Nanaimo poet pens book about Hepatitis C journey

Award-winning poet Kim Goldberg never thought she would live to see a cure for Hepatitis C. When the cure arrived and Goldberg reaped the victory, it gave her the poem of a lifetime.

That poem has now become her seventh book: Undetectable. In it, she documents her Hepatitis C journey using a Japanese literary style called haibun, a travel diary paired with haiku.

Goldberg will launch her new book with a free public talk and reading at Nanaimo Harbourfront Library on Saturday, February 27 at 1:00 pm.
Goldberg lived with Hepatitis C for more than 40 years, telling no one, until she was cured in 2015 after participating in a clinical trial of the new Hepatitis C drug, Harvoni.

“I was extremely lucky to get a seat in this trial,” Goldberg says. “Because of the high price of the new drugs that are now able to eliminate Hepatitis C, I was not eligible to receive them under the BC Medical Services Plan. I wasn’t deemed to be sick enough yet, and I had never been willing to try the older and highly toxic interferon-based treatments. If it hadn’t been for this clinical trial, I would still have Hepatitis C,” she says.

Harvoni, developed by Gilead Sciences Inc., has a wholesale price of $1,125 (US) per pill. In most cases, including Goldberg’s, 84 pills are required to eradicate the hepatitis C virus from the body.
Even with their negotiated discounts, private insurance companies as well as government-funded health care plans say they would go bankrupt if they approved the new drugs for everyone who has Hepatitis C.
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that slowly damages the liver over a period of many years. It has the potential to lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and death. It is the leading cause of liver transplants in Canada and the United States, and it has surpassed HIV as a cause of death.

Approximately 250,000 people in Canada have chronic Hepatitis C, and more than three million people in the United States. Worldwide, there are at least 180 million people living with this virus.
Goldberg hopes to use her new book to raise public awareness about Hepatitis C and to encourage everyone to get tested and treated, now that the cure has arrived.

Audthor: Kim Goldberg

“This is a much stigmatized illness,” says Goldberg. “And as a result of that stigma, it is a disease people don’t talk about. Many people don’t even know they have Hepatitis C, or that it can now be cured. The stigma is causing needless suffering, untreated illness, and even death,” she says.
“The way to end the stigma is to normalize discussion about Hepatitis C, to make it part of the public discourse the same way we openly discuss cancer or diabetes,” Goldberg adds. “Nobody asked for Hepatitis C. And everyone who has it deserves to be cured.”

Goldberg is the author of seven books of poetry and nonfiction including Red Zone about urban homelessness, and the popular guidebook Where to See Wildlife on Vancouver Island. She is a recipient of the Goodwin’s Award for Excellence in Alternative Journalism, the Rannu Fund Poetry Prize for Speculative Literature, and other distinctions. She holds a degree in biology from University of Oregon and has lived in Nanaimo for 40 years.

TO ORDER

Undetectable can be purchased directly from the author for $19 (US or Canadian funds).
Free shipping in North America. Add $10 for overseas.
Send payment by PayPal to goldberg@ncf.ca
Or mail a cheque to Kim Goldberg, 35 Prideaux Street, Nanaimo, BC V9R 2M3, Canada.
For more information, visit her website: https://pigsquash.wordpress.com/

World Split Open

Poetry in Transit

Wordstorm January 26 - Simmers, Enns, Friesen

Ascent Aspirations Amazingly Awesome

Friday's Poems

Cover Art: Woman by Patricia Carroll

Ascent Aspirations Magazine is a not-for-profit publication with the mission to publish new, cutting-edge poetry and prose poetry.


Poetry Submissions: We prefer shorter poems over longer poems. Poems in open form or free verse. We are not fond of end rhyming poems, but will consider form poems that show craft and interesting content.


David Fraser, editor
Submit to ascentaspirations@shaw.ca with Friday's Poems in the subject heading.
Please provide a brief bio.

http://www.davidpfraser.ca/ascent-aspirations.html

Calling All Poets of the Regional District of Nanaimo

Our Nanaimo Daily News Column has finished, but we would still like to receive poems with a Nanaimo theme for them to be considered for the Poet Laureate’s Nanaimo City poetry map. The link is www.nanaimo.ca/goto/PoetryMap A pair of anonymous poet judges will look through the submissions and choose site-specific poems.

The rules are simple:

1. You should be a resident of the Greater Nanaimo area;

2. The poem should be solely written by you (If your poem is selected you will be asked to sign a declaration that the poem is your work alone and that you have the rights to it. Submissions from people under 18 will require a parent’s signature)

3. The poem must be about site-specific Nanaimo places and should be no more than 30 lines (200 words).  The places we need for the poetry map at the moment include: Newcastle Island, Protection Island, Mt. Benson, Westwood Lake Park, Bowen Park, Beban Park, Buttertubs Marsh, Cathers Lake, Bird Sanctuary, Piper’s Lagoon Park, Shipyard, Morrell Sanctuary, Duke Point, Churches, Railway Bridge, Cable Bay, ENR station, schools, Vancouver Island University, the malls.

4. The poems can be touching, funny, insightful, bitingly witty or angry, but will not be considered if they contain obscenities or promote hatred or prejudice

5. E-mail two copies of your poem as a pdf attachment (in Times New Roman, 12 point). One copy should have your name, address, e-mail, and phone # written above the poem; the other should contain only the poem

6. Send them to callingallpoets@nanaimo.ca with the words “poetry map” in the subject line

7. There is no deadline, so just keep those Nanaimo poems coming in whenever creativity strikes.

8 We will be using the poem for one-time. If we need it for other places, we will, of course, contact you for permission. The rights stay with you.

We thank all poets in advance for their submissions, but only those poets whose poems have been selected will be contacted. Keep a copy of your submission as it will not be returned to you. So calling all Nanaimo poets – Let’s celebrate poetry. Let’s hear your voices. Get creative about Nanaimo and send us your results.

WRITE WHERE YOU ARE

There you are, pen in hand, paper or computer in front of you, all good intentions on fire. How long do you sit, before you press pen to paper, finger to keys? How many Facebook peeks, dishes washed, to do lists made before the first sentence gets scratched out? This series of Monday evening workshops will help you get started on the “getting started blues” with writing prompts, ideas for sequence poems that will keep you going, and lots and lots of writing to build your mental muscles. We will look at some essentials of writing: imagery, metaphor, syntax, cadence, line length, using some model poems to inspire and guide. Finally, we will look at ways to revise and refine the drafts we write in class and at home.

Barbara Pelman is a teacher and writer with over thirty years experience. She has conducted poetry workshops in her home and in schools and is an active participant in the Victoria poetry community. She has two books, “One Stone” (Ekstasis 2005) and “Borrowed Rooms” (Ronsdale Press 2008) and a number of poems in literary journals. She has received awards for her poetry, including last year’s first prize with the Federation of BC Writers Literary Writes contest.

The workshop will take place in Barbara’s living room (somewhere near Victoria - details on registration), for five sessions of 2 ½  hours each, from 7 to 9:30 Monday evenings from January 11 to February 8, 2016. Cost of workshops is $125.00 for the series. Please contact Barbara at barbarapelman@gmail.com or 250-480-1081 to register.

Nanaimo City Poetry Map

Calling all poets

Looking for poems with a Nanaimo theme to be considered for the Poet Laureate’s Nanaimo City poetry map. A pair of anonymous poet judges will look through the submissions and choose site-specific poems.

The rules are simple:

1. You should be a resident of the Greater Nanaimo area;

2. The poem should be solely written by you (If your poem is selected you will be asked to sign a declaration that the poem is your work alone and that you have the rights to it. Submissions from people under 18 will require a parent’s signature)

3. The poem must be about site-specific Nanaimo places and should be no more than 30 lines (200 words).  The places we need for the poetry map at the moment include: Newcastle Island, Protection Island, Mt. Benson, Westwood Lake Park, Bowen Park, Beban Park, Buttertubs Marsh, Cathers Lake, Bird Sanctuary, Piper’s Lagoon Park, Shipyard, Morrell Sanctuary, Duke Point, Churches, Railway Bridge, Cable Bay, ENR station, schools, Vancouver Island University, the malls.

4. The poems can be touching, funny, insightful, bitingly witty or angry, but will not be considered if they contain obscenities or promote hatred or prejudice

5. E-mail two copies of your poem as a pdf attachment (in Times New Roman, 12 point). One copy should have your name, address, e-mail, and phone # written above the poem; the other should contain only the poem

6. Send them to callingallpoets@nanaimo.ca with the words “poetry map” in the subject line

7. There is no deadline, so just keep those Nanaimo poems coming in whenever creativity strikes.

8 We will be using the poem for one-time. If we need it for other places, we will, of course, contact you for permission. The rights stay with you.

We thank all poets in advance for their submissions, but only those poets whose poems have been selected will be contacted. Keep a copy of your submission as it will not be returned to you. So calling all Nanaimo poets – Let’s celebrate poetry. Let’s hear your voices. Get creative about Nanaimo and send us your results.

Naomi Wakan - Nanaimo Poet Laureate

Haiku and Haibun & Small Book Making March 30

WordStorm November 24th at TheFirst Unitarian Fellowship Hall

Come on out to hear the words of Susan McCaslin and Pam Galloway and listen to the music of Mary Flaherty.

Music startes at 6:30.

Open Mic at 7:00

See Posters Attached

Two Great Workshops in February and March

Sign-up Early Before the Holidays

February: Jane Munro, 2015 Griffin Prize Winner

March: Terry Ann Carter, Haiku and Haibun and Bookmaking

SIGN UP EARLY

February 24 Workshop with Jane Munro