Conyer Clayton has two new poems in carte blanche; Orchid Tierney has two new poems posted in Plant-Human Quarterly; Kevin Varrone is interviewed over at poetry mini interviews; and Derek Beaulieu is named Banff's new poet laureate!
Showing posts with label poet laureate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poet laureate. Show all posts
Sunday, January 2, 2022
Saturday, April 20, 2019
some author activity: Clayton, Drake, Kolewe, Young, Pirie + mclennan,
forthcoming author Conyer Clayton has a poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month, as do Kristina Drake and R. Kolewe; new English language Ottawa Poet Laureate Deanna Young responds to April's wash of snow for CBC Radio Ottawa; Pearl Pirie has some new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time, where rob mclennan is also interviewed.
Saturday, April 13, 2019
some author activity: Saklikar, Barwin, Siklosi, Campanello, Unsworth + a report on Yee & du Plessis @ VERSeFest
the Surrey Now-Leader writes on the end of Renée Sarojini Saklikar's three-year term as Surrey, British Columbia's first City Poet Laureate; Gary Barwin is interviewed over at talking about strawberries all of the time, where Kate Siklosi, Kimberly Campanello and forthcoming author Lydia Unsworth also have new work; and Manahil Bandukwala was good enough to blog about VERSeFest, including The Factory Reading Series event, featuring lectures by Sennah Yee and Klara du Plessis!
Friday, January 11, 2019
John Barton named Victoria BC's new Poet Laureate
Poet, editor and above/ground press author John Barton has been named the latest Poet Laureate for the City of Victoria, British Columbia, alongside also-announced Youth Poet Laureate Aziza Moqia Sealey-Qaylow. Congratulations to you both!
Barton is the author of three above/ground press chapbooks, including DESTINATIONS, LEAVING THE MAP (1995), Oxygen (1999) and REFRAMING PAUL CADMUS (2016). See his recent above/ground press 25th anniversary essay here.
See the official press release below:
Barton is the author of three above/ground press chapbooks, including DESTINATIONS, LEAVING THE MAP (1995), Oxygen (1999) and REFRAMING PAUL CADMUS (2016). See his recent above/ground press 25th anniversary essay here.
See the official press release below:
Meet Victoria’s New Poet Laureate John Barton and Youth Poet Laureate Aziza Moqia Sealey-Qaylow
For Immediate Release
VICTORIA, BC – The City of Victoria and the Greater Victoria Public Library are pleased to announce John Barton as Victoria’s new Poet Laureate and Aziza Moqia Sealey-Qaylow (pronounced Ah-zee-zah Moe-kia See-lee Kay-low) as Victoria’s Youth Poet Laureate.
Selected by nomination, the Poet Laureate serves as Victoria’s literary and cultural ambassador for a four-year term. The Youth Poet Laureate seeks to inspire and engage local youth to share their stories through both the written and spoken word, and serves a one-year term. Both are honorary positions that celebrate the contribution of literature and poetry in the capital city.
“We’re thrilled to welcome John and Aziza to their literary roles at the City of Victoria,” said Mayor Lisa Helps. “Our Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate programs support and inspire the literary arts, enriching our lives and the community. We look forward to all that these two talented poets have to share.”
John Barton is an established poet and editor. Some of his 26 books, chapbooks, and anthologies include The Malahat at Fifty: Canada's Iconic Literary Journal (2017), Polari (2014), For the Boy with the Eyes of the Virgin: Selected Poems (2012), and Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay-Male Poets (2007). A three-time recipient of the Archibald Lampman Award, Barton has also won an Ottawa Book Award, a CBC Literary Award, and a National Magazine Award. He will publish We Are Not Avatars: Essays, Memoirs, Manifestos, his first book of prose, with Palimpsest Press and The Essential Douglas LePan with Porcupine's Quill in the spring of 2019. Signal Editions will publish his 12th collection of poems, Lost Family, a book of sonnets, in 2020. Since stepping down as the editor of The Malahat Review in January 2018, a position he held for 14 years, Barton now works as a freelance editor, writer, and mentor.
“As the City of Victoria Poet Laureate, I aim to broaden the local audience for poetry, to make readers more aware of the diverse community of poets in the greater Victoria region, and to provide support to LGBTQ2S poets working among us,” said John Barton. “Together, my fellow local poets and I shall hold up a mirror to the city where we live and invite the people who live here to see themselves anew.”
Aziza Moqia Sealey-Qaylow is a slam and spoken-word poet, as well as an honours graduate from Reynolds Secondary School. As the daughter of a Somali refugee and a seventh-generation Canadian, Aziza is a deeply connected to her culture and writes about the adventures of being in a mixed family. She’s an active volunteer within various parts of the community, has traveled to many European and African countries, and likes to view the world with an open mind.
"I'm really happy to have this opportunity,” said Aziza Moqia Sealey-Qaylow. “I love to learn from everyone I meet, and collaborate with open-minds."
A Call for Nominations for poets in the Capital Region was held in the fall. Applicants were required to have an established body of work (written or spoken word) and to have been recognized for notable contributions in their career. Submissions were evaluated by two peer committees comprised of representatives of the literary and poetry community. The Greater Victoria Public Library coordinated the selection process for the Poet Laureate, and the City coordinated the selection of the Youth Poet Laureate.
“John and Aziza will inspire people in our community to tell their stories through poetry,” said Maureen Sawa, CEO of the Greater Victoria Public Library. “We look forward to partnering with them to offer learning opportunities that showcase the power of words and self-expression.”
During the four-year term, the Poet Laureate is required to produce three new original works each year that reflect or represent ideas and issues of importance to the people of Victoria, and present, in-person, at significant City events, bi-monthly City Council meetings, the annual Victoria Book Prize Awards Gala, and other official functions upon request. In addition, the Poet Laureate hosts one project or activity per year to engage the community during Poetry Month in April, collaborates with the Greater Victoria Public Library on programs and workshops, and provides a year-long mentorship to the Youth Poet Laureate.
Over the one-year term, the Youth Poet Laureate will create three new works of poetry, present at bi-monthly City Council meetings, serve as a judge on the panel for the Greater Victoria Public Library Teen Writing Contest, host an event or project that will engage youth, and collaborate with the Greater Victoria Public Library on a poetry workshop for teens.
The Poet Laureate is an honorary four-year term position from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2022. The position receives a $4,500 honorarium and $1,000 of project funding per year, in addition to administrative support from the City of Victoria.
The Youth Poet Laureate is an honorary one-year term position from January 1 to December 31, 2019. The position receives a $1,750 honorarium and $1,000 of project funding in addition to the one-year mentorship with the Poet Laureate and administrative support from the City of Victoria.
Both the Poet Laureate and the Youth Poet Laureate positions are funded by the City of Victoria and the Greater Victoria Public Library.
Victoria was the first municipality in Canada to have a Youth Poet Laureate. For more information, visit: www.victoria.ca/poetlaureate.
For More Information:
Andrea Walker CollinsArts, Culture and Events Liaison
Arts, Culture and Events Office
250.361.0308
Jessica Woollard
Communications Officer
Greater Victoria Public Library
250.940.4875 ext. 346
Saturday, May 7, 2016
some author activity: beaulieu, mclennan, Weaver + Earl,
derek beaulieu has new work and a short statement up at The Found Poetry Review, he also reflects in a short piece on his two years as Calgary's Poet Laureate; rob mclennan has a new poem up on the Chaudiere Books blog to close off National Poetry Month, as does Andy Weaver; and rob mclennan's profile of Amanda Earl's NationalPoetryMonth.ca is now online at Open Book: Ontario.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
George Elliott Clarke named 7th Parliamentary Poet Laureate
Congratulations to George Elliott Clarke [photo credit: Carmelita Linta], who was named yesterday as the 7th Parliamentary Poet Laureate!
above/ground press was fortunate enough to produce two of Clarke's chapbooks: Selected Canticles (2012) and Provencal Songs [II] (1997).
As the press release on the Parliamentary Poet Laureate website reads:
above/ground press was fortunate enough to produce two of Clarke's chapbooks: Selected Canticles (2012) and Provencal Songs [II] (1997).
As the press release on the Parliamentary Poet Laureate website reads:
On January 5, 2016, the Speaker of the Senate, the Hon. George J. Furey, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Hon. Geoff Regan, announced the appointment of George Elliott Clarke as Canada’s next Parliamentary Poet Laureate. On January 1st, Mr. Clarke became Canada’s seventh Poet Laureate, succeeding Mr. Michel Pleau, whose term ended December 31, 2015.
A revered poet, George Elliott Clarke was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, near the Black Loyalist community of Three Mile Plains, in 1960. A graduate of the University of Waterloo (B.A., Hons., 1984), Dalhousie University (M.A., 1989) and Queen's University (Ph.D., 1993), he is now the inaugural E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto. An Assistant Professor of English and Canadian Studies at Duke University, North Carolina (1994-99), Clarke also served as the Seagrams Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies at McGill University (1998-99), and as a Noted Scholar at the University of British Columbia (2002) and as a Visiting Scholar at Mount Allison University (2005), and as the William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at Harvard University (2013-14). He has also worked as a research, editor, social worker, parliamentary aide, and newspaper columnist. He lives in Toronto, Ontario, but he also owns land in Nova Scotia.
His many honours include the Portia White Prize for Artistic Achievement (1998), Governor-General's Award for Poetry (2001), the National Magazine Gold Medal for Poetry (2001), the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award (2004), the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellowship Prize (2005), the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction (2006), the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry (2009), appointment to the Order of Nova Scotia (2006), appointment to the Order of Canada at the rank of Officer (2008), and eight honorary doctorates. He has recently completed his three year term as the City of Toronto’s Poet Laureate.
Saturday, April 11, 2015
some author activity: beaulieu, Anstee, Lea, Tokar, Cooley + Press,
derek beaulieu (pictured) is named the first artist in residence in the 124-year history of Calgary's Lougheed House, from May 1 to June 30, 2015; Cameron Anstee is profiled over at Apt 613; N.W. Lea is interviewed over at the Chaudiere Books blog; Janice Tokar has a new poem posted on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of Poetry Month; and Dennis Cooley and K.I. Press write on Turnstone Press for the CV2 blog.
Monday, April 28, 2014
derek beaulieu named new Calgary poet laureate!
As announced today, above/ground press author, Calgary poet, editor, teacher and critic derek beaulieu has been named Calgary Poet Laureate for 2014-2016. Congratulations, derek! Very very well deserved.
Over the years, above/ground press has been fortunate enough to produce eight publications by beaulieu (with his work appearing in a handful of other items), including three above/ground press "poem" broadsides (“IV.08/13/97 (“her fear of the silence after she spoke”),” #70, “portrait 4,” #101 and “wild rose country,” #285), an issue of the long poem magazine STANZAS (“calcite gours 1-19,” issue no. 38), the interview chapbook ECONOMIES OF SCALE: rob mclennan interviews derek beaulieu on NO PRESS / derek beaulieu interviews rob mclennan on above/ground press (2012) and single-author chapbooks “A? any questions? (1998), [Dear Fred] (2004) and HOW TO EDIT, Chapter A. (ALBERTA SERIES #8; 2008). As the press release (found online at artrubicon: visual arts magazine) writes:
Over the years, above/ground press has been fortunate enough to produce eight publications by beaulieu (with his work appearing in a handful of other items), including three above/ground press "poem" broadsides (“IV.08/13/97 (“her fear of the silence after she spoke”),” #70, “portrait 4,” #101 and “wild rose country,” #285), an issue of the long poem magazine STANZAS (“calcite gours 1-19,” issue no. 38), the interview chapbook ECONOMIES OF SCALE: rob mclennan interviews derek beaulieu on NO PRESS / derek beaulieu interviews rob mclennan on above/ground press (2012) and single-author chapbooks “A? any questions? (1998), [Dear Fred] (2004) and HOW TO EDIT, Chapter A. (ALBERTA SERIES #8; 2008). As the press release (found online at artrubicon: visual arts magazine) writes:
derek beaulieu Named Calgary Poet Laureate
Local poet will serve as an artistic ambassador for Calgary from 2014-2016
(Calgary AB) – Calgary Arts Development and the Calgary Poet Laureate Selection Committee are pleased to announce the appointment of derek beaulieu as the 2014-16 Calgary Poet Laureate. The position was formally announced in Council Chambers at Calgary City Hall this morning, with outgoing laureate Kris Demeanor speaking about his experience as Poet Laureate. Demeanor also presented his legacy anthology, The Calgary Project: A City Map in Verse and Visual, to city councillors, and youth poet Emily Xu, who contributed to the volume, performed some of her poetry.
To celebrate beaulieu’s appointment, his concrete poem “Prose of the Trans-Canada” will be projected onto the Calgary Tower during the evenings of April 28 and 29. The 20-metre projection was adapted into an “illuminated light sculpture” by Wordfest in 2011.
A longtime resident of Calgary, beaulieu is the author of eight books of poetry, three volumes of fiction and one volume of literary criticism. For 17 years he has been developing poetic communities; he has mentored and promoted young and established writers as publisher/editor of housepress and No Press, and as a former editor of Calgarian magazines filling Station, dANDelion and Speechless. beaulieu has taught students from grade school to the post-graduate level and has won awards for his current teaching at the Alberta College of Art + Design. In 2013 Wilfrid Laurier University Press published Please, no more poetry, please: the poetry of derek beaulieu. He has performed and discussed poetry in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, the UK and across North America. beaulieu’s poetry is internationally renowned as challenging, generative and dedicated to conversation.
As Calgary Poet Laureate, beaulieu will serve as an artistic ambassador for the citizens of Calgary from 2014-2016. A $10,000 honorarium is paid per year for the position, funded by six Calgary Poet Laureate Ambassadors (The Calgary Foundation, the Calgary Chamber, First Calgary Financial, FirstEnergy Capital, Transcanada and one anonymous donor).
“Calgary is world-renowned for having a thriving literary community and history. I am proud to be the the 2014-2016 Poet Laureate and to represent our city locally, nationally and internationally,” says derek beaulieu. “Poetry is the active, thoughtful engagement of language to describe and respond to our experience — I look forward to working with Calgary’s literary communities to share that engagement.”
“The enthusiasm we’ve seen for the Calgary Poet Laureate has been astonishing, from the support of Calgary’s private sector to the widespread interest in the capacity for poetry to inspire and build community,“ says Patti Pon, President & CEO of Calgary Arts Development. “On behalf of Calgary Arts Development and the citizens of Calgary, I would like to thank Kris for his service to the city during his time as Calgary Poet Laureate, and welcome derek beaulieu to the role. I look forward to witnessing how derek’s artistry will enrich our civic landscape over the next two years.”
A celebration to welcome the new Poet Laureate called “Parting Words/Starting Words” will be held at 7:00pm on April 29 at TELUS Spark (220 St. George’s Dr. NE). The event will feature presentations from both outgoing Poet Laureate Kris Demeanor as well as **derek beaulieu, as well as other performers that will highlight the diversity within Calgary’s poetic community. Tickets are free and be reserved at YYCPoet.Eventbrite.com.
Photos are available at gallery.calgaryartsdevelopment.com (please note photo credits).
About the Calgary Poet Laureate
On July 26, 2011, City Council approved a motion to establish a Calgary Poet Laureate position, funded by six Calgary Poet Laureate Ambassadors (The Calgary Foundation, the Calgary Chamber, First Calgary Financial, FirstEnergy Capital, Transcanada and one anonymous donor). Calgary Arts Development administers the program in conjunction with a volunteer Selection Committee, which appoints each Calgary Poet Laureate for a two-year term. The Calgary Poet Laureate is intended to be an artistic ambassador for Calgary, presenting at civic events and producing literary work that reflects our city and its citizens.
About Calgary Arts Development
Calgary Arts Development plays a leadership role to promote, foster and direct investments that develop the capacity of Calgary’s arts sector to achieve public and artistic impact. As the city’s designated arts development authority, we are a central hub that learns about, promotes, connects, advocates for, and leads strategic initiatives in the arts to animate Calgary as a vibrant cultural centre. Calgary Arts Development allocates municipal funding for the arts provided by The City of Calgary through granting programs that support operations and innovation for more than 190 arts organizations in Calgary.
Further Information
Cadence Mandybura
Communications Liaison, Calgary Arts Development
Phone: 403.264.5330 ext. 201 (office); 403.585.5390
Email: cadence.mandybura@calgaryartsdevelopment.com
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
George Elliott Clarke is named Toronto's fourth poet laureate,
Congratulations to above/ground press author George Elliott Clarke, who has been named Toronto's fourth poet laureate after Dionne Brand, Pier Giorgio di Cicco and Dennis Lee. See the Quill and Quire article here, and TO live with culture article here. I recently did a profile of him as well for Open Book: Toronto.
Copies of his second above/ground press title, Selected Canticles, are still available.
Now if we could only get the poet laureate position re-started in Ottawa...
Copies of his second above/ground press title, Selected Canticles, are still available.
Now if we could only get the poet laureate position re-started in Ottawa...
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