May Updates: Yuan Changming's Lit Ventures

- finally, finally, the 30,000 copies of create abundance arrived safe and sound in a large container (with 46 pallets), and was delivered to the author's house in langley yesterday after so much frustration and insomnia i have suffered ever since i signed the publishing and transporting contract with the author/her representative in vancouver on 14 march 2015. as the very first major literary venture undertaken by Poetry Pacific Press after its establishment (on the remembrance day of 2013), this 382-page hardcover book is a milestone in my literary career: not only am i the translator, editor, proofreader, copy-editor, product manager and publisher of the bilingual edition of the book, but i also served as the agent solely responsible for its printing, packaging, transporting, importing (from china to canada) and delivering (to the door of the author). during the 70 days, i was haunted by problems one after another. while the author/representative was demanding and gave me daily pressure for high-quality production and prompt delivery, i had to work with inefficient, unprofessional and irresponsible people in shenzhen and vancouver from time to time. in a word, this hands-on project has been quite a literary ordeal for me.

anyway, all is well that ends well: the book is released today, and i got all the expenses fully reimbursed when attending the monthly free seminar held by create abundance in sheralton hotel in richmond this morning. here is the basic information on the book::

title: CREATE ABUNDANCE 《创造丰盛》 
author: Zhang Xinyue 张馨月
translator: Yuan Changming 袁昌明
publisher: PP Press (ISBN：978-0-9919298-3-2)

- today, the author's representative told me to go ahead with the second book wisdom about abundance, a similar project, but they need to add some contents. once i receive their additions, i will translate all the contents into english and then.... again!

- a backnote:: on 4 may, i hit upon the idea to establish something tentatively called 'yuan changming poetry bursary' with the university of saskatchewan, where i received nearly 80,000 dollars 'graduate dean's scholarship', without which i could never have even moved to canada, not to mention to have obtained my phd in english, thus embarked on poetry writing/publishing. my initial idea is to donate 1,000 dollars each year, for 30 years. i have not worked out the details yet, but i would encourage the teaching, publishing of or research on canadian poetry by non-native speakers of english.

- in september, i will have a china-tour in and near shanghai with my wife; i need some rest, and in particular, some refreshing experience to get more inspirations for my poetry; this year, i have not been able to write any really good poetry, though i keep writing...

- Koon told me that my fifth chapbook kinship: for yuan hongqi and liu yu will become available in 10 days or so, and here is the link:: http://chrysanthemumupublicationinc.blogspot.ca/

- on may 24, i received the proof of my chapbook origin of letters, to be released shortly by beard of bees press. the cover design is fantastic.