Issue 19 Vol. 3 Autumn 2022
Join a Community Committee of the League!The League of Canadian Poets is excited to invite active members of the League to sign up for committees that align with their interests and passions. Through an open call for submissions, we have an initial slate of proposed committees that members may sign up for this fall. All committees will receive LCP Staff support to schedule their first Zoom meeting in October 2022, at which committees will elect their Chair. Learn more and join a community committees
News from the League
Work with LCP: Communications & Programming Intern The League of Canadian Poets is seeking a Communications and Programming Intern to join our team temporarily. This internship is part-time, running from November 2022 to May 2023, with a focus on existing League
The purpose of this chapbook is to rebuild to soundscape of medical practitioners. Instead of abstract concepts of equity and diversity that are so easy to acknowledge but so difficult to internalize, this chapbook aims to collect poems and pieces that focus on the stories and sounds of various medical professionals. We want nouns and verbs. We want things that do not make sense, and
programs, communications and programming. There is a chance to extend the length of this internship slightly for those interested in continuing part-time work with the League of Canadian Poets. Please note that this internship is ideal for a student who is currently in a program and interested in working in arts administration, the charitable or the non-profit sector. This internship has been designed to have a focus on Communication and Programming, and to provide a thorough overview of programming for the audience and stakeholders for the League of Canadian Poets. Application Deadline: Oct 11, 2022. Find out more and apply today!
LCP Community Committees
Call for submissions: Medical Poetry chapbook
Anne Szumigalski Lecture Sept 23 – Tolu Oloruntoba On the heels of a special Spring Anne Szumigalski Lecture from Parliamentary Poet Laureate Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer, we are excited to welcome Griffin Award-winning poet Tolu Oloruntoba to deliver our Fall 2022 Anne Szumigalski Lecture on Friday, September 23, 2022. RSVP Today and learn more.
19.3 | Autumn 2022 In this issue: News from the League Celebrating Massy Books: 2022 Recipient of LCP Honourary Membership Award LCP Summer Contests Winners Announcement Bill Arnott’s Beat Poetry Parlour New InWritingMemberMembersNewsOpportunitiesMemoriam3228-3126-2717–2513–1611–129–107–82–6
Adventitious Sounds – A Chapbook for medical practitioners, learners and poets, edited by Zamina Mithani, from the LCP Chapbook Series
Guide to LCP Communications for Members
Now available for order: On the storm: poets on survival
The League has simplified the process to submit member news for St@nza and social media promotion. If you are a member and have news you would like shared, fill out this quick form. The next issue of St@ nza will be out in December.
Order a chapbook today and know that you are supporting the continued success of the Series that brings publication opportunities to underrepresented poets as well as some new, top-notch poetry for your bookshelf.
• GTA poets: Thursday, November 24, 7-8pm EST
If you are interested in becoming more involved with the League, now’s your chance to let us know! We are gathering nominations for our book award jurors, prize judges, and incoming council and committee members. Council, committee, judge, and volunteer roles all run on different timelines, but nominees would be contacted in Spring 2022, and elected at the AGM in June 2022. Nominate yourself or another poet.
•readings:Prairieregion poets (AB, SK, MB):
Member News
When we lose a member of the poetry community, that loss is felt deeply and with great love. The LCP has created a webpage where
Poetry Pause
Donate to the League
each other’s lovely faces! Upcoming
Call for Nominations & Volunteers
Suggestion Box
Member Readings
Thursday, September 29, 6:30 –7:30pm Central time
things that do in your experience of the healthcare system. The work of creating a medical community that represents its patient population happens when we share our stories to the world, just as patients share their stories to us. We aim to hear the voices of the adventitious medical professionals, in the hope of furthering our aim to make Canada’s healthcare system more equitable. Because to cure our inequity, we first need to hear what’s wrong. Deadline: October 7, 2022. Submit your poetry & learn more
Invite your fellow poets to join the LCP and they will receive a year of complimentary membership (2022–2023). Between 2022 and 2023, the League of Canadian Poets invites poets to apply for a free year of membership in the organization. We invite LCP members and members of the poetry community to selfnominate, or to nominate others for this offer. If you know of a talented poet who should be a member of the League, fill out one of the forms below so we can reach out with key information and application instructions to receive free LCP membership. This opportunity is open to candidates who are not current or former LCP members. Nominate a talented poet you know for free LCP Membership today!
Poetry Pause is the League’s daily digital poetry dispatch program and it’s growing every day! We deliver a daily poem an audience of over 1200 subscribers and we are always accepting submissions of published or unpublished poems! Poetry Pause is a great way to introduce new readers to your work. Submit your poetry today! Tell your poets and poetry-loving friends to subscribe
Support poets and poetry in Canada. Please consider donating monthly to the League of Canadian Poets. Donate via Canada Helps
Learn more and sign up to read
Bringing the spirit of the Joseph Sherman New Member Reading into the League’s new digital landscape, we are excited to now be hosting regular virtual events where members can read poetry and see
Are you a member of the League who may need a refresher on what the LCP can do to help promote your poetry and build a bigger and better poetry community? We love to support our members in every way we can! Check out this webpage for a low-down of 12 great ways to get involved.
The LCP Chapbook Series
Do you have a great poetry-related idea that you think the League might be interested in? Do you have any ideas that may broaden or enhance our current programming and projects? Let us know via the Suggestion Box! Let us know about your suggestion
In Memoriam
all are invited to remember, reflect and share memories of those from the poetry community who have recently passed. Visit our In Memoriam page.
NEW! LCP Membership Drive
The League of Canadian Poets also believes in Massy Books’ vision: that the literary and poetic arts are more than words written or spoken: they are a testimony to our experiences and perspectives, and how we are all connected to each other.
Patricia comes from seven generations of booksellers, which includes sharing relations with Stephen Massey, founder of Christie’s Auc tion House book department in New StorefrontYork.illustration
of Massy Books from Biblio phile: Diverse Spines, by Jamise Harper and Jane Mount
nections and incites action. We believe in the power of books to enrich lives and build community.”
AmongstNations.
From the Massy Books website: “Books have a kind of portable magic that accelerates curiosity, sparks conversations, makes con
“Poetry allows us to confront and enhance our sensitivity to the ways in which we understand words, thoughts, and experiences in our physical, sensorial, and cultural worlds. Whether at readings, open mics, book launches, or literary workshops, Massy Books has ex perienced how these events are a form of collective healing, proving how important it is for humans to deepen our understanding of one another, the importance of pres ence, and the need for connection in our present time. When a com munity listens, when stories are shared and voices become inter twined, our community becomes more alive.”
Instagram: @massybooks
Each year, the LCP presents this award to honour and celebrate leaders in Canada’s poetry commu nity, who achieve and contribute to poetry in extraordinary ways. Massy Books is more than deserving of this award, as their commitment and dedication to the literary arts, as well as the passion and purpose under which they operate.
“At Massy Books we see every book as treasure waiting to be discov ered. From rare, off-beat and outof-print books to familiar titles and current-day best sellers, we scour the internet and places near and far knowing that the books we source have a perfect match in a reader or collector who is as pas sionate about books as we are!”
Massy Books is the 2022 recipient of the League of Canadian Poets’ Honorary Membership Award.
Honourary Member of the League of Canadian Poets 2022
After 17 years of working at various bookstores and non-profits, she was inspired to open her own used bookstore in 2016 that would also be able to serve as an event space for the community.
There is an immensity to the con nection that the patrons and staff at Massy Books create. At Massy Books, community runs deep, through books, events, advocacy, and passion for literary arts. The League of Canadian Poets is so proud to celebrate this needed work in Canada’s literary scene.
the over 1,500-squarefoot, two-story space, houses un ending displays of community art, and shelves full of paperbacks, vin tage comics, literary fiction, a rare book collection, and of course, po etry.
We hope that with the LCP’s 2022 Honorary Member Award, Massy Books and all its patrons will know that they are unequivocal and es sential to the literary landscape of this Learnland.more about Massy Books
Massy Books’ owner and founder is Patricia Massy, who is of mixed Cree, Métis and English descent.
Even throughout the pandemic, Massy Books continued to grow and adapt as a cultural centre and hub for book lovers, artists, non-profits, and more. Featuring programs like the Indigenous Bril liance Reading Series, the programs offered at Massy Books are an ex tension of Patricia’s vision of holistic community care, which again finds its foundation in that precious ob ject: a book.
Celebrating Massy Books
Massy Books is a 100 per cent In digenous-owned and operated independent bookstore, art gallery, and community space. A member of the Stó:lō Business Association, Massy Books operates on the tradi tional, ancestral, unceded, and oc cupied territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx wú7mesh (Squa mish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh)
Drive northeast to see the Red River empty into inverted skies. Know that once water starts turning, it never stops.
Michael Fraser is published in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013 and 2018. He has won numerous awards, including Freefall Magazine’s 2014 and 2015 poetry contests, the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize, and the 2018 Gwendolyn Macewen Poetry Competition. The Day-Breakers (Biblioasis 2022) is his third poetry collection.
Every elm you see is another word for place. Get a pair of handcrafted moccasins. Talk to the owner and know your ancestors shared all that was broken and cracked with the world, the sense of history’s remains willowhooping through the two of you.
Congratulations to Gordon Taylor, winner of the 2022 Arts and Letters Club of Toronto Foundation Poetry Award!
Things to Do around Winnipeg when you’re Black by Michael Fraser after Gary Snyder
Start in The Forks and meander slow as a season flowing through the market courtyard. Take the Riverwalk to see where the waters meet. Lose the present as you become small as a name, your steps kicking pebbles into the river’s hem. See the city return to nature with its downtown face dipped in waterway reflections.
Thank you to the contest judge, Richard-Yves Sitoski!
Do I love you more than I love an ampersand that joins everything we think can’t be joined, two part harmony & the pigeon that pooped in my tea as I walked this morning, font & Font serif & asymmetricalriveryou,hibiscus,riotslobstersburialozone&less,carelesssaltnotantwiningpoolssilenceinasbestosnortherngreenmarshmallows,tagsaltertwitchyfountaintwitteregos,hash&pinkminipulsinglights,threadsancientlinoleum,&swimming&armsalmosteight,butquite,bone,&jasmine,you,andcarechemotherapyhotchocolate,&blueshrouds,&blood,&purpleme&memory,scars,stones,ourlungs.
by Gordon Taylor
Fresh Air
Thank you to the contest judges, Concetta Principe and Stuart Ian McKay.
Congratulations to the 2022 Winner of the 2nd Annual Lesley Strutt Poetry Prize “Things to Do around Winnipeg when you’re Black” by Michael Fraser!
Feel how distant morning becomes on the drive back. Around you, the prairie’s long stretch is faking forever. This is how grass owns a landscape.
The Lesley Strutt Poetry Contest is an award that provides a prize for the single best poem submitted to our judges. This contest is run each summer in memory of poet and friend of the League, Lesley Strutt.
The Arts and Letters Club of Toron to Foundation Poetry Award is a $500 prize, sponsored by the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto Foun dation, to the best single poem by a poet in the early stages of their career. artsandlettersfoundation.ca
2022ContestsSummerLCPWinningPoems
Gordon Taylor (he/him) is a queer poet who walks an ever-swaying wire of technology, health care and poetry. His poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in Grain, Rat tle, Event, Banshee, Descant and Plenitude. In his spare time Gor don is a volunteer reader for Five South Magazine
.
Stop at the Little Brown Jug and enjoy a pint of 1919 ale, taste how heirloom hops and spices create a moment. Each daybreak is the sun sticking its landing.
Mom, dad and me, maybe a sibling as well, seated in the living room, when the power went out one wintery night. Again we lit a fire, then told stories in turn. For my share I re cited a poem, one about summer time, the whole thing still utterly vivid. Those feelings, fondness and warmth. Tapping into agelessness. Perhaps that’s exactly what we’re meant to be doing on long and dark evenings together. Adapting. Im provising. And sharing. Experienc ing rich simplicities in all their won der, savouring the poetic world we inhabit.
orange with a devious hint of pyro. We were set up with Netflix, the eve ning shaping up fine, then the lights softly surged and with an almost audible pop, we were cast into dark. A power outage. Blanketing the en tire community. So much for Wi-Fi, or movies, or charging devices. Like that, we were in the dark ages. But supper was already warm. The beer, still chilled. And the fire was throw ing a blushing warm glow through the room. I dug out a book and what I thought was a very good evening morphed into one of perfection.
I crumpled paper, added a log, and set it alight. The process still induces a primal thrill, tapping deep in a vein I can hardly articulate, somewhere between hunter-gatherer and tribal contributor. Then again, it may sim ply be pretty glimmers of wavering
It brought to mind another experi ence. A midsummer evening, when we walked to a restaurant facing a beach, setting sun low on the sea. Unbeknownst to us, the power had gone out then as well, across the whole area, while we made our way from our home to the oceanside restaurant. We entered the place and it had the ambience of good dining, candles lighting the com pact space. It still didn’t occur to us that there was no power. The pro prietor greeted us at the front door. It was early and there were no other “I’mpatrons.sosorry,” he said. “We have no
“Look at me,” I said aloud. “Reading. By the light of a fire. Like a cave man!” (Well, a literate caveman, with a penchant for poetry.)
“Oh,power.”right,”
we said, a bit baffled, only then realizing the situation. “So, no service tonight?”
He thought about it. “Well, not ex actly. But if you’re okay with candle light, we could do you a salad. And we have oysters on ice. Which are excellent, if you eat them right now.” We said that sounded ideal, along with some bread and a bottle of wine, still cool from the fridge. The meal, the ambiance, and serendip itous improvisation made it one of the best I recall.
No Power? No Problem.
Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, Gone Viking II: Beyond Boundaries, and winner of The Miramichi Reader’s Very Best Book Award for nonfiction. When not trekking the globe with a small pack and journal, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, mak ing music and @billarnott_aps.friends.
Walking back in the dark, the pow er returned, streetlamps returning to life in a flickering row, lighting our path as though the whole town was on a motion detector. When we came home it was, unsurprisingly, just as we’d left it. But with a linger ing sensation the entire near-per fect and dreamy excursion had all been imagined.
That’s how I felt in front of the fire, a warming mood of rec ollection, the space of shared stories and poems. Where things move at an agreeably metered tempo, the analog pace of the world as opposed to the ramped up speed of high-tech. When the things that we do, what we experi ence, are wholly sensory, engaged and engaging.
Bill Arnott’s Beat
One more experience came to mind. From childhood.
A day of transience. Change in the season, cooler than usual, as yet un decided. Tentative, somehow. So I built a fire. We were renting a small apartment in a low-rise Vancouver neighbourhood. Buildings are old er, still furnished with wood burning fireplaces. Like camping, indoors. Supper was already made, a freshly poured pint in my glass.
I like the short commute. It makes attendance possible at many more events. I like the ease of contact with poets in other parts. I like be ing able to grab a tea or coffee.
Domenico Capilongo
What do you like most about online poetry events? What do you like the least?
Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews
Jamie Evan Kitts
Andrea Martineau
Thank you to everyone who re sponded to the most recent Poetry Pause questions! Check out our new batch of questions.
Stephen Kent Roney
We have increased access to un
Luca My writing process involves a lot of pacing back and forth, talking to myself, reading poetry out loud, sometimes the same words over and over, and going back and forth on ideas very quickly. This feels like a very individual and intensely per sonal process that wouldn’t fit well in a writing group.
Are you a part of a writing group? Tell us about the group, or if not, why you choose to practice poetry without a group.
Poetry Parlour
limited events in terms of loca tion. However, technology limits any warmth, reverence, affection (e.g.hugs)
Jamie Evan Kitts
I’m a member of the Egg Poets Society, so named for our publicist friend who’s read more than her share of bad poetry with tired egg metaphors. We meet every month for a workshop and submission par ty.
Digitally, the whole word is con nected. Realistically the whole world is connected by invisibly. I like seeing and hearing friends from afar even if on a screen. I don’t like to see friends on screens but it’s like a catch 22 situation. It is truly a humbling experience to know they are there and yet not to see, smell or touch others.
i was part of a wonderful group, unofficially called Ampersand from 2007 to 2010 or so and i loved it. it included Nicholas Lea, Marcus McCann, Sandra Ridley, Pearl Pirie, some of my favourite local poets. Some of us moved away and I was dealing with health issues, so the group disbanded. What I loved about it was that we were all work ing within an aesthetic of play and experimentation. the group came
I like that they make poetry more accessible. What I like the least is that the sense of immediacy and connection one finds at a live event is missing in an online event.
Amanda Earl
What I love the most is that I’m included! There are so many great events that happen provinces away in bigger centres. Online events make it so little old me here in Sas katchewan can join in and meet poets I otherwise would never get the chance to interact with. What I like the least is that screen time is hard on my migraines.
Amanda Earl
Carla Stein
Due to issues related to COVID-19, my current writing group meets over Zoom.
I love online poetry events because you can share your work with like minded friends without having to leave the comfort of home. I love being able to share with people across the country and across countries. It’s amazing! The only drawback is not being able to share in person, in an ambiance of slow listening and appreciation.
What I dislike most is that they are less likely to be held once COVID passes. We should as poets em brace the new technological possi bilities.
Anne Burke
Like: Being able to mute both my audio and video and just listen. Dislike: the overly long introduc tions of hosts and also readers for their poetry.” most: accessibility and the ability to connect with people all over the world. least: not being able to socialize in person with readers and audience.
What I like most about about online poetry events is that I can attend events from all over the world!
Carla Stein
Honey Novick
See what Leaguers have to say about what they are reading, the artisitic process and pen names!
Luca
I love the chance to meet po ets I would never otherwise get the chance to meet. It does lack the charm of an in-person event though. Conversation can be so stilted but that’s just how it is now.
What I like about online poetry events is how many I can attend and how easy they are to get to! What I like least about online po etry events is how disconnected the screen makes the reading feel. There is still something so powerful about being in a room with poetry lovers and sharing the greatness of a live reading.
New Poetry Parlour questions are now available! Click here to share your thoughts
“Peanut Butter” by Eileen Myles
render....”withoutassilence.maypeaceberandthetheplacidlyrmann.by“Desiderata”MaxEh“Goamidnoiseandhaste,rememwhattherebeinAsfarpossible,sur
tario Poetry Society. I was forced by isolation to toil alone for many years, and am enjoying the sense of community now. Poets are fascinat ing people.
I have organized many groups and events for different types and styles of writing (for writers, publishers, editor, etc.)
Andrea Martineau
Andrea Martineau
Anne Burke
For joy, “The Jumblies.” For comfort, “Sailing to Byzantium.” And, hon estly, my own poems.
Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews
CapilongoDomenico
Amanda Earl Mary Oliver’s “The Wild Geese”
I’m not part of a formal writing group, however, a have a handful of first readers that give me feedback on my work.
I host and coordinate a literary series, but am not part of a writing group at the moment. This is due to health issues.
Mary Oliver Luca
Bob Dylan’s “Lay Down Your Weary Tune”
Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews
Honey Novick
Someone recommended me the Irish poet John O’Donohue a while ago, and I find his voice immense ly comforting. I will sometimes flip through his many affirmations if I need to find my center again.
I am currently part of the Scarborough Poetry Society and The On
Stephen Kent Roney
Stephen Kent Roney
Anne Burke
Domenico Capilongo
There comes a period in one’s life that time is precious and not spending it wisely comes at too high a cost.
What is a poem you turn to for comfort or joy?
There are so many po ems I turn to but what I love most is finding new poems that really bring me joy. I especially love doing this when I’m teaching creative writing and searching for pieces that will reso nate or work to illustrate a particular technique or writing point.
Jamie Evan Kitts
Honey Novick
I am part of two writing groups: Two Peas Writing Pod and The Canty Collective of Writerly Wom en. Both groups are a mix of poets, fiction writers, and memoirists. Two Peas meets up weekly in person to eat pastries, write, commiserate, and encourage, and Canty Collec tive meets up monthly on Zoom (we are all in opposite corners of the country!) to read aloud and workshop our pieces. Both groups keep me accountable to keep pace with my writing practice and are beyond supportive and encourag ing, while also challenging me to do better.
“9 The optimist” by Alice Major. No matter how horrible things might be going, there’s always a chance that this is the universe or reality where everything turns out okay.
I love the poem “Wild Geese” by
out of the workshops that rob mc lennan ran for years. i’m not in a poetry group any longer because i tend to prefer to find my own way these days. my work is eccen tric and i haven’t found a group of like-minded poets who would be able to offer constructive criticism, and while it would be fun to be in a group of such, most of us are just too busy to gather regularly any more virtually and in person group gatherings shouldn’t be happening during the pandemic at all.
Our wonderful writing group The High Park Poets disbanded with Covid-19. When another group appears at a time good for me, I’ll definitely be there
Now I treat myself by reaching out to my special readers and close col leagues through reading their work and taking their advice.
Zein Mari Alsaka Zein was born and raised in Jordan, she immigrated to Canada in 2020 and currently lives in Nova Scotia. She started writing poetry when she was only eight years old. She often found it difficult to convey her thoughts through speech and therefore resorted to writing rhymes and reading them to people instead. Surrounded by family and friends who fostered her talent and encouraged her ambitions, Zein continued to write and her simple rhymes transitioned into poetry. After over twenty years since she wrote her first rhyme, Zein published this collection of her favorite poems about falling in love, being in love, finding true love and heartbreak through the eyes of a poet. Follow her on Instagram for regular quotes and poems @ZeinsQuill
Leanne Boschman Liam Burke
Courtney Bates-Hardy is the author of House of Mystery (2016) and a chapbook, Sea Foam (JackPine Press, 2013). House of Mystery was shortlisted for an Elgin Award in 2017. Her poetry has been published in Room, CAROUSEL, PRISM, Grain, EVENT, and Vallum, among others. She is queer and disabled, and onethird of a writing group called The Pain Poets. She is currently working on her second manuscript of poetry, tentatively titled Anatomical Venus.
in Terra North and was also part of Sudbury’s storefront poetry project. Two of her pieces are published in Painted Voices, a chapbook about Sudbury’s General Hospital, and its RISK mural. She also has two poems in Sulphur, Laurentian University’s literary magazine, which will be released in Fall 2022.
Clare Bolton
Jessica Coles (she/her) is a poet from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (Treaty 6 territory), where she lives with her family and a judgmental tuxedo cat named Miss Bennet. Her work has appeared in Prairie Fire, Moist Poetry Journal, Crow Name, Capsule Stories, and You are a Flower Growing off the Side of a Cliff. Her chapbook, unless you’re willing to evaporate, is available through Prairie Vixen Press (https:// prairievixenpress.ca)
Jennifer Cox
New Members
Melissa (Melly) Davidson
Nancy Daoust is a newcomer to the Canadian writing scene. Her writing often explores our relationship with nature and the place where we live. It is also influenced by her love of pop culture and music. A retired educator, she belongs to the Sudbury Writer’s Guild and volunteers with Wordstock, Sudbury’s Literary Arts Festival. Nancy has been published
Mohineet Boparai I am a teacher, academic and poet. I was born in India, and made Canada my home in 2018. My experience as a diasporic has been more of reinvention, than loss. Over the time that I spent here, I have discovered and connected with nature and “place” anew, which is reflected in my recent poetry and prose. I hold a Ph.D. degree in English from Punjabi University, Patiala in India. My research (including my Ph.D., but not limited to it) is interdisciplinary and includes studying fiction and poetry from perspectives such as subalternity, subjectivity, memory, solidarity, agency, place studies, and media studies. I am also interested in literature in English emerging from the Indian-subcontinent because the themes and milieu surrounding this literature naturally draw me to it. In addition to that, I enjoy reading and critiquing postcolonial literature from different continents. As a poet, I like to write my poetry manifestoes from time to time and find that apart from documenting my art from the lens of some sort of theory it also tends to chalk out my poetic journey for me and feeds the inquisitive part of my writing soul.
MembersLeagueNew
Lucia De Luca As an English teacher and spoken word artist, Lucia De Luca plays with stories in the classroom and on the mic. Her poetry often nods to past versions of herself or centers around her family and Italian heritage. Lucia was a finalist at the 2021 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam, and in 2020, as a member of Mcsway Poetry Collective, she organized McGill University’s firstever slam. Her work is published to the TEDx, Brickyard Spoken Word, and Bankstown Poetry Slam
Meharoona Ghani
Martin Gomes (he/they) is an AfroLatino, queer, citrus fruit loving poet born & based in downtown Toronto. His official poetry journey began under the tutelage of Britta B at JAYU, a charitable organization that shares human rights stories through the arts and engaging conversations. His unofficial journey began with his first exposure to poetry: A Goofy Movie 2 and an episode of Fresh Prince where Will writes poetry under the guise of Raphael DeLaGhetto. Since then, he has gone from student to mentor at JAYU teaching both level 1 and level 2, and the Guelph Humber x JAYU poetry collaboration. He currently runs spoken word & beatboxing workshops with Unity charity. His goal is to create spaces that encourage folks to be their most authentic, genuine selves in a raw, real, “non-Disney” type of way. (He messes with Disney though, don’t get it twisted.)
has appeared in online and print journals, including CV2, Grain, The Maynard and Plenitude, among others. griffin is the author of the chapbook so we may be fed (Frog Hollow Press, 2021). In addition to poetry, griffin has played in the bands SPOILS and griffin and the true believers. They occasionally make experimental video games with shrunken studios. By day, griffin works as a post-secondary educator and community-driven researcher, focusing on “mental health,” harm reduction and disability justice. They have an MA and PhD in Sociology and Equity Studies from OISE/University of Toronto, and have taught in various community settings, from drop-ins to infoshops to to postsecondary institutions. They aspire to be in solidarity with communities self-organizing for abolition and liberation in all the work they do.
Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
Sylvia LaboniHamiltonIslam
was born in Canada to Bangladeshi parents. She is
Hans HayleyJongmanKing
Christina Frei Maria Gacesa
YouTube channels, and in Pace Magazine, Baby Teeth Journal, Yolk Literary Journal, and Snaps Online Journal. She is currently pursuing an M. A. in Educational Leadership.
griffin epstein (they/them) is a non-binary white settler/occupier from NYC (Lenape land), living and working in Toronto (Dish with One Spoon/Treaty 13). They have been featured in Glad Day’s Emerging Writers Series, and their poetry
Anvesh Jain was born in Delhi and moved to Calgary when he was one year old. His poems have appeared in literary magazines in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, India, and South Africa. He was an editor at The Hart House Review from 2018 to 2021. Anvesh is a chai enthusiast, and loves cricket. Pilgrim to No Country, published by Frontenac House Press, is his first book.
a graduate of the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing Program. Her poem “Lunar Landing, 1966” was shortlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize (2017). Her chapbook, Light Years, is forthcoming from Baseline Press in autumn 2022. She serves as an arts educator, engaging the young and young at heart in gallery, museum, and community spaces.
Jack Donnelly
Kyle Flemmer is an author, editor, and publisher from Calgary in Treaty 7 territory. He recently completed an MA in English Literature at the University of Calgary, where he researched digital poetics. Kyle founded The Blasted Tree Publishing Company in 2014 and served as Managing Editor of filling Station magazine from 2018-2020. He has published several chapbooks, most recently Little Songs by No Press and The Heavy Crown by nOIR:Z. Kyle’s first book, Barcode Poetry, was published by The Blasted Tree in 2021.
Margaryta Golovchenko (she/her) is first generation Ukrainian settlerimmigrant, poet, and critic from Tkaronto/Toronto, Treaty 13 and Williams Treaty territory. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks and has written art and literary criticism for a variety of publications. She is currently a PhD student in the art history program at the University of Oregon, where she studies the representation of human-animal relationships in modern and contemporary art.
Justene Dion-Glowa is a queer Métis poet originally from the Winnipeg region. They are a Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity Alumnus. They provide workshops on healing grief through poetry. Trailer Park Shakes is their first fulllength poetry collection.
Therese Estacion
is a veterinarian and poet living in Whitby, Ontario which is situated on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation. In 2010, a year and a half after her mom passed, Hayley woke up one morning with a poem in her head that refused to let her go back to sleep! She got up, wrote down the lines, and has continued writing ever since. She joined The Ontario Poetry Society and self-published her chapbook, A Spirit’s Journey. Early on, many of her poems came from a place of raw instinct; in 2017, she took her first poetry course through the University of Toronto School of Continuing Education. It was at this point that she began to really learn the art of poetry. She enjoys trying
Leesa Dean is a graduate of the University of Guelph’s Creative Writing MFA program and teaches Creative Writing at Selkirk College. Her previous publications include Waiting for the Cyclone, nominated for the 2017 Trillium and ReLit Awards, and the poetry chapbook The Desert of Itabira. Her novella-in-verse, The Filling Station, is forthcoming in Fall 2022 with Gaspereau Press, and she has a second chapbook., Apogee/Perigee, forthcoming with Above/Ground Press. She lives with her husband and daughter on an acreage in Krestova, BC (Unceded Sinixt Territory) where she helps run the Elephant Mountain Literary Festival and curates an elaborate dollhouse, inhabited by the cast of Twin Peaks.
Donalee
Laurie KatherineKoensgenKoller
My published poems and stories are on my InewspaperForpublished-stories-and-poemssites.google.com/site/forrestorser/website:.morethan30yearsIwasadailyreporterandeditor.Nowfinallygettojustwrite.
Andrea Martineau Lindsay Mayhew Shelley McAneeley Sadie McCarney
writes for stage, screen and page. Her first plays, Cowboy Boots and a Corsage and Magpie, were for CBC radio. Her full-length stage plays include her Alberta LandWorks Trilogy: Coal Valley, The Seed Savers and Alberta Playwriting Competition winner, Last Chance Leduc. Riverkeeper, her latest play, was a Finalist in the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, The Judith Royer Award and the Alberta Playwriting Competition. Her web series, about Edmonton youth changing their world, is at sustainablemeyeg.ca. Art Lessons, her novel, was a Finalist for the Edmonton Book Prize and the Alberta Readers’ Choice Award. Winning Chance, her collection of short stories, won a 2020 High Plains Book Award and the Exporting Alberta Award. Short fiction has also been published in Grain, Room, Epiphany, Alberta Views and Edify and poems in Prairie Journal and Northword. Katherine produces Edmonton Script Salon, a monthly new play reading series.
Dawn Macdonald Kim MariaMannixFord
ElizabethMoultonMudenyo
recent publications include Write Magazine, Arc Magazine, Plenitude, carte-blanche, Canthius and CV2. Elizabeth was a finalist for the 8th Annual Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Competition. She is currently a Creative Writing MFA Candidate at the University of Guelph. Her first poetry chapbook, With Both Hands, is available through Anstruther Press. elizabethmudenyo.com
Camille Lendor
Testament has performed and taught coast to coast nationally in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Nunavut, Nunivak and British Colombia. He has performed internationally in Venezuela and Italy, and has travelled to 6 continents globally.He has recorded 3 albums to date and shared stages with the likes of: Talib Kweli, Naughty by Nature, Biz Markie, GZA, Kardinal Official, Saukrates, Rich Kidd, Dam Funk and more. He has appeared on Breakfast Television,
(she/her) is a Canadian writer who has authored poetry and countless other things since grade school. She has holds a B.A. (Honours) and an M.A. (Senate Medal), both in English literature. Her poetry has been honoured in contests and published in journals such as ROOM Magazine, Pangyrus, Pulp Literature, and Whetstone. She has self-published two chapbooks: dark soil blue sky and revel(re) lations. She is currently developing a poetic nonfiction book. She works as a brand consultant, freelance writer and editor, and is a workshop facilitator for Writers Collective of Canada (WCC).
is a Scarborough-raised poet, community-engaged artist and arts manager. She was a fellow of the Poetry Foundation’s 2018 Poetry Incubator, and participant of the 2020 Hurston/Wright Poetry Weekend with Danez Smith, Diaspora Dialogues Short Form Mentorship and the DreamYard’s Rad(ical) Poetry Consortium. Her
Testament Peace Matthew-Ray Jones also known, as ‘Testament’ is a connoisseur of anything and everything involving words. From poetry, spoken word and emceeing to facilitating, hosting and keynoting, Testament has been using his natural speaking abilities to inspire audiences for over 15 years.
Mori McCrae attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, from 1982 - 86, majoring in Fine Art and winning the Forsythe Scholarship for painting. For the past 26 years, she has lived and worked in the Niagara region. She is a founding member of the Jordan Art Gallery (2001), where she currently exhibits her work and actively promotes artists from Niagara. The recipient of numerous exhibition grants from the Ontario Arts Council, for travel, teaching and exhibiting, Mori was awarded a residency at the renowned Cill Rialaig Artist Residency in Ireland in 2011, where she expanded her practice to
different forms, reading poetry, and spending time workshopping with fellow poets. The physical world, nature, time, and death are common themes in her work. Birds and the moon have been showing up a lot in her life, and therefore also on the page. Hayley completed her certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto in 2021 and has work published in Green Ink Poetry, Hags on Fire, and forthcoming in, Framework of the Human Body anthology, Bell press.
include the liminal shift from image to word. In 2013, she attended Sim Residency in Iceland and in 2015 and 2018, the Tyrone Guthrie Centre to further her exploration of poetry. Mori is the author of two chapbooks, Shelf Life (Grey Borders, 2017) and Passersby (Grey Borders, 2018), and a third book of poems with figurative drawings: Sex & Death in Canada: Land of No Middle Ground (Grey Borders, 2019). Her most recent collection of poems, Love and Lunch (Aeolus House) was published in 2022
lives in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Recent work appears in Grain, Arc, The New Quarterly, Windsor Review, and Understorey Magazine. Her first full-length collection, Next to Nothing, was published by Wolsak and Wynn. In 2021, Christina had a poem selected for WFNS’s Poetry in Motion competition (poem installed on Metro Transit buses). She was a runner-up for WFNS’s best postcard poem competition in both 2021 and 2022.
Sean ChristinaCaitlinMcGarragleMcKenzieMcRae
Glowz ForrestAdrianaO’koyeOnițăOrser
Carla Stein enjoys cooking up stuff like veggies, poems, paintings, and illustrations. Her work hangs out in pamphlets, magazines, literary journals, poetry collections, on walls, and on-line. She often shares her poems and paintings in public, but the veggies are shy and prefer to stay at home. Carla’s poems have appeared in Sustenance, Ascent Aspirations, Friday’s Poems, Lemonspouting, Sad Girl Review, Pocket Lint, Rune Bear Weekly, Centipede Cha-Cha, and Please Hear What I’m Not Saying in the United Kingdom, among other publications. Carla is the artistic director of Wordstorm Society of the Arts, an organization supporting writers on Vancouver Island. You can find examples of her visual musings at: www.roaeriestudio.com
Adrienne Stevenson Sienna SalimahMichaelTristenTrusslerValiani
CP24, Much Music, MTV and Rogers cable. He has been written about in Exclaim and Eye Weekly magazines plus numerous national and local newspapers. In addition Testament has done various radio station appearances and interviews. A father, an artist, entrepreneur and revolutionary, Testament uses his passion for words, art and life to motivate, inspire and lead. He trusts in the values of peace, love and unity as his guiding principles as he continues to spread his message all across the world.
Lauren Seal is a writer, librarian, and St. Albert’s third Poet Laureate. She mentors the teen and young adult poets of SWYC, the Spoken Word Youth Choir, and performs in the adult incarnation of the group. When she’s not busy recommending books to library patrons, Lauren can be found reading, writing, and composing poems in her head on long dog walks.
James Pollock is the author of Durable Goods (Véhicule Press, 2022); Sailing to Babylon (Able Muse Press, 2012), a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award in Poetry, and winner of an Outstanding Achievement Award in Poetry from the Wisconsin Library Association; and You Are Here: Essays on the Art of Poetry in Canada (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2012), a finalist for the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award for a collection of essays. He is also editor of The Essential Daryl Hine (The Porcupine’s Quill), which made Partisan magazine’s list of the best books of 2015. His poems have appeared in The Paris Review, AGNI, Plume, The Walrus, and many other journals. They have also won the Manchester Poetry Prize, the Magma Editors’ Prize, and the Guy Owen Prize from Southern Poetry Review, and have been reprinted in anthologies in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., including The Next Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry. His essays have appeared in Contemporary Poetry Review, Canadian Notes & Queries, Literary Review of Canada, and
Sunil Sharma, PhD (English), is a Toronto-based poet, critic, literary editor, academic and author with 23 published books: Seven collections of poetry; four of short fiction; one novel; a critical study of the novel, and, nine joint anthologies on prose, poetry and criticism, and, one joint poetry collection. He is, among others, a recipient of the UK-based Destiny Poets’ inaugural Poet of the Year award---2012. His poems were published in the prestigious UN project: Happiness: The DelightTree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, in the year 2015. Sunil edits the English section of the monthly bilingual journal Setu published from Pittsburgh, USA: setumag.com/p/setu-home. html For more details, please visit the link: drsunilsharma.blogspot.in/
elsewhere. He graduated from York University in Toronto, earned a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and is now Professor of English at Loras College. He lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin.
HannahSheleegSiden
Jaspreet Singh
Spenser Smith is a Regina-born poet, essayist, and photographer living in Vancouver. His writing appears in The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, Contemporary Verse 2, The Capilano Review, Poetry Is Dead, Vallum, subTerrain, The Puritan, and SAD Mag. He holds a BA in creative writing and journalism from Vancouver Island University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. His debut book of poetry, A brief relief from hunger, is forthcoming from Gordon Hill Press in 2023.
Felicity Sidnell Reid stephanie roberts Andrea Scott
connect with others and “give life,” to her experiences and observations, long after she is gone.
Nofel
LG Pomerleau (B.Ed; M.Ed.) grew up in a small, rural Alberta community in the 1960’s, Lise had no access to poetry, either at home or at school, except for “Casey At The Bat.” She encountered Sonnet 18 in Readers’ Digest when she was in the sixth grade. She copied it out in her best handwriting, to make a poster for her room, and since the author wasn’t credited, she attributed it to “Anonymous.” There was no one to ask. She inhaled that poem, and memorized it. Fortunately, by Grade 8, she had a teacher who taught poetry, required memorization of poems, encouraged writing poetry, and used popular song lyrics as poems to analyze for meaning: “Hello darkness, my old friend...” Lise still communicates with that wonderful teacher, over fifty years later. She was the inspiration for both Lise’s writing and teaching career. As a long-time member of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and the Canadian Author’s Association, Lise has participated in many workshops in Calgary (Alexandra Writers’ Centre) Edmonton (Edmonton Poetry Festival) and the Banff Centre (Writers’ Guild residencies). Mentors who have contributed to her craft knowledge include Ian Williams, Steven Ross-Smith, Louise Halfe, Richard Wagamese, Gail AndersonDargatz (five-year mentorship) and Richard Van Camp. Lise writes historical fiction and poetry, always striving to find the words that will
Note: Many LCP members’ most recent member news can be found in the Annual Report, presented ahead of this year’s AGM. Check out the Annual Report
Carol MacKay’s recent ‘poetry for children’ publications include: “Swing & Sandbox,” in the May/June 2022 issue of BABYBUG; “Stingers” in The School Magazine’s (Australia) July 2022 issue; and “The Badlands Bistro” in Little Thought’s Hit the Road August 2022 issue. “Nature Changes,” a poem about the restor ative power of the natural world, will appear in the Convergent/Pen guin Random House anthology, Bless the Earth: A Children’s Book of Poems and Prayers for Honoring the Earth, due out March 2024. A poem for adults, “The Newspaper Account,” appears in the Summer 2022 issue of Devour: Canadian Lit and Art.
Fern G. Z.Carr was pleased to have her poetry collection, “Shards of Crystal”, featured online in “Poetry Around BC: Celebrating the po etic arts in British Columbia”. She was also delighted that her poem, “I Am”, was the subject of one of Jason E. Coombs’ “Eh Poetry” pod casts. Fern’s prose piece, “Moment with a Stranger”, is slated for publi cation in an Okanagan anthology“Dribbles, Drabbles and Postcards”. Additionally, as of this November, Fern will be including a writing prompts section on her YouTube channel. Prompts will be for both poetry and prose.
Ami Xherro is a poet, performer, artist, and translator. Originally from Tirana, Albania, now living in Toronto, she is interested in inscription, uselessness, and doom. Recent works include a performance, ‘The bed withheld the refreshment of a sleep slept on it’ (supported by the Ontario Arts Council), and sex, love & misc. advice column Hell but fun. Her first full-length book of poetry ‘In That Fact’ is forthcoming fall 2023 with Guernica Editions. She is a cofounder of the Toronto Experimental Translation Collective, co-editor of Barricade: A Journal of Antifascism and Translation, and a PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Comparative Literature.
Yilin Wang (she/they) is a writer, poet, Chinese-English translator, and editor. Her writing has appeared in Clarkesworld, Fantasy Magazine, The Malahat Review, Grain, CV2, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Toronto Star, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. Yilin has won the Foster Poetry Prize, been nominated for an Aurora Award and a Rhysling Award, been a two-time finalist for the Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction, and been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. Her work has
My new book!
Dee Hobsbawn-Smith Poet, essayist, and fictionist dee Hobsbawn-Smith joyfully announc
Member News
The LCP would like to extend a big welcome back to our members who have returned to the League this quarter: Ariel Gordon, Robert Hilles, Clifton Joseph, Emily Lamb, Susan Musgrace, Kerry Ryan & Dorothy Sjöholm.
Amanda Earl Now available from Timglaset Editions of Sweden, Gen esis by Amanda Earl. Genesis is part of the Vispo Bible, a life’s work to translate every book, chapter and verse of the Bible into visual poetry. Copies can be ordered here
Mary Vlooswyk
Sanna Wani Rob Winger
Susan McCaslin recently had her poems included in two anthologies on the value of trees: “Polyphony” & “O Black Cottonwood” in Worth More Standing: Poets and Activ ists Pay Homage to Treesand “O McLellan Forest” in Worth More Growing: Youth Poets Pay Homage to Trees,both published by Caitlin Press, 2022 and edited by Christine Lowther. caitlin-press.com/our-
Pasquale Verdicchio (Naples, 1954), Emeritus Professor, UCSD, has published a number of books of translation and his own poetry through presses in Canada and the U.S. This Nothing’s Place (Guernica) received a “Bressani Prize for Poetry” in 2010. As a translator, he has published works by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Antonio Gramsci, Giorgio Caproni and Alda Merini among others. His translation of Vivian Lamarque’s The Golden Man was published by Ekstasis Editions in 2016, also publisher of this recent poetry collection Only You (2021). His essays on poetry, film, literature, and the environment have appeared in journals and in book form in North America and Europe. A past resident of Vancouver and Victoria, Verdicchio has a B.Sc. from the Univ. of Victoria (where he studies with P.K. Page, Robyn Skelton, and Derek Wynand) an M.A. from Univ. of Alberta, and a Ph.D. from UCLA. After his studies he joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego’s Dept. of Literature, where he taught literature, film and writing from 1986 to 2021.
been supported by funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, Access Copyright Foundation, and the ALTA Virtual Travel Fellowship. Yilin has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and is a graduate of the 2021 Clarion West Writers Workshop. She is a co-editor-in-chief of the slice-of-life fantasy magazine Tales & Feathers.
es the arrival of her second poetry collection, Among the Untamed, delivered by Frontenac House of Calgary, midwifed and edited by the wondrous Micheline Maylor, due date April 2023.
Adebe DeRango-Adem
Please note: This is a curated list of opportunities. For a full list of all writing opportunities updated on a monthly basis, please subscribe to Between the Lines newsletter from the LCP.
tion: a spec lit trilogy, Cryptid Shin dig, including the volumes If a Dol phin Had Digits, Nightcrawlers, and Radioactive Frogs (with Hidden Brook Press in Canada), An Abominable Swamp Slob Named Bob (with Altered Reality in the U.S.), Hairy Hullabaloo (with Starship Sloane in the Us), Eye to Eye with My Octopi (with Cyberwit in India), Action Dachshund! (with Ekstasis Editions in Canada), and Bature! West African Haikai (with Mawen zi House in Canada.) Sound more prolific than I’ve been: just waiting on illustrations.
Writing Opportunities
to the world, just as patients share their stories to us. We aim to hear the voices of the adventitious medical professionals, in the hope of furthering our aim to make Canada’s healthcare system more equitable. Because to cure our inequity, we first need to hear what’s wrong. Deadline: October 7, 2022. Submit your poetry & learn more
Call for submissions: Medical Poetry chapbook
FreeFall Magazine Submit 2-5 po ems, any style. Length of any indi vidual poem cannot exceed 6 pag es. Payment is $25.00 per poem and one copy of issue that your piece is published in. Payment is made upon publication. Deadline is September 30, 2022. Find out more.
Subterranean Blue Poetry Theme: 1962 The London Times The Rolling Stones, blues and the new rock n’ roll spirits onto the world stage. Of the troubadours, the carousel, the evolving ‘60s peace and love con sciousness the counterculture, psy chedelics and the mods. The World’s Greatest Rock n’ Roll Band. Celebrat ing 60 years of the New Music. L@@ king for Poetry and Art/Photos in the Spirit of The New Age poetics. Poet ry/Art/Photos inspired by the music/ lyrics, lives and lovers of The Rolling Stones. (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Brian Jones, Ian
Adventitious Sounds – A Chapbook for medical practitioners, learners and poets, edited by Zamina Mithani, from the LCP Chapbook Series
Richard Stevenson has retired and moved from Lethbridge, AB to Nanaimo, BC. He arrived just be fore Covid broke, but the staycation has been kind. He has recently had eight books accepted for publica
Erin Wilson My second full length poetry collection Blue will release in October of this year. Blue is a jour ney of grief and healing, hope and determination. It is the record of a child moving through depression toward adulthood, and a moth er’s love, her need to redeem that which wounds.
Heart Work (Ekstasis Editions, 2020) for The Artisanal Writer website. Post ed early Sept. 2022. Note: Readers must sign in to access the inter view, but it is free to do so. artis analwriter.com
David Yerex Williamson At Bay Press is pleased to announce the spring release of Through Disas sembled Houses of Perfect Stones, the first full length collection by associate member, David Yerex Williamson. David was the featured reader in April’s Speaking Crow, sponsored by Thin Air, Winnipeg’s International Writers Festival.
Calls for Submissions
books/worth-more-standing/ She read a poem from the anthology Worth More Standing at the Ta’Ta lu Festival, A Rocha Environmental Centre, Surrey, BC, July 9, 2022, an event at which poets advocated for the preservation of the Little Campbell River green belt in Surrey in the face of imminent industrial gardingwassage-ing.com/Sage-ing41.pdfClose,Theit,journal“Oligarchs,”Timeserwork/brooksdale/little-campbell-rivdevelopment.arocha.ca/where-we-Heressay“LoveandPoetryinofWar,”includingthepoemwaspublishedintheSage-ing:withCreativeSpirGrace&Gratitude.Kelowna:BC,OkanaganInstitute.Ed.KarenNo.41,Summer2022,26-28.SusaninterviewedbySharonBergrehervolumeofpoetry
Submit YOUR Call to be included in Between The Lines and Stanza Newsletter. Let us know about a call for submission via this form
The purpose of this chapbook is to rebuild to soundscape of medical practitioners. Instead of abstract concepts of equity and diversity that are so easy to acknowledge but so difficult to internalize, this chapbook aims to collect poems and pieces that focus on the stories and sounds of various medical professionals. We want nouns and verbs. We want things that do not make sense, and things that do in your experience of the healthcare system. The work of creating a medical community that represents its patient population happens when we share our stories
Jaclyn Piudik I am honoured to announce the publication of Seduc tion: Out of Eden, co-authored with Janet R. Kirchheimer and published by Kelsay Books. The collection is a modern re-imagining of the Bibli cal book of Genesis from creation through the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Print copies and ebooks can be purchased from amazon.ca or from edencollections/all/seduction-out-of-kelsaybooks.com/.
Job & AssistantOpportunitiesVolunteerProfessor in PoetrySchool of Creative Writing - UBC
The UBC School of Creative Writing invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in Poetry at the rank of Assistant Professor to be gin July 1, 2023. The successful can didate will be a recognized poet. We are particularly interested in writers from underrepresented and/or racialized communities. The successful candidate will be expected to teach 4 courses in poetry, to contribute to mentoring undergraduate and grad uate students, to maintain an active program of creative activity, and to take on some administrative service. Review of applications will begin Oc tober 15, 2022 and will continue until the position is filled. Find out more.
Saskatoon Public Library - Writer in Residence acts as a mentor to writers in the community, reviewing manuscripts and providing criticism and advice about pub lishing. The Writer offers individu
Bywords.ca Current and former Ot tawa residents, students and work ers are invited to send their unpub lished poetry to Bywords.ca for our monthly poetry magazine. We pay an honorarium. Published poems are considered for the John New love Poetry Award. No set deadline. Find out more.
For books published December 2021 - November 2022 Awards:
2023 Alberta Literary Awards Call for Jurors The Writers’ Guild of Al berta is calling all avid readers, writ ers, teachers, students, or people who just straight up love literature to join our awards jury this season. This is an opportunity to be “in the room” when the 2023 finalists and winners are chosen. Every year the WGA presents awards in ten cat egories, plus the city book prizes, and we could not do this without the hard work and deliberation of our juries. You would make a great juror if you: Are fair and judicious, Love to read, Work well with others, Like free books. Deadline is Octo ber 28, 2022. Learn more.
Awards and Contests
Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry from Royal City Arts and Literary Society, judged by Evelyn Lau. For books published between January - December 2021. Deadline is October 1, 2022. Find out more.
LCP Book Award submissions are now open!
The Fiddlehead A poetry submis sion may be single-spaced. Please submit no more than 6 poems per submission, and no more than 12 pages total. No more than one poem on a page. If a poem runs more than one page, please put the poem’s ti tle in the headers of the additional page(s) and make sure the pages are numbered. The Fiddlehead pre fers to accept several poems by the same author; please do not limit your submission to a single poem. Deadline is November 30, 2022. Find out more.
–Gerald Lampert Memorial Award (for debut books of poetry) –Pat Lowther Memorial Award (for books of poetry by wom en)
Stewart, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Mick Taylor). Deadline: October 31st, 2022 Find out more
–Raymond Souster Award (for new poetry books by active League Deadline:members)November 20, 2022. Connect with your publisher or sub mit your own work. Review eligibili ty guidelines and learn more.
Prairie Fire McNally Robinson Booksellers Poetry Award Al though our deadline is November 30 (postmarked, if mailed), you may submit anytime. By entering our contests you have a chance to win: Cash prize, An invitation to THIN AIR either in-person or virtually (produced by the Winnipeg Inter national Writers Festival, subject to festival funding), Publication in Prai rie Fire‘s summer issue, With your contest submission you’ll receive a one-year subscription to Prairie Fire, so if would like to start reading Prai rie Fire as soon as possible, you can send in your entry today! Entries by email are accepted. Please email submission to prfire@prairiefire.ca and pay via PayPal or by phoning in a credit card immediately before or after submitting your entry. Info on payment below. Entry Fee: $32 Entries by email are accepted. Priz es are awarded in each of the three categories and winning entries are published in Prairie Fire: 1st prize $750, 2nd prize $350, 3rd prize $150. Deadline is November 30, 2022. Find out more.
Diaspora Dialogues Long Form Mentorship – National Diaspora Di alogues invites submissions from emerging writers who current ly have a full or near-full draft of a manuscript. Diaspora Dialogues is committed to supporting a litera ture that is as diverse as Canada it
al consultations, group workshops and programs, author readings and participates in other special events during their residency. In addition to providing exchanges between the author and the community, the Writer in Residence program en ables the author to work on their own writing projects. This residen cy requires working collaboratively with the public through individual consultations, school visits, group workshops and public lectures or seminars. Deadline to apply is No vember 18, 2022. Learn more.
In Memoriam
He also enjoyed a distinguished ca reer as an English professor, teach ing at institutions including West ern University and the Banff Centre. In 2020, Dragland was appointed to the Order of Canada.
self. Writers are encouraged to keep this mandate in mind, but address ing this theme directly is not essen tial in the submission. The deadline to apply is October 31, 2022. Learn more.
1942 – 2022
Hey Queers! Looking for a safe and inclusive space in which to share and discuss your poetry? Come on down to this virtual experience for 2SLGBTQIA+ poets — and for word scribblers who might not be com fortable calling themselves “poets” just yet but most certainly are! No formal workshop or poetry experi ence necessary, just a desire to get feedback on your work and share your thoughts on the work of others. Participants will be asked to share a piece of writing (one page max, ei ther one poem or multiple short poems) one week before the event so that the facilitator and the other participants will have the time and space to read and think about the work. Learn more.
Writer, editor and literary critic Stan Dragland is being remembered as a champion of independent publish ing whose love of Canadian letters extended well beyond the page. Dragland’s own bibliography blurred the lines between genres, and he co-founded one of Canada’s few po etry-only publishers, Brick Books, in 1975. He also served as the Ontar io-based press’s publisher, and was the founding editor of the literary magazine Brick.
Banff Centre Winter Writers Retreat 2023 The Winter Writers Re treat 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, and a small private studio, you will be surrounded by a community of artistic peers with the opportunity to attend inspiring talks, performances, and meet with guest faculty to consult on your work. Ap ply by September 21, 2022. Find out more
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 members and friends in poet ry. If there is a poet who has recently passed that you would like to pay tribute to, please visit our In Memo riam page on poets.ca. We’d like to take this chance to remember and honour Stan Dragland.
“(He) was an effortless but also re lentless mentor to so many writers. And in his criticism, he took up the
writing of people with a profound dedication to reading deeply and with love.”
Among Dragland’s titles were the 1979 novel, “Peckertracks: A Chronicle;” his 2005 book of prose poems, “Stormy Weather: Foursomes;” and 2013’s multimedia examination of masculinity, “Deep Too.”
Dragland also worked with some of Canada’s top wordsmiths as the po etry editor at McClelland & Stewart in the mid-1990s.
Residency, Fellowship,Mentorship & Grant OpPoetryportunitiesConsultation and Workshop Fund The League of Canadi an Poets recognizes the incredibly generous work that poets do to sup port one another, teach new skills, offer mentorships, and elevate one another in their poetic careers. Our new Poetry Consultation and Work shop Fund is intended to provide financial support for poets who are engaged in teaching one another this year. This fund will offer finan cial support for professional poets who are offering workshops or con sultation sessions. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, apply to day!
The Alberta-born, Newfound land-based writer penned works of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and liter ary criticism, or often, some combi nation of these literary forms.
StanRememberingDragland
Labyrinth Bookstore Queer Poetry Workshop Date: Wednesday Sep tember 28, 2022 - 18h-21h (Eastern GMT-4) ONLINE (Zoom) Facilitator: Misha Solomon
Dragland died on Aug. 2 of sudden cardiac arrest in Trinity, N.L., said Alayna Munce, the current publish er of Brick Books. He was 79. Munce described Dragland as an “editor extraordinaire” whose sharp eye and magnanimous spirit will leave a lasting mark on Canada’s lit erary scene.
“I’ve spoken in the last few days to so many poets and writers who felt first seen by Stan,” Munce said by phone Monday.
