RCLAS Dec 2015 E-Zine, Wordplay at Work

More on the AGM & Christmas Party in our January 2016 issue.

What do we love more than a parade?

An Award Show, of course!

The first was last year. The second is behind us. We are now creating a tradition.

And next year it is our hope the 2nd Annual Fred Cogswell Award Show for Excellence in Poetry will become the third of many more.

On Saturday November 21 at the new Anvil Centre, three deserving poets were honoured by this year’s Keynote Speaker and Adjudicator, George McWhirter, the affable Northern Irishmen who was Vancouver’s inaugural Poet Laureate.

Candice James, New Westminster’s very own Poet Laureate and Founding Member of RCLAS, introduced George. Both Candice (who owes a debt of gratitude to Fred Cogswell for shaping her own writing career) and George reminisced about their involvement with Fred. McWhirter described him as a triple threat: a poet, a teacher, and a tireless promoter of young poets across Canada.

Also at the podium was Kathleen Forsythe, Fred’s daughter, who regaled us all with the tale of how she gingerly handled a three-ton rental truck from New Brunswick to New Westminster, accompanied by her then elderly father and his library of over 10,000 books.

George McWhirter then introduced this year’s three winners, who along with their deserved accolades, each earned a medal and a cheque. Third place and $100 went to Bruce Meyer for his The Seasons (The Porcupine’s Quill). Second place and $250 was awarded to Jane Munro for her Blue Sonoma (Brick Books). This year’s firstprize winner and the recipient of $500 was Cara-Lyn Morgan for her first booklength collection, What Became My Grieving Ceremony (Thistledown Press). Her proud mother, Terry Kerr, accepted the award on Cara-Lyn’s behalf.

James Felton, RCLAS’ new President, also recognized two business owners in particular for their generosity and support by being host venues to various RCLAS programmes. Susan Greig, owner of 100 Braid Street Studios, along with Paul Minhas, proprietor of the Heritage Grill, were presented with Recognition Certificates.

In a touching tribute, RCLAS Director Janet Kvammen made a special presentation to a long-standing but seriously ill RCLAS member, Max Tell. The host and facilitator of RCLAS’ Writing for Kidz was honoured with a framed photo and a medallion. Accepting the award on his behalf was Max’s wife, Estelle.

As is our poetic tradition, an Open Mic followed with readings from the audience. Our RCLAS President then wrapped up the afternoon’s award show with a sincere thank you to two talented musicians, Enrico Renz and Lawren Nemeth who provided beautiful acoustic guitar music during the show. Acknowledgements were also extended to RCLAS’ resident videographer, Ken Ader and to all the hard-working RCLAS Board Members who contributed to making the second (of many more) Fred Cogswell Award Show the success it was. See you at next year’s show!

~ James Felton, RCLAS President

George McWhirter, Candice James, James Felton, Kathleen Forsythe

2nd Annual Fred Cogswell Award For Excellence In Poetry

Video Playlist HERE

Fred Cogswell The Royal City Literary Arts Society proudly presents the Second Annual Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry Event. Named after one of Canada’s literary giants, the Award Show honours poetic excellence in the same way Fred Cogswell did through his iconic press, Fiddlehead Poetry Books, and the still-running literary magazine he founded, The Fiddlehead.

The Winners Circle CARA-LYN MORGAN What Became My Grieving Ceremony (Thistledown Press) 1st Place Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry 2015 Cara-Lyn Morgan was born in the thick of winter on the Saskatchewan prairie. A seventh-generation Métis on her mother’s side, and a firstgeneration Canadian on her Trinidadian-born father’s side, her work often explores the parallels of colonialism existing between these distinct cultures.

She graduated from the University of Victoria’s Creative Writing Programme, and currently lives in the Toronto area. What Became My Grieving Ceremony is her first book-length collection and was released by Thistledown Press in 2014.

JANE MUNRO Blue Sonoma (Brick Books) 2nd Place Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry 2015 Jane Munro is the author of five previous books of poetry. Her work has received the Bliss Carman Poetry Award and the Macmillan Prize for Poetry, and was nominated for the Pat Lowther Award. She is a member of Yoko’s Dogs, a poetry collective whose first book, Whisk, appeared in 2013. She lives in Vancouver. Blue Sonoma is her sixth poetry collection and it won the 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize.

BRUCE MEYER The Seasons (The Porcupine’s Quill) 3rd Place Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry 2015 Bruce Meyer is author of 47 books of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, literary journalism, and pedagogy. He is the 2015 winner for Best Single Poem in the Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Competition. Among his most recent books are A Chronicle of Magpies (stories), The Arrow of Time, Testing the Elements, and The Seasons. His work was also short-listed for the 2015 Montreal International Poetry Prize. He was the inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Barrie. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Georgian College and Visiting Professor at Victoria College, U. of Toronto. Bruce lives in Barrie, ON.

Fred Cogswell, born in East Centerville, New Brunswick, was a prolific poet, translator, editor and scholar and was dubbed “a Friend of Poets – Amis des Poètes” for his lifelong commitment to poetry and those who write it. He was the author of 33 books of his own poetry and nine books of poetry translation. He also wrote and published many learned articles and reviews. His poetry was published in magazines, journals, anthologies, and textbooks and has been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Romanian, Spanish, and French.

In 1958 he founded Fiddlehead Poetry Books, where he published 307 titles. His publishing house is now one of Canada's more important small press publishers, operating as Goose Lane Editions. In addition, Fred Cogswell was a Founding and Life Member of the League of Canadian Poets, a Life Member of both the Association of Canadian Publishers and the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick. Dr. Cogswell was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1981. He spent his final few years in New Westminster.

George McWhirter is a Northern Irish-Canadian writer, translator, editor, and teacher and in March 2007 was appointed Vancouver’s inaugural Poet Laureate for a twoyear term. He received his MA from, and became a full professor at, UBC in 1982. He headed the Creative Writing Department from 1983 to 1993. He is a Life Member of the League of Canadian Poets; a Member of the Writers’ Union of Canada; author and editor of numerous books and the recipient of many awards. His first book of poetry, Catalan Poems, was a joint-winner of the first Commonwealth Poetry Prize, along with Chinua Achebe’s Beware, Soul Brother.

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POETIC JUSTICE --- DEC 2015/JAN 2016 Calendar and Bios at www.poeticjustice.ca NEW LOCATION ORIGINAL'S Restaurante Mexicano, 800 Carnarvon St. at New West Station (Enter from Carnarvon, just west of 8th Street, behind Old Spaghetti Factory) Co-Managers—Franci Louann flouann@telus.net & James Felton jamesfelton52@gmail.com Media Manager/Photographer—Janet Kvammen janetkvammen@rclas.com Poetic Justice: New West on Facebook and group https://www.facebook.com/groups/poeticjusticenewwest/ Twitter@poeticjusticenw

December 6 Sunday 3 – 5 pm Poetic Justice featuring AIDAN CHAFE, RUTH HILL & DEBORAH L. KELLY

Host: James Felton

December 13 Sunday 3 – 5 pm Poetic Justice featuring FRANCI LOUANN & BRANDON PITTS (Debut Feature)

Host: Renee Saklikar

December 20 Sunday 3 – 5 pm Poetic Justice featuring ANNETTE LEBOX (Debut Feature) & CASSANDRA METCALFE

Host: Candice James

Happy Holidays Poetic Poetic Justice Returns JANUARY 10, 2016 Poetic Justice featuring ROBERT MARTENS & HENDRIK SLEGTENHORST (Debut Feature)

RCLAS WRITER OF THE MONTH

Dominic DiCarlo

Dominic DiCarlo was born and raised in Montreal where he received advanced degrees (M.A. & Ph.D.) in religious studies from Concordia University after having completed a major in psychology at the University of Montreal. Dominic is a teacher by day and a musician by night – in intervals (when dreaming) he crochets words into poetry although he prefers reading while trying to avoid stepping on sleeping organisms (whether real or imaginary) in beautiful British Columbia where he makes his home in the city of Burnaby. He moved to the west coast in 1995 with his family and has been teaching philosophy and history at Coquitlam College since then. He has also taught at Concordia University, Bishop's University, and Simon Fraser University. He published his first collection of poems called The Cycles of an Inflamed Mysticism (Friesen Press, 2014). He has recently joined the RCLAS board as a Director.

Christmas 2008 Remembered © Joyce Goodwin

As everyone knows, Vancouverites panic when snow hits the streets. We love it on the mountains and boast of its beauty. When it hits the streets, we hit the panic button, hit the skids, skid into signposts and sidewalks, chaos reigns. When things return to normal, we slush about happily in the rain that inevitably follows.

Not this year. Snow keeps falling in a very inappropriate and non-West Coast way. We are freaking out, few have snow tires, and chains are out of the question. Christmas is coming and shopping cannot be done—the roads are impassable. Here on the North Shore, we have to dig out the snowplow one day because it gets stuck outside our house, for heaven’s sake. Then it leaves and never comes back. We have reverted to digging out the neighbours. The small dog has to be carried home after walks with iceballs on her feet, and we cannot let the cat out or she may suffocate in the snow. Our trees groan in a scary way. Will they topple, we wonder. This is serious.

Christmas Eve arrives and the hydro goes out at 3pm, and stays out all night, rather like a truant teenager. In a state of disbelief, we play board games by candlelight with our adult kids, huddled in front of the fire, until our eyelids drop from the effort of keeping up with them. We retire with the candles, followed by ghostly shadows. One fire downstairs burns logs all night. Upstairs a gas fire has been turned on for days, just in case it won’t restart.

Christmas morning arrives cold and powerless, the way we feel. We can’t boil the kettle or cook breakfast until someone in desperation suggests we use the barbeque. We set to work and out come the sausages, eggs and bacon; the barbeque is hauled protesting onto the driveway; champagne and orange juice set the heady tone. We toast ourselves while grinning like idiots. The dogs stare at us in disbelief. We have started a new family tradition: Christmas Day barbeque breakfast. The abandoned turkey has to wait. We are delighted with ourselves, having beaten the odds, found a way, made it happen. Despite a few false starts the hydro remains out for over twenty-four hours. We survive, we make it through.

Who says Vancouverites cannot adapt to snow?

Previously published in the Lynn Valley Literary Society Anthology "Wintertide." 2009.

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WORDPLAY AT WORK FEEDBACK & E-ZINE SUBMISSIONS

Janet Kvammen, RCLAS Director/E-zine janetkvammen@rclas.com Antonia Levi secretary@rclas.com

Open Call for Submissions - RCLAS Members Only Poems & Prose Call for Submissions on the following themes/features: January Themes: New Beginnings, Winter Solstice, Peace.

Deadline Dec 16.

February Themes: Haiku, Love, The Colour Purple.

Deadline January 6, 2016 Open Call: Poems, Short Stories, Book excerpts & Songs are welcome for submission to future issues of Wordplay at work.

Submit Word documents to janetkvammen@rclas.com Please send us your latest news, feedback on our e-zine and any ideas or suggestions that you may have.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

If you would like to participate in a single event, or make an even bigger contribution, please contact our event coordinator.

Director/Event Coordinator: Sonya Furst-Yuen sonya.yuen@rclas.com

Thank you to our Sponsors 

Arts Council of New Westminster

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Judy Darcy

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The Heritage Grill

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New Westminster Public Library

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City of New Westminster

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Renaissance Books

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100 Braid Street Studios

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Original’s Restaurante Mexicano

Winter solitude by Matsuo Basho Winter solitude in a world of one color the sound of wind.

See upcoming events at www.rclas.com www.poeticjustice.ca Facebook

December 2015

Wordplay at work ISSN 2291- 4269 Contact: janetkvammen@rclas.com RCLAS Director/ E-zine Design