It was a barn-burner of beautiful poetry at June’s monthly reading. Not only did we have three very diverse but equally talented poets, but Fiona Lam, Jeff Steudel, and Alan Woodland were all superb at delivering their work in a professional and captivating manner. We even had a viewing of our first video poem at Poetic Justice!
In July, it’s going to be an all-Island affair when John Barton from Victoria and Tina Biello from Nanaimo join us. Once again, it will be a Poetic Justice debut performance for these two gifted poets.
John Barton
John Barton has published eleven books and six chapbooks of poetry, including West of Darkness: Emily Carr, a Self-Portrait (third bilingual edition, BushcekBooks, 2006), Hypothesis (Anansi, 2001), Hymn (Brick, 2009), For the Boy with the Eyes of the Virgin: Selected Poems (Nightwood, 2012), Balletomane: The Program Notes of Lincoln Kirstein (JackPine, 2012), Polari (Goose Lane, 2014), and Reframing Paul Cadmus (above/ground, 2016). Co-editor of Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay-Male Poets (Arsenal Pulp, 2007), he is editing The Essential Douglas LePan for Porcupine’s Quill. Born and raised in Alberta, he lives in Victoria, where he edits The Malahat Review.
Tina Biello
Tina Biello grew up in the small logging town of Lake Cowichan, BC. She studied Theatre at UBC and now finds herself writing. Since 2008 her poems have appeared in chapbook anthologies edited by Patrick Lane. Her first book of poetry, In the Bone Cracks of the Walls (published by Leaf Press) was part of a multi-disciplinary art exhibition of poetry, watercolour and music in Montreal, Vancouver, and Italy. A Housecoat Remains is her second book of poetry published by Guernica Editions in 2015. She also teaches performance mask to students all over Vancouver Island.
So mark your calendars for 3:00 p.m. on Sunday July 17, and in the meantime consider something you’d like to present at our Open Mic that day. And here’s a shout-out to Poetry in the Park which kicks off its 2016 summer schedule on Wednesday, July 06. Check out their line-up here.
