17.1 | Spring 2020
In this issue: 2-3
News from the League
4-6
Bill Arnott’s Beat
6-9
Poetry Parlour
10
Members of the LCP: By The Numbers
11-12
Vanessa Shield’s review of Salt Bride by Ilona Martonfi
13-16
New League Members
17-20
Member News
21-24
Writing Opportunities
24
LCP Update on COVID-19
News from the League
4 4
4
4
4
4
4
National Poetry Month: A World of Poetry – April 2020 Here’s a glimpse of what will be happening during this year’s National Poetry Month: • #PoetryPrompts each and every day in April • Poetry Pause spotlight from Best Canadian Poetry 2019 and Biblioasis • Poetry Pause poems from our longlist, shortlist and award-winning poets • Articles on our #NPMBlog from poets and League members reflecting on what “A World of Poetry” means to them • New book reviews • Announcement of the Longlist and Shortlist for the League’s Book Awards • Online events Visit the NPM page Do you have any #NPM2020 activities that you would like shared? Email info@poets.ca with the details! Poetry & Healing Originally intended as a in-person poetry reciting event, our Poetry & Healing fundraiser for SickKids Hospital has moved online. Throughout the month of April, join Kate Marshall Flaherty, Al Moritz (Poet Laureate of Toronto), Luciano Iacobelli, Lois Lorimer, Daniel David Moses, Ronna Bloom, Rajinderpal S. Pal, Catherine Graham, Dr. Conor Mc Donnell, Jacob
Shier, Ayesha Chatterjee, Corrado Paina and Grace Ma in celebrating the healing power of poetry. Poets will be sharing recordings of their poetry throughout April, and within it, the healing journey of writing, or reading, or sharing, poetry. With Poetry & Healing, we all can explore the indigenous concept of “medicine,” the healing power of words, and the transformative and inspiring power of poetry. Support poetry and SickKids Hospital from your home. The League is looking for donations to SickKids as a part of this event fundraiser, and especially in these difficult times of outbreak and isolation. Learn more Donate to SickKids today Be a Poetry City: Get your event on our Poetry Map! Throughout April, we will update our Poetry Map to track all NPM events and happenings that we hear about. We encourage cities and towns to celebrate National Poetry Month online this year. Big or small, we want to hear about your #NPM20 activities! Check our global map of Poetry Cities and Notable Poetry Places 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 Would you like to be a juror for the next round of Poetry Pause? Contact info@poets.ca with “Inquiry: Poetry Pause Juror” in the subject line! National Poetry Month: A World of Poetry – April 2020 Here’s a glimpse of what will be happening during this year’s National Poetry Month: • #PoetryPrompts each and every day in April • Poetry Pause spotlight from Best Canadian Poetry 2019 and Biblioasis • Poetry Pause poems from our longlist, shortlist and award-winning poets • Articles on our #NPMBlog from poets and League members reflecting on what “A World of Poetry” means to them • New book reviews • Announcement of the Longlist and Shortlist for the League’s Book Awards • Online events Do you have any #NPM2020 activities that
you would like shared? Email info@poets.ca with the details! From the LCP Chapbook Series, These Lands: A Collection of Voices from Black Poets in Canada is available for purchase. The LCP AGM and conference: We regret to announce that this year’s AGM and OnWords conference in Montreal has been cancelled as a result of the developing COVID-19 outbreak. This was a difficult decision to make but we feel that it is in the best interest for the safety and wellbeing of members, staff, and industry partners of the League and TWUC. The AGM will be rescheduled, and we plan to host a digital meeting that will be accessible to all of our members online and through telephone. Details of this meeting will be announced at a later date. Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Prize is open for submissions! The Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Prize for Canadian Youth was established to foster a lifelong relationship between Canadian youth and the literary arts, specifically poetry. The prize accepts submissions from young poets all across Canada, with three prizes awarded in both the Junior (grades 7 to 9) and Senior (grades 10 to 12) categories. Find out more
Bill Arnott’s Beat Gray Lightfoot: Working Man, Author and Proper Poet
While having a Canadian presence through writing circles and Amazon; Lightfoot, a UK resident, has British roots running a long way back – to the sixteenth century to be precise, his Cornish relatives having been mustered to keep the Spanish from landing (and no doubt beating them at football.) A creative split-personality, Gray divides writing time between the fantasy-mystery Humphrey Boggart series of novels and contemporary poetry that’s rapier sharp, insightful, and funny. He started the conversation claiming he has a hard time communicating with people. A few of us were visiting over beers on an English seaside patio. One of the group seated at the picnic-style table was Renaissance man Gray Lightfoot – successful author and poet – a bus driver the rest of the week. I referenced Lightfoot being a driver-slash-poet. The others sniggered, thinking I just called him a piss-poet. “You don’t get the joke, do you?” one of the middle-aged adolescents asked. “Of course I do,” I replied. “I just don’t have time for gutter humour,” I added indignantly, raising a hip to break wind.
“What are you talking about?” I demanded. “See what I mean?” We arranged to meet again at his more traditional place of work, and a few days later I find myself at sunrise, bleary eyed, in Penzance. I keep a watchful eye on the sea for pirates, obviously. And unwelcome Spanish footballers. Like the coolest carpool ever Gray pulls up in a bus. His display indicates, “Not in Service,” and I wonder if I should inquire about his health but instead I get a
welcoming smile and thumbs-up from the poet behind the wheel. “Permission to come aboard?” “Granted.” I clamber in like the touring rock star I imagine myself to be and Gray changes the sign to indicate this morning’s terminus. Others board and greet him by name. He responds in kind – regular passengers on regular routes. From the bay, St. Michael’s Mount watches us like a chess-piece and as a train glides from Penzance station, we do the same from the portside bus loop. Today we’re in a pristine, closed-top single-decker still smelling new-car fresh, or more accurately new-bus fresh. Behind the wheel it’s high tech, and a dashboard terminal pings with incoming driver-emails as we follow meandering road bordered in hedgerows and visit as best we can. It’s surprisingly busy this early in the day, the start of the Penzance-Pendeen run. I distract Gray and he forgets to remind a travelling couple to disembark. Instead we make a new stop, Gray providing tour-guide instructions that not only get the two where they want to be but do so in the most agreeable, scenic manner. Their modest detour becomes a highlight as they carry on with thanks. An older passenger, impeccably dressed and using a cane, asks for another customized stop to get him closer to his destination. Gray makes it happen. This is a community service in the truest sense of
the word. I’m torn, loving being witness to this while getting angry remembering dickhead drivers back home. Not all, of course. Just some. Standing next to Gray while he drives, I step aside as he makes change for passengers paying with cash. Then I look at the interior screen indicating where we are, which reads, “This stop is Cemetery.” Fighting the urge to check my pulse, I remember something Gray said previously. We were discussing mortality, as middle-aged poets do. “When my time comes,” he said, “I want to go peacefully in my sleep … not screaming in terror like my passengers.” With talented artist/painter/spouse Wendy, Gray moved to the West Country from Sheffield, where their children and grandkids still reside. He took a year off to write. The plan, to do so in Portugal – access to ocean and affordable fortified wine. Instead the two made their way to Cornwall, which, Gray recalls, “Felt like coming home.” The writing went well. And after a year it was time to once more incorporate traditional work. What were the opportunities in the area? Driving bus – rotating routes and times. Training followed and a dreamer ... poet ... bus driver was born. I first saw Gray perform at St Ives Arts Club. Someone had ingeniously climbed the wall of the old building and removed the T from Arts so at the time it was an Ars Club. I admit the seats were comfy. On stage, adorned in a small brimmed, upturned fedora, his tone and cadence
are reminiscent of punk poet John Cooper Clarke. Not mimicked but comparable talent from comparable experience. He even performed a Bus Drivers’ Haka, terrifying as a Maori warrior. He admits at one show he actually sprained his tongue – unexpected workplace hazards for a performance poet. “Try claiming THAT on the disability insurance!” he laughs. As well as regular gigs around England’s southwest, Gray’s now opened for powerhouse laureate Luke Wright – big crowds with folding money. As well as facilitating the Poets of Penzance, he’s been commissioned to pen new work for Penzance Literature Festival, which takes place each July, another feather in the fedora as the area’s disproportionately stocked with talent in every artistic medium. As the morning route comes to its (first) conclusion we do a tight turn on a side road and Gray has a moment’s break before continuing. He points the way for me to carry on, down a narrow lane to Pendeen Lighthouse where I’ll trek the South West Coast Path for a few undulating miles to Zennor, a medieval pub, and another bus to deliver me to my own Ars Club performance. “Alright, mate,” he says. And I realize this is our chance for a discrete hug as we won’t visit again for some time. It’s a fitting locale to part ways, a stretch of serpentine highway cutting through bucolic fields, lonely moors, and Stone Age sea views. Gray’s poem I’m in Love With The B3306 is his ode to this stunning road, one of many gems in his collection, A
View From A Cab: The Poetry and Musings of a Bus Driver in Cornwall. Find a selection of Gray’s work at https://graylightfoot.co.uk/ and Amazon. Originally published by the Federation of BC Writers. *** Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, Dromomania, and Allan’s Wishes. Bill’s Indie Folk CD is Studio 6. His work is published in Canada, the US, UK, Europe and Asia. He’s received awards for his songwriting, poetry and prose. When not travelling, making friends or misbehaving, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast. He prefers taking the bus. Visit Bill’s author homepage
Poetry Parlour See what Leaguers have to say about forms of poetry, identity, and their own works.
Thank you to everyone who responded to the most recent Poetry Pause questions! Check out the latest questions on Wild Apricot.
What form(s) of poetry do you feel least comfortable with? Why? (i.e. spoken word, haiku, songs, micropoems) “I enjoy giving readings and speaking my poems, but I write them as words on the page, not directly as spoken word. I also like working with form (e.g. sonnet, villanelle, sestina) but most of my poems become free or blank verse, with some internal rhyme.” –Ellen S. Jaffe “I feel least comfortable with spoken word poetry because I have yet to master speaking in front of an audience. The urge to share poetry is incredibly acute, however, so far, my stage-fright is also. So the question for me to address is how to be an introvert and yet share the art form that gives my life discovery, intimacy, pleasure and value?” –Erin Wilson “1. poems that taste like cardboard 2. poems that use swearing (weeds) to move a poem along; it sticks to my shoe
like a piece of dirty toilet paper” –Nellie P. Strowbridge “I like to play and experiment with many forms of poetry in my practice. So, I don’t like to limit myself with different forms. However, I’ve never really been able to memorize my poems and recite them out loud. Something to work on and aspire to attempt in the future!” –Greg Santos “May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, senstive than nerve.” Sappho as quoted in Dictee by Theresa Hak-Kyung Cha. comfort is an interesting word. i like Banksy’s quote, “art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.” what comforts me is work that swims against the mainstream and challenges convention. work that goes against propaganda and homilies, that makes me think and feel.” –Amanda Earl
How has your identity influenced your poetry? (Please interpret ‘identity’ in the way that resonates with you most) “My connection between my inner self and the outer world.” – Nellie P. Strowbridge
“ Identity didn’t always play a major role in my poetry. My first two full-length poetry books didn’t really feature my family or much of my background. My poems were deeply personal, but the speakers were often personas or exaggerated versions of myself. As I’ve continued to develop my voice, the themes that I’ve became more interested in exploring are my family’s mythologies, being a person of colour, an adoptee, and a parent. My forthcoming collection, GHOST FACE, coming out in Spring 2020 continues and expands upon these explorations.” –Greg Santos “As someone who doesn’t live a traditional life: polyamorous, not an owner of cars or homes, not a parent, not really invested in the whole making money scene, except for survival, I often feel quite alone. that’s ok, but I know it’s good to not always feel alone and I write for kindred misfits so that they feel less alone.” –Amanda Earl “The aspects of my identity that have most influenced my poetry are (perhaps not in order): 1. being Jewish. Some of my poems, though not all, are directly about being Jewish and Jewish subject matter, and I occasionally use Yiddish words (e.g. in poems about my great-grandmother.) In addition, I think my view of world events and of spirituality is influenced by my (not very religious, but certainly cultural) Jewish heritage, and knowing relatives who emigrated to the U.S. from Eastern Europe, a generation before the Nazi Holocaust. 2) being a woman: some of my poems come directly from
being a girl (memory poems), a woman, a mother, and also a survivor of one sexual-abuse incident. I am sure all the poems are influenced by my gender. 3) being born in the U.S. and immigrating to Canada when I was about 30. My earlier poems were often written in response to political events in the U.S. and even now I refer to things I experienced in the U.S. and the changes I have gone through while becoming Canadian.” –Ellen S. Jaffe “I’m from a small rural community – situated on an island – in Northern Ontario. This is almost like saying I am from “north north north,” not so much in terms of direction or latitude, but spirit. The Inklings even referred to this feeling as “Northernness” (I have only cursory knowledge of the Inklings) yet it has always been profoundly natural for me to have this backwards looking/ yearning for the home that can never be rediscovered exactly, but is sweetly sought after. What was – was so much – so why would we need more, or need to improve it? (Except in terms of social liberties, of course.) What we need is smallness, slowness, time and touch. If we lived this way the environment would have a chance.” –Erin Wilson
What is a favourite line(s) or stanza from your own poetry? Nellie P. Strowbridge “Hope is a light we cannot see; faith is knowing it is there.”
Erin Wilson The conclusion to “Real Things; Not Junk — Swimming in the Aux Sables River,” from my first book, At Home with Disquiet: “A body deserves to feel this good. Helpless. And actualized. As the embryo is about to pass through the mother’s wrap into the three dimensions of life.” Greg Santos “All I care about is everything. I like to lie down and look up at the stars, even when there are none. I am almost nothing but thoughts and water.” From the poem “I Have a Problem” by Greg Santos. Originally published in The Walrus (May 2015) and appears in the poetry collection Blackbirds (Eyewear, 2018). Ellen S. Jaffe, 2 favourites 1.”And now, the cardinal is singing again and again, and again, impossibly high in the treetops as if his heart would break and overflow the world with such red music.” (from “Springing, Longing” in Skinny-Dipping With the Muse, Guernica Editions, 2014.) 2. I will sing you a lullaby, braid the prayer ribbon, red and green, around this pear. .... Timimoto, Tom Thumb, Thumbelina my bushel of tears... my water child. (from “Water Children,” in Water Children, Mini Mocho Press, 2002.) Amanda Earl “Love is the reason for my actions and my thoughts” from A Book of Saints (above/ground press, 2015)
New Questions are available for April! Click here to share your thoughts
REVIEW: Salt Bride by Ilona Martonfi Reviewed by Vanessa Shields tion. This is not a one-sitting read for each piece needs an attention to detail that reaches beyond the page. To fully grasp the contextual components of chosen world tragedy, one might reach for a history book, a world map, or an internet search that helps further develop the time, place and happening Martonfi writes about.
Martonfi’s fourth book, Salt Bride (Inanna Publications, 2019) is a collection of poetry that begs for companionship. This is not a collection for the faint of heart nor for the reader who doesn’t know her human atrocities his[her] story. Salt Bride is a deep dive into the atrocities that have brutally stolen lives around the world – and the ripple effects generations beyond. It is a cornucopia of loss, trauma, torture and violence dragged through the bogs, hillsides, streets and homes of our planet. The companionship it calls for can be found in time, patience, and contempla-
Nature, wildlife, and weather are strong players in the re-opening of the wails and wounds of suffering the Salt Bride brings back to life and traipses through in the present. There are stories held in vigil by the climbing roses, plum trees, rivers and ravines that witnessed our dark and murderous actions. Martonfi calls out lost souls, lost memories, and the buried-deep sadness in a poeticized justice of remembering. The poetry is fat with rich imagery, haunting honesty and compassion that beautifully bursts through the brutality. This is the work of a highly seasoned poet; and the most powerful pieces are those that encompass Martonfi’s own family history. She yawps as the voice of ‘the cursed land’, the ‘Magdalen Laundry’, the ‘concrete sarcophagus north of Kiev, Ukraine’ – and so many more. Interspersed with ekphrastic pieces re-visioning Degas, Monet, van Gogh,
Cezanne; and revelatory personal pieces that offer moments of family trauma, reflection and love, Martonfi marches, crawls, hides and digs to uncover and rediscover the fallen as a reminder that we should never forget – or always remember. She refuses to let deletion be a reason for forgetting. Through her powerful words, the ‘living dead’ also become a population to observe with honour and action. By holding up excerpts of the past and essentially exemplifying treatment of mental illness, it’s clear to see that monumentally harmful mistakes were made – and that many continue to be made. There are questions begging answers upon reviewing this book. Is it the poet’s purpose to hold up a mirror to humanity? To be archeologists of time expressed through the written word? To be architects of remembering by building layers of metaphor that ‘display madness and grammar of space’? To consistently re-reveal the past, scream at the present and philosophize for the future? Interpretation of events can breed a hotbed of negotiations – yet we are still compelled as poets to stand steadfast on the fine line of whose stories are told and how and by whom. Salt Bride is an offering, a collection of lifted lamentations from the past woven into the present with a nod to a future where remembering is, indeed, the landscape on which poets can travel – mirror in one hand, pen in the other.
Vanessa Shields has made her home, her family and her work life flourish in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Her passion for writing was discovered at a very young age through the vein of writing in a journal. Her poetry, short stories and photography have been published in various literary magazines. She mentors, guest speaks and teaches creative writing, and does Poetry On Demand – onthe-spot poetry-writing that helps make poetry fun and accessible for all. As creator and host of Mouth Piece Storytelling, a storytelling competition, Shields is able to share her love of storytelling with her community. Shields is the owner of Gertrude’s Writing Room – A Gathering Place for Writers. Gertrude’s Writing Room offers creative writing classes and workshops. Visit www.gertrudeswritingroom.com for all the exciting offerings.
New League Members Tanja Bartel is a writer and high-school teacher from Pitt Meadows, British Columbia. Born in Sudbury, Ontario, to hard-working Finnish immigrants, she holds a BA in English and Criminology from Simon Fraser University, an MFA from the University of British Columbia, and was part of the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University. Bartel’s poetry and non-fiction have been published in various journals, including Geist, the Antigonish Review, Grain, the Puritan, and the American Journal of Medical Genetics. Everyone at This Party is her debut poetry collection. Gwen Benaway Bertrand Bickersteth Edward Carson is twice winner of the E.J. Pratt Medal in Poetry, the University of Toronto St. Michael’s College Award for Excellence in English Literature, and is the author of five books of poetry: Scenes, Taking Shape, Birds Flock Fish School, KNOTS and Look Here Look Away Look Again. He has served twice in 2010 and 2019 as Writer in Residence for Open Book Toronto. Carson has had a variety of careers involving the word, including co-founder/ editor of the literary periodical, Rune, and lecturer in English Literature at the University of Toronto. He has served as Director/Chief Business Officer at the University of Toronto School of Continuing
Studies, as well as President of several major book publishing companies, including Penguin Group (Canada), Pearson Technology Group Canada, Distican (Simon and Schuster Canada), HarperCollins Canada, and, while head of publishing, founded the successful indigenous publishing list of Random House of Canada. Art gallery exhibitions, and the growing success of his digital photography, have integrated his fascination with the written word and the visual image, expanding the borders and potential for his art: www. edwardcarson.ca Ellen Chang-Richardson (she/her) is of Taiwanese & Cambodian-Chinese descent. Recipient of the 2019 Vallum Award for Poetry, her poetry has appeared in Ricepaper Magazine, Coven Editions: Grimoire, Revue PØST, and more. Her inaugural chapbook, Unlucky Fours, is now available with Anstruther Press (2020). Ellen is the founder of Little Birds Poetry, a series of editing workshops for poets and creative writers based in Ottawa & Toronto. Find out more at www. ehjchang.com & www.littlebirdspoetry.ca. Mary Corkery Lesley-Anne Evans is a Belfast-born poet. She holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from University of Guelph, and is passionate about the convergence
of creative practice, spiritual formation, and social justice. Lesley-Anne’s poetry is published in The Antigonish Review, CV2, Lake Journal, Quills, Cascadia Review, One Throne, Barren Magazine, and others. In 2019 she won the BC Federation of Writers annual Literary Writes contest. Lesley-Anne served as a juror for the 2017 Okanagan Arts Awards, and was a literary awards finalist in 2016. Lesley-Anne is a poet, librettist, mentor, and creative instigator. Working with various community partners, LesleyAnne helped birth projects such as the Red Couch Gallery, SEE:kelowna Exhibit sharing stories of those experiencing homelessness, Take Down Every Wall Installation, and Kelowna Gospel Mission Courtyard Poetry Panels. Her PopUp Poetry installations have delighted passersby from New York to Belfast to Los Angeles.Lesley-Anne loves to wander with her camera, and contemplate beauty in all its forms. Noah Faberman Raymond Filip is the poet of the pedal steel. His “say then play” recitals have taken spoken-word poetry to a new level, and earned him a place in The Penguin Treasury of Popular Canadian Poems and Songs (2002). In 2018, six actresses performed his work, along with those of the Nobel laureates Czeslaw Milosz and Joseph Brodsky, in a theatrical production, entitled Irezta gintare, at the University of Vilnius to celebrate the centennial of Lithuanian independence. A musician, writer, and recluse on the loose, his new book Rivers Applaud Forever came out in 2019. Nathan Hauch
Sarah Hilton Kyla Jamieson Emily Tristan Jones was born in Yellowknife. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Harvard Review, Denver Quarterly, Vallum, Mandorla, among other journals. She holds a graduate degree from the University of Chicago, where she was winner of the Emerging Writers Series through the Committee on Creative Writing. She’s also an alumna of the Banff Centre and Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She teaches poetry to youth for the Quebec Writers’ Federation and edits Columba, an online poetry quarterly: www.columbapoetry.com Alisha Kaplan Virginia Konchan Margo Lapierre Winston Le is a Vietnamese-Canadian poet who resides in Langley, BC. Through the Surrey Poet Laureate Program, he was the Events Coordinator for Asians on Edge, an avant-garde Asian-Canadian diasporic literary event. His poems have been featured in pulp mag, filling Station and Seagery Zine. His debut chapbook, translanguaging was shortlisted for the 2018 Broken Pencil Zine Awards. He most recently collaborated with multiinstrumentalist composer, Cameron Catalano in composing an art song as part of Art Song Lab 2019, performed by soprano singer, Robyn Driedger-Klassen and pianist, Rachel Iwaasa at Pyatt Hall. David Ly is a Vancouver-based poet, editor, and journalist. He’s the author of the chapbook Stubble Burn (Anstruther Press,
2018) and the full-length poetry collection Mythical Man (Anstruther Books, imprint of Palimpsest Press, 2020). Currently, David sits on the Editorial Collective of the chapbook publisher, Anstruther Press. He is also the Poetry Editor for This Magazine. In addition to writing and editing poetry, David works in the publishing industry in the marketing field of academic publishing. Patricia MacKay
Paul Pearson
Deirdre Maultsaid
Kyeren Regehr is a poet and writer. She earned a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Victoria, and originally settled on Vancouver Island back in 2003. She has worked as a university sessional instructor, a creative editor in five genres, a dance and theatre teacher/performer, and in the healing arts. Kyeren’s poetry has been published in anthologies and literary journals in Canada, Australia, and America. She has twice received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, and enjoyed several years of service as a poetry board editor with The Malahat Review. Her first book is Cult Life (Pedlar Press, 2020).
Des McKenzie Marion Mutala has a master’s degree in educational administration and taught for 30 years. With a passion for the arts, she loves to write, sing, play pickle-ball, play guitar, travel and read. Marion is the author of the National Bestselling, Award-winning Children’s Books: Baba’s Babushka: A Magical Ukrainian Christmas (Anna Pidrucheny Award 2010), Baba’s Babushka: A Magical Ukrainian Easter (Shortlisted for Saskatchewan Book Award -Publishing in Education-2013), Baba’s Babushka: A Magical Ukrainian Wedding (Winner of The High Plains Children’s Book Award-2015) and Kohkum’s Babushka: A Magical Metis/ Ukrainian Tale. She is also the author of Grateful, The Time for Peace is Now, Ukrainian Daughter’s Dance (Inanna Publications-a poetry collection), The Mechanic’s Wife (Silver WinnerDestiny Publishers Fiction -2015), More Baba’s Please! and My Buddy, Dido! (Shortlisted for The High Plains Children’s Book Award -2019) My Dearest DidoThe Holodomor Story a book about the Ukrainian genocide- is her 11th book. Visit her website at: www.babasbabushka.ca Alessandra Naccarato
Tyler Pennock is two-spirit and was adopted from a Cree and Métis family around the Lesser Slave Lake area of Alberta. He is a graduate of Guelph University’s Creative Writing MFA program. He currently lives in Toronto, where he has worked as an educator and community worker for over ten years. Bones is his first book.
Dominique Russell Adam Seelig Kevin Shaw is from London, ON, where he completed a PhD in English Literature at the University of Western Ontario. Kevin’s poems have appeared in periodicals such as The Malahat Review, The Gay & Lesbian Review, Plenitude, Arc, Contemporary Verse 2, PRISM international, The Fiddlehead, and Grain. He won Arc’s Poem of the Year award and the Grand Prize in the PRISM international poetry contest. His nonfiction has been published in The New Quarterly, Event,
and The Best Canadian Essays 2018, and has been longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize and shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest. Kevin’s debut poetry collection, Smaller Hours, was published by icehouse poetry (Goose Lane Editions) in 2017. He lives in Ottawa. John Elizabeth Stintzi is a non-binary Canadian-American writer who grew up on a cattle farm in northwestern Ontario, attending junior high and high school in northern Minnesota. They hold an Honours English degree from the University of Manitoba as well as a Masters in Fine Arts in Fiction writing from Stony Brook University. In 2019, Stintzi was awarded the Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize as well as the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers from the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Following that award win, they sold their first two books: their novel Vanishing Monuments (Arsenal Pulp Press), and their debut collection of poetry Junebat (Anansi). Both were released in the spring of 2020. They are also the author of two chapbooks of poetry: The Machete Tourist (kfb, 2018) and Plough Forward the Higgs Field (Rahila’s Ghost, 2019). Stintzi’s fiction, poetry, and nonfiction varies widely in both subject and form, and their work has been nominated by its editors for Best American Short Fiction, the Journey Prize, and the National Magazine Awards (Canada). Their writing has appeared throughout the United States and Canada in venues such as the Kenyon Review, Fiddlehead, Arc Poetry Magazine, Black Warrior Review, and Ploughshares. They currently live and work in the United States. Lisa Walker writes to find peace. Her poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction have been published in the Globe and
Mail, Flash Fiction Magazine, The Write Launch, Ginosko Literary Journal, 50word Stories, and the VSS Anthology, with upcoming publication scheduled in Blank Spaces Magazine and Dodging the Rain. She lives in Toronto and has also lived in South Africa and the UK. Lisa is never happier than when writing. Martha Warren is a writer and poet. Her subjects have ranged from fairy stories, to cooking, to aspects of law. Her work has appeared in The Canadian League of Poets’ Poetry Pause and Headline Press. She was shortlisted for the Federation of BC Writers Flash Prose Contest in 2018, and awarded Second Place Prize for Poetry by the North Shore Writers’ Association in 2018. A graduate of Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio, Martha was one of the featured poets in the recent photopoetry exhibition, Line & Lens. @m_ warren_writer The daughter of a trapper and a cook, step-daughter to a butcher, Erin Wilson grew up in a rural community on Manitoulin Island, Canada. Erin Wilson’s poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in many literary journals, including The Literary Review of Canada, Minola, Salamander Magazine, Pembroke Magazine, Poetry Ireland Review, Under a Warm Green Linden, The Honest Ulsterman, The Adirondack Review, Natural Bridge, and elsewhere. In 2019, her poetry was longlisted for Canada’s CBC Literary Prize. At Home with Disquiet is her debut collection. Susan Wismer
Member News 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. Rebecca Banks’ January 2020 Issue of Subterranean Blue Poetry is titled: “The Blue Iris”. Rebecca has new publishing projects from Margaret Saine and ZoAlonzo Gross coming this year. She has also just finished her chapbook Epilogue, it is based in the outtakes from writing The Demaricon and is written in French and English. The Demaricon is a treatise on life, love and the economy, a utopian Fantasia in poetry. A new age avante garde long poem, “The BeeKeeper’s Daughters: for those that rival the moon”, is writing it is based in the events of The Battle of Troy and features erasure poems. Prison Music for Chameleons is the current book of poetry on tap. Subterranean Blue Poetry is open to submissions, Pay-What-You-Can optional reading fee is $1 per poem, up to 5 poems. Payment is $10 per poem, $20 per of poetic interest article, $20 per masthead art/photo Subterranean Blue Poetry offers an ensuite of poetry book publishing and marketing services subterraneanbluepoetry.com
Fern G. Z. Carr was delighted to have done a reading in Mandarin for the Okanagan Chinese Baptist Church Chinese New Year celebration. Fern was honoured that the Society for Learning in Retirement is currently curating beautifully framed longterm displays of her poetry book, Shards of Crystal, as well as biographical and other information about her poetry. She was pleased that the Federation of BC Writers included a photo of her Rotary Centre for the Arts Mary Irwin Theatre poetry reading as part of the Federation’s “Faces” feature in WordWorks magazine. Additionally, Fern has been given a biographical listing in ABC BookWorld as a BC poet. She also was delighted to have done a segment on CBC Radio One Radio West with host Sarah Penton.
FROM THE BLOG Louise Carson has poetry in the latest issues of Montreal Serai, WEI (Women & Environments International) and The Nashwaak Review. Her next collection of poetry will be published in 2020 with Aeolus House. She is also pleased her fourth Maples Mystery - The Cat Possessed - will be out in the fall from Signature Editions. Alison Dyer has won the N&L Book Award for Poetry (E.J. Pratt Poetry Award) for 2019 for I’d Write the Sea Like a Parlour Game, announced in Nov 2019.
Amanda Earl’s latest chapbook is Aftermath or Scenes of A Woman Convalescing, and she has an excerpt from “Beast Body Epic” published by above/ground press in November. Amanda thanks to the City of Ottawa for funding “Beast Body Epic” in 2019, and to rob mclennan for publishing Aftermath. amandaearl.com AngelHousePress presents National Poetry Month 2020, Ode to the Small: thirty days of poetry from nine countries at nationalpoetrymonth.ca Contributors from Australia, Canada, England, India, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, USA were kind enough to share their visual art, haiku, visual poetry, couplets, stanzas, prose poems, stamp art, buttons, ceramics, one-word poems, untitled poems, letraset, yarn, typewriter poems, clay fragments, photographs, installation art, scrolls, collages, bees, ladybugs, maps, and puns to create this celebration. Over thirty days, these poets offer their poems of grief, joy, trauma, humour, pain and delight. It’s an honour to publish their work. Ode to the Small celebrates the life and work of Nelson Ball, a beloved Canadian poet, minimalist, editor, publisher and bookseller, who died in 2019, and who is still greatly missed. Please visit angelhousepress.com for more information and to subscribe our mailing list for updates and calls for submissions. You can also like us on FaceBook Michael Goodfellow is reviewing poetry submissions for The LaHave Review, a new online poetry magazine in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. The LaHave Review publishes one issue each season. Each
issue presents one poem, an interview with the poet and a brief biography of the poet. The first issue is live now: lahavereview.com Neile Graham’s first collection since 2000’s Blood Memory has been released: The Walk She Takes (MoonPath Press, 2019). It’s an idiosyncratic tour of Scotland, where a mile’s walk contains remnants from the Stone Age through to the present, all in fragments of standing stones, cairns, souterrains, brochs, abbeys, castles, tenements, and crofts. These poems explore how the layers of time in these evocative sites reverberate through our own journeys. They delve into how even dark histories sharpen connections with places—and deepen knowledge of what our past makes us, helps us see how to travel forward into alien and familiar biographical and natural geographies. Find out more A review of Keith Inman’s book SEAsia from Black Moss Press 2017 was included in In a Fragile Moment: A Landscape of Canadian Poetry (Hidden Book Press) by M.Sc. Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias Associate Professor Holguín University, Cuba. Some of his publications for 2019 included: Gravitas (US), Universal Oneness: An Anthology of Magnum Opus Poems from around the World (India), TOPS (Ontario), Devour (Canada) and Envoy (Cuba). Bernice Lever was on World Poetry Cafe in March, interviewed by Ariadne Sawyer. Listen to the episode. Bernice’s book review of Wild Winds from the Edge of Time Becky Alexander of Craigleigh Press of London, Ontario, has been
accepted by The Ontario Poetry’s next Verse Afire. Kathy Mac is pleased to announce that, after nearly two decades of procrastination and now that social media has made websites more-or-less obsolete, she finally has an author site of her own. Since she personally loathes being asked to sign up for this, or subscribe to that, it’s a bit of a digital cul-de-sac. Go there. Look at the pictures. Congratulate yourself for having published more than she has in the past few years. Relax. If you want, you can send her a message through the Contact page. She’s happy to hear from you. kathymacpoet.com Two of Diana Manole’s poems have been published in The Blue Nib (UK). The first talks about her “first taste of freedom” in 1990, after the fall of communism, the second is a tribute to poets from all over the world. Read the poems Two poems from Claudiu Komartin’s Masters of a Dying Art (“Maeștrii unei arte muribunde.” Cartier 2017), translated by Diana Manole, have just been published in issue 8/ Spring 2020 of The Arkansas International from the University of Arkansas’s program in Creative Writing & Translation: “twelve lines to drive fear away, twelve seconds to the light’s disappearance” and “Getting Ready for the Centennial of the October Revolution.” Read the poems Susan McCaslin’s tribute to E.D. (Ted) Blodgett is included as one among many in “In Memoriam Ed.D. Blodgett,” by James Felton in The Ormsby Review (Dec 2019). Read the tribute A review Katharine Bubel of Superabundantly Alive: Thomas Merton’s
Dance with the Feminine by Susan McCaslin & J. S. Porter has appeared in The Merton Annual, Vol. 32 (Fons Vitae, March 2020), 263-268. Read the review. The Article “It Took a Village to Save a Forest,” in The Vancouver Sun and The Province by journalist Gordon McIntyre covered Susan’s role in using poetry to help save the Blaauw Eco Forest in Langley, BC. Read the article kj munro has facilitated a project called ‘Circumpolar Duet: singular/plurality’ – an ekphrastic collaboration between Yukon Writers’ Collective Ink & Yukon Artists @ Work, two arts organizations based in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. The project involves 10 literary artists & 10 visual artists. The theme ‘singular/plurality’ is the theme Canada has announced for its program at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2020. The visual artists taking part in the project are Nicole Bauberger, Marten Berkman, Heidi Hehn, Jackie Irvine, Astrid Kruse, Françoise La Roche, Leslie Leong, Lillian Loponen, Joyce Majiski and Martha Jane Ritchie. The participating literary artists are Ellen Bielawski, Corinna Cook, Lily Gontard, Jamella Hagen, Susanne Hingley, Ruth Lera, Joanna Lilley, Kirsten Madsen, Laurel Parry and Elisabeth Weigand. Chad Norman is launching his new collection, Squall: Poems In the Voice Of Mary Shelley (Guernica Editions) Jaclyn Piudik is delighted to announce the publication of her latest chapbook, the corpus undone in the blizzard (Espresso Chapbooks). The launch at knife | fork | book was a fabulous event. Chapbooks can be purchased at
espresso~chapbooks.com From Glen Sorestad: Just a week ago now I was in the Hill Country of Texas and while I was there, I had an opportunity to meet with two members of the Dameron family, both of whom write poetry. Both now live in Georgetown, not far from Austin, though Mark lived most of his life in the capital of Texas. It was in Austin in 1988 that Mark and two neighbours came up with the idea of planting trees as a personal way of countering the deforestation caused by urban spread and development in the Austin area. These three neighbours were the founders of TreeFolks and when they planted their first trees in their own yards, it led them to eventually become the core of a non-profit organization that is now responsible for planting, at last count, almost three million trees in Austin and surrounding areas. I presented Mark Dameron with a copy of Heartwood on behalf of the League of Canadian Poets because I cannot imagine a better recipient for such collection of poems. Mark is not only a lover of trees, but a lover of poems, someone who loves to read poetry and even to write his own poems. He was delighted with the copy I presented to him. Naomi Beth Wakan has released On the Arts, (Shanti Arts, 2020) a book of essays on art and creativity that encourages the reader to explore creative outlets. Available to purchase here Jennifer Wenn’s latest chapbook, A Song of Milestones is availabel to order here.
Erin Wilson’s first poetry collection, At Home with Disquiet, was released on March 24 with Circling Rivers Press, and is already available to order on Amazon. This life’s journey can best be summed up by the indomitable Brian Brett, “Erin Wilson’s collection has the range that a dynamic assortment of poems demands in this era. At Home With Disquiet flows like a northern river through the woods and the canyons and homes along the riverbank, its poems like stories, its poems like chants. This is one of the most powerful gathering of poems I’ve read in years…. Our study is to understand that a new voice has strode across the field, and made its place. Disquiet is solid, mysterious, yet clear as it unfolds in the meadow of her life with children and lover floating past.”
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Writing Opportunities Calls for Submissions Pandemic Publications is a brandspanking-new multidisciplinary arts platform. Our aim is to provide bursaries to artists during times of financial crisis (like right now), while showcasing original, optimistic content by a diverse array of talented individuals. We publish works in the categories of poetry, prose, visual arts, and music, on our website and social media platforms. While we accept submissions from any artist, we actively encourage submissions by individuals from economically marginalized communities, both to amplify their voices and message, and to direct critical funding to where it is needed most. Open call for submissions. Find out 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 April 21, 2020. Find out more
of poetry Issue 43.4 Deadline is April 30, 2020. Find out more Grain Magazine has opened their submissions period and will be accepting poetry for upcoming issues. Deadline is May 15, 2020. Find out more Existere is accepting submissions until July 1, 2020 for their Fall/Winter issue. Find out more The Anti Languorous Project is currently accepting submissions for their Spring issue. Deadline is May 15, 2020. Find out more Contemporary Verse 2 (CV2) is accepting submissions of poetry and other works. Submission period ends May 31, 2019. Find out more Existere is accepting submissions until July 1, 2020 for their Fall/Winter issue. Find out more Columba Poetry is accepting submissions with no set deadline. Find out more
The Fiddlehead has opened their submission period until April 30, 2020. Find out more.
Plenitude is currently accepting poetry submissions with no set deadline. Find out more
Room Magazine is seeking submissions
Cosmonauts Avenue seeks poetry for
their online, monthly literary journal. No listed deadline. Find out more Gordon Hill Press, the newest voice in Canadian literatures, is looking for booklength submissions of exemplary poetry by Canadian writers, particularly those living with disability. No listed deadline. Find out more 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
Awards and Contests Magpie Award for Poetry from Pulp Literature. Deadline to apply is April 15, 2020. Find out more Dr. William Henry Drummond Poetry Contest Canada’s oldest non-governmental poetry contest celebrates its 50th anniversary. Deadline to apply is April 17, 2020. Find out more
Humber Literary Review is accepting general submissions for their Spring/Summer 2020 Issue. Find out more
Toronto Book Awards Deadline April 30, 2020. Established by Toronto City Council in 1974, the Toronto Book Awards honour authors of books of literary or artistic merit that are evocative of Toronto. The annual awards offer $15,000 in prize money: finalists receive $1,000 and the winning author is awarded $10,000 Find out more
Lavender Review is accepting submissions on a rolling basis. No deadline. Find out more
FreeFall Annual Prose and Poetry Contest with Judge Gary Barwin. Deadline is April 30, 2020. Find out more
The Malahat Review is accepting submissions on a rolling basis. Find out more
The Banister 35th Annual Poetry Anthology Contest by the The Niagara Branch of the Canadian Authors Association. For Ontario Residents only. Deadline is May 31, 2020. Find out more
Ricepaper Magazine is seeking submissions from Asian writers of all cultural backgrounds. No listed deadline. Find out more Sewer Lid Magazine is accepting poetry on a rolling basis. Find out more Subterrain Magazine has open submissions for their Spring 2020 Special issue with the theme of “Visions of the Cultural Ramifications of Current and Future Trends in Digital Technologies.” No listed deadline. Find out more
The Icelandic Festival of Manitoba invites you to submit previously unpublished poetry (three entries per person) and/or a short story (one per person-maximum of 1200 words) Prize entries will be awarded and successful entries will be published in the festival program and/or on the festival website. Winners and honourable mentions will be contacted with an opportunity
to share their writing at the Sunday Afternoon Music and Poetry in the Park. Deadline is June 3, 2020. Find out more The bpNichol Chapbook Award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry in English published in chapbook form within Canada. The prize is awarded to a poetry chapbook judged to be the best submitted. The author receives $4,000 and the publisher receives $500. Awarded continuously since 1986, the bpNichol Chapbook Award is currently administered by the Meet the Presses collective. Chapbooks should be not less than 10 pages and not more than 48 pages. The chapbooks must have been published between January 1st and December 31st of the previous year (2019), and the poet must be Canadian. Interested authors or publishers should submit three copies of eligible chapbooks. Translations into English from other languages are eligible. Submissions must be sent by Canada Post or courier (and not hand-delivered to a Meet The Presses collective member) and include a completed submission form or accurate facsimile (download the 2020 Submission Form), a brief C.V. of the author, including address, telephone number, and email address. Publisher contact information (contact person, mailing address, email address, and telephone contact) must also be included. Incomplete submissions will not be considered. The opening date for receipt of submissions is Feb. 1, 2020, and they will be accepted until May 31, 2020. If submission confirmation has not been received by email by June 30, 2020, please send a query to Beth Follett at: feralgrl@interlog.com
Send submissions to: Meet the Presses / bpNichol Chapbook Award 113 Bond Street St John’s NL A1C 1T6 Find out more and download the submission form. Tom Howard & Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Submit during April 15 – September 30, 2020. TOM HOWARD PRIZE: $3,000 for a poem in any style or genre MARGARET REID PRIZE: $3,000 for a poem that rhymes or has a traditional style Find out more Job Opportunities, Residencies & Mentorships Banff Centre Summer Writers Retreat is a self-directed program that offers time and space for writers to retreat, reconnect, and re-energize their writing practice. In addition to a single room, which doubles as your private studio, you will be surrounded by a community of artistic peers. You will have the opportunity to attend inspiring talks and performances and meet with guest faculty to consult on your work. Deadline to apply is April 22, 2020. Find out more Berton House Writers Retreat: Writers will be selected to live and work for three months each in Dawson City, Yukon, in the childhood home of noted Canadian author Pierre Berton. Housing and travel costs are covered by the Writers’ Trust. Residents will receive a $9,000 honorarium, part of which may be covered
by the Canada Council for the Arts’ Research and Creation grant program. (Successful Berton House applicants are required to apply to the Research and Creation program before receiving an honorarium from the Writers’ Trust.) Residents are also required to perform a public reading at the Whitehorse Public Library and the Dawson City Community Library. They are encouraged to engage further with the local community by holding writing workshops in the community, interacting with the public and local literary communities, participating in local events and festivals, and availing themselves and their work to local and national media. Deadline to apply is June 8, 2020. Find out more.
COVID-19 The League of Canadian Poets extends good wishes to all for health, safety and comfort during this difficult time. We hope that you may find use from the resources below should you need support. League membership relief, deferral, and installments The League of Canadian Poets is aware that many members have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. As a result, we have made a limited number of subsidized memberships
available for the 2020-2021 year. This initiative is intended to help members to stay engaged in our community and to access programming while the world recovers from the COVID-19 outbreak. This funding is limited in scope and available on a first-come, first-served and as-needed basis. • All membership waiver applications are due by April 8, 2020. • All information will be kept entirely confidential. • The League will also be offering deferred membership payments and installment plans for the 2020-2021 year as usual! We are happy to set up a plan that works for you. If you have any questions about this program or your membership, please send an email to admin@poets.ca Apply for membership relief League-funded events For events that were approved for funding through the National Poetry Month and Canada Poetry Tours program, and have since been cancelled, postponed, or moved online due to COVID-19, please find resources and information below for guidance on how to still receive support from the League! In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the League is encouraging members to use their funding to take poetry online, and inspire people during these uncertain times. Please visit our website for more information on LCP and COVID-19