March 22

ROSEMARY GRIEBEL and RHONA McADAM

With thanks to The Canada Council for the Arts for their support

Rosemary Griebel’s award-winning poetry has appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry in English, on CBC Radio, literary magazines, anthologies, chapbooks and on public buses. Her long awaited collection of poetry, Yes., was published by Frontenac House in 2011, and was short-listed for the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry as well as the Gerald Lampert award and the Pat Lowther Memorial award. She lives in Calgary with her husband and two cats and is currently working on a project to build a bold, new Central Library in Calgary’s East Village.

 

 

Rhona McAdam has published five poetry collections (most recently Cartography, from Oolichan) and two chapbooks of food poems: Sunday Dinners (JackPine) and The Earth’s Kitchen (Leaf). Her first nonfiction book,  Digging the City: An Urban Agriculture Manifesto, is published by RMB in 2012. She writes a food and poetry blog (The Iambic Café) and lives in Victoria. 
  

 

March 29

 

The Moka House and Planet Earth Poetry are closed for Good Friday. Happy Holiday!

April 12

POEMS FROM PLANET EARTH

edited by Yvonne Blomer and Cynthia Woodman Kerkham
with an introduction by Patrick Lane.

The most fabulous poetry readings this town has ever seen!

Poems from Planet Earthis a round-up of poems from readers at internationally renowned Planet Earth Poetry in Victoria B.C. — named after P.K. Page's poem "Planet Earth — "launching pad for the energies of writers and poets established and not."

There are 116 contributors—among them: Jan Zwicky, Patrick Lane, Jay Ruzesky, Alice Major, Kate Braid, Derk Wynand, Eve Joseph, David Zieroth, Patricia Young, John Barton, Lorna Crozier, Sheri-D Wilson, Patrick Friesen, Brian Bartlett, Paul Nelson, Glen Sorestad, Wendy Morton, Brian Brett, Goran Simic, Cathy Ford, Betsy Warland.

Paul Nelson, Seattle, Washington: "I LOVE the Canadian side of Cascadia as it deals with poetry. In Victoria, Vancouver, Nelson and elsewhere there are retired poets constructing Mesostics, discussing Jack Spicer and Robin Blaser and generally being open to more innovative work. This includes the Planet Earth Poetry series. Its wide aesthetic, its open and welcoming environment and its audience. They pay attention and actually buy books. & there's matcha! What else does a poet need? Viva Planet Earth Poetry!"

Yvonne Blomer is the Artistic Director of PEP and author of The Book of Places (Black Moss) and Bicycle Brand Journey(JackPine Press). She is forthcoming in 75 BC Women Poets(Mother Tongue Press) and A Crystal Though Which Love Passes: Glosas for P.K. Page(Buschek Books). Her collection Caged(Palimpsest Press) is forthcoming in 2014.

Cynthia Woodman Kerkham has won the Federation of B.C. Writers Literary Writes Competition and the Malahat Review's Open Season Award for poetry. In 2012, her poem "In Praise of Mushrooms" was selected for B.C.'s Poetry in Transit. Good Holding Ground,her debut collection of poems, was published in 2011 by Palimpsest Press.

Cover design by Rhonda Ganz
photo by Chris Hancock Donaldson (chrishancockdonaldson.com )
Rocks and leaf from a photo by Savannah Featherstone

January 18

ALL OPEN MIC!

Planet Earth Poetry welcomes 2013 with an All Open Mic night, so write new poems to bring in a New Year. We hope to relieve some of the building pressure on the open mic list by letting you all have at it on Friday, January 18, 2013. And... we are celebrating this, our 18^thyear of poetry at Planet Earth, so let's make it extra magical!

January 25

LEAF PRESS LAUNCHES TWO CHAPBOOKS

“berries, (small) and rain”      -and-     “In That Wild Place”

(both edited by Patrick Lane)

Readers may include Ann Graham Walker, Arleen Pare, Barbara Pelman, David Pimm, Gisela Ruebsaat, Linda Thompson, Susan Braley, Sidney Bending, Pam Porter, Ulrike Narwani, Wendy Donawa, Wendy Morton, Simone Littledale, Owain Nicholson, Judith Castle, Sue Gee, Rhonda Ganz, Christine Anderson and more.

February 1

LAUNCH OF BEST CANADIAN POETRY IN ENGLISH and

MALAHAT REVIEW'S WINTER EDITION

Readings by Patricia Young, Carla Funk, Kayla Czaga, Steve Noyes, Catherine Greenwood, and Raoul Fernandes

*Carla Funk, Steve Noyes, and Catherine Greenwood will appear on U in the Ring on CFUV 101.9 FM Tuesday, January 29th, 4-5 p.m. Yvonne Blomer and Colin Dower will co-host.

February 8

GUERNICA EDITIONS “Poet to Poet” ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH

With readings by Fiona Lam, Lenore Rowntree, Rhonda Ganz, Susan McCaslin and Yvonne Blomer.

Poets find inspiration in all manner of human experience, from the comical to the sombre. The creative processes by which they grow their poems to fruition are as diverse, and often as quirky, as their subjects. But what all poets have in common is their captivation by the work and lives of other poets, living and dead. Poet to Poet is a unique anthology that honours, and probes, this peculiar enchantment. Featuring work by Canadian poets written to, about, or in the manner of other poets, each poem is accompanied by a back story that provides a glimpse into the creative cauldron and the poetic communion of kindred spirits.

http://news.guernicaeditions.com/category/launches/

February 15

 

PATRICIA ROBERTSON AND ERLING FRIIS-BAASTAD

 

Born in the UK, Patricia Robertson grew up in British Columbia and received her MA in Creative Writing from Boston University. Her most recent book is The Goldfish Dancer: Stories and Novellas. She was 2010-11 writer-in-residence at Haig-Brown House in Campbell River. Currently she is a creative writing instructor at Yukon College in Whitehorse, a freelance writer/editor, and a contributing editor for CNQ.

 

Born in Norway, Erling Friis-Baastad grew up in the United States, emigrated to Toronto in 1969, and moved to the Yukon in 1974. His earlier collection, The Exile House, was published by Ireland’s Salmon Publishing in 2001. His poems have appeared in a number of chapbooks as well as in many literary journals and anthologies, including The Malahat Review, Grain, Poetry Canada and Canadian Forum. A longtime book reviewer and journalist, he currently works as an editor with the Yukon News in Whitehorse.

February 22

STEVEN PRICE

Steven Price was born and raised in Colwood, BC. His first collection of poetry, Anatomy of Keys (Brick Books, 2006), won the Gerald Lampert Award and was named a Globe & Mail Book of the Year. His work has appeared in Canadian and American literary journals. He is one of the poets in Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets, edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane. Price graduated from the University of Virginia Writing Program, and currently teaches poetry and writing at the University of Victoria.

March 1

LORNA CROZIER

Lorna Crozier is an Officer of the Order of Canada and the recipient of three honourary doctorates that acknowledge her contribution to Canadian literature. An award-winning author, including the Governor-General’s Award, her work includes a memoir and fifteen books of poetry, most recently, The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things, listed as one of The Globe and Mail’s top 100 books of 2012. She has edited several anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry 2010 and has read her work on every continent except Antarctica. Born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, she now lives on Vancouver Island, where she is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Victoria.Please visit www.lornacrozier.ca.

March 8

KIM CLARK and TERENCE YOUNG

Disease and desire, mothering and the mundane propel Kim Clark’s ongoing journey between poetry and prose. Her debut fiction collection, Attemptations(Caitlin Press), was launched in 2011 and one of its novellas has been optioned for a 90 minute feature film. Her chapbook, Dis ease ad De sire, the M anu S cript (Lipstick Press), came out in April, 2012. Kim’s work can also be found in Body Breakdowns (Anvil Press), theMalahat Review, and e-zines and other publications in Canada and the U.S.. She lives in Cedar on Vancouver Island.

Terence Younglives in Victoria, B.C., where he teaches English and creative writing at St. Michaels University School. He is co-founder ofThe Claremont Review, an international literary journal for young writers. His first book of poetry, The Island in Winter(Signal Editions, 1999), was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and the Gerald Lampert Award. Since then, he has published a collection of stories, Rhymes With Useless(Raincoast, 2000), which was one of two runners-up for the annual Danuta Gleed award, a novel, After Goodlake’s, which received the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize in 2005, and a second collection of poetry, Moving Day(Signature Editions, 2006), which was nominated for both the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and The City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for 2006. In 2008, he was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, an honour shared with fifteen other teachers from across Canada that year. A second collection of fiction, The End of the Ice Age, was released from Biblioasis Press in the spring of 2010. A story from that collection, "That Time of Year," was included in Oberon Press's recent edition of Best CanadianStories 11 (2012).

March 15

AL REMPEL and DAVID FRASER

Thanks to the League of Canadian Poets and The Canada Council for the Arts

Al Rempel is launching his latest book of poetry called This Isn’t the Apocalypse We Hoped For. His previous books include understories(Caitlin Press, 2010) and a chapbook called The Picket Fence Diaries(Lipstick Press, 2010). His poems have also appeared in The Malahat Review,CV2,Event,The Best Canadian Poetry in English (2011),and Rocksalt.More information can be found at http://alrempel.com/. He currently lives in Prince George.

DavidFraserlives on Vancouver Island. He is editor of Ascent Aspirations Magazine. His poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies, includingRocksalt, An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry, Mother Tongue Press, (2008) and Walk Myself Home, Caitlin Press, (2010). He has published five collections of poetry,Going to the Well(2004), Running Down the Wind (2007),No Way Easy, (2010), Caught in My Throat, (2011), and Paper Boats, (2012), and a book of poetry and poetics, On Poetry, (2012) with Naomi Beth Wakan. He is the artistic director for Nanaimo’s spoken-word series, WordStorm. www.wordstorm.caand a member of the League of Canadian Poets. Home Site:www.davidpfraser.ca

 

December 7

PATRICIA YOUNG and BILL GASTON

Patricia Young, born in Victoria, BC where she still lives, is the author of nine collections of poetry and one of short fiction. She has two grown children and is married to the writer, Terence Young.

She has taught at the University of Victoria, served as Editorial Assistant of the Malahat Review, on the board of the Victoria School of Writing, and also as writer in residence at various universities, most recently in 2008 where she was the WIR at the University of New Brunswick. She received the Arc Poem of the Year Award in 2009 and 2010. Selections of her poetry were also short-listed for the CBC Literary Competition in 2009 and 2010.

Bill Gaston is a Canadian novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. His short-story collection Gargoyles was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and won the ReLit Award and the City of Victoria Butler Prize. In 2002, Gaston was a finalist for the Giller Prize with Mount Appetite, and the inaugural recipient of the Timothy Findley Prize, awarded by the Writers' Trust of Canada. He teaches at the University of Victoria.

   

November 30

 

 

MADELINE SONIK and GARTH MARTENS

(With support from the Writers Union of Canada and The Council Council for the Arts)

In her second volume of poetry, Madeline Sonik creates poetry through the contemplation and inspiration of the abstruse symbols encountered in the ancient oracular Chinese text, the I Ching (The Book of Changes). The interplay of concept and image that the I Ching offers, as well as the non-causal worldview it implicates, presents a unique place of poetic inquiry. Carl Jung used the I Ching as a method of exploring the unconscious, and pointed out how it worked by allowing chance details to “enter into the picture of the moment of observation and form a part of it.” This is what Sonik has attempted to do in each of the 64 poems that correspond to the I Ching’s hexagrams. She also uses the I Ching as a feminist writer, for although it gives credence to intuitive and synchronistic ways of knowing which, in Western cultures, are associated with the feminine—the work is predominantly masculinist in that it foregrounds issues of male power, as well as occupations and concerns that have traditionally excluded women. Sonik compensates for the lack of feminine presence in the I Ching by projecting into the hexagrams a personal experience of womanhood, where autobiographical elements are at liberty to dialogue with proverbial wisdom. Through this conversation, readers will discover a deeper understanding of what it means to be both human and female.

Garth Martens has an MFA in Poetry from the University of Victoria (Canada). He is a former member of the poetry editorial board at The Malahat Review. His poems have appeared in The Fiddlehead, Grain Magazine, The Times Colonist, and the anthology, Leonard Cohen: You're Our Man. In April of 2011, he won The Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, an award for the best Canadian writer under 35 who has not yet published a book. Two of his entries in the poetry category were shortlisted for this year's Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Literary Awards.

November 23

WENDY MORTON and JENNA BUTLER

(With support from the Council Council for the Arts)

*** Wendy's Birthday! ***

 

                

 

 

 

Wendy Morton believes that poetry is the shortest distance between hearts. She has five books of poetry, and a memoir, Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, in which her adventures as a corporate sponsored poet are revealed. Her latest book of poetry, What Were Their Dreams, is a book of photo-poems of Canada’s history.She is the founder of Canada’s Random Acts of Poetry, now in its 7th year, and is the recipient of the 2010 Spirit Bear Award and the Golden Beret Award. For her day job, she has been an insurance investigator for the last 28 years. She lives in Sooke, B.C. and is a raven watcher.

Jenna Butler was born in Norwich, England in 1980, but has spent most of her life on the prairies of Western Canada. The varied landscapes of the prairies and mountains - their intense harshness and incredible richness - feature prominently in her poetry and fiction. Her work has garnered a number of awards, including the Canadian Authors Association Exporting Alberta Award and the James Patrick Folinsbee Prize, and has been featured by the CBC. Her poetry has appeared in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies across Canada and abroad, and she is the author of eight short collections of poetry, in addition to the trade books Aphelion (NeWest Press, 2010) and Wells (University of Alberta Press, 2012). See the Books section for details. A third trade book, Seldom Seen Road, is forthcoming in 2013.
 

 

 

November 16

TIM LILBURN and MELEEA ACKER

(With support from the Council Council for the Arts)

Tim Lilburn is a Canadian poet and essayist. He is the author of several critically acclaimed collections of poetry, including Kill-site, To the River, Moosewood Sandhills and his latest work Going Home.

Maleea Acker is the author of The Reflecting Pool, with Pedlar Press (poetry), and Gardens Aflame: Garry Oak Meadows of BC’s South Coast, with New Star Books (non-fiction). Her second book of poetry, The Almond in the Earth, will appear with Pedlar in 2013. Her poetry and interviews have also been published in journals such as Fiddlehead,The Malahat Review,Prism International,Descant,Event, and the anthologies Best Canadian Poetry in English, 2008andRocksalt. She is forthcoming in the anthologies Planet Earth Poetry (2012) and the BC Women writer’s anthology (2013).

November 9  

 

JOHN BARTON and ISA MILMAN

(With support from the Council Council for the Arts)

John Barton has published nine books of poetry and five chapbooks, including Hypothesis (Anansi, 2001), West of Darkness: Emily Carr, a self-portrait (third edition, BushcekBooks, 2006), and Hymn (Brick, 2009). For the Boy with the Eyes of the Virgin, a selected poems, and Balletomane: The Program Notes of Lincoln Kirstein are forthcoming respectively from Nightwood and Jack Pine Press in 2012. Co-editor of Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay-Male Poets (Arsenal Pulp, 2007), he has won three Archibald Lampman Awards, an Ottawa Book Award, a CBC Literary Award, and a National Magazine Award. Since 1980, his poems have appeared in anthologies and magazines across Canada and in the United States, Australia, India, and the U.K. He was writer in residence at the Saskatoon Public Library and the University of New Brunswick, and has taught at the Sage Hill Writing Experience and the Banff Centre. He has worked as a librarian and editor for five national museums in Ottawa from 1985 to 2003, where he co-edited Arc Poetry Magazineand Vernissage: The Magazine of the National Gallery of Canada. He lives in Victoria, where he edits The Malahat Review.
 
Isa Milman is a poet and visual artist who lives in Victoria, BC. Born a displaced person in Germany in 1949, she grew up in the United States and came to Canada in 1975. She’s a graduate of Tufts University, and holds a Masters of Rehabilitation Science from McGill, where she taught for a decade. She is the author of Between the Doorposts(Ekstasis Editions, 2004) and Prairie Kaddish(Coteau Books, 2008), both of which won the Canadian >Jewish Book Award for poetry.>  

                        

 

November 2

Launch of Living Artfully: Reflections from the Far West Coast (Key Publishing).

Authors reading will include Victoria's Poet Laureate Janet Rogers, Bill Zuk, Avis Rasmussen, Roland Rasmussen, Kim Goldberg, Mary Ann Moore, and Sandy Martin.

Living Artfully offers unique perspectives and insights to the interrelationship of creativity and geography through intimate portrayals about the lives of artists. Writers, painters, carvers, and performers reflect on the private spaces of the arts – inner worlds and natural environments – and the public spaces for exhibiting, performing and sharing. Artists delve into their life journeys, the struggles and challenges as well as the joys and rewards of pursuing expression out here.

Forty-two painters, writers, carvers and performers have contributed to this collection, including award-winning First Nations playwright and poet Janet Rogers; painter, writer, and arts advocate Robert Amos; internationally noted artists Avis Rasmussen and Mark Hobson; renowned author Susan Musgrave; award-winning filmmaker Velcrow Ripper; and from the academy, dancer and educator Celeste Snowber, professor emeritus Bill Zuk and many more voices that shape what it means to live artfully on the far west coast.

PLANET EARTH POETRY WORKSHOPS

WANT TO BE ON THE CUTTING EDGE?

COME TO AN EXCITING WORKSHOP ON INNOVATIVE FORMS OF POETRY!

WITH JENNA BUTLER: (http://www.jennabutler.com/)

 

Award-winning Poet
Poetry Editor
Founder of Rubicon Press
Date: Saturday, November 24, 2012

Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Jenna’s Course Description:

The course will explore a variety of unique forms, ranging from the more well-recognized anti ghazal to project-based forms such as plunderverse, anagram poetry, and flarf. We will look at sample poems in each of these forms and then try our own hands at them to see where imagination takes us. Handouts will be included for all participants.Fee: $65All poets welcome -- only 10 spaces available!

To enroll:

Send your name, e-mail address, and cheque (made out to Planet Earth Poetry) as soon as possible to the address below. Your cheque will hold your place in the workshop. Questions? Write Susan at susan.braley@shaw.ca.

Susan Braley/PEP Workshop
3515 Upper Terrace Road
Victoria, BC
V8R 6E8

P.S. Save this date: Saturday, January 19! Cornelia Hoogland will offer an intriguing three-hour poetry-fiction workshop called Red meets her wolf, or, is that a gun in her basket? More info on this workshop soon.

October 5

(With support of The League of Canadian Poets and The Canada Council for the Arts)

Ronna Bloom and Steve Noyes

Ronna Bloom launches Cloud with a Fire in the Basement.

She is the author of four books of poetry, most recently, Permiso (Pedlar Press, 2009), shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award.  Her poems have been translated into Spanish and Bengali and broadcast on cbc Radio. Her work appeared in “Poetry is Public is Poetry,” an initiative of Toronto Poet Laureate Dionne Brand, which showcases and celebrates the work of Canadian poets to help transform Toronto’s public realm into a forum for the written word. Bloom works as a writing teacher and

psychotherapist. She has led workshops across Canada and abroad, and currently is Poet in
Community at the University of Toronto.

Visit: www.ronnabloom.com

Steve Noyes is a Victoria writer whose first novel, It is just that your house is so far away, was published in 2010 by Signature Editions. Rainbow Stage Manchuria is his seventh book. Al Moritz said, "Noyes is one of our best poets."

October 12

PEP Cancelled in support of Victoria’s Writer’s Festival

Step Into the Ring Write-Off: Sharpen your pencils for an on-the-spot writing slam. Win prizes! Sponsored by Planet Earth Poetry. $3 for a night of hijinx. 7:30 p.m.

All events take place on the grounds of Camosun College. $10 per event ($8 for students). Festival Pass $30 ($20 for students).

Visit: http://www.victoriawritersfestival.com

October 19

Sally Ito and Sarah Tsiang

(With support of The Canada Council for the Arts)

Sally Ito is a writer living in Winnipeg. She has published four books -- most recently, Alert to Glory (Turnstone Press, 2011) a poetry collection -- as well as having published articles and reviews in various Canadian newspapers and journals. She also is a regular blog contributor to the multicultural children's literature blog, PaperTigers.

Yi-Mei (Sarah) Tsiang is the author of Flock of Shoes (Annick Press, 2010) and The Mermaid and Other Fairy Tales (Leaf Press, 2010). She has two forthcoming books for children and her work has been sold and translated internationally. She has published poetry extensively in Canadian journals, and has appeared in several anthologies. She is currently completing UBC’s MFA program, and works as a mentor to aspiring writers through UBC’s Booming Ground and Queen’s University’s Enrichment Studies Department. Yi-Mei lives in Kingston with her husband and young daughter. She drew from her own experiences as a mother in the creation of the poems in Sweet Devilry.

October 26

Sandy Pool and Ann Graham Walker

Sandy Pool is a poet and multi-disciplinary artist who lives in Toronto. Sandy holds a degree in Theatre Performance and English from the University of Toronto, as well as a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University Guelph. Currently, she is a holder of the prestigious Killam scholarship in poetics at the University of Calgary, where she is completing her Phd. Sandy has been published in various literary journals and was most recently anthologized in The Best Canadian Poems in 2011,published by Tightrope Books. Her first book, Exploding Into Night,published by Guernica Editions, was long-listed for the 2010 re-lit award and short-listed for the 2010 Governor General’s Award for poetry.

Ann Graham Walker is a writer and journalist. She was a finalist in the 2010 Malahat Open Season Awards and the 2010 Prism International Poetry Contest. She has had poems published in the Rocksalt Anthology, The Wild Weathers love poem anthology, PRISM International, the Gaspereau Review, Pitkin Review, the Windfire Anthology, Leaf Press’s Monday’s Poem series, and six chap books edited by Patrick Lane. Her first chap book, The Puzzle at the End of Love, will be published by Leaf Press in the summer of 2012. Ann is an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets.