OPL’s first ever ‘Poetry on spines’ contest takes place April 7-11
The Ottawa Public Library is running a 5-day contest contest called ‘Poetry on spines / Poésie sur dos’ to celebrate National Poetry Month.
How to play?
The subject of the photo should be book spines. Align them in a creative way to make poetry with the found titles. Here’s one:
Quirk Books has some stacking your books examples. Need more inspiration? 100 Scope Notes did spine poems in 2011.
Details:
English and French entries will be accepted from April 7-11. Take your own photo of a stack of books from your shelves or what you find at the library.
Send your picture (in a decently sharp legible size) to communications@BiblioOttawaLibrary.ca.
Include your name, phone number, home branch and Twitter handle (if you have one) in the email.
Submissions will be judged over the April 12-13 weekend by Pearl Pirie (English) and Gilles Latour (French).
Winners, one in English and one in French, will be announced/contacted Monday, April 14.
Last Temptation, Courage My Love
Two stores in Kensington Market make a kind of poetry side by side.
The potential for poetry is everywhere.
Textual Artivity
Small town doesn’t mean mall town nothing. At the Human Bean on the main drag of Cobourg all month is an installation of vispo.
I took some phone snapshots while we went thru Cobourg.
bill bissett on right and consensus was that right is Judith Copithorne. Which is another funny overlap since we just saw her in The Line has Shattered.
Beside me on the right, Michael Casteels.
Wildly blurry photos but it was the whirr of suddenly there being 7 of us there at once. By carpool multiplying the poet/artist population of the town with Stuart Ross, Laurie Siblock, Sandra Alland, jw curry, Rachel Zavitz, myself and Brian Pirie all descending into the same coffee shop all at the same time. What’re the odds.
Had we been there earlier we could have seen The 3 Ferretpersons in person. But alas, we had no car access then and were in a city far away.
Here’s More details about the show at Human Bean.
fw: League of Canadian Poets award news
The League of Canadian Poets (LCP) is pleased to announce the shortlists for the 2014 Raymond Souster, Gerald Lampert and Pat Lowther Memorial Awards. Congratulations to all of the authors for their fine work, and many thanks to the jurors for their dedication to this year’s awards.
Winners of these awards will be announced during a special ceremony at the LCP Annual Poetry Festival and Conference to be held at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in downtown Toronto on June 7, 2014.
Raymond Souster Award:
The Raymond Souster Award is given for a book of poetry by a League of Canadian Poets member published in the preceding year. The award honours the late Raymond Souster, an early founder of the League of Canadian Poets. The award carries a $1,000 prize.
seldom seen road by Jenna Butler (NeWest Press)
Alongside by Anne Compton (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
Her Red Hair Rises with the Wings of Insects by Catherine Graham (Wolsak & Wynn)
Rebel Women by Vancy Kasper (Inanna Publications)
Brilliant Falls by John Terpstra (Gaspereau Press)
Birds, Metals, Stones & Rain by Russell Thornton (Harbour Publishing)
2014 Jury: Bruce Hunter, Laurence Hutchman, Sheila Martindale
Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Shortlist:
The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is given in the memory of Gerald Lampert, an arts administrator who organized authors’ tours and took a particular interest in the work of new writers. The award recognizes the best first book of poetry published by a Canadian in the preceding year. The award carries a $1,000 prize.
the place of scraps by Jordan Abel (Talonbooks)
Rove by Laurie D. Graham (Hagios Press)
Light Light by Julie Joosten (BookThug)
Surge Narrows by Emilia Nielsen (Leaf Press)
The Survival Rate of Butterflies in the Wild by Murray Reiss (Hagios Press)
Incarnate by Juleta Severson-Baker (Frontenac House Poetry)
2014 Jury: Keith Garebian, Carl Leggo, Pearl Pirie
Pat Lowther Memorial Award Shortlist:
The Pat Lowther Memorial Award is given for a book of poetry by a Canadian woman published in the preceding year, in memory of the late Pat Lowther, whose career was cut short by her untimely death in 1975. The award carries a $1,000 prize.
The Hottest Summer in Recorded History by Elizabeth Bachinsky (Nightwood Editions)
Alongside by Anne Compton (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
Leaving Howe Island by Sadiqa de Meijer (Oolichan Books)
Whirr and Click by Micheline Maylor (Frontenac House Poetry)
Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway by Alexandra Oliver (Biblioasis)
Status Update by Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang (Oolichan Books)
2014 Jury: Elizabeth Greene, Cornelia Hoogland, Betsy Struthers
Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award Winner
The League of Canadian Poets and Calgary Spoken Word Festival are thrilled to announce the 2014 recipient of the prestigious Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award: bill bissett!
We are pleased to honor poet and artist bill bissett for his influence and impact on spoken word in Canada. The award will be presented to bill at the League of Canadian Poets’ Annual Poetry Festival and Conference award gala on June 7th, 2014.
This $1000.00 annual award was created by Sheri-D Wilson—a pioneer of spoken word poetry in Canada—to honour a Canadian spoken word artist who has made a substantial contribution to the development of spoken word, through the originality and excellence of his or her own writing/performance works, and through involvement in—and contributions to—the expansion of the spoken word community. The Golden Beret Award was first presented at the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival in 2007. For more information see www.poets.ca / www.calgaryspokenwordfestival.com
more info?
Michael Dennis’ Blog,
For the month of April his blog will be looking at the nominees for the 2014 Pat Lowther Memorial Award, Raymond Souster Award and the Gerard Lampert Memorial Award. Visit:
rob mclennan’s blog,
Between now and June long-time member rob mclennan will be posting interviews with the authors on the Pat Lowther, Gerald Lampert and Raymond Souster Memorial Awards:
Open Book Toronto Poetry Coverage
Open Book Toronto has some great coverage of the National Poetry Month launch event and an interview with Executive Director Joanna Poblocka.
Poetry Readings & Events Across Canada During April
The website for a full listing of the 50+ National Poetry Month events taking place across Canada.
Versefest – Day 2 – Books
The book table. See if you can spot something familiar or intriguing from left to right.
And at the end, bookseller David Dollin (and crew who jumped aside camera shy) are there to get you your books.
More as I have time.
Day 3 at Versefest: 7pm is old guard: David McFadden, Sue Goyette and Karen Connelly, and 9pm is soundful: with Scottish poet Sandra Alland and Ian Ferrier’s For Body and Light.
The Journal Project
Have you heard of The Journal Project yet? Versefest is helping to promote the program to get people to donate unused journals to women in maternity support homes, domestic violence shelters and other such community organizations. Their story.
Becky Halton & Arwen Faulkner are helping this non-profit get new journals, bound notebooks and hardcover scrapbooks to people who are transition in lives and could use somewhere to verbalize what they’re living. “Writing heals. Writing inspired. Writing empowers.”
They also accept inspirational books, chapbooks, CDs or cash. There’s a dropbox at Knox Presbyterian church at Elgin, 120 Lisgar while Versefest is on. After that, check their site for how to find a home for notebooks to people who could put them to good use.