subTerrain turns 20

subTerrain, the literary magazine of “strong words for a polite nation,” celebrated its twentieth year in print last week at Cafe Montmartre on Main Street in Vancouver. Brian Kaufmann, the never-aging publisher of both subTerrain and the equally venerable Anvil Press, had a seat at the table selling copies of Number 50 as well as some handsome T-shirts which (I discover as I write) are not yet available on the website—soon, no doubt. Among the outlaw writers present was Daniel Francis, venerable editor of the Encyclopedia of British Columbia, and more recently author of Red Light Neon, a history of the sex trades in Vancouver. Francis gave a reading from his contribution to the new issue of the magazine, an amusing and thoughtful meditation on “The Best Place on Earth,” the nausea-inducing provincial slogan for B.C. coined by the Liberal government. The place on earth in which the friends of subTerrain had gathered on a rainy night was, on the other hand, certainly “good enough, maybe even great.” Music was provided by Sandy Bone and the Breakdown, who played magnificently on into the night. subTerrain publishes three times a year and has a circulation of 4000.