Author, Editor,
Educator
(Under construction!)
Welcome!
To my great surprise, old friends, colleagues, and lovely strangers from around the world have sometimes wanted to talk about my writing and work. Hopefully this landing spot makes things easier for anyone who wants to figure out how to get in touch with me.
I'm Dr. Jeffrey Aaron Weingarten, and, against the advice of my mentors in grad school, I sometimes publish as J.A. Weingarten. For years, I co-edited a popular online mag The Bull Calf with colleagues and friends, but now I mostly write alone in well-lit rooms with numerous distractions, most of which are self-generated.
I have been teaching, writing, and publishing for twenty years. For a long time, a lot of that work was focused on Canadian literature and history, but I now look to other vistas: creative writing, trade paperback histories, memoir, poetry, and whatever else I feel like doing while my coffee cools on my desk.
I also provide editing, writing, and workshopping services. Please feel free to inquire below!
Recent Publications
The Weather and the Words: The Selected Letters of John Newlove, 1963-2003, gathers hundreds of never-before-seen letters from the poet John Newlove’s archives and sheds light on an author who was, to many Canadian writers, a literary master. Despite his stature during his lifetime, Newlove has been largely forgotten, and these letters remind readers of what an influential, compelling, and combative figure he was in Canadian literary history.
Newlove lived and wrote during a time when Canadian writers were well-funded, widely read, and members of thriving literary communities. By the time he died in 2003, that culturally prosperous era had ended. Something else had changed, too: the practice of letter writing began to disappear as email replaced mailed correspondence. Telling the story of Newlove’s life, The Weather and the Words pays tribute not just to this one remarkable poet, but also to a remarkable era in Canadian history and the lost art of letter writing, the medium through which writers, politicians, and other public figures fought, collaborated, conferred, and philosophized about art and culture throughout the twentieth century.
In Newlove’s correspondence readers will find a compelling story about the incredible difficulty of establishing a literary career and raising a family while struggling with poverty, addiction, and mental health issues. Through colourful letters Newlove exchanged with Canadian writers such as Margaret Atwood, Susan Musgrave, Michael Ondaatje, Al Purdy, and numerous others, The Weather and the Words gives readers a ground-level view of Newlove’s life and era. The book includes a foreword by Lorna Crozier, an introduction by editor J.A. Weingarten, and an afterword by Laura Cameron.