Office of the Mayor
City of Kelowna
British Columbia
Random Acts of Poetry Week and Poet Laureate’s Day
WHEARAS Random Acts of Poetry is a celebration of poetry and literacy; and
WHEREAS Acclaimed poets across Canada from Victoria to Newfoundland will commit Random Acts of Poetry in their cities and towns; and
WHEREAS The Parliamentary Poet Laureate’s role is to encourage and promote the importance of literature, culture and language in Canadian Society; and
WHEREAS The University of British Columbia Okanagan and Project Literacy Kelowna Society together dedicate this day and this week to the enjoyment and appreciation of poetry and literacy.
Therefore I, Sharon Shepherd, as Mayor of the City of Kelowna, do hereby proclaim October 1st through October 7th
Random Acts of Poetry Week, and
Today, October 3d
Poet Laureate’s Day
in the City of Kelowna, Province of British Columbia
Friday, August 31, 2007
TAG-ALONG RANDOM ACTS OF POETRY
Bowen Island poets, Bernice Lever, Lisa Shatzky, Jude Neal and Heather Haley will be reading their poems on Bowen Island, giving them to passersby, shoppers and those waiting for the ferry in Tag-along Random Acts of Poetry, during Random Acts of Poetry Week. Although not part of the official program, these published poets have been inspired to take poetry to the streets.
Jannie Edwards
Jannie Edwards is a tango student, recovering ironist, and laughter afficionada. She is pleased to again be part of Random Acts of Poetry. She participated in the first Random Acts of Poetry in 2004, where she and fellow poet Wendy McGrath took poetry to (among other places) Edmonton's Waste Management Plant, a high school football team's outdoor practice, and the Canadian Forces Military Base. Possibly she had ideas of flowers stuck in gun barrels, poems in tanks, children in the morning. . . . This year, Jannie is hoping to take RAP to the Smoky Lake Pumpkin Festival. Her second book is Blood Opera: The Raven Tango Poems.
Daniel Scott Tysdal
Daniel Scott Tysdal is a poet from Moose Jaw. His first book of poetry, Predicting the Next Big Advertising Breakthrough Using a Potentially Dangerous Method (Coteau 2006), received the 2007 ReLit Award, 2006 Anne Szumigalski Poetry Award, and the 2005 John V. Hicks Award. His poetry has appeared in a number of Canadian literary journals and earned him both an honourable mention at the 2003 National Magazine Awards and a place in the finals of the CBC’s 2005 National Poetry Face-Off. He is currently completing an MA in the Field of Creative Writing at the University of Toronto.
Mary Dalton
Mary Dalton teaches in the Department of English at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s. Her poems, reviews, essays and interviews have been published in journals and anthologies in Canada, Ireland and the United States. She is a former editor of TickleAce and of the interdisciplinary journal Newfoundland Studies.
She is the author of four books of poetry, The Time of Icicles (Breakwater, 1989 and 1991), Allowing the Light (Breakwater, 1993), Merrybegot (Véhicule Press, 2003), Red Ledger (Véhicule, 2006). Merrybegot was also released as an audiobook by Rattling Books in 2005. A letterpress chapbook, Between You and the Weather, is forthcoming from Running the Goat Books and Broadsides in 2007.
Dalton has won various awards for her poetry, among them the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competition for Poetry in 1997, 2002 and 2006; and the inaugural TickleAce/Cabot Award for Poetry in 1998. Merrybegot won the 2005 E.J. Pratt Poetry Award. It was also shortlisted for the 2004 all-genre Winterset Award, the 2004 Pat Lowther Memorial Poetry Award, and the 2006 Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Award. Red Ledger was chosen as one of the Choice Books of 2006 in The Globe and Mail and was shortlisted for the E.J. Pratt Poetry Award and the Atlantic Poetry Award in 2007.
A brief interview with Mary Dalton appears on the CBC website Words at Large, where she is featured as Poet of the Month for March 2007.
She is the author of four books of poetry, The Time of Icicles (Breakwater, 1989 and 1991), Allowing the Light (Breakwater, 1993), Merrybegot (Véhicule Press, 2003), Red Ledger (Véhicule, 2006). Merrybegot was also released as an audiobook by Rattling Books in 2005. A letterpress chapbook, Between You and the Weather, is forthcoming from Running the Goat Books and Broadsides in 2007.
Dalton has won various awards for her poetry, among them the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competition for Poetry in 1997, 2002 and 2006; and the inaugural TickleAce/Cabot Award for Poetry in 1998. Merrybegot won the 2005 E.J. Pratt Poetry Award. It was also shortlisted for the 2004 all-genre Winterset Award, the 2004 Pat Lowther Memorial Poetry Award, and the 2006 Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Award. Red Ledger was chosen as one of the Choice Books of 2006 in The Globe and Mail and was shortlisted for the E.J. Pratt Poetry Award and the Atlantic Poetry Award in 2007.
A brief interview with Mary Dalton appears on the CBC website Words at Large, where she is featured as Poet of the Month for March 2007.
Agnes Walsh
Agnes Walsh is a Canadian actor, poet, playwright and storyteller from Newfoundland. Walsh was born in Placentia.
Walsh has won Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters awards for poetry as well as TickleAce poetry and ballad writing awards. Her poems have been translated into French and Portuguese. She has toured Canada, the eastern
United States, Portugal, and Ireland reading from her work.
Walsh is also the founder of the Tramore Theatre Troupe on the Cape Shore of Placentia Bay, an ensemble dedicated to preserving and presenting the oral history of that area. The group has performed to packed houses in both Newfoundland and Ireland and hosted Irish cultural exchanges to the Cape Shore area.
She has adapted an Icelandic novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Halldor Laxness for the theatre.
In 2006, she was named the first poet laureate for St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Walsh has won Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters awards for poetry as well as TickleAce poetry and ballad writing awards. Her poems have been translated into French and Portuguese. She has toured Canada, the eastern
United States, Portugal, and Ireland reading from her work.
Walsh is also the founder of the Tramore Theatre Troupe on the Cape Shore of Placentia Bay, an ensemble dedicated to preserving and presenting the oral history of that area. The group has performed to packed houses in both Newfoundland and Ireland and hosted Irish cultural exchanges to the Cape Shore area.
She has adapted an Icelandic novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Halldor Laxness for the theatre.
In 2006, she was named the first poet laureate for St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Pam Calabrese MacLean
Pam Calabrese MacLean lives in Antigonish, Nova Scotia where she works in the Library of St. Francis Xavier University. Her poems have appeared in such literary journals as The Antigonish Review, Dandelion, subTerrain (Canada); Concrete Wolf, Passager (United States); and The New Writer (Great Britain). Her poetry has won numerous awards from competitions in Matrix, Other Voices, Zygote, CV2 and OnceWritten.com.
Calabrese MacLean was the recipient of the 2000 and the 2003 Ray Burrell Poetry Award. In 2003 a suite of her poems, On A Chair Outside The Living, was awarded 3rd prize in an international competition from Britain¹s The New Writer.
Her flash fiction has appeared in two US anthologies: Women Behaving Badly, 2004 and Blink, 2006.
Calabrese MacLean¹s first play, Her Father¹s Barn, was produced by Festival Antigonish as part of their late night series in 2002. An excerpt from the play saw production (Winnipeg and Brandon, MB) in 2004 by Sarasvati Production¹s International Women¹s Festival. Her Father¹s Barn went on to award winning performances at The London Fringe Festival (2005) and Liverpool International Theatre Festival (2006), before being invited to The Uno Festival in Victoria, BC (2007).
In 2006 Calabrese MacLean co-edited Flavours of Varmland for the Varmland Museum in Sweden.
Calabrese MacLean was the featured poet in the spring issue of the literary ezine Artistry of Life: http://www.artistryoflife.org/
She was also awarded first place in the International Wisteria Poetry
Competition. Her first collection of poems, Twenty-four Names for Mother, was published Spring 2006 by The Paper Journey Press, located in Wake Forest, North Carolina http://thepaperjourney.com/
Twenty-four Names for Mother is Ms. MacLean's first published book of poetry. Describing the dark, the dangerous, the delightful, and oft times damaging aspects of dealing with a mother, her poems offer both insight and clarity to a situation shared by all. A mother herself, her perspective comes from both sides of the border of motherhood.
Calabrese MacLean was the recipient of the 2000 and the 2003 Ray Burrell Poetry Award. In 2003 a suite of her poems, On A Chair Outside The Living, was awarded 3rd prize in an international competition from Britain¹s The New Writer.
Her flash fiction has appeared in two US anthologies: Women Behaving Badly, 2004 and Blink, 2006.
Calabrese MacLean¹s first play, Her Father¹s Barn, was produced by Festival Antigonish as part of their late night series in 2002. An excerpt from the play saw production (Winnipeg and Brandon, MB) in 2004 by Sarasvati Production¹s International Women¹s Festival. Her Father¹s Barn went on to award winning performances at The London Fringe Festival (2005) and Liverpool International Theatre Festival (2006), before being invited to The Uno Festival in Victoria, BC (2007).
In 2006 Calabrese MacLean co-edited Flavours of Varmland for the Varmland Museum in Sweden.
Calabrese MacLean was the featured poet in the spring issue of the literary ezine Artistry of Life: http://www.artistryoflife.org/
She was also awarded first place in the International Wisteria Poetry
Competition. Her first collection of poems, Twenty-four Names for Mother, was published Spring 2006 by The Paper Journey Press, located in Wake Forest, North Carolina http://thepaperjourney.com/
Twenty-four Names for Mother is Ms. MacLean's first published book of poetry. Describing the dark, the dangerous, the delightful, and oft times damaging aspects of dealing with a mother, her poems offer both insight and clarity to a situation shared by all. A mother herself, her perspective comes from both sides of the border of motherhood.
MacDonald, Hugh, Charlottetown, PEI
Born 24 July, 1945, Hugh MacDonald retired after 31 years of teaching high school and now writes full time. He has a B.A. from Saint Dunstan’s University in Charlottetown. He lives with his wife Sandra, and two of six children, in the community of Brudenell in eastern PEI on the bank of the beautiful Montague River. He has nine books to his credit: Chung Lee Loves Lobsters (Annick Press, 1992), Looking for Mother (Black Moss Press, 1995), The Digging of Deep Wells (Black Moss Press, 1997), and Tossed Like Weeds from the Garden (Black Moss Press, 1999) and Cold Against the Heart (Black Moss Press) 2003. He also co-edited with Brent MacLaine: Landmarks:An Anthology of New Atlantic Poetry of the Land (The Acorn Press, 2001), and with Alice Reese A Bountiful Harvest: Fifteen Years of the Island Literary Awards (The Acorn Press, 2002). His new novel, Murder at Mussel Cove will be released in September of 2005 along with a third anthology, Letting Go: An Anthology of Loss and Survival. Chung Lee Loves Lobsters won the LM Montgomery PEI Literature for Children Competition in 1990. He was the recipient of the Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literary Awards on PEI in 2004.
Anne Cimon
Anne Cimon is a Montreal poet and literary journalist. Her latest
collections are All We Need/Tout ce qu'il faut (2002) and An Angel around the Corner/ Un ange autour du coin (2004) published by Borealis Press. These bilingual editions reflect her french heritage. She is comfortable reading in either language and hopes to do so for the Random Acts of Poetry in her city and neighbouring towns.
Anne's poems have appeared in Quills, freefall, and her tanka in Gusts
magazine.She often reads at local venues such as the Yellow Door Coffeehouse and the Arts Café. She has also read at Toronto's ArtsBar Series. Her other collections are A Skin of Snow (1981) and No Country for Women(Mosaic Press, 1993). Her most recent book is a short biography: Susanna Moodie: Pioneer Author (XYZ Publishing,2006) inspired by her interest in nineteenth century
literature.
She lives in Montreal.
collections are All We Need/Tout ce qu'il faut (2002) and An Angel around the Corner/ Un ange autour du coin (2004) published by Borealis Press. These bilingual editions reflect her french heritage. She is comfortable reading in either language and hopes to do so for the Random Acts of Poetry in her city and neighbouring towns.
Anne's poems have appeared in Quills, freefall, and her tanka in Gusts
magazine.She often reads at local venues such as the Yellow Door Coffeehouse and the Arts Café. She has also read at Toronto's ArtsBar Series. Her other collections are A Skin of Snow (1981) and No Country for Women(Mosaic Press, 1993). Her most recent book is a short biography: Susanna Moodie: Pioneer Author (XYZ Publishing,2006) inspired by her interest in nineteenth century
literature.
She lives in Montreal.
Élizabeth Robert
Élizabeth Robert, founder of Montréal¹s multilingual public reading series Noches de poesía and literary translator, was born in Beloeil, Québec. Daughter of an Anglophone father and a French speaking mother, she has always had a predisposition to learning new languages and is always eager to learn about new cultures.
On a daily basis, Élizabeth fluently speaks Spanish, English and French. Living in Montréal since her early twenties, she has studied and picked up some Italian, German, Arabic and other languages. Élizabeth holds a BA in Spécialisation de traduction (English into French) from Concordia University and has started an MA in Traductologie littéraire. She is a full member and the new recording secretary of the Literary Translators Association of Canada
literary translations of poetry collections from English into French. Over the past few years, Élizabeth has participated in various literary
celebrations, namely: Poésie des femmes du monde (at Montréal¹s Blue Metropolis 7th edition ); a tribute to Pablo Neruda: Marinero en tierra; she also organized and took part in a Translation Slam during the joint conference between the LTAC and the American Literary Translators Association. Elizabeth attended the joint conference between the Banff International Literary Translation Centre and the LTAC in June 2007. She frequently organizes and hosts round tables,fundraising events involving poets and authors as well as community and literary events aiming to create dialogues between communities and people, using languages and cultures. She is very passionate about fostering understanding and an increased first hand knowledge of others; she hopes to help maintain harmony in our ever growing multicultural society.
Élizabeth published her first translation at Triptyque in 2004, La bête
mystique (her French version of Stephen Morrissey¹s The Mystic Beast); then, in 2005, a short bilingual presentation of four English speaking female poets living in Montréal (Un quatuor de femmes poètes anglophones) complete with bios and translations in Arcade volume 63; her French translation of one of Stephanie Bolster¹s poem was featured on the docks of Montréal¹s metro stations as part of La poésie prend le métro, 2005 edition. In 2006, some of her translations were published in a Canadian Anthology of literary translations TransLit, vol. 7. Finally, in 2007, her French adaptation of Lance Blomgren¹s Walkups was published at Adage edition, under the title
Walkups: scènes de la vie montréalaise
. This collection of poetic
postcard stories takes the reader through various appartments in the city, visiting their architecture, their inhabitants and the daily chores they perform. In February 2007, Élizabeth published some of her own poems in the collective chapbook thelawnchairsoiree, at Sitting Duck Press.
Élizabeth works closely with Danielle Shelton
, ADAGE editions¹ president, promoting migrant literature in Canada. Member of the Board of Diffusion Adage, Élizabeth Robert created in 2006 the multilingual public reading series Noches de poesía where she welcomes every first Wednesday of the month, poetry lovers, authors and aficionados who gather in a Montréal restaurant to read, hear and exchange about poetry, languages and culture in many languages. In 2007, Élizabeth was the interim editor of Young Poets
. She hired the new French editor Maria Luisa Romano and worked with Chelsea Rooney
,
English Editor, at the promotion, production and publication of Re:verse , the young poets online magazine.
On a daily basis, Élizabeth fluently speaks Spanish, English and French. Living in Montréal since her early twenties, she has studied and picked up some Italian, German, Arabic and other languages. Élizabeth holds a BA in Spécialisation de traduction (English into French) from Concordia University and has started an MA in Traductologie littéraire. She is a full member and the new recording secretary of the Literary Translators Association of Canada
literary translations of poetry collections from English into French. Over the past few years, Élizabeth has participated in various literary
celebrations, namely: Poésie des femmes du monde (at Montréal¹s Blue Metropolis 7th edition
Élizabeth published her first translation at Triptyque in 2004, La bête
mystique (her French version of Stephen Morrissey¹s The Mystic Beast); then, in 2005, a short bilingual presentation of four English speaking female poets living in Montréal (Un quatuor de femmes poètes anglophones) complete with bios and translations in Arcade volume 63; her French translation of one of Stephanie Bolster¹s poem was featured on the docks of Montréal¹s metro stations as part of La poésie prend le métro, 2005 edition. In 2006, some of her translations were published in a Canadian Anthology of literary translations TransLit, vol. 7. Finally, in 2007, her French adaptation of Lance Blomgren¹s Walkups was published at Adage edition, under the title
Walkups: scènes de la vie montréalaise
postcard stories takes the reader through various appartments in the city, visiting their architecture, their inhabitants and the daily chores they perform. In February 2007, Élizabeth published some of her own poems in the collective chapbook thelawnchairsoiree, at Sitting Duck Press.
Élizabeth works closely with Danielle Shelton
English Editor, at the promotion, production and publication of Re:verse
Angela Leuck
Angela Leuck is an award-winning haiku and tanka poet whose work has been published in journals and anthologies around the world. She is the author of Flower Heart (Blue Ginkgo Press, 2006) and of two chapbooks, haiku white and haiku noir (Carve, 2007). She has edited numerous anthologies, including Rose Haiku for Flower Lovers and Gardeners (Price-Patterson, 2005), Tulip Haiku (Shoreline, 2004) and, with Maxianne Berger, Sun Through the Blinds: Montreal Haiku Today (Shoreline, 2003). A full member of the League of Canadian Poets, she is the Quebec Regional Coordinator for Haiku Canada. In
2005, along with Kozue Uzawa she co-founded Tanka Canada and served for a year as editor of its biannual publication gusts.
2005, along with Kozue Uzawa she co-founded Tanka Canada and served for a year as editor of its biannual publication gusts.
Marilyn Lerch
Marilyn Lerch lives in Sackville, New Brunswick, and knows about random acts. She has committed many with the Band of Roving Poets which roves during festivals and other occasions in the town she has grown to love. A cycle of poems called "Lambs & Llamas, Ewes & Me" was published in 200l. Her first collection of poetry, "Moon Loves Its Light" followed in 2004 and in early spring 2008, "Witness and Resist" will be published by Morgaine House, Montreal. Marilyn is currently serving as president of the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick. and volunteers with PFLAG Canada.
Greg Cook
Gregory M. Cook was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. As one of three poets in his immediate family, he has made writers and their survival a personal and a professional study. His biography of his close friend of twenty years, One Heart, One Way/ Alden Nowlan: a writer’s life, was undertaken following a two-year appointment as writer-in-residence at the University of Waterloo. More recently he has lived in Toronto, Fredericton, and Saint John, New Brunswick, where he is writing a biography of his friend, novelist Ernest Buckler (1908-1984). During Random Acts of Poetry he will read from his new and selected poems, Songs of the Wounded (Black Moss Press).
Cook has read from his works in schools, universities and libraries in all Canadian provinces, and the Yukon – as well as in Maine and Georgia, USA; England; the Netherlands; and Germany. He is a member of Writers’ Union of Canada , The League of Canadian Poets and the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick , and an honourary member of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.
Cook has read from his works in schools, universities and libraries in all Canadian provinces, and the Yukon – as well as in Maine and Georgia, USA; England; the Netherlands; and Germany. He is a member of Writers’ Union of Canada , The League of Canadian Poets and the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick , and an honourary member of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.
Joe Blades
Joe Blades has been giving readings and publishing his poetry since 1980. He is a writer, artist, and publisher-president of the independent, literary publishing house Broken Jaw Press Inc. founded by him in 1983, plus he is on the editorial board of revue ellipse mag.
Blades was born in Halifax, NS, Canada. A graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA, 1988), he is also an alumni of the Banff Centre, Maritime Writers Workshop, Sage Hill Writing Experience, and the Simon Fraser University Book Publishing Immersion Workshop.
Based in Fredericton, New Brunswick since 1990, he grew up in Elmsdale, and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He has also lived and/or worked in Port Hawksbury and Halifax, NS; Toronto; Montreal; Banff, AB; New York; Senta, Serbia; and Pale, Republika Srpska. On the road about three months every year, Blades does readings, lectures, and workshops across Canada, in the eastern USA, Scotland and Eastern Europe.
Blades exhibits bookworks, photographs, and objet d'art primarily in Canada and Europe. Since 1995, he has been a community radio producer-host at CHSR 97.9 FM with the three-time Barry Award-winning Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton's Writing & Art Show. Blades was curator of Videopoems: a screening for the 2003 Tidal Wave Film Festival, and he is the editor of ten books and chapbooks including Some Stuff on Canadian Spoken Word & Indie
Publishing (NCRA/ANRÉC, 2004) and UGLY: an instant spoken word chapbook anthology (Broken Jaw Press, 2007.
His poetry and art has appeared in over 55 trade and chapbook anthologies, and in numerous periodicals. Blades has authored 28 poetry chapbooks and limited edition artist books. His published four full-length poetry books are Cover Makes a Set (SpareTime Editions, 1990), River Suite (Insomniac Press, 1998), Open Road West (Broken Jaw Press, 2000, 2001), and Casemate Poems (Widows & Orphans, 2004). Serbian editions were published as Recna svita in the three authors-three book anthology Slike iz kanade: Tri kanadska pesnika (SKC Niš) and Pesme iz kazamata (i.p. Rad) in 2005.
In June 2007, Blades accepted an invitation to join the BlackTop Motorcycle Gang writers' group in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He was also elected, as the NB and PEI rep. to National Council of the League of Canadian Poets.
Blades was born in Halifax, NS, Canada. A graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA, 1988), he is also an alumni of the Banff Centre, Maritime Writers Workshop, Sage Hill Writing Experience, and the Simon Fraser University Book Publishing Immersion Workshop.
Based in Fredericton, New Brunswick since 1990, he grew up in Elmsdale, and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He has also lived and/or worked in Port Hawksbury and Halifax, NS; Toronto; Montreal; Banff, AB; New York; Senta, Serbia; and Pale, Republika Srpska. On the road about three months every year, Blades does readings, lectures, and workshops across Canada, in the eastern USA, Scotland and Eastern Europe.
Blades exhibits bookworks, photographs, and objet d'art primarily in Canada and Europe. Since 1995, he has been a community radio producer-host at CHSR 97.9 FM with the three-time Barry Award-winning Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton's Writing & Art Show. Blades was curator of Videopoems: a screening for the 2003 Tidal Wave Film Festival, and he is the editor of ten books and chapbooks including Some Stuff on Canadian Spoken Word & Indie
Publishing (NCRA/ANRÉC, 2004) and UGLY: an instant spoken word chapbook anthology (Broken Jaw Press, 2007.
His poetry and art has appeared in over 55 trade and chapbook anthologies, and in numerous periodicals. Blades has authored 28 poetry chapbooks and limited edition artist books. His published four full-length poetry books are Cover Makes a Set (SpareTime Editions, 1990), River Suite (Insomniac Press, 1998), Open Road West (Broken Jaw Press, 2000, 2001), and Casemate Poems (Widows & Orphans, 2004). Serbian editions were published as Recna svita in the three authors-three book anthology Slike iz kanade: Tri kanadska pesnika (SKC Niš) and Pesme iz kazamata (i.p. Rad) in 2005.
In June 2007, Blades accepted an invitation to join the BlackTop Motorcycle Gang writers' group in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He was also elected, as the NB and PEI rep. to National Council of the League of Canadian Poets.
Roger Bell
Roger Bell grew up in a small town on the Great Lakes and lives now close enough to Georgian Bay that he can see and smell the waters of Severn Sound. He is inordinately proud of his Honda Shadow ACE 750 motorcycle and recently, with two friends, circumnavigated Lake Huron on it. It will be his mobile base for his random acts of poetry. Bell is the author of two chapbooks and three full books of poetry, the latest being The Pissing Women of Lafontaine. His work has been read on the CBC and he has presented at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris.
James Dewar
James Dewar is a poet who actively promotes the popularization of poetry in the Toronto area through personal performances and by hosting poetry events with a laid-back comedic flare. His first full-length book of poetry, The Garden in the Machine was published (March 2007) by Hidden Brook Press. He has contributed dozens of stories and articles to various magazines and publications as a freelance writer and has published 2 chapbooks and been included in both Renaissance Conspiracy Anthologies.
He has been hosting his own Toronto Poetry Reading Series, emphasizing audience participation and on-the-spot poetry challenges, Hot-Sauced Words at the ultra-cool Queen West hangout, It’s Not a deli, for well over a year. He is a frequent feature at the Artbar and enjoys randomly walking up to open mics and reading both his own and his favourite writers’ poetry. James is a busy fellow these days starting up a spicy new business, Piquant Productions, with partner/author Sue Reynolds, publishing poetry chapbooks, performing as the Public Relations Director of the Writer’s Circle of Durham Region and offering poetry workshops through the Oshawa Arts Council and the WCDR on every aspect of poetry from editing poems to designing a “personal best” poetry feature set. He is proud to have been chosen to represent the poets of Canada and chomping at the bit to get at the general public during Random Acts of Poetry week!
He has been hosting his own Toronto Poetry Reading Series, emphasizing audience participation and on-the-spot poetry challenges, Hot-Sauced Words at the ultra-cool Queen West hangout, It’s Not a deli, for well over a year. He is a frequent feature at the Artbar and enjoys randomly walking up to open mics and reading both his own and his favourite writers’ poetry. James is a busy fellow these days starting up a spicy new business, Piquant Productions, with partner/author Sue Reynolds, publishing poetry chapbooks, performing as the Public Relations Director of the Writer’s Circle of Durham Region and offering poetry workshops through the Oshawa Arts Council and the WCDR on every aspect of poetry from editing poems to designing a “personal best” poetry feature set. He is proud to have been chosen to represent the poets of Canada and chomping at the bit to get at the general public during Random Acts of Poetry week!
Alison Pick
Alison Pick was the winner of the 2005 CBC Literary Award for Poetry, the 2003 National Magazine Award for Poetry, and the 2002 Bronwen Wallace Award for Poetry. Her first collection, Question & Answer, was short-listed for the Gerald Lampert Award and for a Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award. A new collection, The Dream World, is due out from McClelland & Stewart in 2008. Alison's novel, The Sweet Edge, was a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of 2005, and has recently been optioned for film. Alison Pick lives in Toronto.
Terry Ann Carter
Terry Ann Carter is the Ottawa co-ordinator for Learning Through The Arts. Her first book Waiting for Julia was published by Third Eye Press, London, Ont., 1999. An accomplished haiku poet, Carter has won several international awards and participated in the Basho Festival, Ueno, Japan (2004). She presented papers on the life of Chiyo-ni (17th Century Woman Haiku Master) at conferences in Kingston and Montreal and participated in the Montreal Zen Festival (McGill University) where she gave haiku readings and small book workshops. Her first place haiku in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (2007) will soon be carved into stone at the Burrard Street Sky Station in downtown Vancouver. A collection of haiku such green was published by Pendas Poets, London, Ont, in a Japanese accordion style hand made book (2005); her second book of lyrical poems, Transplanted, was published by Borealis Press (2006). Readings from this collection were presented at medical conferences at Queens University and King’s College, Waterloo. Carter serves the League of Canadian Poets as Education Chair and Haiku Canada as Vice President. Current projects include a collection of tanka about teaching experiences in China, and workshops involving photography and poetry. This is her third year as Random Acts poet for Ottawa.
Carmelo Militano
Carmelo Militano was born in the village of Cosoleto, Province of Reggio di Calabaria, Italy. He emigrated to Canada with his parents at a very young age. He attended the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg for post-secondary and graduate studies. He is also a member of the Assocation of Italian-Canadian Writers. Carmelo both lives with his family and works in Winnipeg.
Awards
San Bernardo Literary Prize(Italy), 2002
F.G. Bressani Literary award for Poetry(Canada), 2004
Shortlisted for the Eileen McTavish Skyes Award, (The Fate of Olives), 2007
Selected Works
The Fate of Olives (Olive Press, 2006) ISBN: 0-9737818-2-3
The Minotaur's Keys (Olive Press, 2005) ISBN: 0-9737818-1-5
Ariadne's Thread (Olive Press, 2004) ISBN: 0-9737818-0-7
Anthologies
The Dynamics of Cutural Exchange (Cusmano Press, 2002)
Books in Print
The Fate of Olives (Olive Press, 2006) ISBN: 0-9737818-2-3
The Minotaur's Keys (Olive Press, 2005) ISBN: 0-9737818-1-5, $10.00
Ariadne's Thread (Olive Press, 2004) ISBN: 0-9737818-0-7, $10.00
Awards
San Bernardo Literary Prize(Italy), 2002
F.G. Bressani Literary award for Poetry(Canada), 2004
Shortlisted for the Eileen McTavish Skyes Award, (The Fate of Olives), 2007
Selected Works
The Fate of Olives (Olive Press, 2006) ISBN: 0-9737818-2-3
The Minotaur's Keys (Olive Press, 2005) ISBN: 0-9737818-1-5
Ariadne's Thread (Olive Press, 2004) ISBN: 0-9737818-0-7
Anthologies
The Dynamics of Cutural Exchange (Cusmano Press, 2002)
Books in Print
The Fate of Olives (Olive Press, 2006) ISBN: 0-9737818-2-3
The Minotaur's Keys (Olive Press, 2005) ISBN: 0-9737818-1-5, $10.00
Ariadne's Thread (Olive Press, 2004) ISBN: 0-9737818-0-7, $10.00
Liz Zetlin
Liz Zetlin is a poet and visual artist. Her poetry has won a Stephen Leacock prize and the Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook award. Her first video poems, The Limestone Ghazals, were exhibited in art galleries in Canada and Ireland. One of her latest video poems, Pond, featuring Don McKay’s poem of the same name, is premiering at the Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film.
She’s currently serving as Owen Sound’s first Poet Laureate; co-artistic director of the annual Words Aloud Spoken Word & Storytelling Festival in Durham, Ontario; and co-producer/director of this year’s Festival Documentary and Educational DVD. Zetlin's publications include The Thing With Feathers, Taking Root, and Said the River.
During RAP week, she’ll be launching “Addictions of a Poet Laureate,” a chapbook of poems responsing to people, occasions and events that inspired her during Owen Sound’s 150 anniversary year.
Best known as a “nature poet with a twist,” Zetlin plants garlic to form words of prayer; inscribes words on ornamental gourds as catalysts for poems; grows grassy punctuation marks in her hay field and writes odes to these “modulators of meaning.”
After reading her third poetry collection, The Thing with Feathers (BuschekBooks, 2004) poet Jeanette Lynes cautions “you’ll never feel quite the same about things like milk, badminton or apostrophes. This is a book of sharp tastes and unflinching attentions, word-tangos with poets like Emily Dickinson and Don McKay, and fierce wrangles with hope and crows.” Russell Thornton says “With their clear depths of feeling, sharp intelligence, humour and verve, Zetlin’s poems are original and irresistible.”
links:
League of Canadian Poets: www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/zetlin.htm
Owen Sound Poet Laureate: www.owensound.library.on.ca/page.php?PageID=59
Words Aloud Spoken Word Festival: www.wordsaloud.ca
She’s currently serving as Owen Sound’s first Poet Laureate; co-artistic director of the annual Words Aloud Spoken Word & Storytelling Festival in Durham, Ontario; and co-producer/director of this year’s Festival Documentary and Educational DVD. Zetlin's publications include The Thing With Feathers, Taking Root, and Said the River.
During RAP week, she’ll be launching “Addictions of a Poet Laureate,” a chapbook of poems responsing to people, occasions and events that inspired her during Owen Sound’s 150 anniversary year.
Best known as a “nature poet with a twist,” Zetlin plants garlic to form words of prayer; inscribes words on ornamental gourds as catalysts for poems; grows grassy punctuation marks in her hay field and writes odes to these “modulators of meaning.”
After reading her third poetry collection, The Thing with Feathers (BuschekBooks, 2004) poet Jeanette Lynes cautions “you’ll never feel quite the same about things like milk, badminton or apostrophes. This is a book of sharp tastes and unflinching attentions, word-tangos with poets like Emily Dickinson and Don McKay, and fierce wrangles with hope and crows.” Russell Thornton says “With their clear depths of feeling, sharp intelligence, humour and verve, Zetlin’s poems are original and irresistible.”
links:
League of Canadian Poets: www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/zetlin.htm
Owen Sound Poet Laureate: www.owensound.library.on.ca/page.php?PageID=59
Words Aloud Spoken Word Festival: www.wordsaloud.ca
Triny Finlay
Triny Finlay was born in Melbourne, Australia and raised in Toronto.
She is the author of Splitting Off (Nightwood Editions, 2004) and the
chapbook Phobic (Gaspereau Press, 2006), along with random and sundry poems, reviews, and rants. After soul-inspiring stints in Fredericton and Sackville, NB, she now lives in Toronto with her husband and 2-year-old son. When she's not outside watching for mobile cranes and skid steer loaders, she's at her desk filling small blue books with
footnotes, appendices and lists.
She is the author of Splitting Off (Nightwood Editions, 2004) and the
chapbook Phobic (Gaspereau Press, 2006), along with random and sundry poems, reviews, and rants. After soul-inspiring stints in Fredericton and Sackville, NB, she now lives in Toronto with her husband and 2-year-old son. When she's not outside watching for mobile cranes and skid steer loaders, she's at her desk filling small blue books with
footnotes, appendices and lists.
Kate Marshall Flaherty
Kate Marshall Flaherty is an award-winning poet, with poetry prizes from publications such as: Word Magazine, THIS Magazine, Freefall Literary Journal, and Scarborough Arts Council's Surface and Symbol. She was shortlisted for Descant's Winston Collins Best Canadian Poem 2006, and for Nimrod Journal's Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize 2006. Kate is one of the founders of the Childrens' Peace Theatre, teaches yoga/meditation, facilitates teen retreats, guides "writing as a spiritual practise" workshops, and lives in East Toronto with her three spirited children and husband. Her first book of poetry, entitled Tilted Equilibrium, was published by Hidden Brook Press 2006. Her chapbook, "Unfathom" won the Canadian Poetry Association's Shaunt Basmajian Award 2007, and follows her first chapbook, "Salt." She also has two cd's out, of poetry to soundscape, entitled "Deepening Stillness" and "String of Mysteries." Poetry is her life-line, and she has been know to have spontaneously committed random acts of poetry in Banff, Toronto, Ottawa, Parry Sound, Port Perry, Vaughan, Oakville, London, and New York.
Myna Wallin
MYNA WALLIN is a poet, prose writer, poetry editor and radio host. She has published three chapbooks: Vulnerable Positions (2002), The Old Abandonment (2003) and Warning Signs (2005), all with Believe Your Own Press. Her first full-length collection of poetry, A Thousand Profane Pieces, was published by Tightrope Books in 2006.
She has also been published in many literary journals and anthologies including: The Algonquin Square Table Anthology, Eye Weekly, Existere, Kiss Machine, Misunderstandings Magazine, Moosecall: Big Game, Small Stories, NoD, Taddle Creek Magazine, Surface and Symbol, Strong Words Anthology Part 2, and Word: Canada's Magazine for Readers and Writers.
She hosts "In Other Words" on the second Tuesday of every month at 2 pm on CKLN 88.1 FM, interviewing authors from across Canada. Myna is also an Art Bar team member for the Art Bar Poetry Reading Series. As of January 2007 Myna took over the position of Poetry Editor at Tightrope Books. And this year she also took over as co-organizer of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair (with Halli Villegas). Myna has her Masters degree in English Literature from U of T. She is currently working on a novella.
She has also been published in many literary journals and anthologies including: The Algonquin Square Table Anthology, Eye Weekly, Existere, Kiss Machine, Misunderstandings Magazine, Moosecall: Big Game, Small Stories, NoD, Taddle Creek Magazine, Surface and Symbol, Strong Words Anthology Part 2, and Word: Canada's Magazine for Readers and Writers.
She hosts "In Other Words" on the second Tuesday of every month at 2 pm on CKLN 88.1 FM, interviewing authors from across Canada. Myna is also an Art Bar team member for the Art Bar Poetry Reading Series. As of January 2007 Myna took over the position of Poetry Editor at Tightrope Books. And this year she also took over as co-organizer of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair (with Halli Villegas). Myna has her Masters degree in English Literature from U of T. She is currently working on a novella.
Charles Mountford
Charles Mountford has written two full-length books of poetry, published by Pendas Productions, London, and two chapbooks. He has also written the librettos for two operas on Canadian themes. His poems have appeared in Quarry, Prism International, The New Quarterly and Lamia Ink, New York. He has won First Prize, in the short poem category, at The Alberta Poetry Contest and a workshop prize from Carolyn Kizer at the Indiana International Writers’ Conference at the University of Indiana, Bloomington. He has received an Ontario Arts Council Grant for work on the manuscript of his third book. Currently, he and his wife, Ruth, divide their time between Stratford, Ontario and Quebec City.
Mary Ann Mulhern
Mary Ann Mulhern is a Canadian poet who lives in Windsor, Ontario.
The Red Dress , published by Black Moss Press is in third printing. Touch
the Dead, also published by Black Moss Press in 2006, is in second printing.
Mary Ann Mulhern has read at Shakespeare and Company, Paris, France. Her third book of narrative verse, ³The Chosen Ones², will be published in April, 2008.
The Red Dress , published by Black Moss Press is in third printing. Touch
the Dead, also published by Black Moss Press in 2006, is in second printing.
Mary Ann Mulhern has read at Shakespeare and Company, Paris, France. Her third book of narrative verse, ³The Chosen Ones², will be published in April, 2008.
Marilyn Gear Pilling
Marilyn Gear Pilling is the author of two collections of stories: My Nose Is A Gherkin Pickle Gone Wrong (Cormorant, 96) and The Roseate Spoonbill Of Happiness (Boheme, 02), and three books of poetry, The Field Next To Love (Black Moss, 02), The Life of the Four Stomachs (Black Moss, 06) and Cleavage: a Life in Breasts (Black Moss, 07). Pilling’s stories and poetry have won several national awards. She lives in Hamilton.
John B. Lee
John B. Lee's poetry has appeared internationally in over 500 publications. He is the winner of over sixty prestigious awards for poetry including being the only two time winner of the People's Poetry Award and being a recipient of the $10,000 CBC Literary Award. In 2006 he won the inaugural Orion Poetry Award (University of Windsor) and the Cranberry Tree Press Award.
His most recent books are How Beautiful We Are, Black Moss Press, 2006 and this year's R.A.P. title, Godspeed, also a Black Moss title. In 2005 he was named Poet Laureate of Brantford and he has been called, "the greatest living poet in English," (Antigonish Review, summer 2006). He lives in Brantford with his wife Cathy. They spend their summers at their lakefront cottage in Port Dover.
His most recent books are How Beautiful We Are, Black Moss Press, 2006 and this year's R.A.P. title, Godspeed, also a Black Moss title. In 2005 he was named Poet Laureate of Brantford and he has been called, "the greatest living poet in English," (Antigonish Review, summer 2006). He lives in Brantford with his wife Cathy. They spend their summers at their lakefront cottage in Port Dover.
Lynda Monahan
Lynda Monahan's work has been published in various Canadian literary magazines as well as broadcast on CBC radio. She has served on the board of directors for Sage Hill Writing Experience and the Saskatchewan Writers Guild and on the council for the League of Canadian Poets.She teaches creative writing classes at SIAST Woodland Campus in Prince Albert and facilitates writing workshops for various schools and organizations.
Awards
Saskatoon Media Club Scholarship, 1991.
Byrna Barclay Prize for Writing, honourable mention, 1992.
John V. Hicks Scholarship, 1996.
Sask Book Award for Publishing,finalist 1998
Sask Book Awards poetry finalist 2003.
Word Guild Competition finalist 2003
Selected Publications
What My Body Knows (Coteau Books, 2003) ISBN 1-55050-276-0.
A Slow Dance in the Flames (Coteau Books, 1998) ISBN 1-55050-139-9.
Books in Print
Monahan, Lynda
What My Body Knows, Poetry (Coteau Books, 2003) ISBN 1-55050-276-0, $12.95.
A Slow Dance in the Flames, Poetry (Coteau Books, 1998) ISBN 1-55050-139-9, $8.95.
Awards
Saskatoon Media Club Scholarship, 1991.
Byrna Barclay Prize for Writing, honourable mention, 1992.
John V. Hicks Scholarship, 1996.
Sask Book Award for Publishing,finalist 1998
Sask Book Awards poetry finalist 2003.
Word Guild Competition finalist 2003
Selected Publications
What My Body Knows (Coteau Books, 2003) ISBN 1-55050-276-0.
A Slow Dance in the Flames (Coteau Books, 1998) ISBN 1-55050-139-9.
Books in Print
Monahan, Lynda
What My Body Knows, Poetry (Coteau Books, 2003) ISBN 1-55050-276-0, $12.95.
A Slow Dance in the Flames, Poetry (Coteau Books, 1998) ISBN 1-55050-139-9, $8.95.
Sheri-D Wilson
Sheri-D Wilson
www.sheridwilson.com
The Mama of Dada – Sheri-D Wilson
Poet, playwright, performer, film-maker, essayist, teacher, producer, and activist
She has six collections poetry: Bulls Whip & Lambs Wool (1989), Swerve (1993), Girl’s Guide to Giving Head (1996), The Sweet Taste of Lightning (1998), Between Lovers (2002), and Re:Zoom (2005,Frontenac House) which won the 2006 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry.
Sheri-D has two Spoken Word CD’s – both arranged by Russell Broom - sweet taste of lightning (2001), Re:Cord (2007). She is well-known for her VideoPoems produced for BRAVO! TV. Airplane Paula (2001), Spinsters Hanging in Trees (2002 – Won Gold at Houston Film Festival, three ACE awards, and the 2003 AMPIA for best short or vignette), and Surf Rave Girrly Girrl (2004).
Of the beat tradition, in 1989 she studied at Naropa (The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics). Sheri-D Wilson won the first CBC Poetry Face-off for Alberta and her work is featured on CBC’s Word Beat, Sounds like Canada, Canada Reads and ZED TV. In 2003 she won the title Heavyweight of Poetry for the USA in a Bumbershoot Bout against Andrei Codrescu. In 2005, she was invited to present her work in Ottawa as part of the Alberta Scene celebration to commemorate Alberta’s 100 year centennial. In 2006 she presented her work at the Human Rights Symposium in Victoria, was honoured with Global TV’s Woman of Vision award, and was a featured poet in the Heart of a Poet documentary series.
Reading highlights: Bumbershoot 2003, 2000, 1996(Seattle), The World Poetry Bout 2002 (Taos, New Mexico), Poetry Africa 2001 (South Africa), 2001 Shakespeare and Co. (Paris), Vancouver International Writers Festival (‘02, ‘00, ‘95, ‘93, ‘90), 1990 Small Press Festival (New York), 1993 Harbourfront Reading Series (Toronto).
Sheri-D Wilson is an innovator and activist who seeks to give voice to all people; those who have been silenced, under-represented and all cultural groups whose stories must be heard. From 1988-1990 she co-founded and organized the Vancouver Small Press Festival, and the Commercial Street Art Festival for the Normal Art Society. In 2003 she formed the Calgary Spoken Word Society, which produces the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival and other Spoken Word Activities. With direct instructions from the great Lillian Allen, in 2005 Sheri-D initiated the first Banff Summit Meeting of Spoken Word (with 16 artist/producers), which led to the formation of SWAN (Spoken Word Arts Network). This year she heads the organizational faculty for the first Spoken Word Pilot Program at the Banff Centre, and the second SWAN meeting. Her essay, “FIRST TIME EYES: Unearthing Spoken Word,” will appear in the upcoming issue of Canadian Theatre Review.
www.sheridwilson.com
The Mama of Dada – Sheri-D Wilson
Poet, playwright, performer, film-maker, essayist, teacher, producer, and activist
She has six collections poetry: Bulls Whip & Lambs Wool (1989), Swerve (1993), Girl’s Guide to Giving Head (1996), The Sweet Taste of Lightning (1998), Between Lovers (2002), and Re:Zoom (2005,Frontenac House) which won the 2006 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry.
Sheri-D has two Spoken Word CD’s – both arranged by Russell Broom - sweet taste of lightning (2001), Re:Cord (2007). She is well-known for her VideoPoems produced for BRAVO! TV. Airplane Paula (2001), Spinsters Hanging in Trees (2002 – Won Gold at Houston Film Festival, three ACE awards, and the 2003 AMPIA for best short or vignette), and Surf Rave Girrly Girrl (2004).
Of the beat tradition, in 1989 she studied at Naropa (The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics). Sheri-D Wilson won the first CBC Poetry Face-off for Alberta and her work is featured on CBC’s Word Beat, Sounds like Canada, Canada Reads and ZED TV. In 2003 she won the title Heavyweight of Poetry for the USA in a Bumbershoot Bout against Andrei Codrescu. In 2005, she was invited to present her work in Ottawa as part of the Alberta Scene celebration to commemorate Alberta’s 100 year centennial. In 2006 she presented her work at the Human Rights Symposium in Victoria, was honoured with Global TV’s Woman of Vision award, and was a featured poet in the Heart of a Poet documentary series.
Reading highlights: Bumbershoot 2003, 2000, 1996(Seattle), The World Poetry Bout 2002 (Taos, New Mexico), Poetry Africa 2001 (South Africa), 2001 Shakespeare and Co. (Paris), Vancouver International Writers Festival (‘02, ‘00, ‘95, ‘93, ‘90), 1990 Small Press Festival (New York), 1993 Harbourfront Reading Series (Toronto).
Sheri-D Wilson is an innovator and activist who seeks to give voice to all people; those who have been silenced, under-represented and all cultural groups whose stories must be heard. From 1988-1990 she co-founded and organized the Vancouver Small Press Festival, and the Commercial Street Art Festival for the Normal Art Society. In 2003 she formed the Calgary Spoken Word Society, which produces the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival and other Spoken Word Activities. With direct instructions from the great Lillian Allen, in 2005 Sheri-D initiated the first Banff Summit Meeting of Spoken Word (with 16 artist/producers), which led to the formation of SWAN (Spoken Word Arts Network). This year she heads the organizational faculty for the first Spoken Word Pilot Program at the Banff Centre, and the second SWAN meeting. Her essay, “FIRST TIME EYES: Unearthing Spoken Word,” will appear in the upcoming issue of Canadian Theatre Review.
Michael V. Smith
Vancouver¹s Michael V. Smith is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, performance artist and occasional clown.
Recently, Smith won Vancouver's Community Hero of the Year Award and the inaugural Dayne Ogilvie Award for Emerging Gay Writers. He's also won a Western Magazine Award for Fiction, was nominated for the Journey Prize, and has scooped a number of film festival prizes around the world.
Smith¹s novel, Cumberland (Cormorant Books, 2002), was nominated for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award. His latest book is What You Can¹t Have (Signature Editions, 2006), a collection of poetry, nominated for the ReLit Prize.
--
www.michaelvsmith.com
Recently, Smith won Vancouver's Community Hero of the Year Award and the inaugural Dayne Ogilvie Award for Emerging Gay Writers. He's also won a Western Magazine Award for Fiction, was nominated for the Journey Prize, and has scooped a number of film festival prizes around the world.
Smith¹s novel, Cumberland (Cormorant Books, 2002), was nominated for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award. His latest book is What You Can¹t Have (Signature Editions, 2006), a collection of poetry, nominated for the ReLit Prize.
--
www.michaelvsmith.com
Elizabeth Bachinsky
Elizabeth Bachinsky was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and grew up in northern British Columbia, the Yukon, and BC's Fraser Valley. She is the author of two books of poetry Home of Sudden Service (Nightwood Editions, 2006) and Curio: Grotesques and Satires From the Electronic Age (BookThug, 2005). Her poetry has appeared most recently in Drunken Boat, The Globe and Mail, The Malahat Review, Matrix, and In Fine Form: The Book Of Canadian Form Poetry (Polestar, 2005) and is forthcoming in Gulf Coast (US) and in translation at Siècle 21(France). She lives in Vancouver where she is poetry editor for Event magazine.
Holmes, Nancy, Summerland/Kelowna, BC
Nancy Holmes has published four collections of poetry, Valancy and the New World (Kalamalka Press), Down to the Golden Chersonese: Victorian Lady Travellers (Sono Nis) and The Adultery Poems (Ronsdale) and most recently, Mandorla from Ronsdale Press (2005). She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna BC.
Kim Goldberg
Kim Goldberg spends her days roaming the scrubby margins of poetry, hoping to glimpse the elusive Unbounded Thought. Results of her forays have been cropping up in Prism International, The Dalhousie Review, Nimrod International Journal, Rampike, filling Station, On Spec, The Arabesques Review (Algeria), and other literary magazines in North America and abroad. Her latest book, Ride Backwards On Dragon (Leaf Press), maps her journey through the alien landscape of inner alchemy in a series of poems based on a 1,000-year-old martial art from China. In a former life she was a journalist and author of several nonfiction books. Her articles on politics and current events have appeared in Macleans, Canadian Geographic, Nature Canada, This Magazine, The Progressive, BBC Wildlife, and numerous other periodicals for more than twenty years.
She lives in Nanaimo, where she co-hosts a periodic “Urban Poetry Café” on Radio CHLY (101.7 FM).
She lives in Nanaimo, where she co-hosts a periodic “Urban Poetry Café” on Radio CHLY (101.7 FM).
Wendy Morton
" Wendy Morton's poetry always surprises. It embraces both humour and grief with equal measure. It pays attention to thunder and cinnamon, bread and tutus, and by doing so expresses our human world with grace and joy"
Patrick Lane
Wendy Morton has been WestJet Airlines' poet of the skies, DaimlerChrysler's poet of the road and is sponsored as well by Prairie Naturals Vitamins, Fairmont hotels, Fuji, AbeBooks. She has relentlessly taken poetry out of bookstores and coffee shops, out into the street with Random Acts of Poetry a national poetry project now in it's fourth year--bringing corporate sponsors, poets and audiences together in new ways.
She has four collections of poetry, Private Eye, Undercover, Shadowcatcher from Ekstasis Edition and Gumshoe from Black Moss Press. Her memoir, Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast was published by Emdash Books.
She has been an insurance investigator for 24 years and her work often informs her poetry. She believes that a poem is the shortest distance between two hearts; that poetry can take the armour we wear--that we polish to a bright shine to keep the world at bay and to keep our hearts buried--and shatter it. Poetry, she believes, is a gift that we can create from whatever life has in store for us.
She has lived in the same house west of Sooke, B.C. on the Strait of Juan de Fuca for 34 years. She is a confirmed raven watcher.
Patrick Lane
Wendy Morton has been WestJet Airlines' poet of the skies, DaimlerChrysler's poet of the road and is sponsored as well by Prairie Naturals Vitamins, Fairmont hotels, Fuji, AbeBooks. She has relentlessly taken poetry out of bookstores and coffee shops, out into the street with Random Acts of Poetry a national poetry project now in it's fourth year--bringing corporate sponsors, poets and audiences together in new ways.
She has four collections of poetry, Private Eye, Undercover, Shadowcatcher from Ekstasis Edition and Gumshoe from Black Moss Press. Her memoir, Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast was published by Emdash Books.
She has been an insurance investigator for 24 years and her work often informs her poetry. She believes that a poem is the shortest distance between two hearts; that poetry can take the armour we wear--that we polish to a bright shine to keep the world at bay and to keep our hearts buried--and shatter it. Poetry, she believes, is a gift that we can create from whatever life has in store for us.
She has lived in the same house west of Sooke, B.C. on the Strait of Juan de Fuca for 34 years. She is a confirmed raven watcher.
Carla Funk, Victoria, BC
Carla Funk was born and raised in the village of Vanderhoof, the geographical centre of B.C. Having grown up in a world of logging trucks, Mennonites, storytellers and rural realism, she turned to poetry as a place to set down the images of her upbringing. Since studying writing and English literature at the University of Victoria, her work has been featured in the anthologies Breathing Fire: Canada’s Young Poets (Harbour, 1995), Hammer & Tongs (Smoking Lung, 1999), Introductions: Poets Present Poets (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2001), in various literary journals, and as part of the Poetry in Transit series. Her first collection of poems, Blessing the Bones into Light came out with Coteau Books in 1999. Nightwood Editions published Head Full of Sun in 2002. Another poetry collection, The Sewing Room, is due out in Fall 2006 with Turnstone Press. She currently lives in View Royal, B.C. with her husband and daughter, and teaches in UVic’s Department of Writing.
Susan Stenson
Susan Stenson's work has appeared in many Canadian literary magazines, most recently, Fiddlehead, Geist, CV2 and sub Terrain and in the anthology Threshold: six women six poets. She won first prize in the ARC Poem of the Year Contest, 2004, and the Rona Murray Prize for Literature, 2004. She also won first prize in the Great Canadian Literary Hunt, This Magazine’s poetry contest 2000, the League of Canadian Poets National Contest in 1999 and the Hawthorne Poetry Award in 1997.
Her work is also featured on buses throughout British Columbia in the Poetry in Transit program and she participated in the first annual Random Acts of Poetry Week, 2004. Sono Nis Press published her first book of poems, Could Love a Man, spring 2001 and her newest book, My Mother Agrees With the Dead, is forthcoming from Wolsak and Wyn. She lives ecstatically in Victoria with her family where she co-publishes The Claremont Review, a literary magazine for writers aged 13 to 19 which was Write Magazine’s choice for magazine of the year, 2001. Susan teaches English and creative writing.
Her work is also featured on buses throughout British Columbia in the Poetry in Transit program and she participated in the first annual Random Acts of Poetry Week, 2004. Sono Nis Press published her first book of poems, Could Love a Man, spring 2001 and her newest book, My Mother Agrees With the Dead, is forthcoming from Wolsak and Wyn. She lives ecstatically in Victoria with her family where she co-publishes The Claremont Review, a literary magazine for writers aged 13 to 19 which was Write Magazine’s choice for magazine of the year, 2001. Susan teaches English and creative writing.
Barbara Pelman
Barbara Pelman teaches her students that "poetry is as essential as bread" then feeds them delicious poems. She has been a teacher of
English in the public school system, and at colleges and
universities, for close to thirty years and is now about to close
that chapter in her life. Next? More poetry of course; flute and art
lessons, dancing, and perhaps a writing retreat in some coastal
village in Thailand. Or Portugal. Or the Seychelles.
A native of British Columbia, Barbara has a BA from UBC, an MA from
the University of Toronto, and is a survivor of many Glenairley
retreats with Patrick Lane. Her poems have appeared in literary
journals such as Event, Dalhousie Review, CV2; and chapbooks from
Leaf Press. Her glosa, "After Winter" won the Federation of BC
Writers Contest in 2004; she is an enthusiastic promoter of form
poems, and teaches her students the art of the sestina, the pantoum,
the demi-glosa, the sonnet. Her first book of poetry, "One Stone"
was published in 2005 by Ekstasis Editions. She has been the BC
representative for the League of Canadian Poets.
This is Barbara's third year in Random Acts of Poetry: she has read
poems on the ferry, at the Saltspring Market, to motorcyclists,
horses, bakers, and steelworkers; last year her students chalked
poems on the sidewalks and parking lots of the school, and created a
"Poetry Wall" in downtown Victoria. Lately she has been reading poems
to passersby in front of Munro's Books as part of the Poet Tree
Project. On Friday nights she is usually reading at the Open Mike at
Planet Earth Poetry, where she has been featured reader a number of
times. These mornings she has been attempting to beat her daughter at
three consecutive games of Scrabble on Facebook; no luck yet.
English in the public school system, and at colleges and
universities, for close to thirty years and is now about to close
that chapter in her life. Next? More poetry of course; flute and art
lessons, dancing, and perhaps a writing retreat in some coastal
village in Thailand. Or Portugal. Or the Seychelles.
A native of British Columbia, Barbara has a BA from UBC, an MA from
the University of Toronto, and is a survivor of many Glenairley
retreats with Patrick Lane. Her poems have appeared in literary
journals such as Event, Dalhousie Review, CV2; and chapbooks from
Leaf Press. Her glosa, "After Winter" won the Federation of BC
Writers Contest in 2004; she is an enthusiastic promoter of form
poems, and teaches her students the art of the sestina, the pantoum,
the demi-glosa, the sonnet. Her first book of poetry, "One Stone"
was published in 2005 by Ekstasis Editions. She has been the BC
representative for the League of Canadian Poets.
This is Barbara's third year in Random Acts of Poetry: she has read
poems on the ferry, at the Saltspring Market, to motorcyclists,
horses, bakers, and steelworkers; last year her students chalked
poems on the sidewalks and parking lots of the school, and created a
"Poetry Wall" in downtown Victoria. Lately she has been reading poems
to passersby in front of Munro's Books as part of the Poet Tree
Project. On Friday nights she is usually reading at the Open Mike at
Planet Earth Poetry, where she has been featured reader a number of
times. These mornings she has been attempting to beat her daughter at
three consecutive games of Scrabble on Facebook; no luck yet.
Andrea McKenzie
Andrea McKenzie grew up in Victoria, B.C. where she still resides. She is a long-time fixture at the Mocambopo Poetry Series, which is now Planet Earth Poetry at the Black Stilt Cafe. Andrea holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Victoria and a Certificate in Public Relations. She is an aspiring poet, novelist, and freelance writer. Her poetry has appeared in Canadian Literature, Mocambo Nights, Quills, Boulevard magazine and Rubicon Press. In 2005, she published her first book of poetry A Mother’s String through Ekstasis Editions.
Gloe Cormie
Gloe Cormie was a finalist for several awards in 2003 for her first book of poetry, Sea Salt, Red Oven Mitts and the Blues, and her second poetry book, Under a Different Dark Sky, is ready for an interested publisher. She is at work on poems for her third poetry manuscript. Cormie has published her poems in many Canadian journals including Prairie Fire, CV 2, Grain and Fiddlehead, and in many anthologies including A/Cross Sections (to be launched in Nov. 2007) and Listening with the Ear of the Heart—Writers at St. Peter’s, and internationally. Her poetry has won recognition in several literary competitions.
The oral aspect of her poetry is as important as the written aspect, thus Cormie has given poetry readings in several Canadian, American and Asian cities, including Chicago, New York, Seoul and Tokyo, and broadcast her poems nationally on CBC radio. Cormie feels strongly that the public deserves and needs the experience of hearing and reading good poetry. This is why she is enthusiastic and honoured to be a RAP participant.
Gloe gives a dynamic Poem Making Residency under the Manitoba Artists in the Schools Program, and she facilitates Creative Writing workshops for adults. Cormie’s primary focus is poetry, but she has published non-fiction, literary criticism and short stories, and she has a secondary focus as a visual artist. She is an active member of the League of Canadian Poets, where she served as the Manitoba Representative from 2005-2007. She currently serves the LCP as a committee member. See the Manitoba Writers Guild MAP Index for more detail.
The oral aspect of her poetry is as important as the written aspect, thus Cormie has given poetry readings in several Canadian, American and Asian cities, including Chicago, New York, Seoul and Tokyo, and broadcast her poems nationally on CBC radio. Cormie feels strongly that the public deserves and needs the experience of hearing and reading good poetry. This is why she is enthusiastic and honoured to be a RAP participant.
Gloe gives a dynamic Poem Making Residency under the Manitoba Artists in the Schools Program, and she facilitates Creative Writing workshops for adults. Cormie’s primary focus is poetry, but she has published non-fiction, literary criticism and short stories, and she has a secondary focus as a visual artist. She is an active member of the League of Canadian Poets, where she served as the Manitoba Representative from 2005-2007. She currently serves the LCP as a committee member. See the Manitoba Writers Guild MAP Index for more detail.
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