February 2022 RCLAS Ezine Wordplay at Work, Issue 89

RCLAS Announcements RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition Feature Author P.W. Bridgman Date: Thurs February 24, 2022 Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic for short stories. Space is limited.

FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT. Everyone Welcome.

P.W. Bridgman’s third and fourth books—Idiolect (poetry)and The Four-Faced Liar (short fiction)—were published in 2021 by Ekstasis Editions. They were preceded by A Lamb in 2018 (poetry, from Ekstasis) and Standing at an Angle to My Age in 2013 (short fiction, from Libros Libertad). Bridgman’s writing has appeared in, among other outlets, The Maynard, The Antigonish Review,Grain, The Moth Magazine, The Glasgow Review of Books, The Honest Ulsterman, The Galway Review, LitroUK, LitroNY, and The High Window.

Writing Workshop: RCLAS presents Walking Backwards into A Poem with facilitator Elee Kraljii Gardiner Date: Saturday Feb 19, 2022 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm Pacific Time Zoom room will open early at 12:45 PM Pacific Time Register by email to secretary@rclas.com Workshop Fee: RCLAS Members FREE Non-Members $15 Payment by PayPal https://rclas.com/workshops/ Registrants will be emailed the zoom link In this generative one hour-session Elee Kraljii Gardiner will lead participants through the creation of two new poems. We will look at antonyms, defiance, resistance and the emphatic “No!" as entrances into a poem that may, on its own terms, arrive at a place of positivity.

Elee Kraljii Gardiner is the author of two poetry books, Trauma Head and serpentine loop, and has edited two acclaimed anthologies Against Death: 35 Essays on Living and V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Her writing has won or been shortlisted for the Cogswell Poetry Award, Eric Hoffer Grand Prize, Montaigne Medal, bpNichol Chapbook Award, Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, Souster Award, Far Horizons Poetry Award, City of Vancouver Book Award, Lina Chartrand Award for Social Justice in Poetry and Pandora's Box BC Mentor Award. Elee is the founding director of Thursdays Writing Collective, which supported emerging writers from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Originally from Boston, Elee now lives in Vancouver on the traditional and unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Peoples where she directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive. eleekg.com

Poetic Justice Online Edition with Host Carol Johnson Date: Sunday March 13, 2022 Time: 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm (Pacific Time) Featuring: Kyle Hawke Susan McCaslin Open Mic sign up starts at 2:50pm Find more info on Poetic Justice Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/poeticjusticepnw To receive the ZOOM link contact secretary@rclas.com

Feature Bios:

Susan McCaslin is a BC poet residing outside Fort Langley, BC who has published sixteen volumes of poetry, including her most recent, Heart Work (Ekstasis Editions, 2020). A chapbook, Cosmic Egg, came out through the Alfred Gustav Press in 2021. Since retiring from teaching English and Creative Writing at Douglas College in 2007, Susan has been receiving and crafting poems, giving poetry readings, offering poetry workshops, mentoring younger writers, editing an anthology on birds, doing occasional reviews, and editing a volume of the posthumous poems of E.D. Blodgett. When not writing, reading, dreaming, or being with family, Susan can be found practicing yoga or walking with her dog Rosie along the Fraser River, better known to the Kwantlen First Nations as the Stó:lō. Susan initiated the Han Shan Poetry Project in 2012, which helped save an endangered forest in Glen Valley near her home. https://susanmccaslin.weebly.com/ Kyle Hawke has been performing spoken word since the 1990s. He’s been active with various literary non-profit groups and founded the Voice on Canvas and Bohemian Caress interdisciplinary performance series.

Themes of identity, universality, and the moment figure significantly in Kyle’s work. Working in juxtaposition with other artforms has always fascinated him, leading to many ekphrastic poems and many performances with painters and musicians. He feels that having multiple voices speak to a theme or comment on each other adds focus on what is universal, adding new context to each voice.

Kyle’s first collection of poetry in book form, whispers of humanity, juxtaposes his work with the art of Wade Edwards. He lives in Vancouver, BC.

RCLAS presents In Their Words Online Edition with host Ruth Kozak Date: Thursday March 17, 2022 Time: 7:00pm Pacific Time Three Feature Presenters: Karen Schauber presents Lorette C. Luzajic (Flash Fiction Writer, Poet, Mixed Media Artist) Janice McIntyre Martin presents Anne Sexton (Contemporary American poet (1928-1974)) Jerena Tobiasen presents Frank McCourt (Pulitzer Prize winning Irish-American author of Angela’s Ashes) Zoom room opens at 06:50 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada).

To receive ZOOM link RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com You can also contact Ruth Kozak via Facebook.

Writing Workshop: RCLAS presents Beyond place: enhanced meaning through setting with facilitator Crystal Hunt Date: Saturday March 19, 2022 Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm Pacific Time Zoom room will open early at 12:45 PM Pacific Time Register by email to secretary@rclas.com Workshop Fee: RCLAS Members FREE Non-Members $15 Payment by PayPal https://rclas.com/workshops/ Registrants will be emailed the zoom link Setting is more than just where your story takes place. You can use it to boost conflict, highlight character attributes and add deeper layers of meaning to your work. In this workshop we’ll dig into some common ways setting is underutilized, and where setting interacts with: • • •

your characters' thoughts and beliefs, the society your characters are part of, and the elements of your story including tone, plot and theme.

If you’d like to think about setting in a whole new way, and sharpen the tools in your writerly toolbox then come join us for this interactive workshop and challenge your preconceptions.

Crystal Hunt is the author of 40+ books for readers of all ages including several titles on writing and publishing in The Creative Academy Guides for Writers series.

She also writes contemporary romance as CJ Hunt, cozy mystery as Jean Hunt, and children’s books as Crystal Stranaghan. Whatever pen name she’s using, Crystal loves to share her love of words with other writers, and is a co-founder of The Creative Academy for Writers. You can learn more about her various projects and pen names at CrystalHuntAuthor.com

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition Feature Author Rachel Rose Date: Thurs March 24, 2022 Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic for short stories. Space is limited.

FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT. Everyone Welcome.

Rachel Rose’s fiction debut, The Octopus Has Three Hearts, was published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2021, and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She is the author of four collections of poetry, including Marry & Burn, which received a 2016 Pushcart Prize, and was a finalist for a Governor General’s Award. Her memoir, The Dog Lover Unit: Lessons in Courage from the World’s K9 Cops, was shortlisted for the 2018 Arthur Ellis award for best non-fiction crime book. A former fellow at The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, she was Poet Laureate of Vancouver from 2014-2017.

Save the Dates Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition Thurs April 28 6pm - Feature Author Carleigh Baker Thurs May 26 6pm - Feature Author Shashi Bhat