On Thursday September 24, livewords will be hosting James Dewar, John B. Lee, and Elana Wolff at Sage West at 924 College Street (click here for a map).
We start at 8 PM. Please arrive before then to secure a seat and enjoy some food and drink.
James Dewar enjoys the often hectic demands of a career as a freelance website designer, writer and editor, but is compelled to write and perform poetry by his recalcitrant muse. His first book of poetry, The Garden in the Machine was published by Hidden Brook Press (March 2007). His poetry has also been published in several anthologies and journals. While his profession requires long hours of reclusive keyboard pounding, he also organizes and hosts his own poetry reading series in Toronto, Hot-Sauced Words, now entering its fourth year. He serves as vice-president of the Writers’ Circle of Durham Region where he enjoys developing ways to help writers gain confidence in their writing and presentation, but is often found attending symposiums and workshops due to his belief that lifelong learning is an essential spark for productive creativity. A regular contributor to the Toronto poetry scene, he delivers his emotionally clever poetry with an intriguing, unforgettable punch.
John B. Lee was appointed Poet Laureate of the City of Brantford in perpetuity in 2005. The author of over fifty published titles his work has appeared internationally in over 500 publications. The only two-time winner of the Peoples’ Poetry Award, he is also the recipient of the CBC Literary Award for poetry. A recipient of over seventy prestigious international awards for his work, his most recent books include: Island on the Wind-Breathed Edge of the Sea (Hidden Brook Press, 2009), *One Leaf in the Breath of the World, *winner of the Grassroots chapbook Award (Beret Days, 2009) and forthcoming from Rubicon Press in September–Let Light Try All the Doors, winner of the Rubicon Press chapbook award. He is currently working on the book Sweet Cuba, translations of Cuban poetry from Spanish into English, Tough Times, a book of essays on the impact of the current economic crisis upon the arts, and he has two books forthcoming one each from Black Moss Press and Hidden Brook Press. He lives in Port Dover with his wife, Cathy.
Elana Wolff has published three books of poetry with Guernica Editions: Birdheart (2001), Mask (2003), and You Speak to Me in Trees (2006)— winner of the 2008 F.G. Bressani Prize for Poetry. She is also co-author, with the late Malca Litovitz, of Slow Dancing: Creativity and Illness, Duologue and Rengas (Guernica, 2008). Implicate Me, a collection of short essays on poems by Greater Toronto Area poets is forthcoming this year. Elana has taught English as a Second Language at York University and English for Academic Purposes at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem; she currently divides her time between writing, editing, and facilitating therapeutic art.
Open Mic Contest: Glosa, Glosa, Glosa, Glosa!
Write a glosa, read it, and maybe win our $50 cash prize.
Rules:
The “standard” glosa form begins with taking four (4) lines from another poet (this forms a quatrain that acts as a kind of epigraph to the poem). After the 4-line “borrowed” opening, the standard glosa has four (4) stanzas of ten (10) lines each. Each stanza ends with a line taken sequentially from the borrowed quatrain. While there is no required metre, lines 6, 9 and 10 of each stanza are end-rhymed.
Please bring 3 copies of your glosa with you so our judges may have a reference. It should take no more than 3 minutes to read your glosa.
Sign Up: info@livewords.ca