Tomorrow is the second instalment of the 8th House Collaboration Series (you may remember that the first one featured our very own Mr Hanson-Finger) and this time around there are 2 Dragnet connections: Ben Ladouceur and Gary Barwin. It’s a pretty stacked line-up, and I would be sad if you missed it just because I didn’t tell you about it. So, you’re welcome, really.

And now that I’ve got your attention, I am sending you over to Open Book Toronto to read about which literary figures Gary Barwin would invite to his holiday party. We also get to learn about Rabbi Krinkleblatt, the Jewish Santa. Apparently Barwin’s children are just as clever as he is.

Dragnet Issue Four contributor Gary Barwin has part of his novel Yiddish for Pirates up over at Joyland. It begins: 

1.

Moishe as a child. He told me stories.

Some were true.

At fourteen, he left the shtetl near Vilnius for the sea. How? First one leg out the window then the other. Like anyone else. Before first light. Before the wailing of his mother.

A boychick with big ideas, his kopp—his head—bigger than his body. He would travel beyond the scrawny map of himself. And beyond the shtetl. He’d travel the ocean. There were Jews—he’d heard stories—that were something. Not rag and bones shmatta-men like his father, Chaim, always following the dreck of their nag around the same small world. Doctors. Court astronomers. Spanish lords. Tax farmers. Learned men of the world. The mapmakers of Majorca. They were Jews. Rich and powerful, they were respected by everyone. They could read the sky. They knew what was on the horizon. They knew what was over the horizon. Jews had trickled through the cracks of the world and had rained upon the lands.

The rest is, here!

Pull up a chair for story time with Uncle Dragnet!

Dragnet Issue Four cover by the elegant and whimsical Ali Hall, which lists five of the writers featured in this issue: Joe Yachimec, Cristina Rizzuto, Matt Rowan, Gary Barwin, and Suzannah Showler. But don’t worry, the others are equally terrific! We just didn’t want to overwhelm you. You’ll find out the rest when we release the cinematic trailer in a week or so.

ALSO

The launch party is taking place the night of January 21 at Smiling Buddha, the same venue as last time. Details to come.