Naomi Beth Wakan at West Vancouver Memorial Library

From Eyewear Publishing - Poet's Quest for God

Coming in Spring 2015 - pre-order now. Books will be sent as soon as they are printed.


A major anthology of work from top poets from around the world, the first to explore religion from the perspectives of all faiths and none – so that atheists share space with believers. A beautifully presented gift book, perfect for dipping into in meditative and reflective moments


Containing poems from world-renowned poets of all faiths and none from America, Britain, and beyond, including Andrew Motion, Rowan Williams, Ian Duhig, Rae Armantrout, Fanny Howe, Charles Bernstein, and over 200 others, this is the first anthology to place atheist poets side by side with those from all major religions. Faith, doubt and wonder are explored, providing guidance, solace and spiritual inspiration. Introduced by Professor Ewan Fernie, a leading scholar of demonology and religion, this is a perfect book to be visited again and again. Eyewear Publishing’s first poetry anthology, it is a wonderfully curated collection of questions and answers for everyone to enjoy.


FROM THE PREFACE


How does a person of faith live in a world where science offers so many answers to questions previously unfathomable? How does a person of no faith reconcile with the possibility that our bodies are, after all but a brief wind of fabulously compatible atoms? Can there there still be spirituality in a world without faith? Are the world, the landscape, the chaotic details of life more or less wonderful with or without religion? It is not the purpose of this anthology to gesticulate towards either a secularist or a religious doctrine as the preferred way of living. Instead it is interested in the variety of the poetic response that such a fascinating dialogue offers. Indeed, if one of poetry’s main capabilities, with its gifts of language, is to pick apart the fabric of the world, of the reality which we pervade, then what better form of response can there be to such questions, than a poem that wonders aloud about the ultimate nature of things?

Matrix Magazine: Robert Kroetsch Award

Matrix Magazine are thrilled to have Karen Solie as their judge for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry! Karen is a Griffin Prize-winning poet who recently released her Selected Poems in the United Kingdom. She is one of Canada's greatest living poets and we are so lucky to be working with her.

The winner of the Robert Kroetsch Award wins a trade paperback publishing contract, a 500 dollar advance, and has their book published and distributed by one of North America's most respected literary presses. The Robert Kroetsch Award is without a doubt the best opportunity for emerging poets in Canada!

Invisible Publishing and Matrix Magazine are pleased to bring you the 2015 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry.

NOTE: THIS COMPETITION IS OPEN TO CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY

The prize is awarded annually to the best poetry manuscript by an emerging Canadian writer (a writer who has published two books or fewer). Each year the winning manuscript is selected by an established poet in co-operation with Matrix Magazine and Invisible Publishing's Snare Imprint.

About Karen Solie:

Karen Solie’s most recent collection of poems, Pigeon, won the 2010 Griffin Poetry Prize. Her first collection of poems, Short Haul Engine, won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize, the ReLit and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her second, Modern and Normal, was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Her poetry, fiction and non-fiction have appeared in numerous North American journals. She is a native of Saskatchewan and now lives in Toronto.

The deadline is January 31, 2015.

Entries can be submitted through Matrix Magazine's Submittable site.

Each entry must be accompanied with a business size SASE and an entry fee for $30.00 Canadian. Please make all cheques and money orders payable to “Matrix Publications.” No cash please.

Or if you prefer to use PAYPAL, you may send you manuscript electronically to kroetsch2015@gmail.com and send your payment via PAYPAL at Matrix's Robert Kroetsch Award Page.

Alternatively, you may send manuscripts to:
The Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry 

Invisible Publishing's Snare Imprint 

c/o Matrix Magazine / 
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. LB 658
 Montreal QC / H3G 1M8

[The Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry Full Guidelines]

Have You Started Writing Your Memoirs Yet? with Naomi Beth Wakan

At Word Vancouver, Sunday, September, September 28

“Writing Talks,” in the Peter Kaye Room, Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch

1:10 pm Have You Started Writing Your Memoirs Yet? with Naomi Beth Wakan

We welcome Naomi Beth Wakan back again to Word Vancouver. In this presentation, Naomi will give you the encouragement you need to begin writing your memoirs. You will find your memories flowing, and she will provide you with some ideas about how to give them shape when you do start recording them.

An essayist and the inaugural poet laureate of Nanaimo, Naomi has been facilitating memoir-writing workshops for some years. She is particularly skilled in helping bring memories to light and to life. Join Naomi for a fun-filled hour of regression and nostalgia.

September is Pop-Up Poetry Month!

September is Pop-Up Poetry Month!

Poetry Gabriola is proud to announce

POP-UP POETRY: FOUR FABULOUS SHOWS!!
Monday, September 1st   - IAN FERRIER - it was a full house!

Friday, September 19th – EVALYN PARRY with BILLEH NICKERSON

Saturday, September 20th – SUSAN MUSGRAVE & STEPHEN REID

Saturday, September 27th – JEM ROLLS

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH: FROM TORONTO - EVALYN PARRY: SPIN WITH BILLEH NICKERSON

On Friday, September 19th, the innovative and award-winning Toronto artist EVALYN PARRY takes her audience on an uncommon theatrical and musical journey in SPIN, her tour-de-force performance celebrating the bicycle as muse, musical instrument, and agent of social change.

Inspired in part by the incredible true tale of Annie Londonderry – the first woman to ride around the world on a bicycle in 1894 – Parry spins a web of stories which travel from 19th century women’s emancipation to 21st century consumer culture, peeling back layers of history to ultimately reveal a profoundly contemporary and personal heart to her theme of liberation.

Parry’s co-star is a vintage bicycle: suspended in a mechanic’s stand on stage, and outfitted with electronic pick-ups, the bike is played by percussionist Brad Hart, who conjures an astonishing array of sounds on his “iron horse”, creating a richly textured and utterly unique sonic accompaniment to Parry’s songs and monologues. Learn more about Evalyn and SPIN at www.evalynparry.com .

 “PART THEATRE, PART MUSICAL GIG, PART SPOKEN-WORD POETRY AND PART DOCUMENTARY…WHATEVER IT IS, IT IS BRILLIANT.” (SPIN – TORONTO STAR)

Opening for SPIN is Vancouver poet and humorist, BILLEH NICKERSON. Author of The Asthmatic Glassblower, McPoems, and Impact: The Titanic Poems and Artificial Cherry, Billeh is a poignant and hilarious performer. He is co-editor of Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay Male Poets, a silver medalist at the Canadian Gay Curling Championships, and chair of the Creative Writing Department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Learn about Billeh at www.billeh.com

SPIN by Evalyn Parry, with Billeh Nickerson

At the Gabriola Golf Club, 825 South Rd

7:00pm. Show is 70 minutes.

Tickets $15 at the door, or online at artsgabriola.ca, or call 247-0117

 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20TH: FROM HAIDA GWAII - SUSAN MUSGRAVE AND STEPHEN REID

hold still steve

In this rare appearance, poet - novelist Susan Musgrave and writer- felon Stephen Reid will be reading together. They will also each be hosting a writing workshop on Sunday (space is limited so sign-up early).

When convicted bank robber Stephen Reid won the $5,000 City of Victoria’s Butler Book Prize in 2013 for A Crowbar In The Buddhist Garden, he told his wife, Susan Musgrave, that it was his “best jury decision ever.”

Stephen Reid wrote his first book, Jackrabbit Parole, during a 21-year prison sentence for bank robbery, and married his writing mentor, Susan Musgrave, in Kent Institution in 1986. Upon his release, he worked in the field of restorative justice and was a celebrated writer and creative writing teacher until 1999, when he was sentenced to a further 18 years in prison for a bank robbery in Victoria, after a prolonged bout with heroin and cocaine addiction. He was released on day parole in February, 2014 and is currently working on a second play, Heroin Elvis.

Susan Musgrave has published 30 books and been short-listed four times for the Governor General’s Award, most recently for Origami Dove, a collection of poetry published by McClelland and Stewart. Last year she won the Lush Triumphant Award for a series of poems entitled “The Goodness of this World” about her daughter’s heroin addiction.

In 2012 she won the Spirit Bear Award — a tribute that recognizes the significance of a vital and enduring contribution to the poetry of the Pacific Northwest. “Her artistic presence over the past 40 years has helped create who we are,” wrote Patrick Lane. “She is as important to us as Emily Carr.”

Her latest novel is Given, a sequel to the national bestseller, Cargo of Orchids. She lives on Haida Gwaii, where she owns and manages Copper Beech Guest House, and teaches poetry in UBC’s Optional Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing. Haida Gwaii: Foraging and Feasting at the Edge of the World will be published in the spring of 2015 by Whitecap.

At the Netloft. 1960 Murray Road.

7:00pm.

Tickets $15 at the door, or online at artsgabriola.ca or call 247-0117



SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21ST : WRITING WORKSHOPS BY STEPHEN AND SUSAN

At the Poetry Yurt at the Commons.

WORKSHOP #1: BLURRED BOUNDARIES with Susan Musgrave

The boundaries between genres are blurred these days.  Creative writing must keep leaping genre lines, in its search for new sources of energy and inspiration. Certain skills are generally useful whether your interest lies in poetry, journal writing, plays, novels with plot, character and dialogue, or imaginative personal essays. As we explore what it means to work as a poet, a novelist, a writer of children’s stories or creative non-fiction, you may well discover talents you never knew you had.

Objectives: The exercises and writing practice we do in this workshop, and the constructive feedback you will receive, will make you a better, more creative writer, no matter what kind of writing you do.

10:00am. $35. Please register early.



WORKSHOP #2: WRITING TOWARDS THE LIGHT WITH STEPHEN REID

This workshop is a series of exercises designed to get you writing from experience, not about it, and writing about what matters to you.

2:00pm  $35 Please register early.

To register, email altogetherlisa@yahoo.ca or call 247-0117. Space is limited.



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27TH: JEM ROLLS

jem rollsOriginally from the UK, performance poet Jem Rolls makes a living solely by shouting. He sells nothing – no books, CDs, ideology or merchandise of any kind. A ranter of the highest order, Jem broke out with his hit poetry cabaret at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1996, hit the Canadian fringe circuit a few years later, and now performs more than 60 shows a year. A self-described nomad, Rolls continues to amuse and amaze from coast to coast with his mesmerizing, high-energy presence and powerful wordplay. He explores the human condition in all its perplexing complexity, in language that ranges from euphonious to nerve-jangling. Jem will be performing some of his classic rants as well excerpts from his latest show, Attacks the Silence.

THANK YOU!

May thanks to the Quebec Writers’ Guild for sponsoring Ian Ferrier’s appearance, and to the League of Canadian Poets for sponsoring Billeh Nickerson’s reading. Also to Brenda Gaertner and the Netloft.

The Pop-Up Poetry Weekend was made possible by local sponsors who contributed to the Poetry Gabriola Fundraising event at the Old Crow on May 3. Poetry Gabriola sincerely thanks everyone who attended and donated to that event, with special thanks to:

The Old Crow
Gulf Islands
Cobb's Bakery
Alexa Boulton and Somerset Farms
Alex Varty
Erin Ok
Kathleen Miniely
New Society Press
Lipstick Press
Gabriola Dance & Pilates
D'Ance Glassworks
The Gabriola Arts Council
Susan Yates
Tuning In Wellness
Tammy Waibel
Mike Richards, Karyokashin Karate
Tim Harrison
Aleks Brozrozwski
The extraordinary CR Avery
… and to all our readers and volunteers (and anyone we may have missed) a very special THANK YOU.

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Poetry Gabriola presents Susan Musgrave & Stephen Reid

Poetry That Heals - Naomi Beth Wakan

"Poetry That Heals” is a journey taken by essayist and poet, Naomi Beth Wakan. It is not a physical journey but a journey over thirty years of poetry writing during which her writing affected shifts in her personality. The sense-focused haiku, the feeling and intellectual qualities of tanka and the community-feeling of writing renku (poetry writing by a group of poets) all worked to first ground her in nature, then open her to deep feelings and help her mature a philosophy for her life and finally encourage an intuitive trust in living in community on her small island of Gabriola. A poetry journey that was physical, intellectual and psychological. As she explains, “poetry that heals.”

Nanaimo’s Poet Laureate, Naomi Beth Wakan, brings to us a wonderful dimension of Japanese poetic forms through the lens of how they have changed her inner life. From allowing us to set emotions aside through being-in–the-moment haiku, to its open expression in tanka, to the sharing with another individual in response tanka, and with the community in renku, we are taken on a movingly illustrated journey of the healing powers of poetry. The beautiful photographs by Elias Wakan that accompany the text capture ordinary moments that are suddenly timeless and take your breath, like visual haiku. Pamela J. Asquith, Professor of Anthropology, University of Alberta

In this delightful book, Naomi Beth Wakan takes us on a lighthearted but informative walk through the world of Japanese poetry. For her, writing Japanese poetry, from haiku through senryu and tanka to renku, has released a liberating and healing impulse, indeed changing her life. I learned much from this book, both about the principles guiding these art forms and the discipline derived from writing them. I recommend this book to all with an interest in the therapeutic power of poetry. Gary D Prideaux, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Alberta

In this inspired memoir, Naomi Beth Wakan’s exuberance is palpable on every page as she leads us on a journey through the realms of haikai (haiku and its related genres). Along the way we encounter many of the often controversial “rules” that attend the various forms. Naomi has considered the importance of these tenets without becoming ensnared. With resolve, and what Buddhism terms “the way-seeking mind,” she has reached the heart of what these forms, particularly haiku, have to offer: a deep and abiding appreciation for this ephemeral moment, an appreciation that transcends the written word. For Naomi, the journey has been both joyous and cathartic. By sharing her insights she encourages us to discover for ourselves the gifts of haikai. Christopher Herold, founding editor of The Heron‘s Nest

Poetry Gabriola Society invites you to their AGM

Annual General Meeting

When: August 25,2014, 7PM

Where: The Poetry Yurt

(nestled in the trees in the Gabriola Commons)

Everyone Welcome

Poetry Gabriola Society Open Mic returns

Image: Ed Berg http://toyconnect.blogspot.com

Where? The Gabriola Theatre Festival Outdoor Stage

When? Saturday, August 16th - 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Each performer will have 5 minutes and a great audience!!! 

sign-up in advance by sending an email to altogetherlisa@yahoo.ca; spontaneous sign-up is okay, too!!

And afterwards, enjoy the musical stylings of the Gulf Island Stompers and BC Circus before taking in "Holmes and Watson Save the Empire"... what a great way to spend a Saturday evening!!!!

Mary Ann Moore and Creative Power

"Writing on one’s own is good medicine and creating in a circle offers support for the writing journey. The circle offers structure to allow people a feeling of safety. There’s an intentional beginning, agreements, inspiration from poets and writers, including those present in the circle, sharing and reflection, and an intentional closing." Mary Ann Moore

Read more on Mary Ann's blog A Poet's Nanaimo.

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