Board of Directors President: James Felton Vice-president: Manolis Aligizakis Treasurer: Candice James Secretary: Antonia Levi Director at Large: Aidan Chafe Director at Large: Dominic DiCarlo Director at Large: Alan Girling Director at Large: Janet Kvammen RCLAS Board Advisors: Renee Sarojini Saklikar; Sylvia Taylor RCLAS Event Coordinator: Sonya Furst-Yuen RCLAS Board Assistant: Deborah L. Kelly
“Wordplay At Work” RCLAS Mission Statement: The purpose of The Royal City Literary Society is to increase and broaden the understanding and knowledge of written and spoken word as art forms; to provide readings, features, performances, open-mics, workshops and critiquing opportunities for literary artists; to provide support for touring and presentations in the schools; to stimulate, encourage and facilitate the development of written and spoken word arts and activities; and to encourage both emerging and established writers in all genres.
RCLAS Board of Directors President: James Felton. Vice-President: Manolis Aligizakis. Treasurer: Candice James. Secretary: Antonia Levi. Directors at Large: Janet Kvammen, Aidan Chafe, Alan Girling, Dominic DiCarlo. Board Advisors: Sylvia Taylor & Renee Saklikar. Event Coordinator: Sonya Furst- Yuen. Board Assistant: Deborah L. Kelly RCLAS Member Benefits: Website member listing Workshops: members free or discounted Contests: member discount – 50% Event Discounts E-Zine (10 issues a year) Event Listings Event assistance Member ‘Schmooze Nights’ and social networking A place in a strong, buoyant community of writers Website www.rclas.com Find us on Facebook/ Follow us on Twitter rclas_com
Thank you to this year’s judge, George McWhirter!
George McWhirter is a Northern Irish-Canadian writer, translator, editor, teacher and in March 2007, he was named Vancouver’s inaugural Poet Laureate for a two-year term.
In 1957 he began a “combined scholarship” studying English and Spanish at Queen’s University, Belfast, and education at Stranmillis College, Belfast. After graduating, McWhirter taught in Kilkeel and Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, and in Barcelona, Spain, before moving to Port Alberni, B.C. Canada. After receiving his M.A. from the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he studied under Michael Bullock and J. Michael Yates, he stayed on to become a Full Professor in 1982 and Head of the Creative Writing Department from 1983 to 1993. At UBC, he was awarded a Killam Prize for Teaching in 1998, and the first Killam Prize for Mentoring at UBC in 2004, then in 2005, the Sam Black Prize for service to the Creative & Performing Arts. He retired as a Professor Emeritus in 2005 and in the same year he was given a Life Membership Award by the League of Canadian Poets and is also a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada and PEN International. He was associated with PRISM international magazine from 1968 to 2005. From 2007 until 2009, he served as Vancouver’s Inaugural Poet Laureate. George McWhirter is the 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 with Chinua Achebe’s Beware, Soul Brother. His latest book of poetry is The Anachronicles, A Time of Angels by Homero Aridjis, his latest volume of poetry in translation, and The Gift of Women, which appeared in November 2014, his current collection of short stories.
We are pleased to announce our 2015 AGM Keynote Speaker will be‌ (drum roll, please) Kevin Spenst!!! Kevin Spenst is the author of Jabbering with Bing Bong (Anvil Press) and ten chapbooks including the collaboratively written Pocket Museum (with Raoul Fernandes), Finnegans Wake versus Pro Wrestling Harper (with artwork from Owen Plummer), and Surrey Sonnets (JackPine Press). His work has won the Lush Triumphant Award for Poetry and has appeared in dozens of publications including Prairie Fire, BafterC, Lemon Hound, Poetry is Dead, and the anthology Best Canadian Poetry 2014. A second collection of poetry, Ignite, is forthcoming with Anvil Press in 2016.
RCLAS WRITER OF THE MONTH
Alan Girling
Alan Girling is a sometime poet and full time teacher who grew up in North Vancouver, lived in Tokyo for six years where he started a family, and now lives in the community of Burkeville, Richmond. Once, he wrote primarily short fiction and memoir, but over time that evolved into poetry as more and more often he came to see the stories he wrote as essentially poems waiting to reveal themselves. Since then, he has tried his best to explore the language of poetry in all its forms and to share his discoveries where he can. His work, for instance, has been found in journals and anthologies, heard on the radio and at live readings, and even viewed in shop windows. These opportunities include Lichen Arts and Letters, Pagitica, Hobart, The MacGuffin, Smokelong Quarterly, FreeFall, Galleon, In My Bed, Body Breakdowns, Blue Skies, Black Heart, Canadian Stories, CBC Radio, World Poetry Café, Poetic Justice, Surrey Muse and the downtown streets of Hamilton, Ontario and New Westminster, B.C. His chapbook, To Talk Less, is also available to anyone who asks. He was a 2003 Larry Turner Award for nonfiction finalist, and his play, ‘Whatever Happened to Tom Dudkowski’ was produced in 2007 for Vancouver's Walking Fish Festival. He is happy to have won two prizes for his poetry, the 2006 Vancouver Co-op Radio Community Dreams Contest and the 2015 Royal City Literary Arts Society Write On! Contest. Currently, he sits on the board of the Royal City Literary Arts Society where he hopes to be able to recognize and promote the best work of others.
I Love to Watch You Jack, Resurrection, Middle-Essence, Black Gaia all previously published in Royal City Poets Anthology 2013 (Silver Bow Publishing)
The Hungry Heart and Winter Harvest previously published in Royal City Poets Anthology 2012 (Silver Bow Publishing)
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POETIC JUSTICE --- NOVEMBER 2015 Calendar and Bios at www.poeticjustice.ca HERITAGE GRILL, BACK ROOM 447 Columbia St, New Westminster, near the Columbia SkyTrain Station Co-Coordinators—Franci Louann flouann@telus.net & James Felton jamesfelton52@gmail.com Media Manager/Photographer—Janet Kvammen janetkvammen@rclas.com Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/poeticjusticenewwest/
November 1 Sunday 3 – 5 pm Poetic Justice featuring ALAN GIRLING & KYLE MCKILLOP
Host: Franci Louann
November 8 Sunday 3 – 5 pm Poetic Justice featuring RAOUL FERNANDES & EVA WALDAUF
Host: Deborah L. Kelly
November 15 Sunday 3 – 5 pm Poetic Justice featuring PHINDER DULAI & LILIJA VALIS
Host: Kyle McKillop
November 22 Sunday 3 – 5 pm Poetic Justice featuring TREVOR CAROLAN & Literary Storefront: The Glory Years Celebration
Host: James Felton
November 29 Sunday 3 – 5 pm Poetic Justice featuring KYLE HAWKE & CANDICE JAMES
Host: Alan Girling
December 6 Sunday 3 – 5 pm Poetic Justice featuring ALAN HILL & DEBORAH KELLY
Host: James Felton
November 16, 2015
Diverse/City Call for Submissions LitFest New Westminster has partnered with the Community Art Space at Anvil Centre to present visual and written work as part of the LitFest programming in 2016. The exhibition will take place April 4 - June 3, 2016 at Anvil Centre and will also host a series of readings. 15 local visual artists will respond to 15 texts by local writers. The exhibition will reflect on themes of diversity, inclusiveness and social dialogue as part of the LitFest overarching programming. The artists and writers will be selected by an open call. Each artist will be paired up with a writer to create work that is inspired by a written piece.
Visual Artist Call Artists living or working in New Westminster are invited to submit examples of past work that speak to the themes of diversity, inclusiveness and social dialogue. Artists will be notified of the results and paired up with a writer in late November, 2015. Once selected, the artists will work to create a visual response to the written piece they are paired up with the pairings exhibited at the Community Art Space on April 4 - June 3, 2016. Please submit by email:
Name and current address and phone number Up to 3 jpgs of past work Current CV
Writers Call Writers living or working in New Westminster are invited to submit written work that speaks to the themes of diversity, inclusiveness and social dialogue. Once selected, each writer will be paired up with an artist who will respond to their written piece. The pairings will be exhibited at the Community Art Space on April 4 - June 3, 2016.
Please submit by email:
Name and current address and phone number 1 written work, up to 20 lines or maximum 200 words Current CV
Deadline for both calls: Wednesday, November 16, 2015 Please note that artists and writers can apply for both categories but may be selected for only one. Please email submissions to: Biliana Velkova, Arts Coordinator bvelkova@newwestcity.ca For more information please contact: Biliana Velkova, Arts Coordinator T 604.515.3822 C 778 773 1863 bvelkova@newwestcity.ca Anvil Centre 777 Columbia Street New Westminster, BC V3M 1B6
Capilano View Cemetery Tour Š Joyce Goodwin
With two friends reluctantly in tow I went on a tour of Capilano View cemetery in West Vancouver. Here the dead are not forgotten, their memory lives on. Once they were like you and me, with dreams and hopes, plans and ambitions, and they led full lives. They came to the North Shore from other lands, other towns, from many different backgrounds, to build a community. They did business deals, laughed and cried, enjoyed triumphs and endured tragedy. Some died too young, others became pillars of society, like Mahon, and Lawson. Some came from families who had settled back east in the eighteenth century and whose lives were interrupted by a Yankee revolution. Many came out west to seek a future for themselves and their families, becoming landowners, buying land as far away as Long Beach on Vancouver Island. Others later became cash poor, and were obliged to surrender their land, giving up their stake. In this cemetery graves are carefully tended, inscriptions show the symbols of the Mason’s measure and compass, the wings of the flyers (RCAF), wars remembered, the crescent and moon, thistles, flowers, mountain views. In this graveyard, monuments are small flat slabs inscribed with many names. It is those names that evoke the spirit of a lost community, of explorers, risk takers and pioneers, real people. The graves are those of people who lived and loved within a community. Of people who developed land, built roads, fought for our freedom, came before us, left before us but are not forgotten. On the tour, we were reminded, of how this North Shore community we call home evolved, how names inscribed in stone recall human beings, who once breathed in the mountain air as we do, who loved the beauty of this place as we do and called it home as we do. For us, this was more than a history lesson, it was also an acknowledgement of the debt we owe to those who have left us and moved on, who are not forgotten, and hopefully rest in peace in this West Vancouver graveyard.
Previously published in the West Vancouver Historical Society newsletter.
Ken Moir © Joyce Goodwin
Some years back I sat beside an elderly man and listened to his story. His name was Ken. During WW II, Ken and his platoon fought their way from Algeria in North Africa up through Italy to Amsterdam where his war ended. “I was with the Canadian army, he said.” Ken joined the signal corps at 21years old. He had to memorize the codes, he was not allowed to write them down in case he was captured. With his platoon, Ken travelled by ship across the Atlantic to Scotland then down to North Africa. He was the only one who was not seasick. One time a convoy was blown up and, “the remains of our boys rained down on us like confetti or autumn leaves. They were blown to oblivion, there was nothing left. They evaporated and disappeared. They were gone”. It took his platoon a year and a half to move through Italy in the cold winter of 1943/44. They had “diversions here and there”. Ken was in the infantry. “A foot soldier,” he said. He learned Italian and spoke it to Italians and Germans alike! He arrived in Ortona a few days late for the big battle. He had been in a Canadian hospital in Italy at the time, manned by Americans. “It was very good.” He was diverted to Casino at one point “to help the Americans.” Then they were sent back up along the Adriatic. The Americans had Rome “all sewn up.” It was an “open” city. He wanted to see the Vatican but at the time there were issues about too many Germans escaping. He remained on duty. He never got to see the Vatican though he did get to see a movie starring June Alison and Olivia de Havilland. The Allies let a lot of prisoners go; shook hands and told them they might end up back in Canada before they did. Other times his platoon let soldiers go home to Germany; they blamed the officers not the men. Once he spotted a German paratrooper, dressed like a hiker, getting water from the same house as the Canadians. “He was so big he would eat you for breakfast. Anyway…” Ken managed to phone ahead to sentries on the road warning them about this hiker who happened to have a knife in his sock. They disarmed him and sent him to Alberta.
When they arrived in Amsterdam, the Canadians held a prearranged meeting that resulted in the German surrender. There was no street by street fighting. Amsterdam was liberated by the Seaforth Highlanders. The Canadians got the street cars going near their headquarters and electricity for three hours in the morning and three in the afternoon. They played bagpipes on the street near their HQ and slowly people came out to listen. “It was a great morale booster. The people were starving.” He watched the city come back to life. Eight hundred men remained in Amsterdam, Ken amongst them, while the rest of the army fought on into Germany. Before being sent home, he cycled with a girl through the city to visit someone, but they got lost. “All the signs were in Dutch!” Finally he went home. “Two thirds of our platoon came back, that was good.” They took the Princess Astrid ship from Holland to England, then went on to Halifax and then took the train to Vancouver. CPR luxury class, he said, with two little guys on the bottom bunk and one big guy on the top bunk! In Vancouver, they marched through the city and across Burrard street bridge to the Armoury. There they were demobilized. Someone in the crowd commented that the soldiers did not look too happy being home. “We left a lot of friends in Italy and some of their families are here today,” he had replied. He was only 25 years old then. In 1949, he went back to Amsterdam and “all the lights were on”. Ken later became a bank manager and worked in the Yukon. He particularly remembered a silver heist in lunch boxes. He laughed at the memory of Americans coming north who could not believe that the Alaska Highway was a gravel road and not paved! He met and married his English wife in Canada after the war. Ken wrote down many of his experiences. “Perhaps when I die someone will want to read my story,” he said. Ken died and this is a small part of his story. Lest we forget.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- copyright Joyce Goodwin
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 December /January Themes: Christmas, Winter Solstice , Peace and New Beginnings. Deadlines Nov 11/Dec 5 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.
RCLAS Event Coordinator: Sonya Furst-Yuen sonya.yuen@rclas.com
SAVE THE DATES Saturday NOV 21, 2015 RCLAS Fred Cogswell Poetry Awards at the Anvil Centre, Room #413 777 Columbia Street, New Westminster 1 – 3:30 PM Saturday Afternoon DEC 5, 2015 RCLAS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING featuring Keynote Speaker Kevin Spenst & CHRISTMAS PARTY, 1:00 – 5 PM (Check www.rclas.com & poster for more details) New Westminster Public Library, Main Branch, 716 - 6th Avenue, Basement Auditorium
Thank you to our Sponsors
Arts Council of New Westminster
Judy Darcy
The Heritage Grill
New Westminster Public Library
City of New Westminster
Renaissance Books
100 Braid Street Studios
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.” ― Laurence Binyon
See upcoming events at www.rclas.com www.poeticjustice.ca Facebook
November 2015
Wordplay at work ISSN 2291- 4269 Contact: janetkvammen@rclas.com RCLAS Director/ E-zine Design