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Twitter fame (sort of) is the gift that keeps on giving. Russell Smith wrote a piece for the Globe and Mail about my sudden ascension to viral idolatry. I especially like it that NC “is also well-known for being intellectual and deep, in other words obscure.” I can only offer that NC is not so obscure, tweet-resistant, for sure, but not obscure. We hover around the half-million mark on Alexa.com, well ahead of Asymptote, Full-Stop, The White Review, Quill and Quire, Quarterly Conversation, Berfrois, River Teeth, Rain Taxi, and many, many notable sites/magazines. But “intellectual and deep” I’ll take.
He [Glover] himself is amused by this surge. He does, after all, like to say that he is legendary for being unknown. Maclean’s magazine once called him “the most eminent unknown Canadian writer alive.” Although he has won the Governor-General’s Award (in 2003, for the ambitious and playful novel Elle), his work is a little too elegant and clever for the book-club crowd, or for Canada Reads. He single-handedly created an online literary and philosophical magazine called Numéro Cinq, that is also well-known for being intellectual and deep, in other words obscure. The essays in Numéro Cinq are tweet-resistant: In the latest issue an entire book is posted, a six-chapter tome on contemporary U.S. policies as seen through the poetry of W.B. Yeats.
Read the whole piece at the Globe and Mail — Russell Smith: Easy inspiration in an age when everyone is a storyteller.
“his work is a little too elegant and clever for the book-club crowd, or for Canada Reads”
Smith is bang on with this! NC may be tweet resistant, but I’ll keep doing my part. And I sense a note of sarcasm in: “in other words, obscure.” One person’s “obscurity” is another’s “discriminating taste” after all.
I’m proud to be part of the team.
Thanks, Joe. I’m glad you’re with us, too. Russell’s a good guy. And certainly no one at the Globe has cared to mention the magazine before this. And it gave me a chance to talk about our actual standing in the world of online literary magazines, which I don’t think many people track (or know how to track).
Did the Globe and Mail happen to mention that NC is also the repository of a great deal of humor (intentional and non-intentional)?
I think you should have “the most eminent unknown Canadian writer alive” engraved on a tastefully small bronze plaque, so that you can wear it on a chain around your neck.
I’ve now read the entire G&M article. Russell Smith, the author, says, “Glover describes a premise for a story, not a full structure.” Omygod, he’s giving the world the impression that you have nothing to say about story structure! You’d better call him back and set him straight. (It’s a pretty good article, actually.)