[Posted on behalf of James Felton] If you read the last blog post, you would’ve been left with that ominous feeling Poets Corner may have come to a rather sad end. I felt that way, too. It looked grim, but only for a brief while. Let me be the first to announce that we are still very much alive. In fact, we are more alive than ever, and it really feels like this is the start of something new.
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Earlier, I said my hope was to find a small group of willing, caring, energized and enthusiastic people to revitalize this series and to carry its banner into the future. And I believe I’ve found just the right team. In this month’s newsletter, I’ll tell you more later about these incredible individuals who have stepped forward to save the series.
Next Poetry Reading
Resuscitating Poets Corner took some doing, but we are now ready to rock and roll. And what a way to kick off our first reading of 2020! We will have not two but three featured poets on Wednesday March 18 and two are from back east. Here’s a little more about March’s featured readers…
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Fiona Tinwei Lam’s third collection of poetry, Odes & Laments, was launched last fall. She has authored a children’s book, edited The Bright Well: Contemporary Canadian Poems on Facing Cancer, and co-edited Love Me True: Writers Reflect on the Ins, Outs, Ups & Downs of Marriage with Jane Silcott. Lam won The New Quarterly’s Nick Blatchford Prize and was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. Her work appears in more than thirty anthologies, including The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English: 10th Anniversary Edition and Forcefield: 77 Women Poets of BC. Her poetry videos have screened at festivals internationally. She teaches at SFU Continuing Studies. FionaLam.net
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Maureen Hynes’s first book of poetry, Rough Skin, won the League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poetry by a Canadian. Her 2016 collection, The Poison Colour, was shortlisted in 2016 for both the Pat Lowther and Raymond Souster Awards. Maureen’s fifth book of poetry, Sotto Voce, comes out from Brick Books in fall, 2019. Her poetry has been included in over 25 anthologies, including twice in Best Canadian Poems in English, and in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry, 2017. Maureen is the poetry editor for Our Times magazine, where she encourages submissions that reflect themes about workers’ lives, rights, insights, and social justice. MaureenHynes.com
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Allan Briesmaster has been active on the Canadian literary scene for many years as a workshop leader, readings organizer, editor, and publisher. He was a partner in Quattro Books from 2006 to 2017 and currently runs his own small literary press, Aeolus House. The author of eight full-length books and eight shorter ones, he has given readings and talks and hosted poetry events at venues across the country. The Long Bond: Selected and New Poems was published last fall by Guernica Editions. Allan is a Life Member of the League of Canadian Poets. He lives in Thornhill, Ontario. 6 Pieces on Poetry
On our new YouTube channel we bring you a poem from Maureen Hynes who was scheduled to read from her latest collection, Sotto Voce (Brick Books, 2019) and from Allan Briesmaster, who was to read from The Long Bond: Selected and New Poems (Guernica Press, 2019). We also hope to post soon a short video of Fiona Tinwei Lam reading from her new collection, Odes & Laments (Caitlin Press, 2019). In the meantime, she has some of her animated poems available at her website.
