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WordStorm September 27th, 2010

Check out our web site for all the details for our featured performers.
Polish up your new work and bring it to the open mike. Prizes for first second and third. Judges chosen randomly from our audience.
WordStorm Web Site



Mary Ann Moore Workshops and Circles

Poet, Writer, Writing Mentor, Circle Facilitator,
Creator of Writing Home (a writing mentoring program)
Weaver of interactive poetry performances
Flower Essence Practitioner

The Flying Mermaids Studio
Nanaimo, B.C.
Web Site
250-729-2630

September

Wednesday, September 22 to November 10, 2010, 9 a.m. to noon
Writing Home, an 8-week women’s writing circle
at Oliver Woods Community Centre, Nanaimo
Contact Mary Ann Moore at flyingm@interlog.com for details.

Tuesday, September 14 to October 19, 2010, 10 a.m. to noon
Finding and Expressing Your Writing Voice with Mary Ann Moore
at Elder College, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo
Visit VIU Web Site for registration details.

October

Saturday, October 23 & Sunday, October 24, 2010, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Writing Your Life Stories
at Vancouver Island University, Cowichan Campus, Duncan
Visit www.viu.ca/ccs for registration details.
This course will be offered at the Nanaimo campus on January 22-23, 2011.


Sandy Shreve's chapbook, Cedar Cottage Suite, is now available from Leaf Press.

Web Site



PORT MOODY WRITERS' GROUP

July - August; Thursdays, 10 am - noon

Usually demand exceeds supply, but this year, July & August provide a chance for emerging and established writers in the Metro Vancouver area to try this multi-genre group established over 35 years ago. Cost: $40.75/month. Registration is available through Port Moody's Recreation Programs - click on "Adult Programs" and scroll down to "Creative Writing". Location: Kyle Recreation Centre, 125 Kyle Street, Port Moody.

The Voice: VISIBLE VERSE 10th Anniversary Celebration & Festival

In 1999 the Vancouver Videopoem Festival, the first of its kind in Canada, began as an effort of the Edgewise ElectroLit Centre, a non-profit literary arts organization dedicated to expanding the reach of poetry through new media with programs such as Telepoetics Vancouver and the Edgewise Café electronic magazine. The VVF became critically regarded owing to its progressive regard for spoken word in cinema, presenting poets both in performance and on the big screen. The audience could explore the merits and distinctions of poetry rendered in these two forms, stage and screen, sparking new dialogue as to the essential nature of poetry. The festival then built upon that foundation, with widened explorations into poetry cinema across national frontiers. They presented significant new works from Europe and the Americas, and continued to offer Canadian audiences a remarkably broad selection of new videopoems from their own country.

Pacific Cinémathèque has been the VVF¹s partner since 2000 and throughout the dissolution of the Edgewise. Founder Heather Haley continues to provide a sustaining venue for the presentation of new and artistically significant videopoetry as host and curator of SEE THE VOICE: Visible Verse. And owing to Vancouver's strength in the film and television production industries, Haley has been able to cultivate critical interest between filmmakers and poets, with positive consequences for both.

To celebrate entering their second decade of showcasing videopoetry, Haley and the Pacific Cinémathèque are presenting two screenings this year as well as poetry performances, a panel discussion and an awards gala, Friday Nov. 19 and Saturday Nov. 20.

SEE THE VOICE-Visible Verse 10th Anniversary Celebration & Festival
Call for Entries and Official Guidelines:
Please send in your videopoem by August. 1, 2010.

* Visible Verse seeks videopoems, with a 15 minutes maximum duration.
* Either official language of Canada is acceptable, though if the video is in French, an English-dubbed or-subtitled version is required for consideration. Videos may originate in any part of the world.
* Works will be judged by their innovation, cohesion and literary merit. The ideal videopoem is a wedding of word and image, the voice seen as well as heard.
* Please, do not send documentaries as they are outside the featured genre.
* Videopoem producers should provide a brief bio, full name, and contact information in a cover letter. There is no official application form nor entry fee.

Send, at your own risk, videopoems and poetry films/preview copies (which cannot be returned) in DVD NTSC format to: VISIBLE VERSE c/o Pacific Cinémathèque, 200-1131 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2L7, Canada. Selected artists will be notified and receive a standard screening fee.

For more information contact Heather Haley at: hshaley@emspace.com



Summer Dream: A Night of Honour

Friday August 20, 2010

Susan Musgrave: Then and Now

Join us at the Jacana Gallery, to celebrate those in the writing community who deserve to be honoured. This Summer Dream night of honouring will begin with a lifetime achievement award for Susan Musgrave whose first book was published 40 years ago and still is a strong force on the Canadian poetry scene. Susan is an inspiration and mentor to so many. We will then go on to give awards to publishers of magazines who continue to support novice and established writers despite cutbacks and inflation. To be honoured are Room, Event, Prism. Sub Terrain, Geist, The Capilano Review and One Cool Word. Finally the evening will end with four special awards. Three will be awards of merit for persons or organizations that support the writing community. These awards will come from the writing community itself as we have asked for nominations and will be putting these names out for a vote. Finally one award will go to recognize an individual who Pandora’s Collective feels has excelled in their support of writers within our community. This evening will continue the Summer Dream commitment to highlighting community involvement to the public. Mike Peacock of Melic Thrum will be our musical featured guest and there will be a special guest appearance by a musician to collaborate on a work of Susan’s.

Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Jacana Gallery
2435 Granville Street
Vancouver BC
Bonnie Nish
Executive Director
Pandora's Collective
www.pandorascollective.com



Awaken to the Path…Ignite Your Passion

Friday, August 20, 2010, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A one-day labyrinth seminar with Jo Ann Mast, Veriditas Master Teacher
Honeymoon Bay Lodge and Retreat, Honeymoon Bay
$90. Includes lunch
Honeymoon Bay Retreat
The spiral of the labyrinth frees the mind to delight in the whispering of longings and the discovery of new possibilities. There’s also a “Meet and Greet” evening with JoAnn Mast from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. that includes a light meal and entertainment for $15 per person. Contact Meg Hansen at Honeymoon Bay Lodge at 250-749-4252 or meg@honeymoonbayretreat.com.

Saturday, August 21 to Sunday, August 22, 2010
Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator Course with JoAnn Mast, Veriditas Master Teacher
Honeymoon Bay Lodge and Retreat, Honeymoon Bay
$600 includes lunch
Register at Veriditas
Walking the labyrinth is being embraced as a spiritual practice throughout the western world mostly because of Veriditas trained facilitators. Some people take this two-day course to deepen their knowledge of labyrinths. Others take it with the goal of becoming a Veriditas Certified Facilitator.



WRITER'S RETREAT AT ANNIE'S ACRE IN NANOOSE BAY WITH: TEACHER: Betsy Warland

Title:
"Revision: -scaping the poem"

DESCRIPTION:
How do you know when a poem is ready for publication or performance? In this retreat you will learn, and apply in revisions, three strategies for guiding you in making each poem's final revisions. These "-scaping" strategies will assess how accurately you have: located the reader; positioned the narrator's voice; scored the poem's inherent movement on the page. Learning how to develop a "third" ear by reading a poem aloud will inform this informative approach to revision. Poets who work in individual poems, suites of poems or a manuscript are all welcome.

Maximum 12 participants.

ABOUT BETSY:
Betsy Warland has published 10 books of poetry, creative nonfiction and lyric prose. Her decade-long writing project, Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing, will be published in 2010. Comprised of two sets of essays: one set reflects on the materials with which we write; the other set investigates the concepts Warland has developed about the forces we encounter in the act of writing beneath the language of craft.
The director of, and on faculty at, The Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University, Warland is also a manuscript consultant and the Director of the 5-month Vancouver Manuscript Intensive Program.
Currently, she is working on a lyric prose manuscript "Oscar of Between".

DATES:
September 17th, 18th, 19th, 2010.
Friday evening - 7:00-9:00 pm
Saturday - 10am-12:00 noon, lunch with time to write,
3:30-5:30pm, dinner, 7:30-9:30
Sunday morning - 10:00-12:00

WHERE:
Annie's Acre Bed and Breakfast in Nanoose Bay.
2335 Weston Pl. Nanoose Bay.
You can also find us on our website
www.anniesacre.com

PRICE:
$250 for the weekend. That includes meals.
Deposit of $100 due upon registration, to secure your spot as they are limited. Remaining amount due by Labour Day Weekend. If you need accommodation, please let us know and we will do our best to help you find some. If you are willing to camp, either tent or small trailer, we are on one acre with plenty of room. Please let us know. There will be no extra fee for camping here.

PRE-RETREAT SUBMISSION:
There will be a pre-retreat email submission of poems that will be required. Details about this when upon registration.
CONTACT:
Tina at tbiello@shaw.ca
or
250 468-7960



The Spirit Bear Award Created by Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier

Island Poet Named Recipient of New Literary Award

Sooke poet Wendy Morton has been named the first recipient of The Spirit Bear Award. This biannual tribute, founded by Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier with support from the Victoria, BC poetry community, recognizes the significance of a vital and enduring contribution to the poetry of the West Coast.

Morton, a resident of Vancouver Island, was honoured at a surprise gala presentation in Victoria, on Friday, 16 April. Lucinda Chodan, Editor-in-Chief of The Victoria Times-Colonist, poet and novelist Patrick Lane and poet and memoirist Lorna Crozier each spoke of Morton’s extensive support of poetry and poets during the celebration. She was presented with a carved Spirit Bear Box made by Sooke artist John Mugford. A very surprised Morton then spoke of her work with First Nations peoples, helping both children and adults tell their stories in poetry.

Wendy Morton, the author of four books of poetry and a memoir, also created Planet Earth Poetry, the popular Victoria reading series now in its second decade. Morton was instrumental in founding Victoria’s Poet Laureate position as well as Random Acts of Poetry, an annual event across Canada and now in the United Kingdom that has seen poets reading in schools, shopping malls, hotel lobbies, municipal offices, and taxi cabs. She has been Westjet’s Poet of the Skies and has taught poetry at the Victoria READ Society and in public schools across Canada. For the past fifteen years she has managed the annual Master Poetry classes at The Juan de Fuca poetry retreats. "Poetry is the shortest distance between two hearts," said the passionate literary leader.

Patrick Lane called her a literary treasure and a dynamic force in the literature of this country. “I can think of no one who has so dedicated her life to this island’s literary community. In doing so she has raised the awareness of people, helping them discover their own stories and songs through the art of the poem. A passionate advocate for poetry and the richness it brings to people’s lives, she is most deserving of this inaugural community award.”



New Monthly Poetry Series in Nanaimo

Greg Skala is trying to establish monthly poetry reading sessions at the Wellington Branch Library, 3032 Barons Road, Nanaimo, B.C., on the first Thursday evening of each month, 7:00-8:00 p.m. The upcoming session (our second so far) will be on Thursday, June 3, 2010. If you or someone you know might be interested in reading either their own poems or favourite poems by others, for the May session or for a session in some future month, please urge them to contact the Library at 250-758-5544 or either of these two e-mail addresses: Email Greg
Email VIRL





Qualicum Acoustic Cafe

QB Acoustic Café
Rotary House, 211 W. Fern, Qualicum Beach

This month's feature is an ango-alaskan acoustic world music duo from the UK . $5 per adult. Children free. Check out their website http://www.opland-freeman.com/
(The "Rotary House" is located on the corner of Fern Road West and Beach Road in Qualicum)
QB Acoustic Café is committed to the sharing of community, acoustic music from all genres, poetry, story-telling, and more…
Next Evening
Qualicum's Acoustic Cafe, with music, poetry, story telling and song is on the first Friday of the month with open stage at 7:30pm.
$5 at the door
Rotary House on corner of Fern Road and Beach Road
Please arrive early if you want to sign up for the open stage.
Doors open 7.00
Open Stage 7.30-8.45
Intermission 8.45-9.00
Feature act 9.00-10.00
Sign up for open stage
· at the door or
· by calling Joyce at 250 752-1162



StoryTelling Evenings

The Around Townd Tellers now gather:
every SECOND Friday of the month at
the Unitarian Fellowship Hall
595 Townsite Road ( at Millstone)

7:30pm



Poetry Gabriola Festival

Poetry Gabriola Festival Site for on-gpoing events




Walking with Elihu: poems on Elihu Burritt, The Learned Blacksmith

front cover

Taylor Graham's poetry captures the life of an exceptional man of the nineteenth century. Elihu Burritt, born into a poor Connecticut family, was acclaimed "The Learned Blacksmith" by the Governor of Massachusetts when it was discovered he had mastered 50 foreign languages while working at the forge. Corresponding with Longfellow and others, Elihu Burritt became one of the most ardent peace activists in his century, helping organize international peace congresses, campaigning for a Congress of Nations, international law, and a World Court. Born nearly 200 years ago, he was well ahead of his time. President Lincoln appointed him Consular Agent to Birmingham, England. In her inimitable style, poet Taylor Graham, portrays Burritt's passion for peace and the betterment of man's condition in 94 beautiful poems. This is truly poetry for history.
Amazon

About the Author

Taylor Graham is a volunteer search-and-rescue dog handler in the Sierra Nevada. Her poems have appeared widely in small and university press, including American Literary Review, The Iowa Review, The New York Quarterly, Poetry International, Southern Humanities Review, and she's included in the anthology California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Santa Clara University, 2004). Her book The Downstairs Dance Floor (Texas Review Press, 2006) was awarded the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize. A small collection of her Elihu Burritt poems was a finalist in the 2010 Poets Writers' California Writers Exchange.

If Only the Dust Would Settle by Althea Romeo-Mark

If Only the Dust Would Settle front cover

The Poetry collection, “If Only the Dust Would Settle,” consists of selected poems interwoven into a personal essay. The essay contemplates the meaning of home and my experiences as an immigrant. I come from a line of immigrants, was born in Antigua, West Indies and raised in the US Virgin Islands. I lived in the USA and Liberia, where I got married, bore three children and survived Liberia's political upheavals. I also lived in England and now Switzerland.
The book is now available now from AuthorHouse Author House
0800 1974150
Order this title through your local bookseller or preferred on-line retailer.
978-1-4389-8267-0 (SC ISBN)
You can also order copies from www.amazon.com and www.borders.co You can see a copy of the book's cover, designed by Cassandra, on my blogsite (www.aromaproduction.vox.com).



What Were Their Dreams - New Poetry by Wendy Morton

Press Release


Mother Tongue Publishing Launches Rocksalt, An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry

Rocksalt, An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry,. front cover

Rocksalt, An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry, 2008



TALE SPINNERS

Tale Spinners, a writing group welcomes all writers, be they published or simply interested in writing. Our purpose is to support and encourage one another in the act of creative writing. We meet on the first and third Friday of the month from 1 - 3 at St. Edmond's Church library.
Information at 250-248-6176 - Evelyn



RAP Poets

Photos
David Fraser's Random Acts of Poetry

Nanaimo Screenwriters Gathering
The Nanaimo Screenwriters Gathering (NSG) is a group devoted to writers for film and TV. There are two components to the group - monthly gatherings and our website.

Gatherings
We meet every third Monday of the month at 7 p.m., Starbucks in Chapters, across from Woodgrove Centre. We discuss screenwriting and share our scripts for feedback. Every meeting has a focus ­ some of our more frequent themes include: Ten Page Read, Logline and Synopsis Session, and Favorite Screenplays. Anyone interested in screenwriting is welcome to attend. No membership fees.

NSG Online
Our website has information about the monthly gatherings, local news related to film and writing, members pages, book reviews, and more.

Newsletter
Our monthly newsletter is filled with info about websites, contests, and local events, as well as details on the next gathering.

For more information -
Contact: Melissa Walker
Ph. (250) 729-2673
Email
NSG Online



Native Women in the Arts

Web Site



Tongues of Fire

Solstice Cafe - 529 Pandora Ave at 7:30, $3.00. Evening starts with an Open mic followed by a feature performance by the Tongues of Fire poetry collective Love and Literature

Tongues of Fire

My Space Tongues of Fire



Planet Earth Poetry

Planet Earth Poetry, at the Black Stilt, 1633 Hillside, at 7:30 pm every Friday

Email



Canadian Federation of Poets

Web Page



Federation of BC Writers New Web Site

Web Site







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Ascent Aspirations revised February, 2010

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