The Artist Formerly Known As Death Waits christens his new public persona with the release of 'a series of theatrical proposals to be repeated, discarded, performed simultaneously and/or recombined in any and all possible combinations – all vaguely relating to the topic of the author's moral ambivalence.'

Unrehearsed Beauty

Literature & Fiction

Wren, Jacob

Poetry

Coach House Books

Fiction. From interdisciplinary writer and performer Jacob Wren comes POLYAMOROUS LOVE SONG, a novel of intertwined narratives concerning the relationship between artists and the world. Shot through with unexpected moments of sex and violence, readers will become acquainted with a world that is at once the same and opposite from the one in which they live. With a diverse palette of vivid characters—from people who wear furry mascot costumes at all times, to a group of 'new filmmakers' that devises increasingly unexpected sexual scenarios with complete strangers, to a secret society that concocts a virus that only infects those on the political right—Wren's avant-garde POLYAMOROUS LOVE SONG (finalist for the 2013 Fence Modern Prize in prose) will appeal to readers with an interest in the visual arts, theatre, and performance of all types.

Polyamorous Love Song (Department of Narrative Studies, 12)

Contemporary

Book*hug Press

Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. From multidisciplinary artist and author Jacob Wren comes a small book of big ideas. Originally produced as a 'Boondoggle Book' limited edition specifically for the first Authors for Indies Day in Toronto, this small and delightful book is a must-have for fans of the author of POLYAMOROUS LOVE SONG (named one of the top 100 books of 2014 by The Globe and Mail). IF OUR WEALTH IS CRIMINAL THEN LET'S LIVE WITH THE CRIMINAL JOY OF PIRATES collects two short stories and an essay by Jacob Wren. In the first story, 'The Infiltrator,' certain ongoing, rarely mentioned, difficulties for the activist Left are explored with unlikely candour. In 'Four Letters from an Ongoing Series,' the postal service becomes an unwitting accomplice to the gatekeepers of potential culture. Finally, in the essay 'Like a Priest Who Has Lost Faith,' questions of art and emptiness shift focus in relation to the agency that at all times surrounds us.

If our wealth is criminal then let's live with the criminal joy of pirates

Literary

Fiction. Finalist for the 2016 Quebec Writers' Federation Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. The Globe 100: Best Books of 2016 Selection. Who hasn't, at one time or another, considered killing a billionaire? Following on the critical success of his novel POLYAMOROUS LOVE SONG (BookThug, 2014), Montreal-based writer and performer Jacob Wren picks up the mantle of the politically and economically disenfranchised in RICH AND POOR—the story of a middle-class, immigrant pianist who has fallen on hard times, and now finds himself washing dishes to make ends meet. Wren capably balances personal reflections with real-time political events, as his protagonist awakens to the possibility of a solution to his troubles and begins to formulate a plan of attack, in which the only answer is to get rid of "the 1%." RICH AND POOR is a rare work of literary fiction that cuts into the psychology of politics in ways that are off-kilter, unexpected, and unnerving. This compelling, fast-paced, and energizing read may just become the new Bible for adventure-seeking, politically active and/or interested readers who rowdily question their position among "the 99%." "For far too long, literature has deemed it inconvenient to speak about the rich and the poor. Jacob Wren's intriguing novel calls into question this very notion. The fascinating result resides in the author's intelligent use of class struggle as a narrative principle to drive the novel. The two men, who assume the contrasting roles, have the ability to analyze their actions and the facts of all that is around them, while at the same time remaining unaware of the nature of the forces they answer to."—Sergio Chejfec

Rich and Poor

What are the best ways to support political struggles that aren't your own? What are the fundamental principles of a utopia during war?&nbsp;Can we transcend the societal values we inherit? Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim is a remarkably original, literary page turner that explores such pressing questions of our time. A depressed writer visits a war zone. He knows it's a bad idea, but his curiosity, and obsession that his tax dollars help to pay for foreign wars, draw him there. Amidst the fighting, he stumbles into a small strip of land that's being reimagined as a grassroots, feminist, egalitarian utopia. As he learns about the principles of the collective, he moves between a fragile sense of self and the ethical considerations of writing about what he experiences but cannot truly fathom. Meanwhile, women in his life--from this reimagined society and elsewhere--underscore truths hidden in plain sight. In these pages, real world politics mingle with profoundly inventive fabulations. This is an anti-war novel unlike any other; an intricate study of our complicity in violent global systems and a celebration of the hope that underpins the resistance against them.

Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim

Genre Fiction

There is a joke that is sometimes made about Jacob Wren's new book Families Are Formed Through Copulation. The joke is that Families Are Formed Through Copulation is a book designed to convince the reader not to have children (or if they already have children simply not to have any more).Why should the reader not have children? Well, first they should honestly try to assess just exactly how they feel about their own parents. If this proves insufficient perhaps they might also contemplate the fact that the world we live in isn't particularly fit to bring a child into. Keep in mind this is only a joke. Mr. Wren is well aware of the fact that essentially he will convince no one. That people will continue to have children regardless. Families Are Formed Through Copulation is also a book that continuously hovers on the verge of becoming a novel, focusing on a distorted family situation that can certainly be read as that of a single family but just as easily can be seen as the multiple, overlapping experiences of many different families, perhaps even all families. This narrative ambiguity parallels the thematic moral ambiguity of the extreme situations the characters continuously find themselves within, never losing sight of the fact that our feelings towards our own families are some of the most personal and intense emotions we are capable of experiencing.Finally, and most ironically, Families Are Formed Through Copulation describes what happens when one such family comes into contact with a particularly convincing and conflicted conspiracy theorist, sharply parsing the paranoia and media-saturated secret service logic of the times in which we live.

Families Are Formed Through Copulation

Dramas & Plays

Pedlar Pr

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