Planet Earth Poetry May Calendar

May 4 - David Taylor and Dvora Levin read

Dvora Levin has published Sharav, her first full-length book of poems, and the chapbook This Time In the Land, as well as poems in five chapbooks edited by Patrick Lane (Leaf Press). A regular reader at Planet Earth Poetry in Victoria, BC, she has read poems on CBC Radio and participated in the Poet Tree Project. She leads poetry writing workshops in the workplace and for people of the street. She edited the anthology "Voices from the Edge", poems from the streets of  Victoria.

David Taylor will read from  Ark/ The Ascent, a long poem written in David's metaphoric language

May 11 - Arleen Paré launches Leaving Now

Arleen Paré’s first book, Paper Trail, won the Victoria Butler Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay BC Book Prize in Poetry. Paré completed an MFA in poetry at the University of Victoria and her poetry and prose have appeared in a number of Canadian literary journals. Before beginning a career in writing, she worked as a social worker for two decades in mental health housing in Vancouver. She now lives in Victoria with her partner, and has two sons and two grandsons. 

 

...an unsettling, tender lyric, beautifully written in a mixture of poems, prose fragments and fairytales, a story like no other.  Read it if you are a mother.  Read it if you are not.  It’s a splendid, unique contribution to our country’s literature.   – Lorna Crozier

May 18 - All Open Mic.

This is the night to come and sign up to read - maybe twice!

We will celebrate our open mic and celebrate Planet Earth Poetry with drinks afterward at a local pub.

May 25 - Wendy Donawa and Catherine Owen

 After spending most of her adult life in the Caribbean, as teacher, artist, and museum curator, Wendy Donawa settled in Victoria, where she is a regular participant at Planet Earth Poetry. Her poems have appeared in Caribbean and Canadian journals, in five chapbooks edited by Patrick Lane, and in the anthologies Walk Myself Home (Caitlin Press, 2010), Open Hearts 5 (Ontario Poetry Society, 2011), and The Wild Weathers: A Gathering of Love Poems (Leaf Press, 2012). Her first chapbook, Sliding Towards Equinox, appeared in 2009 (Rubicon Press). Her most recent publication, Those Astonishments of Sorrow, of Joy, is her second chapbook, recently published by Leaf Press.

 She has co-authored, with Leah Fowler, Reading Canada, a survey of Canlit for young adults, which is forthcoming early in 2013 with Oxford University Press. Please see also www.wendydonawa.ca

Catherine Owen is a Vancouver writer. She’s published seven previous collections of poetry. Her poetry collection Frenzy won the Alberta Literary Award for 2009 while The Wrecks of Eden was shortlisted for the BC Book Prize in 2002. Her first compilation of essays and memoirs, Catalysts, is forthcoming from Wolsak & Wynn in 2012. She also plays bass in the metal band Medea and works as a freelance editor and tutor. Check out her website for more information http://www.catherineowen.org/.

 

 With her characteristic fearlessness Catherine Owen examines what drives her to write and the influences that shape her writing. From her childhood memories in suburban Vancouver to her willingness to risk all for a glimpse of her muse, the essays in Catalysts allow readers unparalleled insight into Owen’s creative life. A brilliantly honest collection, these essays should be read by every aspiring author.

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