About Soluble Fish
Soluble Fish is a lecture and discussion series about some aspect of the arts, hosted by Beatriz Hausner and Russell Smith. The name is inspired by the first published book of “automatic” writing, Poisson Soluble (1924) by Andre Breton, and reflects our interest in all things avant-garde or contrarian.
Previous talks have been about surrealism, visual poetry, poetry in popular music, violence in the arts, the literature of food, Barbie as work of art, the role of the mistress in the history of art, the influence of gay designers on the fashion of the 1970s, famous female artists, and the history of a couple of obscure avant-garde movements. The talks take place either at the Free Times Cafe in Toronto or the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto. Previous speakers have included George Elliott Clarke, Ray Ellenwood, Giovanna Riccio, Heidi von Palleske, Karl Jirgens, Jennifer Dale, Victoria Hetherington, Arnie Guha and others.
The talks are free to attend, but we do pass around a hat for donations to cover our expenses.
We welcome submissions of ideas for talks from anyone who is an expert in any artistic field – email us at russellsmithauthor@gmail.com or beatrizhausner@gmail.com if you have a good idea.
Beatriz Hausner
Beatriz Hausner is a poet who writes about poetics, literary and artistic culture, book history, and the many ways in which these topics intersect, especially within the context of contemporary and historical surrealism. She Who Lies Above is her most recent poetry collection and can be obtained through Book*Hug Press, and independent bookstores. https://beatrizhausner.com
Russell Smith
Russell Smith is the author of nine works of fiction and one of non-fiction. His most recent novel is Self Care. He wrote and presented the CBC Radio “Ideas” show “Tick Tock Bang: Noise in Modern Art”, and was the host and co-writer of the popular CBC Radio program about language, And Sometimes Y, for two seasons. He was a weekly columnist on the arts for the national Globe and Mail for 20 years. He was an acquiring editor at Dundurn Press from 2019-2026. russellsmithauthor.com
