For Crying Out Loud

Ferno House's debut release is For Crying Out Loud - An Anthology of Poetry & Fiction, a collection of poetry and fiction by the students and instructors of the 2008-2009 Master's Degree in Creative Writing at the University of Toronto. They are:

George Elliott Clarke
Laura Maija Clarke
Spencer Gordon
Alex Grigorescu
Andrew MacDonald
Jeff Parker
Wendy Prieto
Jonathan Simpson
Catriona Wright

For Crying Out Loud is a hand-made, perfect bound, and limited edition (120) release. $12.00

isbn 978-0-981253-0-4

Available at:

This Ain't The Rosedale Library
86 Nassau Street in Kensington
M5T 1M5
416 929 9912

Type Books
883 Queen Street West
M6J 1G5
416 366 8973

Toronto Women's Bookstore
73 Harbord Street
M5S 1G4
416 922 8744

Press

Review of For Crying Out Loud for Broken Pencil Magazine

Article by Eddie Leslie, Fall 2009

Hand-made chapbooks typically vacillate between the shoddy and the over-ornate – in other words, either photocopied booklets of staple-stitched construction paper or precious little darlings laced with gold thread and pasted feathers. Arnaud Brassard, designer and printer of the new Toronto micro-press Ferno House, manages to avoid either extreme with resounding panache, producing with For Crying Out Loud (Ferno House’s premiere release) a surprisingly beautiful, perfect-bound masterstroke of hand-crafted restraint.

For Crying Out Loud is a collection of poetry and fiction by the students and instructors enrolled in the Masters degree in Creative Writing at the University of Toronto. It boasts a poem fragment by seasoned veteran George Elliott Clarke, written in his audaciously lyrical, overtly musical hand, and a short story by American-born fiction writer Jeff Parker – a pitch-perfect, hilarious send-up of both presumptuous American ex-patriots holidaying in Canada and a somewhat lesser known, home-grown entity – the French Redneck. The rest of the book is divided between the program’s aspiring writers and students. In terms of poetry, one finds the subtle linguistic play and adventurousness of Catriona Wright; the spare, Biblically-inspired verse of Wendy Prieto; the meditative and sickly sensual lines of Alex Grigorescu, and the morbid, keen-eyed histories of Laura Clarke. As for fiction, Jonathan Simpson writes out the affecting, fragmented history of a father’s love; Andrew MacDonald provides a cheeky, happily-perverse look at voyeurism and crime; and Spencer Gordon (the editor of Ferno House) writes a dark reflection on cigarettes, death, and literary ambition, which takes an apt turn for the surreal. If what’s included in this collection is any indication of promise, then we should expect some remarkable work from these burgeoning, Toronto-based writers.

According to the Ferno House website, the book might still be found at choice locations around the city of Toronto for a reasonable $15. I say go pick it up – it’s a damn fine combination of DIY, entrepreneurial 'zine-culture, sophisticated and meticulous design craft, and ambitious literary writing.

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