The Coffee Guest    Bonnie Nish interviews  ~ Sean McGarragle and Chystalene Buhler     With the launch of Wayne “Overload” Mercier’s book ‘Opsethai’ at the Crush Champagne Lounge, on Wednesday July 7th at 7:30 pm, Ten Dollar Words has clearly become an innovative force in the West Coast publishing industry. This new book of poetry, which is spoken word based, shows that Ten Dollar Words is tearing up new ground and crossing over into territory that no one else is yet to have done.    Innovation is a word that is at the heart of Ten Dollar Words. Two years ago when most people were busy planning for their spring gardens Sean McGarragle (The brains behind the very successful West Coast Poetry Festival) was approaching some good friends and colleagues and planting the seeds for Ten Dollar Words.    “The first person I approached was Doc (he fondly refers to Chystalene Buhler his co-editor this way) I knew I wanted her. I approached her when she was exhausted so I knew that she wouldn’t refuse.”   Once Doc was on board it didn’t take long for the word to get out. DJ Fraser approached them about becoming a part of the newly formed group. Then with Neil Varner and Angela Knight, Ten Dollar Words began to produce its first book, an anthology of BC writers. It didn’t take long to get submissions and produce the book.   But once the book was complete, Neil and DJ were off in other directions leaving the others to decide where to go next. At this point Rob Pietrobon joined the group and then they decided that Sean Gardiner would be the final link to complete the mix. Once the group was in place, they all knew they wanted to do something ground breaking.           “I saw “Overload,” read at Word on the Street at the Poets Corner,” says Sean almost in awe. “He did six or seven pieces back to back. People walking by stopped dead cold. He was the only performer to halt walk by traffic like that. All ages, all types of poetry fans locked together there.”    What is it about Overload that appeals to so many people and made a young publishing company decide to back him with his first book? According to Sean, Wayne is a performance poet who crosses over. He has an intellectual basis to support everything that he says. He can wow them at the libraries, or at the poetry stage at the Folk Festival. He isn’t afraid to challenge his reader with his knowledge or vocabulary and make them work for what they get. “The bite to his work has almost an academic quality to it. He is absolutely astonishing.” Anyone who heard him perform at the West Coast Poetry Festival will agree with Sean.    “Seeing him perform for the first time", Chrystalene remembers, “ It took me two to three days to come down. His stuff is amazing. The two forms work together."    And Ten Dollar Words hopes this will be the first of many of this kind of work in the publishing industry as well as within the writing community. A place both spoken word and textual poetry can meet and find a home.          Where to next? Eventually they hope to be publishing twenty great books a year and with the vision these five clearly have shown in their choices of the first two books they have published, it won’t be long before we are seeing them as a literary force to be noticed. Soothsayers of our times finding and bringing us the next great works of poetry to be remembered long after they are gone. Visit their website for further details: www.tendollarwords.com Previous Interviews: T Paul Ste. Marie Ariadne Sawyer ~ Re: The world Poetry Reading Series Johnny Frem ~ Re: Bolts of Fiction Liars of Orpheus ~ Re: The intentions of Orpheus Estelle Bogoch ~ Re: Crosswords for Gardeners Byron Sheardown ~ Re: Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine Home