A virtual and geographically diverse launch event on Sunday June 5 at 11am (PST): Rhona McAdam launches Larderfrom Victoria; Mari-Lou Rowley launches Catastrophe Theories from Saskatoon; and Lisa Pasoldhosts 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)
Followers of environmental news will know of the ongoing protests over old growth logging at Fairy Creek, southwest Vancouver Island. In tune with this, Christine Lowther named the substantial anthology she’s edited for Caitlin Press Worth More Standing.
Clocking in at 239 pages, the anthology is a veritable forest of Canadian poets paying homage to trees of all kinds. I am one who contributed two poems to this work, including a poem from Larder.
On Saturday May 28 I will join five other poets at the Harbourfront Library in Nanaimo to help launch this with a live, in-person reading.
And the winning cover image turns out to be.. Still Life with Bowl of Citrons, by Giovanna Garzoni. Very pleased with the look of this one.
Much as I would have liked to feature the work of a living woman artist, Garzoni is an impressive figure in art history, and the Italian connection is satisfying, given the presence of poems written during my studies in Italy.
I had wanted something food related, but also to bring in the natural world. The insect figure may or may not be a wasp; but for purposes of this collection, that’s what we’re calling it, to chime with the wasp poem within!
Upcoming readings and appearances are on my News page, which I’ll update as details change or get added. But here’s what’s coming up in the next couple of months:
Tuesday May 24, 2022 from 6-8pm – leading an (in-person) Food Poetry workshop, Monterey Rec Centre, Victoria BC. Details and registration info in the Oak Bay Active Living Guide (p. 20)
June 15-18, 2022 – at ALECC conference in Saskatoon; reading as part of a Forest Poetry Walk with fellow poets Yvonne Blomer, Tanis MacDonald and Ariel Gordon. Our walks are at 2:30pm Thursday 16th and 11:30am Saturday 18th. Details will be in the final conference program.
I’m delighted to have a poem included in the current issue of the Irish environmental literature journal Channel.
The editors accept poems from around the world and have managed the question of how to celebrate each issue with a launch by inviting participants to record readings and some photographic context. Then they put it all together and livestream it!
I read two poems from my upcoming book Larder, and sent some photos which the editors invited us to provide, to give context to the contributors’ lives and environments.
This issue is celebrated on Thursday November 11 at 8pm GMT – which for me is noon in Victoria. See you there?
We’re delighted to announce that the launch of Channel Issue 5 will take place via YouTube Premieres on Thursday 11 November at 8.00pm.
The online launch will feature readings by Irish and international contributors drawn from a pool of over 1800 submissions, along with photography capturing the settings that have inspired their work. We love the poems and stories gathered in this issue—ambitious, disruptive pieces that seem at home in the flux we’re living in today—and we can’t wait to share them with you all.
Also featured will be an introduction to the work of our Issue 5 cover artist, Kevin Mooney, a Cork-based painter whose practice explores the migration of Irish people and the gaps wrought in Ireland’s visual culture by this history of displacement. Kevin’s current exhibition, ‘The Erlish Tide,’ opened in the Excel Gallery, Tipperary, on 30 October, and features large-scale paintings informed by his research into the history, mythology and folklore of Samhain and Halloween. ‘Peasant,’ the painting featured on our Issue 5 cover, is taken from a body of work exploring links between the folk cultures of Irish émigrés and the cultures of the Caribbean.
Those who can afford to further support our work may consider subscribing to Channel to receive each new issue upon its release, or becoming a patron to also receive access to our digital archive of back issues as well as acknowledgement in print and online.
The launch video will be viewable from our website at the time of its release, or open the video in YouTube to chat with other readers and contributors during the event. We look forward to seeing you there!
You’re all invited, wherever you may be!
