Poets Corner Reading Series

SOCIETY MEMBERS


The society bringing you Poets Corner:

 

 

 

Jillian Maguire is a teacher, a musician and a poetry enthusiast.  She is excited to be part of the burgeoning poetry scene in Vancouver and looks forward to helping poets find their audience.  Gatherings that celebrate the spoken and written word are a powerful tool in the building and maintenance of democracy and Poets Corner will do its best to ensure that these gatherings continue to grow and flourish. Jillian is the President of Poets Corner Reading Series Society.

 

 

Kim Trainor is the granddaughter of an Irish banjo player and a Polish faller who worked in the logging camps around Port Alberni in the 1930s. Her second book, Ledi, finalist for the 2019 Raymond Souster Award, describes the excavation of an Iron Age horsewoman’s grave in the steppes of Siberia. Her next book is A thin fire runs through me (Icehouse Press, Spring 2023). Her poetry has won the Gustafson Prize, the Malahat Review Long Poem Prize, and the Great Blue Heron Prize. New projects include collaborating with artist Amy Huestis on an artist/scientist installation called walk quietly: ts’ekw’unshun kwsss qututhun (walk quietly with respect and care along the shore) at Brunswick Point in Ladner. She teaches in the English Department at Douglas College and lives in Vancouver, unceded homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Kim is the webmaster and Vice President of Poets Corner Reading Series Society.

 

Evelyn Schofield is retired and recently moved to Victoria after living in greater Vancouver for 45 years. She long ago discovered that literature was a way to explore the world and her studies in Linguistics at the University of Toronto back in the 70’s nurtured her fascination with the power and subtlety of language. She writes poetry, essays and songs, and killer meeting minutes.  For the past couple of years she has been helping out with administrative tasks, and often does the write-ups of our monthly readings. Evelyn is Secretary-Treasurer of Poets Corner Reading Series Society.

 

 

James Gifford is Director-at-Large of Poets Corner Reading Series Society. He is Professor of Humanities at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the Director of FDU Press. He is the author and editor of several books, including Personal Modernisms (2014) and A Modernist Fantasy (2018), the latter of which won the 2020 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award. He is also a descendant and editor of the nineteenth century Canadian poet Edward Taylor Fletcher. He lives in Surrey on unceded traditional and ancestral lands of the Kwantlen, Katzie, and Kwikwetlem peoples. James is a frequent host of Poets Corner and member at large of Poets Corner Reading Series Society.

 

 

Emily Chou (rhymes with “wow”) does a little bit of everything in all sorts of places. Here at the Poet’s Corner Reading Series Society she is the Social Media Assistant. She has lived in the UK, Japan, and Italy, but currently finds herself back home on the unceded and ancestral territory of the the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. You can find her work in Room, Chinatown Today, Vallum, Sad Mag, In/Words, and Geist. When she’s not working on her MFA at UBC she can be found fostering dogs, collecting vintage anime memorabilia, or dreaming of her next big adventure. Emily is Poets Corner’s Social Media Coordinator and organizes our One Minute Poems.

 

Wendy Goldsmith is a writer and content strategist. She specialises in helping people share their stories through social media, blogs and newsletters so they can build and support strong online communities. She starts every morning by pulling a tarot card, and scribbling furiously in her journal until it’s time to make lunches and find everyone’s socks for school. Find her out walking in New Westminster BC or online at www.thecuriousmessage.com. Wendy is Poets Corner’s publicist.

 

Kevin Spenst is the author of Ignite, Jabbering with Bing Bong, and Hearts Amok: a Memoir in Verse (all with Anvil Press), and over a dozen chapbooks including Surrey Sonnets (JackPine Press), Upend (Frog Hollow Press) and a holm with the Alfred Gustav Press coming out in 2023. He writes a chapbook column in subTerrain magazine and is an occasional co-host with RC Weslowski on Wax Poetic on Co-op Radio. He lives in Vancouver on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territory. Kevin is a member at large of Poets Corner Reading Series Society.

 

 

Jennifer Zilm is a librarian and poet. She is the author of Waiting Room (Book*hug, 2016), which was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovated Poetry, and The Missing Field (Guernica, 2018)—and research published in Prayer and Poetry in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Brill, 2011). Her most recent book, First Time Listener, is available from Guernica Editions. She comes from a long line of charismatic hillbillies, snake handlers and auto-didact librarians. Jennifer is the fact checker at Poets Corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

President + Newsletter Editor: Jillian Maguire
Vice President + Webmaster: Kim Trainor
Secretary-Treasurer: Evelyn Schofield
Director-at-Large: James Gifford
Member-at-Large: Kevin Spenst
Social Media Coordinator: Emily Chou
Fact Checker: Jennifer Zilm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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