ribsauce is a unique compilation of literature and sound recordings, featuring some of Canada's best women writers and performance artists. Presented in collaboration with Wired on Words, one of Canada's premier spoken word recording labels, this combination of book and CD reveals the ways in which language and sound are manipulated and muscled into place by women who push the boundaries of genre and form. The book delves into a diverse array of genre and cross-genre, from poetry and prose to plays and dramatic monologues, and everything in between. The works in this collection experiment with narrative and voice, text and image, and includes contributions from writers such as Heather O'Neill, Alice Tepexcuintle, Emily Pohl-Weary, Hiromi Goto, Marie Clements, and Erin Mouré. The recorded artists merge content with the force of metre and mannerism, sound sampling and crooning, producing an assorted soundscape, a virtual stage for the infinite melodies and rhythms harboured in the spoken word. Whether exemplifying traditional spoken word, dub poetry, storytelling, hip hop or performance art, many of the voices on the CD come from such established word artists as Debbie Young, Catherine Kidd, Judy MacInnes Jr., Sheri-D Wilson, and Geneviève Letarte. At times comedic and poignant, edgy and insightful, ribsauce investigates the intersections between text, performance, language and sound, where some of the most interesting and challenging new writing is being produced today.

Taien Ng-Chan is a Montreal writer and editor, originally from Calgary via Vancouver. In 2000 two of her short radio dramas were aired on CBC Radio and she was a winner of the CBC New Voices Radio Drama Competition. She produces art/lit websites such as wagpress.net.
Alex Boutros and Kaarla Sundström are sound poets who have performed collaboratively since 1997. They produce and host the acclaimed cabaret series Legba. Their CD, Mouthful, was released in fall 2001. Both are classically-trained musicians (University of Western Ontario) which influences their performance work.

Taien Ng-Chan's profile page

Alex Boutros' profile page

Kaarla Sundstrom's profile page

"Editor Taien Ng-Chan has done an impressive job of selecting some of the finest writers around, regardless of gender...Almost every page in the book is a revelation, and I can't recommend it highly enough; suffice it to say that this is a collection that will be treasured by many." -Melora Koepke, Montreal Hour
"More than simply a feminist project, Ribsauce is an exploration of the region where sound, meaning and performance intersect. As these women demonstrate, literature is moving beyond poets at podiums and novel-reading in armchairs." -Montreal Gazette
"A few simple elements make this anthology quite effective beyond a collection of fresh, young voices. First is the neo-feminist iconoclasm of a title like "ribsauce" with its play upon American culture and biblical origins. Second is the inclusion of literal, rather than merely literary, voices in the form of a 16-track CD of stunning spoken word performances. This means that Ribsauce manages to entertain, while defying expectations." -Digital Journal
"An ambitious project...brash and touching." -Maria Simpson, Montreal Review of Books
"Impeccably produced." -Cantext