Poets Corner Reading Series

Tag Archive: Sonnet L’Abbe

Worth More Standing — An anthology of poets and activists paying homage to trees

For poet-tree lovers!

Worth More Standing
Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees

Edited by Christine Lowther

 

Poets, both settler and Indigenous, pay tribute to trees through reflections on the past, connections to the present, and calls for the protection of our future.

In Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees, celebrated poets and activists pay homage to the ghosts of lost forests and issue a rallying cry to protect remaining ancient giants and restore uncolonized spaces.

Themes of connection, ecology, grief, and protection are explored through poems about trees and forests written by an impressive number of influential poets, several of whom have attended the recent Fairy Creek blockades and still others who defended old growth ecosystems in Clayoquot Sound nearly 30 years ago.

Contributors include ninth Parliamentary Poet Laureate Louise Bernice Halfe-Sky Dancer, GG winner Arleen Paré, Canadian icon bill bissett, Griffin Poetry Prize winner Eve Joseph, ReLit Award winner Patrick Friesen, Order of Canada and Order of the Rising Sun recipient Joy Kogawa, Vancouver Poet Laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam, Harold Rhenisch, Jay Ruzesky, John Barton, Kate Braid, Kim Trainor, Kim Goldberg, Pamela Porter, Patricia and Terence Young, Russell Thornton, Sonnet L’Abbé, Susan McCaslin, Susan Musgrave, Tom Wayman, Trevor Carolan, Yvonne Blomer, Zoe Dickinson and the late Pat Lowther.

FINISHED!!! Our Next Poetry Reading (15 July 2020)

Kim Trainor posting on behalf of Evelyn Schofield

Our Next Poetry Reading

Well, we’re on a roll now! Next month’s virtual poetry reading will feature a fabulous triple-bill: Francine Cunningham, Joanna Lilley and Kevin Spenst. Please join us on Wednesday July 15 at 7:30pm (West Coast time) to listen as they share a selection of their fine poetry with us. Here is some more information to whet your poetic appetite:

Francine Cunningham is a Canadian Indigenous writer, artist and educator. Her creative non-fiction has appeared in The Malahat Review, the anthologies Boobs: Women Explore What It Means to Have Breasts (Caitlin Press) and Best Canadian Essays 2017 (Tightrope Books), and was longlisted for the 2018 Edna Staebler Personal Essay. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Grain as the winner of the Short Grain Writing Contest in 2018, The Puritan, Joyland, Echolocation, The Maynard and more. She is a graduate of the UBC Creative Writing MFA program, winner of the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award for unpublished prose, winner of The Hnatyshyn Foundation’s REVEAL Indigenous Art Award, and a recipient of Telus’ 2017 STORYHIVE web series grant. On/Me is her first book and has been shortlisted for the inaugural Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes (BC & Yukon Book Prizes) and the 2020 Indigenous Voices Award for published poetry. www.francinecunningham.ca

Joanna Lilley is the author of three poetry collections:  Endlings (Turnstone Press), If There Were Roads (Turnstone Press) and The Fleece Era (Brick Books), which was nominated for the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. Her novel, Worry Stones (Ronsdale Press), was longlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award and she’s also the author of a short story collection, The Birthday Books (Hagios Press). Joanna has given readings and workshops as far afield as Alaska and Iceland. Originally from Britain, Joanna now lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, on the Traditional Territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council. www.joannalilley.com

 

 

Kevin Spenst is the author of the poetry collections Ignite, Jabbering with Bing Bong, and Hearts Amok: a Memoir in Verse(all with Anvil Press), and over a dozen chapbooks including Pray Goodbye (the Alfred Gustav Press), Ward Notes (serif of nottingham editions), Surrey Sonnets (JackPine Press), and most recently Upend (Frog Hollow Press: Dis/Ability Series). He sometimes co-hosts interviews on Wax Poetic on Co-op Radio with RC Weslowski, Lucia Misch and Zofia Rose. He lives in Vancouver on unceded Coast Salish territory with the love of his life Shauna Kaendo.  www.kevinspenst.com

 

Please join us for these 3 poets at our 3rd Virtual Live Reading at Poets Corner!

If you want to hear these three great poets, you need to register ahead of time. YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO JOIN UNLESS YOU REGISTER.

The reading will be delivered via the Zoom video conferencing platform, but you must register to attend!

To attend this month’s virtual live reading, here’s what you need to know…

Venue:                 Zoom platform online (click the link below to register)
Date:                    Wednesday, 15 July 2020, from 7:30 to 9:30pm, PDT

Register in advance by clicking this link…

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUodO6hpjgpHdDi1gt1jp46gHS4yjVVcdl-

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the meeting. If you have any questions contact us in advance at:  socialmedia@poetscorner.ca.

There will be a somewhat shorter open mic this time due to our 3 readers this month. To sign up for the open mic for July (limit of 5 readers; 3 minutes per reader!) please REGISTER first and then contact us at socialmedia@poetscorner.caPlease note: we will not be video-recording the open mic readers this month due to technical challenges!!

Looking forward to seeing you online at our next reading on Wednesday July 15 at 7:30pm.

FINISHED! Poetry Reading on June 17

Wow! We had another great virtual live reading and proved that our success the first time around was not just beginner’s luck. For those of you who couldn’t make it, we have some video clips posted here from our YouTube channel Poets Corner Reading Series.

Our two featured poets have both written brilliantly about their personal experiences of racism. Joseph Dandurand is a prolific writer of poetry and plays rooted in his experience as an indigenous person. The poems he read were strong stuff indeed, and yet his reading was graced with humble humour.  Sonnet L’Abbé joined us from Nanaimo to read several poems in which she has interspersed her own words within the original text of Shakespeare’s sonnets, to arrive at new poems which turn the bard’s poetry on its side and challenge us to think in new ways.

JOSEPH DANDURAND

SONNET L’ABBE

 

The evening began with our usual Open Mic, which featured 9 poets from near and far!

 

Open Mic 1, Poets Corner Reading Series, 17 June 2020. Featuring: Sharon Berg, Herb Bryce, Kieran Egan, Bryan Franco.

Open Mic 2, 17 June 2020, Poets Corner Reading Series. Open Mic: Nefertiti Morrison, Angus Pratt, Murray Reiss, Evelyn Schofield, Angelica Beissel.
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