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If you weren’t there, you missed something special. And if you were (and we had a near-full house), everyone left knowing they had just experienced one of the best poetry readings Vancouver has held in a long time.

Marilyn Bowering and Eve Joseph wowed the audience with over-the-top

readings. The Q & A session that followed was just as insightful and captivating as the readings themselves.

Our Next Poetry Reading

October’s reading features none other than you. That’s right; you could be the star of the show with a recently crafted ekphrastic poem. Surprisingly, there are still some who aren’t familiar with this word. An ekphrastic poem is simply one that’s been inspired by a work of art.

The inspiration for your ekphrastic poem has been created by none other than Poets Corner’s resident photographer, Deborah DeJong. Her photographic art is compelling, thought-provoking, and a compilation of some incredibly innovative techniques. For more information on how to participate in this month’s ekphrastic poem reading, click here.

This is a must-see exhibition! Deb sold several pieces the first day of the exhibition. The entire show comes down the day of our ekphrastic reading (Wed Oct 16), so if you want to participate in October’s reading, get over to Massy Books now, select the piece that speaks loudest to you, and register right away.

A few more words about Deb…

Deborah DeJong, a photographer with a daily drawing discipline, secretly writes the
occasional poem in her spare time. A one-time elementary school teacher who has
been on a long recess, she will soon be getting back to class! Attending Poets
Corner, a monthly gathering held here at Massy Books, satisfies DeJong’s artistic
urges on two levels: the poetic, and the photographic. Having had her images
featured in numerous multi-artist shows over the past several years, Cover Story is
DeJong’s first solo show.

And here’s Deb’s Artist Statement…

See you on Wed October 16 at 7pm at Massy Books.  There is no Open Mic that evening since you could be the featured reader! But you need to register by the deadline if you want to be included in the lineup.

Note:  No Reading in August!

We had such a fabulous repertoire of voices at our last Poets Corner reading in July. Kerry Gilbert, Clea Roberts and Renée Saklikar proved how disparate yet compelling poetic voices can be.

Thank you to all three fine poets, and a special thank you to Clea and Kerry who had travelled from Whitehorse and Vernon respectively to be with us.

Our Next Poetry Reading

Don’t forget, we traditionally take the month of August off so there won’t be a reading this month. However, next month is a blockbuster.  Arguably two of Victoria’s top poets will be reading for us in September and one of them is the most recent prizewinner of the Griffin Poetry Prize, Canada’s most highly regarded poetry award.

Marilyn Bowering is a poet and novelist who lives in Victoria, BC. Her most recent works are Threshold (poetry): an encounter with the 17^th c. Hebridean bard Mary MacLeod; What It Takes To Be Human (novel); and the libretto for Marilyn Forever (Gavin Bryars, composer.) She has been short-listed for the world-wide Orange Prize, long-listed for the Dublin Impac Award, twice short-listed for the Governor-General’s Prize for poetry, and received the Dorothy Livesay, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Ethel Wilson and Pat Lowther Prizes as well as several National Magazine awards. Her new book is What is Long Past Occurs in Full Light (MotherTongue).   www.marilynbowering.com

Eve Joseph’s first two books of poetry The Startled Heart (Oolichan, 2004) and The Secret Signature of Things (Brick, 2010) were both nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Award. Her nonfiction book In the Slender Margin was published by HarperCollins in 2014 and won the Hubert Evans award for nonfiction. Her most recent book of poetry Quarrels (Anvil, 2018) was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Award and won the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize.

See you on Wed September 18 at 7pm at Massy Books.  And remember there is no reading in August.