16.3 | Fall 2019
In this issue: 2
News from the League
3
Feminist Caucus
4-5
Bill Arnott’s Beat
6-8
Interview with 2019 Golden Beret Winner Andrea Thompson
9-14
New League Members
15-16
Member News
17-23
6 Pieces on Poetry with Adebe DeRango-Adem and Michael Mirolla
24-26
Writing Opportunities
26
Bookish Bits & Industry News
27
In Memoriam
News from the League
4 4
4
4
4
4
4
LCP Chapbook Series: Black Poets Chapbook
The LCP Chapbook Series is now accepting submissions for a chapbook which will spotlight the work of Black poets, to be published in 2020. In celebration of contemporary writing in Canada, the chapbook will amplify Black voices that continue to enrich, question, and propel literature in Canada, playing a part in doing-away with single-thread narratives of the Black Canadian experience. We specifically encourage writers with intersecting marginalized identities to submit. The Black Poets Chapbook is open to League members and non-members and will be guest edited by Chelene Knight! Deadline for submissions is October 31, 2019. Find out more
The League’s 2020 award submissions are open
Our 2020 award submissions are now open! Publishers and authors may now submit books published in 2019 to the following awards: Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for debut books of poetry Pat Lowther Memorial Award for books of poetry by women Raymond Souster Award for new poetry books by active League members Application deadline for all three awards is December 10, 2019. Find out more
Poem in Your Pocket Day 2020
The League is excited to announce that we are officially accepting submissions for inclusion in the 2020 Poem in Your Pocket Day Booklet, produced annually in partnership with the Academy of American Poets! This opportunity is open exclusively to League members. Find out more and submit your poem on Wild Apricot, our League members-only site.
Poetry Pause
Your poetry could be featured in Poetry Pause, the League’s daily digital poetry dispatch program that’s growing every day! We deliver a daily poem directly to your inbox and we are always accepting submissions of published or unpublished poems! Poetry Pause is a great way to introduce new readers to your work. Tell your poet and poetry-loving friends! Subscribe to Poetry Pause Learn more about Poetry Pause
Staff Changes
This September, we said goodbye to our dedicated Communications Coordinator Madison, and we have welcomed two new people to the team: Natalie Czerwinski, Office Administrator (natalie@poets.ca) and Laura O’Brien, Communications Coordinator (laura@ poets.ca). Learn more about Natalie & Laura
Feminist Caucus A message from Ayesha Chatterjee
Hello poets, My name is Ayesha Chatterjee and I am the new Chair of the Feminist Caucus. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to you, and to fill you in on some of the work the Feminist Caucus will be continuing in this coming year. Before I do that, however, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Anne Burke, the outgoing Caucus Chair, who has steered the Feminist Caucus for many years with her steady leadership. The Caucus is alive and well because of her guidance. I know I have big shoes to fill and I am looking forward to expanding my role (I am also Past President of the League) to focus on the Feminist Caucus. A lot has been happening with the Feminist Caucus, and it is an excellent time to get involved--all League members are welcome to join. Here are a few points I’d like to mention, re: plans for this year: Review: We want to be sure that the Feminist Caucus is active, relevant, and doing the best work possible to support poets across Canada. Over the course of the next year, we’ll be conducting a review of the Feminist Caucus mandate, structure and approach to ensure our work is as effective as possible. 2020 Panel and Chapbook: I am delighted to announce that Shazia Hafiz Ramji will be involved in our Feminist Caucus activities this year. Shazia will be coordinating our 2020 panel and acting as editor for our 2020 chapbook publication. Shazia has already done some incredible work for the Feminist Caucus, and we are fortunate to have her on the team. Panel & Chapbook Ideas for 2020: We are currently accepting ideas and suggestions for the 2020 Feminist Caucus panel and chapbook. If you have a topic that you would love to see explored, please send us your ideas here. Getting to know the Feminist Caucus: Read more about the Feminist Caucus and explore the Living Archives series. The Feminist Caucus has a long and very important history with the League of Canadian Poets, and it’s exciting for me to be entering a new chapter that will help the Caucus to become more effective and inclusive. I hope you will join me on this journey. Very best wishes, Ayesha Chair, Feminist Caucus Past President, League of Canadian Poets
Bill Arnott’s Beat Evelyn Lau, Fiona Lam, SFU and VPL Muted sun fights low cloud, doing its best to cheer the city mid-winter. I’ve just come from a weekday lunchtime poetry reading at SFU’s downtown Vancouver campus and am making my way to the Central Library’s rooftop deck, home of the Yosef Wosk Poet’s Corner. I have two books in hand, both new to me, the Fiona Tinwei Lam edited Love Me True and Evelyn Lau’s Living Under Plastic.
Western Canada’s literary scene teems with talent, from neophytes to award-laden laureates. Authors of every facet share spoken word, competitive slam, and rapier-sharp contemporary as writers and fans converge in person, print, online and on airwaves. This is not a list of writing/reading groups or events. It’s subjective, personal experience – people and places where prose, poetry and lyrical verse are created and performed. Join me as we explore the country’s lit scene from the ground up, bedrock-solid and perpetually in motion. Like our imminent left coast quake, my epicentre is BC’s southwest. For now.
These gifted poets are mentors and friends. At least I consider them my friends. They may not care for me at all. They often read together and share instructor duties, leading SFU poetry courses. They’re mistaken for one other. Introducing herself in class, Lam said with a laugh, “I’m the OTHER Asian one.” Lau once asked me, “Why do people confuse the two of us?” “I don’t know,” I said. “Racism?” “What do YOU know about racism?” she said. “Are you kidding?” I said, “My people INVENTED it.” The lunchtime reading was one of a monthly series put on by the university, held in the Teck Gallery, an airy space overlooking Burrard Inlet and North Shore mountains, this day adorned in a confectioner’s dusting of fresh snow. Staff members scrambled to assemble more seating, the room filled with an array of writers and fans. Along with university staff and poetry lovers on lunch breaks, there were SFU poetry students, writers from the Downtown Eastside Writers’
Collective, and I visited with Kevin Spenst, then co-host of Co-Op Radio’s weekly Wax Poetic. Lau kicked off the reading, her depth of verse reinforcing why she was three-year Vancouver Poet Laureate. From the intensity of relationships and raw life experience to the relatable levity of bodily deterioration, soft spoken Lau captured the room of eighty before passing the baton to Lam, who peppered the group with succinct brilliance in her unique blend of insight and humour. To finish, Lam shared one of her innovative multi-media poetry films, stimulating mash-up with a global message. I finish my climb to the Central Library’s ninth floor and the outdoor garden space of Poet’s Corner. Just beyond the crown-like dome of BC Place, False Creek reaches toward East Van. Seawall borders the water, a mix of brick and asphalt I enjoy walking with Lau, where her commemorative display fronts the marina. On our walks we laugh and commiserate while I hope to absorb a whiff of her creative gift. Now I sit with a volume of Lau’s work by her white metal branch on a faux tree installation. It feels fitting. A few rays of sun, some gloomy cloud, view intermittently open and obscured. I read her voice and marvel at how inanimate sculpture can breathe, and propagate.
Vancouver author, poet, songwriter Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, Dromomania, Wonderful Magical Words and producer of Bill’s Artist Showcase. His Indie Folk CD is Studio 6. Bill’s work is published in Canada, US, UK, Europe and Asia. His Beat column is published by League of Canadian Poets and the Federation of BC Writers. Bill has a 2019 poetry prize from Pandora’s Collective, is a RYGA National Songwriting Finalist, and is a 2019 Whistler Independent Book Awards Finalist with Gone Viking: A Travel Saga.
“To me, poetry is love”
An interview with the 2019 Sheri D. Wilson Golden Beret winner, Andrea Thompson Andrea Thompson is, among so many things, the winner of the League’s 2019 Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award (poets.ca/goldenberet) for excellence and innovation in spoken word poetry. The Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award is an annual literary prize crafted specifically to highlight the unique strengths and values of spoken word poetry. We chatted with Andrea about her spoken word inspirations & beginnings, her involvement in community arts projects, finding community, and what poetry means to her. League of Canadian Poets (LCP): How did spoken word become part of your life? Andrea Thompson (AT): Spoken word has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I was raised by my grandparents, who both loved poetry. My grandmother especially, could remember poems she had learned as a girl at school, and would often spontaneously burst out in verse when she was in the mood. I grew up thinking this was a normal way to punctuate conversation. Still, when I was younger, I was pretty intimidated by the idea of sharing my own poetry on stage – until the mid-90s, when I began co-hosting a spoken word poetry show on the University of British Columbia’s campus radio station. At first I was terrified of being on air, so I volunteered to do research on the local poetry scene. This was pre-internet, so the only way to really find out what was going on was to attend events in person. It was at one of these poetry events that the host persuaded me to get up on stage and share my work. It was both terrifying and thrilling – and changed my life from that day forward. The radio show also gave me my first appreciation of spoken word (or “performance poetry” as most of us called it back then) as a vehicle to express an artist’s individuality. We were playing a lot of tracks from “The United States of Poetry” as well as Lillian Allen’s “Revolutionary Tea Party” and Jill Battson’s “Word Up” album in those days. Those recordings had a profound effect on me. The work
was unlike anything I had heard before, and the poets were so diverse – so uncompromising in their expression of authentic voice… It really opened up my idea of what was possible with the art form. LCP: Who are your biggest artistic influences (of any genre)? AT: In terms of performance, one of my biggest influences is singer/songwriter/poet, Kinnie Starr. I remember seeing her live in Vancouver in the mid 90s, and being completely overwhelmed by the power of her stage presence. She had such a perfect mix of power, authenticity and vulnerability. I’ve since called that experience exquisite misery— when someone’s work leaves me feeling simultaneously inspired by the possibilities of what I could hope to achieve as an artist, and humbled by how much I still had to learn. Some other poets who had a significant influence on the development of my work are, George Elliott Clarke, Sheri-D Wilson, Lynn Crosbie, Cass King, Adeena Karasick, Motion, Maya Angelou, D.J. Renegade, Alice Walker, Saul Williams, Rumi, ee cummings, Sonia Sanchez, Gil Scott-Heron, Gwendolyn Brooks, Patricia Smith…. (to name just a few). My poetic aesthetic is also deeply influenced by music, especially the work of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Lauryn Hill… LCP: What community supports were meaningful to you as you were starting out your spoken word career? AT: When I was first starting out as a young poet in Vancouver, there were no Slam poetry events anywhere in Canada. It wasn’t until organizers, James McCauliff and Graham Olds decided to put to National Slam team together in 1996 that I had the opportunity to witness firsthand what poets were doing to revolutionize the art form across North America. Again, the fact that this was pre-internet made James and Graham’s efforts even more valuable. Not having the luxury of doing an online search to find out what other artists were up to meant that creative cross-pollination required physical relocation. James and Graham also offered me a tremendous opportunity as an artist in 1997, when they sent me as a solo poet to represent Canada at the National Poetry Slam Championships in Middletown, Connecticut. Their support and faith in my work meant the world to me. I also feel grateful for the support of the League of Canadian Poets. I first became a member of the League in 2000, and shortly after that began to work for the League part-time and on-contract until around 2008. As a new poet on the scene, my association with the League offered me a tremendous sense of camaraderie and community– something precious for a writer with a penchant for solitude. Through working at the League, I had the opportunity to learn so much: from connecting with and learning about writers on the scene (especially poetry elders who helped shape the Canadian literary landscape) to learning about the realities of small press publishing and how an established national non-profit organization operates. It was a wonderful education and a time of my life that I will always think of with fondness.
LCP: What community projects are you currently involved in? AT: For the last few years, I’ve been teaching and advocating through Workman Arts – a multidisciplinary arts organization with a mandate to promote a greater understanding of mental health and addiction issues through creation and presentation. This year, I’ve also begun leading workshops through Parkdale Project Read, a non-profit, community-based literacy program that operates an adult learning centre in the Parkdale community. And I recently facilitated a workshop this past summer for the Poetry inPrint Writer’s Residency, a project created by Marureen DaSilva and organized with poet Jacquline Valencia. The initiative pairs poets and printmakers to create a series of hand-printed, handbound chapbooks and offers artists in both genres a way to use creativity to facilitate activism. LCP: What are you currently reading? AT: The Bible. LCP: What does poetry mean to you? AT: To me, poetry is love, language, rhyme, rhythm, vernacular, cadence, ancestry, freedom, self-expression, memory, memoir, praise, exaltation, oral history, tradition, catharsis, transcendence, cultural transmission, mentorship and a vehicle for versified resistance (among other things…. ).
Andrea Thompson (www.andreathompson.ca) is a writer, educator and spoken word artist who has been publishing and performing her work for over twenty-five years. In 1995 she was featured in the documentary Slamnation, as a member of the country’s first national slam team. In 2005, her spoken word CD One was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award. She is the author of the novel Over Our Heads and co-editor of Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out (both Inanna Publications). Thompson currently teaches at Workman Arts, as well as through the Ontario College of Art and Design University and The University of Toronto’s Continuing Studies departments. She has written several academic essays on spoken word, “Spoken Word: A Gesture Towards Possibility” (Writing Creative Writing: Essays from the Field,2018). Her most recent CD, Solorations, is available through iTunes, Amazon and most online streaming services. Listen to Andrea perform “Free Write Manifesto” from her 2018 album Soulorations here The Golden Beret Award was founded by Sheri-D Wilson and the Calgary Spoken Word Society. Formerly a lifetime achievement award, past iterations have honoured a Canadian spoken word artist who made substantial contributions to the development of spoken word, through the originality of their writing/performance works and involvement in the expansion of the spoken word community.
New League Members Randell Adjei is an author, inspirational speaker, arts educator and community leader who uses the spoken word to empower and transform through edu-tainment. He is the founder of one of Toronto’s largest and longest running youth led initiatives; Reaching Intelligent Souls Everywhere (R.I.S.E Edutainment). Stephen T Berg describes himself as a “disappointed hippy, approximate monk, writer and poet”. He lives in Edmonton and is in the process of retiring from his longstanding position as Development Officer at Edmonton’s Hope Mission. He has read his poetry and staged performances of his words in several venues since 2005. His work has appeared in such publications as Orion, Geez, Prairie Messenger, and the Edmonton Journal’s Religion page. He has dedicated his life to faith and helping others, and he strives continually to inhabit the gospel of peace, light and love. Heather Birrell is the author of a poetry collection, Float and Scurry and two story collections, Mad Hope and I know you are but what am I?. Heather’s work has been honoured with the Journey Prize for short fiction and the Edna Staebler Award for creative non-fiction and has been shortlisted for both National and Western Magazine Awards, as well as Arc Magazine’s poem of the year award. Her stories, essays, and poems have appeared in many North American journals and anthologies, including The New Quarterly, Descant, Arc Magazine, Hobart, and Toronto Noir.
Hilary Clark Originally from Vancouver, Hilary Clark has been teaching in the English Dept at the University of Saskatchewan since 1990. She teaches women’s writing, modernism, contemporary poetry, and creative writing (poetry), and has edited poetry manuscripts. Laura Cok Originally from northern California, Laura Cok spent time in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Waterloo, Ontario before settling in Toronto, where she now lives. She holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Toronto, where she won the E.J. Pratt Poetry Medal and the University of Toronto Magazine alumni poetry contest. She has been previously published widely across Canada and works in corporate communications. Her first book, Doubter’s Hymnal, came out in summer 2019 with Mansfield Press. She can be found online at lauracok.com or on Twitter (@lauracok). Stewart Cole is the author of the poetry collections Questions in Bed (Goose Lane, 2012) and the forthcoming Soft Power (Goose Lane, 2019) and the chapbooks Alien Freight (Anstruther Press, 2017) and Sirens (Cactus Press, 2011). His work has appeared in many venues, including The Walrus, The Puritan, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, and Riddle Fence. He is also a literary scholar working at the intersections of modern British and Irish literatures and animal studies. Stewart grew up in the Rideau Valley south of Ottawa and lived in Victoria, Montréal, Fredericton, London (Ontario), and Toronto before moving to the U.S. Midwest. He holds a Ph.D. from the University
of Toronto, an M.A. from the University of New Brunswick, and a B.A. (Honours) from the University of Victoria
teaching ESL to Newcomers to Canada. She is married and is the mother if two grown chuldren. She lives in Edmonton.
Deirdre Dwyer has been writing poetry since her teacher taught her about haiku in grade six. In the meantime, she’s worked as an English as a Second Language teacher in Tokyo, a Creative Writing instructor in Halifax, a Sessional Instructor of English in Windsor and a bookseller. Deirdre holds an MA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Windsor, and was a founding member of the Bourbon Street Poetry Society. She has worked with the Hope for Wildlife Society, a wildlife rehabilitation facility on the Eastern Shore. Deirdre was also Coordinator of the Musquodoboit Harbour Farmers’ Market, now in its fifth season. She is presently chair of the Musquodoboit Harbour and Area Community Association, and has recently been writing prose about her three years in Japan and her subsequent travels.
Katherine Davis is a feminist poet living in Edmonton, Alberta. She earned a Ph.D. specializing in American poetry from Duke University. Her poems have previously appeared in Weber, Stepping Stones, Wild Goose Review, Convergence, Sheila-na-gig, The Oddville Press, Literary Heist, Menacing Hedge, The Laurel Review, and are forthcoming in S/tick. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018, and was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities for work on American drama. After working as a writer and an editor around the U.S., she is currently thriving in Canada.
Greg 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). Su Croll has published three collections of poetry: Worlda Mirth, Blood Mother, and Cold Metal Stairs. A novel, Image Hungry, is forthcoming in 2020. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Concordia University in Montreal, as well as a BFA from Concordia and a BA (English and Visual Art) from Ottawa U. Su has taught poetry and fiction workshops, though the bulk of her 30 year teaching career has been
Meg Freer grew up in Montana and now lives with her family in Kingston, Ontario, where she teaches piano and music history. She enjoys outdoor activities year-round, photography, and running, and wishes she had more time for writing poetry. In 2017 she won a fellowship and attended the Summer Literary Seminars in Tbilisi. Mel Gill Corina Gugulus is a graduate of York University (2011) and holds a Certificate in Creative Writing from University of Toronto (2017). Her poem ‘Sour Cherry’ won Honorable Mention in Prairie Fire’s competition in 2015. She lives and works in Toronto. Shery Alexander Heinis is an emerging poet in the poetry community in Ottawa, Canada. She was born and raised on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, and currently lives and works in Ottawa. She studied International Relations at the University of the West Indies (Jamaica) and Cambridge University (UK) and is a former diplomat with the High Commission for the Countries of the Organization of Eastern
Caribbean States in Ottawa. She is widely travelled and has worked in a number of areas including diplomacy, foreign affairs, global development, trade, tourism and investment, and small business in both the public and private sectors. Karen Houle is the author of two poetry collections, Ballast (1995) and During (2000). She teaches in the Philosophy department at the University of Guelph. She is also involved with the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming, where her interest in putting environmental ethics into practice has shifted her toward landbased approaches to learning. She lives in Guelph, Ontario. Bruce Kauffman is a poet, editor, writing workshop facilitator, and event organizer. Since releasing his first chapbook in 2006, Kauffman’s work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. His published work now includes four collections and four chapbooks of poetry. Jospeh Kidney
Andrew Lafleche is an award-winning poet and author of No Diplomacy; Shameless; Ashes; A Pardonable Offence; One Hundred Little Victories; On Writing: and Merica, Merica on the Wall. He is editor of Gravitas Poetry and the Evil Musings anthology. Lafleche served as an infantry soldier from 2007-2014. He earned an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Gloucestershire. Visit AJLafleche. com for more information.
FROM THE BLOG
Kirby‘s earlier chapbooks include Simple Enough, Cock & Soul, Bob’s boy, The world is fucked and sometimes beautiful, and SHE’S HAVING A DORIS DAY (knife | fork | book, 2017). They appear in Matrix Magazine, Dusie, Canthius, Carousel, Burning House, The Rusty Toque (Pushcart Nominee) and can be heard on bandcamp (jeffkirby.bandcamp.com). A collection of essays, POETRY IS QUEER, from Kirby’s ongoing class/ workshop is forthcoming, along with their new chapbook, She Ascended Into Heaven (Anstruther Press, 2020). Their fulllength debut, THIS IS WHERE I GET OFF is out now from Permanent Sleep Press. Kirby is the owner/publisher of knife | fork | book, Toronto. jeffkirby.ca Laurie Fuhr
Sonnet L’Abbé is the author of two previous collections of poetry, A Strange Relief and Killarnoe, and, most recently, the chapbook Anima Canadensis. In 2000, she won the Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award for most promising writer under 35. In 2014, she was the guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry in English. Her work has been internationally published and anthologized. L’Abbé lives on Vancouver Island and is a professor of creative writing at Vancouver Island University.
Joshua Levy writes non-fiction, fiction, and poetry, tells stories on radio, podcasts, and stage, and teaches creative writing. Levy’s work has been published by the Oxford University Press, Vehicle Press, and in numerous Canadian and international literary magazines. He is a winner of the Carte Blanche/CNFC Creative Nonfiction Prize, SLS Fiction Prize, and CBC/QWF Writing Competition, and has been shortlisted or longlisted for other literary awards, including the CBC Nonfiction Prize, Chester B. Himes Memorial Fiction Contest, Vallum Poetry Chapbook Competition, and Montreal International Poetry Prize. Levy lives in Montreal and is currently working on a book inspired by his articles as the 2018 CBC/QWF Writer-in-Residence. Janice Jo Lee, aka Sing Hey, is a KoreanCanadian folk-soul singer-songwriter, poet and playwright from Kitchener, on Haldimand Tract treaty territory. Lee is an award-winning
performer known for being disarmingly hilarious and off-the-cuff. On stage she creates vocal looping landscapes alongside her guitar, trumpet and Korean jangu drum. Lee is a hard femme queer radical and is interested in using art to build flourishing communities based in justice and joy. Her latest compositions are Ancestor Songs, wailing and heartwrenching melodies full of power and ferocity. Paul Lisson is a poet, archivist, and librarian. Degrees from McMaster University and the University of Toronto. Archives certificate from the Archives Association of Ontario. Founding Publisher and Editor along with artists Fiona Kinsella and Peter Stevens (1963-2015) of Hamilton Arts & Letters. The Ontario Arts Council says that HA&L has the “distinction” of being the first online magazine they have funded. HA&L is a recommender for the Ontario Arts Council’s Grants to Writers program. Tanis MacDonald Originally from Winnipeg, Tanis MacDonald now lives in Waterloo, Ontario, where she teaches Canadian literature and creative writing at Wilfrid Laurier University. She won the Bliss Carman Poetry Prize in 2003, was a finalist for the Gabrielle Roy Prize in 2013 for her book The Daughter’s Way and was the recipient of the Robert Kroetsch Teaching Award in 2017. She is co-editor (with Rosanna Deerchild and Ariel Gordon) of GUSH: menstrual manifestos for our times for Frontenac House. Widely published as a scholar and a reviewer, her fourth poetry book, Mobile, is coming out with BookThug in Fall 2019. Bob MacKenzie’s poetry has appeared in almost 400 journals across North America and as far away as Australia, India, Italy, and Greece. He has published 16 volumes of poetry and prose fiction, including “somewhere still in wind the tree is bending” (Silver Bow Publishing, 2018), “On Edge” (Dark Matter Press, 2012), and “The Little
Song” (Brandstead Press, 1975). His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and have been translated into Arabic, into Greek for an anthology widely distributed in Greece, and into Farsi for two Persian language anthologies published in the United States. Bob’s received numerous local and international awards for his writing as well as an Ontario Arts Council grant for literature, a Canada Council Grant for performance, and a Fellowship to participate in the Summer Literary Seminars in Tbilisi, Georgia. David Malcolm is a writer and retired engineering scientist and management specialist in the areas of design, project management, business planning and strategy. David has more than 20 years of experience researching and writing about many areas in Canada’s North. As well as writing YA fiction and poetry David has published in several non-fiction disciplines including cancer recovery, alternative energy, climate change policy, sustainable community development, and entrepreneurial sustainable living. He lives in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories with his friend and lifelong partner Sandra. Valerie Mason-John is an award-winning writer. Her first novel, Borrowed Body (later republished as The Banana Kid) won the Mind Book of the Year Award, and was described as the “British Color Purple” by the UK media. In addition to her award-winning novel, she is the author of four non-fiction books and a collection of poetry, prose and plays, several of which have been produced. She has edited two poetry anthologies and has contributed to several poetry and short story anthologies. Her poetry has been exhibited at all the major galleries in the UK including the National Portrait gallery, and two of her poems are permanent installations in the UK. Ghazal Mosadeq hais a writer, poet and
translator. Her poems and short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines in the UK, Iran, Canada, Portugal, and Greece. She is the winner of the 2013 Bayhaqi Short Fiction Prize and her collection of poems dar jame ma (2010) was shortlisted for the 2011 Khurshid poetry award in Iran. She teaches creative writing and is a member of the jury for Isfahan Literary Prize in Iran. Jaclyn Piudik is the author of To Suture What Frays (Kelsay Books 2017) and two chapbooks, Of Gazelles Unheard (Beautiful Outlaw 2013) and The Tao of Loathliness (fooliar press 2005/8). Her third chapbook, the corpus undone in the blizzard, is forthcoming from Espresso Chapbooks in February 2020. Piudik’s poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including New American Writing, Columbia Poetry Review, and Contemporary Verse 2. She received a New York Times Fellowship for Creative Writing and the Sellers Award from the Academy of American Poets. Piudik has edited three collections of poetry for award winning Canadian publisher Book*hug. She holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from the City College of New York, completed under the supervision of Elaine Equi and Marilyn Hacker, as well as a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature from the University of Toronto. Meredith Quartermain’s work can be found in Best Canadian Poetry 2018 and 2009. Her first book, Vancouver Walking, won a BC Book Award for Poetry, and her second book, Nightmarker was a finalist for a Vancouver Book Award. Other books include Recipes from the Red Planet (finalist for a BC Book Award in fiction); I, Bartleby: short stories; and U Girl: a novel. From 2014 to 2016, she was Poetry Mentor in the SFU Writer’s Studio Program, and in 2012 she was Vancouver Public Library Writer in Residence Nikki Reimer is a carbon-based life form
and fifth-generation settler of Ukrainian and Mennonite descent who resides on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta. Reimer writes poetry, essays and criticism, yells on the internet, and makes digital art. Her creative and non-fiction work has appeared on stages, billboards, public art exhibits, pop-up bistro menus, and in various magazines, journals and anthologies. Reimer explores found and remixed methods for generating material, including n+1 and blackout methods. She writes poetry and essays on feminist issues, urban life, loss and grief, politics, and other heavy subjects, though her work is also at times darkly funny and absurd. dn simmers is an online editor with Fine Lines. His work has appeared in Poetry Salzburg, The Storyteller, Westward Quarterly, Red River Review, poetrymag.com, Plainsong, Iconoclast, Nerve Cowboy, and Monterey Poetry Review. Titilope Sonuga is a writer and performer who calls Lagos, Nigeria and Edmonton, Canada, home. The recipient of the Canadian Authors’ Association Emerging Writer Award, and a 2015 Open Society (OSIWA) Foundation Resident Poet on Goree Island, off the coast of Senegal, she is a leading voice in local and international performance poetry communities who has travelled extensively as a poet, and facilitated poetry workshops across the world. She is the founder of Edmonton’s Breath In Poetry Collective. Her poetry has been translated into Italian, German and Slovak. Hugh Thomas’ work as a mathematician takes him around the world to conferences and residencies, which has contributed to the polylingual mishmash out of which his poetry arises. Hugh has lived in Winnipeg, Toronto, Chicago, London, and Fredericton, and currently resides in Montréal, where he teaches mathematics at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Leif Vaage was born in Chilliwack, B.C., launched in Williams Lake, post-secondarily educated in Oregon, Indiana, Ohio, and California, before becoming definitively rearranged in Lima, Peru. Employed since 1991 as a professor of biblical (New Testament) studies at Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto, he now lives whenever he can in Guysborough, Nova Scotia, with his wife Susan Slater, tractorlust, and a growing flotilla of needy boats. His previous book of poetry is Schooled in Salt (The St. Thomas Poetry Series, 2003). Douglas Walbourne-Gough is a poet and mixed/adopted Mi’kmaw from Corner Brook, Newfoundland. His poetry has appeared in journals and magazines across Canada and he’s recently found some success writing reviews and essays. His first collection, Crow Gulch, is forthcoming with Goose Lane’s icehouse poetry imprint (Sept 2019). He holds an MFA in Creative Writing (UBC Okanagan) and is beginning a PhD in Creative Writing (UNB Fredericton) this Fall. For more, visit walbournegough.com or check him out on instagram, @crow_gulch. Sarah Wolfson’s poems appear in Canadian and American journals including The Fiddlehead, West Branch, AGNI, and PRISM international. A two-time Pushcart nominee, she holds an MFA from the University of Michigan. Originally from Vermont, she now lives in Montreal, on traditional and unceded Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) territory. Vlado
Member News Members (and non-members) are always invited to submit their readings, book launches, panels, or any other poetry-related events to our national events calendar. We are now accepting entires though an online form which can be found at poets.ca/events. Bill Arnott Bestseller Bill Arnott sails Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, a 2019 Whistler Independent Book Awards Finalist, around BC with reading, signing, and performance events at: • Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street, Vancouver, BC on October 15, 2019 • Whistler Writers Festival, October 17-20, 2019 • Indigo, Langley, BC on October 20 • YVR Authors at BC Alliance for Arts and Culture, 100-938 Howe St., Vancouver, BC on October 22 • Surrey Muse, 128 Croydon Dr, Surrey, BC on October 25 Join the fun and connect with Bill - creator of Bill’s Artist Showcase and LCP’s Poetry Beat as he treks the globe in the wake of the Vikings! Rebecca Banks Subterranean Blue Poetry has launched their October 2019 issue, titled: “rain and stars and sails”. This issue features Denny Marshall, Emily Bilman, Teresa McLamb Blackmon, Joseph A. Farina, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Uxio Novoneyra, Monty Reid and more. http://www.subterraneanbluepoetry.com/ Louise Carson
Louise Carson will launch her next book in the Maples Mysteries Series, The Cat Between, on Tuesday, October 15, 2019 at Twigs Cafe, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec. On Saturday, October 26th, 2019 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Louise Carson will have a book signing at Librairie Clio Bookstore, Pointe-Claire, Quebec for her mystery The Cat Between, Signature Editions. Karin Cope Griffin-award winning poet Anne Simpson will launch her newest collection of poetry, Strange Attractor in Halifax at the NSCAD Art Bar (Granville Mall, NSCAD Fountain Campus) on 17 October at 5pm. Simpson will be reading with poet Karin Cope, who will be launching her chapbook, ex votos from a broken world. The Art Bar is located at 1873 Granville Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Marvyne Jenoff CLIMBING THE RAIN: A Writing Life Tuesday, October 15, 2019 Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, 14 Elm St, Toronto, Ontario In an engaging talk, Marvyne Jenoff will present a survey of her work from early journal publications in the 1960s, through her four books of poems and experimental fiction, to her upcoming book, Climbing the Rain, with short readings from each. This is a private function but Marvyne can easily arrange for several people to come as guests. If you are interested in attending contact mjenoff416@gmail.com for full details. No charge.
Diana Manole This fall, Diana Manole teaches the third-year workshop “Creative Writing: Poetry” at the University of Guelph. Marking 2019 as the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages, Tyler Pennock – Onanankkwaap has agreed to visit her class on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019 from 4 p.m. to 5:30pm and give a reading/workshop in Witnessing and Storyweaving. He is a Cree and Metis adoptee, a two-spirit writer, educator and storyteller, and a graduate of Guelph University’s Creative Writing MFA program. His collection of poems bones is coming out from Brick Books in April 2020. Please spread the word - everybody is welcome! Susan McCaslin Susan McCaslin toured from Feb.-June 2019 with her recent book, Superabundantly Alive: Thomas Merton’s Dance with the Feminine, a collaborative volume of creative non-fiction she composed with fellow poet J.S. Porter. The authors have been interviewed on The Nancy Duffy Show. Listen to the interview
Nameless, is out for consideration by a publisher. Harry Posner Day of the Poets Festival in Orangeville, Ontario is preparing for their third annual event. If you’re interested in reading at the festival, send along some samples of your poetry plus a bio to harryposner@rogers.com Bänoo Zan Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night) LXXVIII Toronto’s most diverse & brave poetry reading and open mic series is taking place Tuesday October 29, 2019 at the Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Ave, in Toronto, Ontario Featuring poets Adebe DeRango-Adem & Paul Edward Costa and hosted by Bänoo Zan & Terese Pierre. Doors open at 6:15 p.m., open-mic sign-up is at 6:30 p.m., and the show will run from 7-10 p.m. Admission is $7-10. Check out the event page on Facebook
Susan’s recent publications include an essay on Leonard Cohen’s last CD, You Want It Darker, in Hamilton Arts & Letters and an another titled “Art, Action – Transformation” in Sage-ing Magazine (Kelowna). She also gave a public talk on Robin Blaser’s libretto for Harrison Birtwistle’s opera The Last Supper at Co-op Bookstore in Vancouver in May, which will be published in the Fall issue of Golden Handcuffs Review (Seattle, WA.).
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Currently, Susan is working on a new poetry manuscript that explores the mythopoetic layers of some of the gnostic gospels. Susan will be offering a writing workshop on ekphrastic poetry titled “Synergies: Engaging Visual Art Through Poetry” on Oct. 12 at The Fort Gallery in Fort Langley, BC, 10am-3pm. Her most recent unpublished manuscript of poetry, Named &
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6 Pieces on Poetry is a new series from the League to help members - and our wider audience - get to know each other better. Who are the members of the League of Canadian Poets? With over 750 members – growing every day -, our membership is diverse. Of course, though, all members have one thing in common: poetry! 6 Pieces on Poetry is our new quarterly series where members of the League will answer our 6 questions. We’ll talk poetry, writing lives & lessons, and inspiration, and through 6 Pieces on Poetry, you’ll get to know our membership a little better.
6 Pieces on Poetry with Adebe DeRango-Adem Adebe DeRango-Adem is a writer and former attendee of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics (Naropa University), where she mentored with poets Anne Waldman and Amiri Baraka. She is the author of three full-length poetry books to date: Ex Nihilo (Frontenac House, 2010), Terra Incognita (Inanna Publications, 2015), and The Unmooring (Mansfield Press, 2018).
How did poetry become part of your life? My earliest influence was likely Shakespeare’s sonnets, which I read long before Shakespeare was ever introduced to me by way of formal education. Around the age of 12 I stole some of my mother’s high school poetry, which I remember as being incredibly morbid, and at times frightening. More than the subject matter, however, is that I remembered how full of passion the poetry’s diction was. This wasn’t the kind of writing we were been instructed to read in school. In my final year of high school, my creative writing teacher, Mr. Morgan, really honed my interest in CW generally and poetry in particular. I noted that he was passionate about teaching us not only remarkable novels and difficult poems but banned/controversial books as well. So, I may have become a poet because of a combination of morbid thoughts and a love of subversive authors! Upon graduating high school I spent the summer typewriting every single poem I had written to
date, and after choosing the best ones, put together a chapbook called Sea Change (which was subsequently published by Burning Effigy Press in 2007). It was a calling many years in the making, and that I am still “making.”
What themes do you explore most consistently through your writing? I think of themes as exploring relationships: in the case of my writing, between faith and doubt, being and otherness, freedom and responsibility. My books have always been a reflection of my life; they have also been the foundation of that which gives me life. I write about racial identity quite a bit because that is my life; my identity is/always has been raced. I write about love because I have loved and known what true love is, and I write about pain because I have known real pain. I hope my writing can speak to a range of thematics, as I am a writer who has always seen the multiplicity in the singular—my own identity is a refusal of (racial/ethnic/cultural) singularity, and as writers, it’s our collective job to record the multitudes.
Do you feel that you’ve found a writing practice that works for you? If yes, can you tell us about it? If not, describe the challenges that you face that prevent you from feeling this way. I used to be able to write late into the night, but I think late afternoon is now peak time for me. I don’t have a ritualized practice, though I understand writing to be a discipline as much as an art. I have to write in spaces with some kind of white noise, and preferably natural lighting. Sometimes I can write while listening to music, but silence is usually the place where I begin to listen to the “still small voice.” Ideally I would have paper and a pen with black ink, but most importantly, I would hope to have enough peace to let the words come.
What lesson that you learned through a creative writing course/workshop/ lecture/book sticks with you most presently? This summer I served as a volunteer with the Humber School for Writers CW program, where I assisted the classes led by Olive Senior. I’ll never forget when she said, “The writer’s country is writing.” It wasn’t meant as advice, but I like to take it with me, hold it to my heart as a kind of remembering. That I am at home where I am writing, and that writing is my home. No one can take it away from me, or exile me from it. It’s a phrase that could many things to many people.
What is the importance of community to your writing life? Making sure that I am continually using my platform—as a writer, editor, and member of the Canadian literary community (of which there are many communities)—to hold space for emerging voices, and specifically those voices that have been marginalized or compromised in some way. I also aim to break down the barriers in the local poetry community (Toronto) between spoken word as performance and poetry reading as literary event because I see my own writing as an offering both for page and stage. In this vein, I think the work I am doing with Brick Books as Coordinator of the Brickyard—an audio/ visual hub proud to showcase excellence in Canadian writers, poets, storytellers and spoken word
artists—speaks to this endeavor as well. Brickyard aims to build relationships with potential printlist authors, while simultaneously showcasing the different kinds of poetries being performed in Canada. The aim is to bring communities together while simultaneously expanding the reach and the scope of our audience, which naturally includes diverse community members working in a variety of literary forms. I have published 3 full-length collections of poetry to date, but it was spoken word that really brought me into my own (voice). One of the joys of coordinating the Brickyard is being able to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration through oral history, the arts, and digital media, bringing past, present, and future together. To note: Brick Books is currently accepting submissions for The Brickyard! Artists selected for new features exclusive to the Brickyard site will receive an honorarium for their work. Adebe DeRango-Adem (I) will be the one curating the submissions. We are especially interested in poets whose work defies the boundaries of genre, and Indigenous poets/storytellers/oral historians are especially encouraged to submit. Find out more here: https://www.brickbooks.ca/brickyard
What keeps you going as a writer? The incredible and often indescribable feeling when you finally land on that line/phrase/word that speaks for its own and on its own, can advocate for its own beauty and necessity. When it gets channeled through you with a curious ease of effort, and you know you’ve arrived. Every time that happens, I feel myself arriving again in that warm place where I am gently reminded of why I should keep writing. Or why I am a writer in the first place. For writing is literally what keeps me going… if not for writing, where might I have gone?
+ bonus: Recommend a book or performance by a Leaguer! I would like to recommend 2019 Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Awardee for excellence and innovation in spoken word poetry, Andrea Thompson! Her most recent CD, Solorations, is available through iTunes, Amazon and most online streaming services. Oh, and there is also the anthology I co-edited with Andrea—Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out (Inanna Publications, 2010). Andrea and I have also opened a call for submissions for Other Tongues Volume 2!
6 Pieces on Poetry with Michael Mirolla Michael Mirolla’s publications include three Bressani Prize winners: the novel Berlin; the poetry collection The House on 14th Avenue; and the short story collection, Lessons in Relationship Dyads. He is also the author of a novella, three other novels, two other short story collections and a second poetry collection. A novella, The Last News Vendor, is scheduled from Quattro Books in the fall of this year. The short story, “A Theory of Discontinuous Existence,” was selected for The Journey Prize Anthology; and “The Sand Flea” was a Pushcart Prize nominee. Michael lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
How did poetry become part of your life? I can’t recall a time when poetry wasn’t part of my life. Writing in general (and poetry in particular) can’t really be disconnected from who I am. It would be like pulling the plug on a respirator that keeps me breathing. Without writing, I wouldn’t exist. From the beginning, it was my way of making sense of myself. My first memories of writing come from elementary school, creating stories and images while under the dining room table reading Tom Swift and his many adventures in outer space and alternate universes. What drove me to write? I don’t know. It was just something that I had to do. It was an essential part of me. (This was before I came to the realization that there is no such thing as an essential part of a human identity.) My first piece of published writing was a poem (“The Strange Land”), published in Canadian Forum when I was 19. In my final year of high school, I was fortunate enough to have a Christian Brother of Ireland who, aside from being quirky and unique, believed in creativity and not only in the study of literature but encouraging students to express themselves in creative ways. So I wrote poems, short stories, fantasies. At McGill, in the midst of undergoing the tortures of advances physics, chemistry and math, I took a creative writing class. We workshopped poetry and I enjoyed that more than the science courses. So much so I switched to an English Lit major. And it has been satisfaction and penury ever since.
Now, whenever I feel like I need a lift, I listen to Guy Clark’s Cold Dog Soup and Rainbow Pie: “Ain’t no money in poetry That’s what sets the poet free I’ve had all the freedom I can stand Cold dog soup and rainbow pie Is all it takes to get me by Fool my belly till the day I die Cold dog soup and rainbow pie”
What themes do you explore most consistently through your writing? If I had to come up with one major theoretical concern behind my writing, it would be the intersection between self-identity-society. Questions: What does it mean to be human? What makes us essentially human? How does the individual consciousness interact with that of others? At what point can we state that a human being has been stripped of all the non-essentials that accrue over a lifetime? In my opinion, the questions being asked in much of today’s literature miss the point: rather than asking what it means to be human, they tend to ask what it means to be this or that -- gender, race, etc. Rather than looking inward to see what’s right and what’s wrong, they tend to be directed outwards, looking to place blame elsewhere. Of course, the search for that intersection leads back to the search for identity itself which is paradoxical. Much of my writing explores two elements: (1) the notion that the attempt to pin things down, to analyze their components or to create some sort of formal system, is a doomed enterprise due to the self-reflexivity of human consciousness; and (2) that human identity is not as constant or uninterrupted or unbroken as we are usually led to believe or make ourselves believe. Why poetry as opposed to other forms of writing? Poetry to me allows for a compression of language and a concreteness of imagery that prose doesn’t usually achieve. Poetry does away with the “mundaneness” of having to explain, of having to set things up in a linear fashion. With poetry, you can skip the connections and go straight to the heart of the matter. That’s where the concrete images come in. I think there’s an irony in the creation of good poetry. The irony is that poetry might arise from an emotional response to something or someone but, in order to create a good poem, the poet needs to go beyond the “gush” of the emotional response. That is, a lot of mental discipline, a lot of thought, goes into a gut-wrenching emotional poem! Or at least it should. In terms of reaction, a poem offers the type of instant satisfaction that prose can’t. Finally, a good poem takes you closer to the “thing-as-itis” than other forms of writing. The poem is an effort to do away with intermediaries between you and the objects of the world. Of course, it’s an impossible task and no one will ever touch the “thing-as-itis” because, as direct as poetry is, there still remains a barrier, the barrier of human consciousness.
Do you feel that you’ve found a writing practice that works for you? If yes, can you tell us about it? If not, describe the challenges that you face that prevent you from feeling this way. I’m fortunate in that I’ve discovered the ability to move from one form of writing to another without having to re-charge or spend time changing gears. I guess part of the reason for that is that I’ve worked as a newspaper copy editor as well as a freelance writer. So I had to move quickly going from paying jobs to my own creative efforts. Now, given that I help run Guernica Editions and am involved in all phases of the operation of the publishing house, I’m glad that I have this ability. Otherwise, my own writing would have suffered to the point of extinction. However, this isn’t something that can be
passed on to someone else as a “writing practice”. It’s a very individual thing. As for challenges to my writing practice, My greatest challenges are probably the same as those faced by anyone who wants to be considered a serious writer: the attempt to balance the drive to write with the demands of family and life. I once thought that those who really made it had to have a combination of talent and a set of blinkers that made them see nothing but the object of their desire. Everything else had to be sacrificed for that career: family, friends, jobs. But then I came to realize that just wasn’t me. I came from a close-knit and extended Italian family. I fell in love with an IrishFrench woman who serves as the heart and centre of my life. She has understood my passion but has also been there to temper it. She has encouraged me but has also let me see that life needs to be lived. She is beaming and smiling and filled with enthusiasm; I am naturally pre-disposed to melancholy. She is not afraid to express her love — for me, for our children, for our grandchildren; I have difficulty saying “I love you.” That we’ve been together for nearly 50 years is the closest thing I know to a miracle.
What lesson that you learned through a creative writing course/workshop/lecture/book stickswith you most presently? I am very fortunate to have been a graduate of the very early years of the University of British Columbia’s MFA program in Creative Writing, under the tutelage of Doug Bankson, Robert Harlow, J. Michael Yates, Jacob Zilbur, Michael Bullock. Those two years re-shaped my writing and taught me several important lessons: question everything with a critical eye; read everything with a sense of excitement and promise; write everything as if it’s the last thing you write and never cut corners because it could very well be those corners that contain what is really needed. While there, I was introduced to the Eastern European writers and the Black Mountain poets. To irony and existentialism. To the dangers of laziness and clichés. When it comes to books/writers who have influenced me and left scars, I’m very much a traditionalist. I still believe in Kafka, Joyce, Beckett. No other writers have moved me or affected me the way they did. I did have a brief affair with Bukowski and I still think he really stirred the shit nicely. And I like Mann’s Death In Venice and Hesse’s Steppenwolf. But Kafka, Joyce and Beckett are the Holy Trinity for me, the writers who spoke to me directly. Kafka taught me that there is no true continuity in life, that it is all a matter of starts and stops, of fragments and bits and pieces, that there is no such thing as normal, and that judgment day is every day. Joyce revealed the world of language, the delight in playing with words, the magic of painting a canvas, the many ways that all lead to the same way. In a sense, Joyce is like a modern Siddhartha: he created a universe where neither thought nor action takes precedence and where it is the sheer joy of creation that is important. No lessons to be learned, in other words. By the way, I don’t think there is a more perfect short story in the English language than “The Dead”. As for Beckett, he stripped everything down to the essentials, to show that there were no essentials. He represented in theatrical terms (even his novels are theatrical) what many philosophers were trying to express in the 20th century: if there is no canon, then everything becomes the margin.
What is the importance of community to your writing life? There was a time when I believed that an author’s duty was to lock herself in a garret, a nice quiet place and write till she’s ready to explode. Then send the material out into the world and people would come knocking at the garret door having recognized the true genius of the person within. Now, I’ve come to understand that, while a writer does need a time of quiet, that’s only one small part of the writing life. Interacting with the community, be it other writers or simply interested readers, has become quite essential for me. I was shy and introverted, not willing to share my work for fear it would
be belittled or ignored. Today, I enjoy reading, talking, trying to make an impact. I also like giving presentations and workshops. As a publisher, I have numerous contacts with fellow writers of all stripes. A sense of community and collegiality are very important, given that writing is such a lonely business.
What keeps you going as a writer? As I may have hinted at previously, it’s not so much a matter of what keeps me going as a writer but rather what would I be if I weren’t a writer. Writing fills the void (at least for the time being) we all feel as human beings. The connection to a source of creativity is the closest we’ll get to god. To quote Maurice Blanchot from his masterwork, The Space of Literature: “The work is mind, and the mind is the passage, within the work, from the supreme indeterminacy to the determination of that supreme. This unique passage is real only in the work – in the work which is never real, never finished, since it is only the realization of the mind’s infiniteness. The mind, then, sees once again in the work only an opportunity to recognize and exercise itself ad infinitum. Thus we return to our point of departure.” I continue to write because I don’t understand how not to write. I don’t understand how to live without writing. There is no separation between who I am and what I write. And that’s very interesting in itself because I am a Lachanian when it comes to identity. I believe that all we have inside us (all that defines consciousness) is a double set of mirrors facing each other. So I write to create the narrative of my identity; to edit that narrative; to critique it. And the object of all this? Well, perhaps a couple of lines from a poem might help explain. In my poem “The Touch”, I say: “To touch the thing-in-itself – nothing more; nothing less.” That’s what you’ve written over and over, in one form or another, like a thick student who just doesn’t get it.
+bonus: Recommend a book or performance by a Leaguer!
Banoo Zan – Songs of Exile.
Writing Opportunities Calls for Submissions Brickyard Brick Books invites audio recordings for Brickyard-an audio/visual hub proud to showcase excellence in Canadian writers, poets, storytellers, and spoken word artists. Learn more Other Tongues Co-editors Adebe DeRango-Adem and Andrea Thompson are seeking submissions of writing and/or artwork for a follow-up anthology of work by and about mixed-race women, called Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out (Again!). Deadline for Submissions is January 15, 2020. Learn more Arc Arc Poetry Magazine is accepting submissions on a rolling basis until December 31, 2019. Poets can recieve $50 per page selected for publication. Learn more Blank Spaces Blank Spaces Canadian Literary Arts Magazine is accepting submissions on a rolling basis, and submmissions fees have been waived for the month of December! Learn more Bywords Bywords is accepting poetry submissions on a rolling basis from current or former Ottawa residents. Learn more Cosmonauts Avenue Cosmonauts Avenue is accepting poetry for their montly publication. Learn more
Dreamers Magazine Dreamers Magazine is accepting poetry submissions on a rolling basis that focus on the intersections of wellness – narrative medicine, medical memoir, writing the self, healing writing, etc. Selected writers for publication will recieve a $20 honorarium. Learn more Filling Station Filling Station magazine is accepting poetry submissions on a rolling basis. Selected writers for publication will recieve a $25 honorarium. Learn more Freefall Magazine Open submissions of poetry available until November 30, 2019. Selected writers for publication will recieve $25 per poem. Learn more Grain Grain magazine has open submissions for poetry until May 2020. Selected writers for publication will recieve $50 per page. Learn more Humber Literary Review General submissions are currently open for the Humber Literary Review. Poets will recieve $100 for 2-3 poems if selected for publication. Learn more Montreal Writes Submissions are open for Montreal Writes Literary Magazine. They are also seeking Halloween-specific content submissions until October 15, 2019. Learn more Plenitude Magazine Plenitude, your queer literary magazine, is accepting submissions on a rolling basis. Compensation is $35 per poem selected for publica-
tion. Learn more PRISM PRISM magazine currently has an open call for submissions. Poets can earn $40 per page of poetry that is accepted for publication. Learn more Ricepaper Submissions are open for Ricepaper magazine. Asian writers of all cultural backgrounds are encouraged to submit. Learn more ROOM Room Magazine is currently accepting submissions for their upcoming issue until October 31, 2019. Contributors can earn a minimum of $50 per page. Learn more The Fiddlehead Open submissions of poetry for The Fiddlehead are now available. Poets can recieve $60 per page. Learn more The Puritan The Puritan is accepting submissions year round. Poets can recieve $25 per page if seleceted for publication. Learn more
Awards and Contests 2019 Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize PRISM International’s 2019 Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize is now open for submissions! Submit up to 3 poems for a $35 fee. First prize $1500 + publication. Judge: Katerena vermette. Deadline: October 15, 2019. Learn more Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Competition Submissions are open for the Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Competition by Exile Quarterly. Two prizes of $1,500 are available for emerging writers and established writers. Deadline is October 21, 2019. Learn more 2019 Young Buck Poetry Prize CV2 magazine’s 2019 Young Buck Poetry Prize is open for submissions! The Young Buck Poetry Prize is a contest for writers under 35, awarded to the author of the single best poem. Submission
fee of $26. 1st prize is $1000 + publication, plus 3 honourable mentions to receive cash prizes. 2019’s judge is Leaguer Shazia Hafiz Ramji! Deadline: November 1, 2019. Learn more 2020 Open Season Awards The Malahat Review’s 2020 Open Season Awards in poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction are now open! $35 entry fee. First prize of $2000 + publication in each category. Poetry judge: A. Light Zachary. Deadline: November 1, 2019. Learn more OPEN Poetry Contest Submissions are open for the 2019 OPEN poetry contest by Frontier Poetry. A single prize of $5000 is available. Deadline is November 15, 2019. Learn more Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award Submissions are open for the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award by Prairie Fire. Cash prizes as well as residency at the Banff Centre are available as prizes. Deadline is November 30, 2019. Learn more Minola Review Poetry and Fiction Contests Minola Review’s inaugural Poetry and Fiction Contests are now accepting submissions! Open to women and non-binary writers. $20 submission fee. $750 + publication for first prize in each category. Poetry judge: Leaguer Doyali Islam. Deadline: December 1, 2019. Learn more Priscila Uppal Memorial Award Submissions are open for the inaugural Priscila Uppal Memorial Award by Canthius. Priscila Uppal was a tour-de-force and her poetry was anything but sit-down, tame, or by-the-book. Canthius encourages submissions that tackle serious topics with a spirit of fun. This award was created to honour Priscila’s legacy as a mentor and friend to many. Deadline is December 1, 2019. Learn more 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada’s most generous poetry award. Two $65,000 awards
go to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. Deadline for submissions is December 31, 2019. Learn more
Job Opportunities, Residencies & Mentorships A-Frame Residency Applications are now open for the Al Purdy A-Frame Association’s A-Frame Residencies in 2020-2021 in Ameliasburgh, ON! Applicants must submit a CV, proposal, and 10-20 pages of sample writing. Honorarium for the resident is $750/week (may apply for terms of 2-12 weeks). Deadline: October 18, 2019. Learn more University of Calgary The Calgary Distinguished Writers Program at the University of Calgary invites emerging to mid-career writers of all genres to apply for our 2021-2022 paid ten-month residency. Applications are open until January 15, 2020. Find out more 2020 Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is now accepting submissions for its 2020 Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program. Open to permanent residents of Nova Scotia. Applications must be submitted by October 18, 2019 . Learn more Writers’ Trust Mentorship The Writers’ Trust of Canada is now accepting applications for a new mentorship program that will pair established and developing writers working in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, for one-on-one instruction. This is a unique opportunity for writers under the age of 35 to focus and receive guidance on their current work-inprogress. Three mentorship positions will run for five months (March-July 2020). Beyond instruction, mentees will also receive $2,500 to help finance their writing time during their mentorship. Deadline is December 2, 2019. Find out more
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Applications are open for the Banff Centre’s Spring Writers Retreat 2020, a self-directed program that offers time and space for writers to retreat, reconnect, and re-energize their writing practice. Deadline to apply is November 27, 2019. Find out more
Bookish Bits & Industry News Access Copyright has developed a non-partisan Election Tool Kit to help Canadian creators, artists and publishers represent the needs of their industries to political parties and candidates. In the toolkit you’ll find some background on the issues facing the Canadian writing, visual artist and publishing community as well as tips on how to effectively connect with the candidates seeking to represent your interests and make yourself heard. Election day is October 21, 2019. Congratulations! —>League Members Julie Bruck, Karen Houle, Armand Garnet Ruffo and Catherine Hunter, and poet Gwen Benaway are the poetry finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Award! —> League Member Dionne Brand has won the 2019 Toronto Book Award for her novel Theory! —>League Member Shazia Hafiz Ramji has made the shortlist for the 2019 City of Vancouver Book Awards!
In Memoriam The League of Canadian Poets has a large community that has stood strong for over 50 years. Over these past few months, the League has lost a pillar of the poetry community. We’d like to take this chance to remember Mary Rutherford. Mary Rutherford (née Baillie) Mary died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma at her home in Ottawa on July 19, 2019, with her son Michael at her side. Mary, a poet and researcher, was a “bride married to amazement,” as one of her favourite poets, Mary Oliver wrote. Her curiosity, courage and zest for life continued to shine in her last weeks. Mary’s many enthusiasms included poetry and the visual arts, birding and nature walks, Georgian Bay waters, and good conversation. Devoted wife of 48 years to her late husband Jack, Mary will be lovingly remembered by Michael, his wife Lisa Ennis, her granddaughter Aria, her brother John Baillie and sister Jane Baillie-Sipherd, and cherished cousins, friends and Sherwood Park neighbours. She was born in Hamilton on April 16, 1938, to John and Helen Baillie. Mary was “queen of the springboard” growing up, as she wrote in her poem “The Dive,” from Engagement Calendar. She excelled in sports and academics at Strathallan School, and then studied English and French at McGill and U of T. Mary met the love of her life Jack Rutherford at the CBC, and they married in 1965. She was chief researcher on the Pierre Berton Show, and supervisor of research services at TVO. In 1968, she and Jack moved to Washington, D.C., where Michael was born. They returned to Toronto in 1976, and the family grew with the arrival of Trapper, the bugling beagle. Mary became research editor of the Imperial Oil Review in 1980. On retirement in 1993, she faced her “swimmer’s moment” and found a new direction: poetry. Her poems were shortlisted for the 2005 CBC Literary Awards and her collection Engagement Calendar was released by Inanna Publications in 2013. That same year she and Jack celebrated the birth of Aria, just three months before Jack died. Mary continued to write, travel and relish visits with family and friends. She moved with determination to Ottawa this past spring to be close to her family, make new discoveries and new friends, and as Thoreau wrote, “suck out all the marrow of life.” In “Primum Vivere,” from Engagement Calendar, Mary wrote: “You have fathomed the whirlpool’s eye, cannot wish away / the fear. Yet a whirling fills your spirit with such thirst. / Primum vivere. You know you must begin again.” The League sends condolences to the friends, family, and communities affected by the passing of Mary.