Writers at Word!
A dozen fine Writers Union members from the Vancouver area will be sitting at our TWUC table all day Saturday – if you are wandering round Word, do stop in for a friendly chat!
readings
Readings in my Garden
It’s not every day you get to host a reading in your back yard, but yesterday was that day for me.
Judy LeBlanc and I cooked up this idea some months ago, to give her a proper launch and reading for her new novel, The Broken Heart of Winter.
We invited as many people as I could imagine squeezing into my living room (not
knowing what the weather would be like) and when the forecast was for sun (and then HOT sun!) we reconfigured the plan to hold the reading outside. All it took were a few borrowed chairs (thanks be to neighbours), a garden canopy and rented sound system (thanks be to Brian and Judy) and masses of lovely food (thanks be to the baking goddesses, friends and summer produce).
The event came off pretty seamlessly. We ended up with just under 30 people perched in shady chairs or lounging on the lawn beneath the over-laden apple tree. Murphy the dog was delirious with pleasure at having so many bare legs to greet, and nobody reported direct hits from falling apples or Garry oak acorns.
I enjoyed reading a few poems from Larder that had been set or inspired by my garden, and Judy gave a good sampling from the three sections of her novel, covering the recent and more distant history of Acadians as lived and told by a cast of women characters. After which our guests relaxed into party mode for a couple of hours.
By late afternoon, the temperature had reached a rather symmetrical 30c or so and a few of us repaired to the beach down the road, dodging the extensive litter of Canada geese guano (mercifully dried out by then, so less intriguing to Murphy) to take a cooling dip in the Gorge. 
Poetry walking in Saskatchewan
A week spent with environmental literati from around the country and beyond was stimulating, delicious and rather warm at times. The first ALECC conference since pandemic times was, as they say, an intimate affair – not everyone who could have attended was yet willing or able to rub shoulders – but protective measures such as masked indoor events felt safe and comradely.
Tuesday, the evening before the conference began, Mari-Lou Rowley, Katherine Lawrence and I read from our new collections to a live (masked) audience who joyously filled the reading space at McNally Robinson, with another 35 or so attending online through the magic of live streaming.
On Wednesday, Mari-Lou and I attended ALECC’s opening reception (the food was excellent and plentiful) and caught up with some familiar names and faces. Ariel Gordon, Tanis MacDonald and Kit Dobson read from their new books with Wolsak and Wynn, and the “Confluence” exhibit by Susan Shantz was on throughout the conference in the next door gallery (her talk on Friday night, “Confluences of Water, Art and Science,” with collaborator Graham Strickert, was excellent)
Thursday I was teaching online all morning and turned up in time for the first of two Poetry Walks, with Ariel and Tanis. It was much fun – we walked along a walking / running trail, stopping at intervals to read poems to our followers in wood, fields, sculpture park. Ariel borrowed one of ALECC’s helpful balloons to guide us.
The setting for our Thursday night barbecue dinner was stunning; a hidden grove on the campus of our host organization, the University of Saskatchewan. The prairie dogs (Richardson’s Ground Squirrels) appeared not to have found this space, busy as they were gorging on the drifts of elm seed that covered much of the city… another sign of trouble, since trees shed seed when feeling stressed and needing to secure their genetic futures.
Friday was a long and rather warm day, temperatures starting to climb into the high 20s. Technical difficulties interrupted a video session, but it was all low tech for readings in the “Ceremony, Desire, Requiem: The Poetics of Water and Land” panel. Sheri Benning kicked off with a reading from Field Requiem (starting with the beautiful “Winter Sleep” which was featured in film form on the Paris Review website last winter). Self-described “Indiginerd” Tenille K. Campbell followed with a passionate romp through poems from Nedí Nezu, and some straight talk on some realities of indigeneity in northern SK.
Saturday was a hot one, with temperatures forecast to reach 36c, so I was delighted to find we had a good following for our final poetry walk. Ariel, Tanis and I were joined by Lisa Bird-Wilson who read work about residential schools, while we read mostly environmental poems including a couple by Victoria poet Yvonne Blomer, who had planned the event but was unable to attend.
Next stop: Saskatoon
I’ll be lifting off on Monday – first trip off Vancouver Island since 2019 – and flying to Saskatoon, where I’ll be reading at 7pm on Tuesday evening with two fabulous Saskatchewan poets, Mari-Lou Rowley and Katherine Lawrence at McNally Robinson Booksellers. It will be livestreamed for those who can’t make it! The event link is right here on Facebook.
And now… Larder: the International Launch (online)
You’re all invited, wherever you may be!
A virtual and geographically diverse launch event on Sunday June 5 at 11am (PST): Rhona McAdam launches Larder from Victoria; Mari-Lou Rowley launches Catastrophe Theories from Saskatoon; and Lisa Pasold hosts us from Paris.
It’s a joint presentation by our BC publishers, Caitlin Press (Qualicum) and Anvil Press (Vancouver) through the magic of livestream technology.
No matter your time zone, enjoy brunch with us (11amPST) or lunch (12pmCST) or late lunch (2pmEST) or aperitifs (7pmBST) or supper (8pmCEST)— and let us feed your minds!
It will be livestreamed on Zoom – the link is here: https://fb.me/e/3d9qGnweE
(you don’t have to be a Facebook user to find the details there)
Larder: Victoria reading
This Friday May 27 I’ll be reading in Victoria at Planet Earth Poetry. Events kick off with an open mic at 7:30pm, and then Catherine St Denis will take the stage as the Poetic Opener. Catherine has read a number of times at the open mic, always impressed with her poems, and I am very much looking forward to hearing more from her. After Catherine, I’ll be reading from Larder and selling books thereafter.
The reading is live and in person! at Russell Books. For those who can’t make it in person, there’s a livestream of Catherine’s and my readings which starts around 8/8:15. For info on how to access that, it’s best to contact Planet Earth Poetry; (details in their weekly newsletter) or you can message me on Facebook.
PEP’s readings (featured readers and poetic openers) are usually recorded and posted on its Youtube channel a few days later, so you can catch us there too!