Sheri-D Wilson

Called the “Mama of Dada”
Poet (Spoken Word Artist), film-maker, educator, producer and activist.

Sheri-D Wilson has 7 collections of poetry; her most recent, Autopsy of a Turvy World (2008, Frontenac House), was launched in 2008. Her last collection, Re:Zoom (2005, Frontenac House), won the 2006 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry, and was shortlisted for the CanLit award. She has 2 Spoken Word CDs (arranged by Russell Broom), and 4 award-winning VideoPoems: Airplane Paula (2001), Spinsters Hanging in Trees (2002), Surf Rave Girrly Girrl (2004), and The Panty Portal (2008), all produced for BravoFACT.

Awards Include:
CBC Arts Top Ten Poets in Canada (2009), ffwd People’s Choice – Best Poet ( 2008, 2007), Global TV's Woman of Vision Award (2006), SpoCan Award (2005), Bumbershoot Heavyweight Title for Poetry USA (2003), Gold Award at the Houston Film Festival (2003), Three ACE awards (2003), AMPIA (2003, for best short or vignette), CBC Face-off (2002)

Reading Highlights:
Blue Met 2008 (Montreal), Voix d’Amériques 2008,‘05 (Montreal), Bumbershoot 2003, ‘99, ‘92, ‘91, ‘89 (Seattle), Vancouver International Writers Festival 2002, ‘00, ‘95, ‘93, ’90 (Vancouver), The World Poetry Bout 2002 (Taos, New Mexico), Poetry Africa 2001 (South Africa), WordFest 2008, 2000, ’95 (Calgary, Banff), Harbourfront Reading Series 1993 (Toronto), Small Press Festival 1990 (NYC).

Other Highlights:
Women and Words, 2003-2007 (instructor), First Time Eyes: Unearthing Spoken Word, 2007 essay (Canadian Theatre Review), Heart of a Poet, 2006, featured poet documentary series, Bowery Project, 2005 (Instructor), Alberta Scene, 2005 (a commemoration of Alberta’s centennial), Human Rights Symposium 2005: Victoria, Sounds Like Canada, 2002 CBC Poet in Residence, Addicted: Notes From The Belly Of The Beast, 2001 essay entitled Blackout, Confessions a Jazz Play, 1991 text of play (Theatrum). Of the beat tradition, in 1989 Sheri-D studied at Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, in Boulder, Colorado.

Since founding the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival in 2003, Sheri-D has worked at quantum velocities to present the largest Spoken Word Festival in Canada. Driven by the passion to connect people, voices and ideas she organized SWAN (Spoken Word Arts Network, 2007, 2005), produced the 2008 National Slam of Canada and is the Program Director of the Spoken Word Program at Banff Centre.
http://www.calgaryspokenwordfestival.com/
http://www.sheridwilson.com/

Sandra Kasturi

Sandra Kasturi
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Sandra Kasturi is a poet, writer and editor, as well as co-creator of a kids’ animated TV series. In 2005 she won ARC magazine’s annual Poem of the Year award. She is the poetry editor of ChiZine and the co-publisher of ChiZine Publications. Sandra has written three poetry chapbooks and has edited the poetry anthology, The Stars As Seen from this Particular Angle of Night. Her work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies, including Prairie Fire, Contemporary Verse 2, TransVersions, On Spec, Taddle Creek, several of the Tesseracts series, 2001: A Science Fiction Poetry Anthology, and Northern Frights 4. Her cultural essay, “Divine Secrets of the Yaga Sisterhood” appeared in the anthology Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Slayers, Mutants and Freaks. Sandra is a founding member of the Algonquin Square Table poetry workshop and runs her own imprint, Kelp Queen Press. She managed to snag an introduction from Neil Gaiman for her first full-length poetry collection, The Animal Bridegroom (Tightrope Books). She is represented by the Anne McDermid Agency, and is currently working on her first novel, a mythological noir.

Leanne Boschman

Leanne Boschman
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Leanne Boschman’s love for poetry apparently began when her father read the verse of Robert Service to her when she was an infant. The appreciation flourished in high-school, and she has been writing poetry ever since (so far no rhyming ballads).
Her poems have been published in Other Voices, Dandelion Magazine, Geist Magazine, Prism International, Room of One’s Own, and Rhubarb. They have also been included in Creekstones: Anthology of Northern BC Poets, Half in the Sun: Anthology of Mennonite Writing, and Rocksalt: An Anthology of Contemporary BC Writing. Leanne’s first collection of poems entitled Precipitous Signs: A Rain Journal was published in April 2009 by Leaf Press.

Leanne’s day job has been teaching English, Creative Writing, and Women’s Studies for Northwest Community College since 1991. This year she will teach one on-line class each semester because she has just begun a PhD program called Languages, Cultures, and Literacies at Simon Fraser University. She will be commuting there from Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island. She anticipates plenty of opportunities for “poeming” on BC Ferries.

Brad Cran

Brad Cran
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Brad Cran is a poet, essayist and photographer. He has been a longtime contributing editor at Geist magazine and is the current poet laureate of Vancouver. Since establishing Smoking Lung Press in 1996, Cran has brought dozens of British Columbian poets into print for the first time. His first book of poetry The Good Life (Nightwood Editions ) was published in 2001 and his first book of non-fiction, Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with Gillian Jerome , won the 2008 City of Vancouver Book Prize and has raised over $40,000 for the people of the DTES.

Shauntay Grant

Shauntay Grant
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Shauntay Grant is an award-winning writer, spoken word performer, broadcast journalist and musician. She is Halifax's third Poet Laureate (2009/10), and has shared her vibrant blend of poetry and music internationally at festivals and events. Shauntay regularly conducts arts workshops for youth that educate and advocate for self-empowerment and social change.

Shauntay's original works have been broadcast nationally on CBC
Radio, CBC Television and Vision Television. Her first children's
book (Up Home, Nimbus Publishing) won her a 2008 Atlantic Book Award for Best Atlantic Published Book. Up Home is also shortlisted for the 2010 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Awards.

Shauntay has been a regular host of the CBC National Poetry Face-Off. She is the host of All The Best, a music program that airs weekly on CBC Radio One in the Maritimes.

Charles Mountford

Charles Mountford
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Charles Mountford (M.A., English, University of Western Ontario; M.A. Librarianship, University of London), is a poet and opera librettist who lives in Stratford, Ontario and part-time in Quebec City. His books include, The Harvestman, Pendas, 2004 and The Night the Ducks Got Loose, Pendas, 2006. A third book from Pendas, The Thing On The Comb, will be published in 2009. He has also written the librettos for three modern chamber operas on Canadian themes, all of which have been produced in Stratford by Orpheus Productions, Stratford. One of these operas, Henry Hudson, is currently available on cd. He has won first prize in The Alberta Poetry Contest, two International Merit Awards (2007, 2008), from the Atlanta Review and, in 2008, was shortlisted for the Bridport (U.K.) Poetry Prize.

Danielle Forget

Danielle Forget
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Danielle Forget est professeure titulaire au Département de français de l’Université d’Ottawa. Ses recherches couvrent les domaines conjoints de la sémantique et de la pragmatique. Plusieurs de ses travaux portent sur l’analyse du discours, notamment L’émergence d’un discours démocratique au Brésil : conquêtes et résistances du pouvoir (1964-1984), éditions Balzac, Candiac, 1992 et EDUSP, Brésil, 1994. D’autres sont à l’intersection de la rhétorique et de la cognition, sur des corpus littéraires et non littéraires. Pour en témoigner : Figures de pensée, figures du discours, éditions Nota Bene, Québec, 2000 : Construire le sens , dire l’identité : catégories, frontières, ajustements, Presses de l’Université Laval, Québec / édition de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, 2005 (coauteure avec K. Fall et G. Vignaux). Une place de choix dans ses activités revient à la création littéraire. En 2007 paraissait un recueil de poésie, Tambour de voix, publié à Beyrouth aux éditions Al Najoie. Un roman, Intrusion, a paru chez Marcel Broquet éditeur (Saint-Sauveur, 2008).

Susan Musgrave

Susan Musgrave
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Susan Musgrave’s career as a social misfit began early in life. She was kicked out of kindergarten class for laughing. In more recent years she has been labeled everything from eco-feminist to anti-feminist, from stand-up comedian to poet of doom and gloom, from social and political commentator to wild sea-witch of Canada’s northwest coast. She lives in North Saanich and on Haida Gwaii. For Random Acts of Poetry she will be quietly giving away copies of Obituary of Light: Sangan River Meditations (Leaf Press).

Photo by Bruce Stotesbury/Victoria Times-Colonist

Kristan Anderson

Kristan Anderson
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Kristan Anderson is a “Newbie” to the public world of poetry but has been writing in his proverbial closet since he could hold one of those big red pencils. Having ‘out-ed’ himself now he fully embraces poetry and the arts in general as a way to both participate and collaborate in developing the local community culture.
Recently appointed poet laureate of Owen Sound, Kristan Anderson is interested in promoting the practice of spoken word and performance poetry. He specifically is interested in working with the youth of the region to recognize emerging poets, help them to develop their voice, collaborate together and showcase their work.
Kristan has also been, for the last three years, the poetry slam coordinator for the Words Aloud festival held in Durham, Ontario. Kristan’s poetry has been influenced very heavily from the slam scene and it is the intensity and unapologetic nature of slam that he tries to capture in his own work. He feels that poetry should be made as accessible to people as possible. He sees his poetry as raw meat, clawed from the heart and sewn together with silk. His poetry focuses mainly on the relations and dynamics between himself and others. He explores his own personal ideas and interactions as to how they relate to a more universal experience.

“Poetry is my therapy. It’s the spiritual vehicle that helps me get from A to B when there’s nobody to listen to what I’m saying or once again, I’m just not getting it.”

David Fraser

David Fraser
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David Fraser lives in Nanoose Bay, on Vancouver Island. He is the founder and editor of Ascent Aspirations Magazine, www.ascentaspirations.ca, since 1997. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in over 65 journals including Three Candles, Regina Weese, Ardent, Quills and Ygdrasil. Last year David Fraser was included in Rocksalt, a new Anthology of Contemporary BC Poets launched in the fall of 2008. He has published a collection of his poetry, Going to the Well (2004), a collection of short fiction, The Dark Side of the Billboard (2006 ) and edited and published the seven print issues of Ascent Aspirations Magazine www.ascentaspirations.ca/aapublishing.htm
A second collection of poetry, Running Down the Wind, appeared in 2007.
David is currently the Federation of BC Writers Regional Director for The Islands Region. His latest passion is developing Nanaimo's newest
spoken word series, WordStorm, www.wordstorm.ca

David Fraser has a BA in English from University of Toronto, and a M.Ed. in adult education from OISE. In Ontario he taught English, Creative Writing Writer's Craft among other subjects at the secondary school level for 30 years. Currently he is a full time writer who also teaches skiing at Mt Washington in the winter.

www.ascentaspirations.ca/davidfrasershomesite.htm

Joe Blades

Joe Blades
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Joe Blades has been giving readings and publishing his poetry since 1980. He is a writer, artist, and publisher, plus he is on the editorial board of revue ellipse magazine.

Blades is 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. In 2008, he completed a Certificate in Film and Television through the NB Filmmakers’ Co-operative. Currently, he is a M.Ed. (Adult Ed.) grad student at UNB-Fredericton.

Blades has given readings, lectures, and workshops across Canada, in the eastern USA, Scotland and Eastern Europe. He 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 five-time Barry Award-winning Ashes, Paper & Beans: Fredericton’s Writing & Arts Show. He was curator of Videopoems: a screening for the 2003 Tidal Wave Film Festival, and he is the editor of ten books and chapbooks including UGLY: an instant spoken word chapbook anthology (Broken Jaw, 2007.

Blades’ poetry and art has appeared in over 55 trade and chapbook anthologies, and in numerous periodicals. Blades has authored 30 poetry chapbooks and limited edition artist books. His published full-length poetry books are Cover Makes a Set (SpareTime Editions), River Suite (Insomniac Press), Open Road West (Broken Jaw Press), Casemate Poems (Widows & Orphans) and from the book that doesn’t close (Broken Jaw Press. Two of his books have been translated and published in Serbia. Several other books, including Casemate Poems (Collected) (Chaudiere Books), are in the works.

Blades is an active member of the BlackTop MotorCycle Gang writers’ group, an Adjunct Artist with the Learning Through the Art project of The Royal Conservatory of Music, a CHSR Broadcasting Inc. Board Member, and Vice President–Membership Chair of The League of Canadian Poets.

Alexis Kienlen

Alexis Kienlen
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Alexis Kienlen is a poet, fiction writer and journalist. She currently works as an agricultural reporter, traveling through central and northern Alberta by day, writing poetry and fiction by night. Her first book "She dreams in Red" was published by Frontenac House in 2007. Alexis is also the Writers Guild of Alberta teen writing mentor for Edmonton. Learn more about her at www.alexiskienlen.com

Wanda Campbell

Wanda Campbell
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Wanda Campbell was born and grew up in Andhra Pradesh, South India. She came to Canada at the age of 10, and now teaches Creative Writing and Women’s Literature at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia where she lives with her husband and three daughters. She has published four collections of poetry, Grace (Blue Grama 2009), Looking for Lucy (Leaf 2008), Haw [Thorn] (Gaspereau 2003) and Sky Fishing (Black Moss 1997) and edited several academic works including Literature: A Pocket Anthology (Penguin 2008) and Hidden Rooms: Early Canadian Women Poets (Canadian Poetry 2000). She has given readings from Halifax to Victoria and her poems and stories have appeared in numerous journals including Antigonish Review, Dalhousie Review, Descant, Driftwood, existere, Fiddlehead, Gaspereau Review, Grain, Harpweaver, Literary Review of Canada, New Quarterly, Queen’s Quarterly, Room of One’s Own, Vallum, Wascana Review, Windsor Review and in the anthologies Body Language and Landmarks: An Anthology of New Atlantic Canadian Poetry of the Land.

James Dewar

James Dewar
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James Dewar enjoys the often hectic demands of a career as a freelance website designer, writer and editor, but is compelled to write and perform poetry by his recalcitrant muse. His first book of poetry, The Garden in the Machine was published by Hidden Brook Press (March 2007). His poetry has also been published in several anthologies and journals. While his profession requires long hours of reclusive keyboard pounding, he also organizes and hosts his own poetry reading series in Toronto: Hot-Sauced Words, now entering its fourth year. He serves as vice-president of the Writers’ Circle of Durham Region where he enjoys developing ways to help writers gain confidence in their writing and presentation, but is often found attending symposiums and workshops due to his belief that lifelong learning is an essential spark for productive creativity. A regular contributor to the Toronto poetry scene, he delivers his emotionally clever poetry with an intriguing, unforgettable punch.

Kelly-Anne Riess

Kelly Riess
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Kelly-Anne Riess is a poet, freelance journalist, copywriter and filmmaker based in Regina. She is the author of the poetry collection To End a Conversation, and was the lead writer on the bestselling Saskatchewan Book of Everything. She has travelled across North America, working on documentaries that have aired worldwide on networks such as the A&E Biography Channel, History Television and CBC. Her work has also appeared in newspapers and magazines across Canada, including the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen and the Montreal Gazette, as well as Grain and The Windsor Review. She received the Blue Sky Award in Journalism and the C. Irwin McIntosh Journalism Prize from the University of Regina. She also received an honourable mention in the Saskatchewan Sterling Writing Awards. Most recently, she was shortlisted for a Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Award, a YWCA Young Woman of Distinction Award and a Regina Mayor’s Art Award.

Vivian Hansen

Vivian Hansen
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Vivian Hansen has had poetry and nonfiction published in several Canadian journals. Her chapbook publications include: “Never Call It Bird: the Melodies of AIDS” and “Angel Alley: Jack the Ripper’s Victims.” Her book Leylines of My Flesh chronicles the poetics of Danish immigration to Western Canada. She won the first annual Legacy Magazine’s poetry contest in 2007, and was shortlisted that year for the Writer’s Guild of Alberta’s Jon Whyte Essay Prize. She has just completed a long poem manuscript entitled “A Bitter Mood of Clouds” about Arne Petersen, recipient of sex reassignment surgery in post war Denmark.

Kim Goldberg

Kim Goldberg
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Kim Goldberg's latest book is RED ZONE - a verse map of Nanaimo's homeless population. Her previous collection, Ride Backwards on Dragon, was short-listed for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. She creates poem galleries in vacant storefront windows, co-hosts an urban poetry cafe on a Nanaimo radio station and is a frequent performer at
spoken word events on Vancouver Island. Her poems have appeared in The Capilano Review, Prairie Fire, Geist, Event, Rampike and numerous other magazines and anthologies around the world. She is the author of
six books and has lived in Nanaimo for more than thirty years. Visit www.pigsquashpress.com

Carmelo Militano

Carmelo Militano
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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

Kate Marshall Flaherty

Kate Marshall Flaherty
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Kate Marshall Flaherty is a poet, mother of three, yoga instructor, teen
retreat facilitator, and writing workshop guide. She also is one of the
founding members of the Children's Peace Theatre. Her first and second books, entitled "Tilted Equilibrium", and "String of Mysteries", were published by Hidden Brook Press. her third book, "Hobbeldehoy" was published by LyricalMyrical Press, and her forthcoming book, "Where We Are Going" published by Piquant Press, will be out in time to be distribute to random people during RAP week (phew! :) She won the 2006 Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award for her Chapbook, entitled "Unfathom", and was short-listed for bothe the Pablo Neruda Award for Poetry and the Descant Best Canadian Poem. She has started a cd of poetry to musical soundscape, with composers Cathy Nosaty and Mark Korven. She has been published in journals such as "Windsor review"., "CV2", "Other Voices", THIS Magazine, Ascent Aspirations and Freefall. She has been honoured to be a part of Canada's National Random Acts of Poetry week, "poeming" people in hospitals, cafes, parks, yoga classes, ESL intensives, and in Parks and Rec. vehicles! Poetry is her lifeline.

Leanne McIntosh

Leanne McIntosh
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Leanne McIntosh's chapbook, The Attitude of the Tree, Leaf Press 2003, was followed by two collections of poetry, The Sound the Sun Makes, Oolichan Books 2003 and Liminal Space, Oolichan Books 2005. She lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia with no cat, no garden, no web page.

Terry Ann Carter

Terry Ann Carter’s poems have appeared in ARC, Vallum, Grey Matter, Dandelion, Bywords, Carleton Arts Review, Dogwood, Heritage, raw nerves, frogpond. Her first collection of poems “Waiting for Julia” (Third Eye Press, London, 1999) chronicled the Chernobyl disaster and the young life of Julia Vedishova – her arrival in Canada for healthy summers and her emotional leave taking. Carter’s second book “Transplanted” was published by Borealis Press, Ottawa, 2005. An international award winning haiku poet, Carter participated in the Basho Festival in Ueno, Japan (2004) and has presented papers at haiku conferences in Canada and the U.S. She is the co-editor (with Marco Fraticelli) of Carpe Diem: Anthologie Canadienne Du Haiku/ Canadian Anthology of Haiku (Les Editions David and Borealis Press, 2008). Her haiku have appeared in limited editions of small hand made art books (Pendas Poets, London, and Counting Coup Press, Santa Fe, N.M) Her new tanka collection “Yangtze Crossing” was inspired by a summer spent in Haimen City, China, teaching at the International Exchange Centre. Carter was the Random Acts of Poetry poet for Ottawa (2005, 2006, 2007).

Monica Kidd

The author of four books, Monica Kidd's first collection of poetry, Actualities (Gaspereau Press, 2007), draws on her former occupations as a journalist and field biologist. She's currently doing a residency in family medicine in St. John's, Newfoundland, where she lives with her husband, their baby daughter, and hairy black dog.

Michael Mirolla

Calling himself a Toronto-Montreal corridor author (for his constant travels between the two), Michael Mirolla is a novelist, short story writer, poet and playwright. Publications include the novel Berlin (a finalist for the 2009 Indie Book Award), two short story collections—The Formal Logic of Emotion and Hothouse Loves & Other Tales, and a collection of poetry, Light And Time. An English-Italian bilingual collection of poetry Interstellar Distances/Distanze Interstellari is due out later in 2009 and an Italian translation of The Formal Logic of Emotion has been accepted for publication. His short story, “A Theory of Discontinuous Existence,” was selected for The Journey Prize Anthology, while another short story, “The Sand Flea,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. A poem, “Blind Alley,” was shortlisted for the Winston Collins/Descant Prize for the Best Canadian Poem in 2007, while another poem, “Moths and Trees,” took second price in the 2006 Association of Italian Canadian Writers Literary Contest. A poem, “Alternate Universes,” was accepted for the anthology in honour of Leonard Cohen’s 75^th birthday. His short fiction and poetry has been published in numerous journals in Canada, the U.S. and Britain, including several anthologies such as Event’s Peace & War Anthology, Telling Differences: New English Fiction from Quebec, Tesseracts 2: Canadian Science Fiction, the Collection of Italian-Canadian Fiction, and New Wave of Speculative Fiction Book 1. Michael attributes his literary success (whatever that may be) to his original teachers in the MFA Creative Writing program at UBC and to Jackie, his partner of almost 40 years.

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, Green Beaver Skin Care Products and 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 sixth year--bringing corporate sponsors, poets and audiences together in new ways.

She has five collections of poetry, Private Eye, Undercover, Shadowcatcher from Ekstasis Edition, Gumshoe and What Were Their Dreams from Black Moss Press. Her memoir, Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast was published by Emdash Books.

She has been an insurance investigator for 27 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 36 years. She is a confirmed raven watcher.

Barbara Pelman

Barbara Pelman
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Barbara Pelman has recently retired from the hectic world of high school teaching and has entered the hectic world of university teaching. Some people never learn! In between classes she attempts to fill in the gaps of her life—all the things she never learned, like cooking, baking, playing a musical instrument, exercising. Born in Vancouver BC, she has lived most of her life on the West Coast, with a few years in Toronto getting a Master’s Degree in English Literature and another few in London England where she worked as an Immigration Officer. She has been published in a number of literary magazines including Descant, Fiddlehead, Antigonish Review, and Event, and has won a couple of poetry contests with her glosas. She is a keen supporter of the poetry community in Victoria, reading frequently at the Black Stilt Café, organizing the poetry walls in downtown Victoria, standing under the “poet tree” in front of Munro’s Books. Her first book, “One Stone” was published by Ekstasis Editions in 2005, and her second book, “Borrowed Rooms” was published by Ronsdale Press in 2008.

Taylor Leedahl

Taylor Leedahl
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TAYLOR LEEDAHL released her debut collection, No Apologies for the Weather (Thistledown Press), in 2008, which was shortlisted for "Best Poetry" by the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Leedahl lives in Saskatoon, SK, where she has founded the city's only poetry series, Tonight it's Poetry, and serves on the JackPine Press editorial collective. Currently attending the University of Saskatchewan, she is in her final year of an art history degree. This is her second year of participating in Random Acts of Poetry.

MacDonald, Hugh, Charlottetown, PEI

MacDonald, Hugh, Charlottetown, PEI
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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.

Élizabeth Robert

FW: RAP08: Updated profile Élizabeth Robert
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Élizabeth Robert, fondatrice des Noches de poesía et traductrice littéraire, est née à Beloeil en Montérégie. Elle parle couramment le français, l'anglais et l'espagnol. Bachelière en Spécialisation de traduction de l'Université Concordia, elle a publié deux recueils de poésie en traduction de l¹anglais au français. Une de ses traductions a été affichée sur des panoquais du métro de Montréal dans le cadre de La poésie prend le métro. D¹autres sont parues dans divers collectifs, et dans une anthologie canadienne. Depuis 2008, elle anime Poesia libre tous les 2 mercredis soirs sur les ondes de RadioCentreville 102,3 FM, une émission en espagnol dédiée à la poésie et aux poètes latinofilios et hispanomontréalais. Les archives audios sont disponibles au http://ww.nochesdepoesia.com/audio/poesia_libre

Élizabeth organise régulièrement des tables rondes, ainsi que des événements visant le dialogue entre les peuples, les langues et les cultures. Depuis 2007, elle est l'éditrice nationale de YoungPoets.ca , la section jeunesse de la Ligue des poètes canadiens et la traductrice de leurs sites Web. Élizabeth a également représenté Montréal et le Québec dans le cadre de la 4e édition nationale des Randonnées aléatoires de poésie (RAP). Elle siège aux conseils d¹administration de Diffusion Adage, de la Société littéraire de Laval (SLL) et de l¹Association des traductrices et traducteurs littéraires du Canada (Attlc). En 2008, elle a initié et produit une première Délégation de poètes multiculturels Noches de poesia.

En effet, les traductrices Elisabet Ràfols-Sagués et Élizabeth Robert accompagnent leurs auteurs à Barcelone pour le lancement du recueil multilingue Troc-paroles / Barata de paraules (coédition Adage/Pagés) en marge de Liber 2008, alors que le Québec est l¹invité d¹honneur. De plus, elles animeront et performeront en direct depuis la scène de la Sala AlmaZen de Barcelone les 9 et 10 octobre prochains et seront présentes à la cérémonie d¹ouverture officielle de la Foire du livre Liber le 7 octobre. Les poètes Danny Plourde, Robert Berrouët-Oriol, Omar Alexis Ramos, Àngel Mota et Catherine Kidd, accompagnés de Josep Maria Sala-Valldaura, poète, auteur et traducteur catalan prolifique, participeront à une tournée de lectures et spectacles pluridisciplinaires, en interaction avec leurs traductrices. Des vidéos inspirées de leurs textes seront créées par Raimundo Morte (vj catalan de renommée internationale) et les Productions Orangerine (relève du Québec, dont des courts métrages ont été présentés à
Cannes en 2008 et au festival Fantasia 2008, à Montréal). Les vidéos seront projetées à la Sala AlmaZen. Les représentations du 9 et 10 octobre à Barcelone compteront également une interlude musicale offerte par la célèbre chanteuse de tango Sandra Redher (Argentine / Catalogne). Pour en savoir plus, visitez www.nochesdepoesia.com

Roger Bell

Roger Bell
Originally uploaded by random acts of poetry

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.

Domenico Capilongo

Domenico Capilongo
Originally uploaded by random acts of poetry

Domenico Capilongo was born in Toronto in 1972 and grew up in Vancouver and Swift Current, Saskatchewan before returning to Toronto where he completed his education. He is a karate instructor as well as a former Ontario Karate Champion and National Black Belt Medalist. He has lived in Japan and traveled throughout Asia. He teaches high school creative writing and alternative education. His work has appeared in several journals and anthologies in Canada and abroad. In 2004, he won an honourable mention in The Toronto Star Poetry Contest. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons. I thought elvis was italian is his first collection of poetry.

http://domcapilongo.googlepages.com

Luciano Iacobelli

Luciano Iacobelli
Originally uploaded by random acts of poetry

Luciano Iacobelli was born in 1956 in Toronto. While earning a degree in Education from York University, he studied English Literature and attended writing courses taught by Frank Davey and Don Coles. In 1986 his first play The Porch was staged in Toronto, followed in 1988 by a one-man show entitled Byrdbrain. Throughout the 1990's he focused on art and painting and was involved in a number of group shows featuring Italian-Canadian artists. In 1990 he founded Lyricalmyrical Press, a grass-roots publishing company specializing in handcrafted chapbooks, and he continues to be its chief editor and designer.

Luciano is one of the organizers of the Toronto Wordstage reading series, and a partner in Quattro Books. The author of six chapbooks, The Angel Notebook is his first full-length book publication.