disinfect the bathroom and give up fixing the sofa bed, all under a waterfall of blessings.

1.12.07 It's that wonderful day-- Saturday-- a day we've lounged and eaten and read our way through when there is yet another weekend day ahead of us. I feel some anixety though because I have not lived up to my promise to update my website every week at least, so this is my solution. I resolve to blog, not every day, but when I am bloggy. Have you tried Randy's smoked goat milk gouda from the Halifax Farmer's market? I could eat five bucks' worth at one go. So that's what I will leave you with tonight- the taste of that beautiful cheese.

12.27.06 Today was the day of the day after Boxing Day do- thanks to Kristine, Stanley and Savannah, and Todd for coming and eating the antipasto (except Kristine, you don't know what you missed) Soonya's and Ian's red Living Womb, in it's red undecorated splendor was a beautiful setting for eating and sitting-- too hot for Kristine, too cold for S and S- and me in the middle, just ducky. Sad news today for Ian and his family, we are thinking of you...
Let's just squeeze from the last dregs of Christmas, that sparkling wine that relaxes the mind and cheers the heart and blesses us from head to toe, whether we're clothed in joy or sorrow.

12.26.06 The best thing about Boxing Day is the leftovers-- leftover turkey and Christmas cake and egg nog, left over Christmas cheer. Today however, my family had a brand new Christmas dinner at Mum's. Why, you ask? I like to think it's good karma- in another life I rescued a dozen children from a burning temple and strangled a boa constrictor that was about to eat a baby, and a second Christmas dinner in this life is my reward. But really, it's because Ping couldn't make Christmas dinner Christmas day, and because Marian said, what the hell, and decided to cook her turkey and invite Mum and I on the real Christmas day. Thank the Lord for scheduling conflicts. And just in general, thank the Lord.

12.25.06 It's here-- Christmas with all it's angelic choirs, evergreen boughs, holly and ipods in the toes of our stockings. It's the day the children have been waiting for, the one they get up in the wee hours to greet and at the end of which they fall asleep on the couch, clutching their new gizmo, not wanting to break the mesmerizing spell of the best day in the whole year. I have had my breakfast fruit cake and shortbread and have taken the cat outside for his Christmas sniff-- next, Handel's Messiah, turkey and presents. All the best to you who flew through the night to reach the shore of this day-- may it be stuffed full of magic and dripping with happiness.


12.24.06 Christmas is upon us! May it descend with a turkey under one arm, a sack full of magic, and leave its footprints on our snowy rooftops! Thanks to all those who bought "A Year in Haiku", may it bring you pleasure through 2007. For those who do not have a copy, here is a sample:

December, painted
White and ceremonial
as an old geisha.

12.24.06 2006 has been a year that's worth carving my initials into. Full of losses, achievements, adventures and wonderful news, it's one of those years I'll look back to and remember in the way I remember 1989 when I graduated from university or 1990 when I went to Czechoslovakia-- the kind of year that sticks out and thumbs its nose at all those other years that seemed to pass by without incident. 2006 has been my first year after Kevin and I broke up-- it was a difficult beginning, but I have come to love my new home, my space and my solitude, and I hope Kevin can say the same. In 2006 I finished my contract with the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centre and am looking forward to the Independent Living (IL) Impact book, as we called it during my contract, being published in 2007. During my work on this book I met many wonderful people with disabilities from across Canada and felt honoured that they shared their stories with me. Check out the IL Impact Project

2006 was also the year I went to Russia. With the help of generous benefactors, including the Nova Scotia department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia and my family, I spent two weeks in St. Petersburg, Russia attending the Summer Literary Seminars program. It was a whirl of intensity-- the critiques, literary seminars and readings, the workshops and walking tours, the fabulous meals and cathedrals and palaces and museums. But most importantly, the SLS RUssia program made me begin to think of myself as a writer, as someone who really can write a novel ( I'm about a third of the way there) and as someone whose work is read-worthy. Check out the SLS Russia Program

This year's Christmas poetry project was a set of 12 haikus, one for each month, on business cards with an original illustration. I called them "stocking stuff poetry" and my hope is that someone will look in their stocking tomorrow morning and, though they'll be disappointed it wasn't a Terry's chocolate orange, will enjoy each month's poem as though it were a chocolate-covered morsel of something good!

The best news of all is that next June, I will be an aunt. My sister Soonya will become a mother for the first time, and my parents, grandparents at last. The ultrasound shows all- the baby will have a beak that will do the Wagstaffs and McKenzies proud!

Best wishes to all of you in 2007 and a special thanks to the family and friends old and new that made my trip to Toronto this month so rich and fruitful -- like Christmas cake-- nuts and all!

11.18.05 POETRY FOR SALE! My new chapbook of poetry, "Half Empty", is available now— 14 poems and hand drawn illustrations, beautifully designed by my brother Andrew. Each book is $8, or two for $15, or $7 apiece for five or more. You'll find them at the Attic Owl in Dartmouth, at my friend Kristine's table at the Dartmouth Farmer's Market, and at my friend Kathi's table (Patternworks) at Halifax Farmer's Market— or contact me directly at anna.quon@gmail.com

11.09.05 My new poetry chapbook is at the printer as we speak! "Half Empty" contains 14 poems with illustrations. My brother has worked his design magic from cover to cover. When the book is off the presses, I'll announce it here. Please think of poetry for your friends and loved ones (and even your worst enemy!) this holiday season.

11.09.05 I have been hired as the consumer writer on the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres' IL Impact book. Check it out at www.cailc.ca

09.13.05 Two new links in my "links" section take you to the webstie of my brother's former intern who designed this site, and my brother Andrew's graphic design firm, Neeto Design + Creative. They're definitely worth a look!

08.19.05 Check out art by my good friend Kristine Erglis in the Links section. She's mad!

07.18.05 Thanks to her brother Andrew and his former intern Rachelle, Anna will soon have funky new business cards to go along with her new website! Send Anna your business card and she'll send you hers. Mail to 62 Victoria Road, Apt. 3, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B3A 1T7.

06.08.05 On June 1, 2005, during Access Awareness Week, Anna Quon received a Mel Hebb Hourglass Action Award during an awards luncheon held at the University of King’s College in Halifax. The awards are given out each year to individuals and businesses that contribute to improving life in the community of people with disabilities. Anna was honoured to receive the award, particularly as she had the opportunity to interview the outspoken and pioneering Mel Hebb and his wife Wanda, who presented the award, some years before. Anna’s Hourglass award follows on the heels of a Consumer of Excellence award she received at the Canadian Association of Independent Living Annual General Meeting last year in Winnipeg.

06.08.05 Since the fall of 2004, Anna’s first self-published poetry chap book, “Poems for 4 Seasons, second edition” has gone through 3 print runs and is almost sold out! She is working on a second chap book of poems and illustrations, to be self-published this year.

06.08.05 This week, Anna’s work can be found online at www.thecoast.ns.ca; in the latest issue of Abilities, the Canadian cross-disabilities magazine; and the latest issue of SOHO Business Report. Watch for her work in the Summer issue of Lifestyles Nova Scotia magazine, and an upcoming issue of Progress magazine.