Along with our readers: David Day, Bill Howell and Rod Weatherbie on Thursday February 25 we will have our first ever Sonnet Smackdown on the Open Mic
Join us at the Black Swan, 154 Danforth Avenue, just east of Broadview (map).
Open Mic Sign-up at 7:30
Readings commence at 8 p.m.
Yes we did just write: The Open Mic Sonnet Smackdown - yes damn it – a sonnet fight-to-the death, well not death surely. No a contest for cash and bragging rights.
Choose your weapon:
It was a brief affair but it’s over. Sage West, where we had some autumnal glory, has been sold so once again livewords picks up its bags and dusts off it’s hat and moves on.
We are very pleased to advise we are moving east to the Black Swan Tavern at 154 Danforth Avenue just steps east of Broadview Station, and the terminus of the King and Dundas streetcar lines, please click here for a map.
We will welcome Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, A. F. Moritz, Robyn Sarah and Zach Wells to the new venue.
Readings from 8 pm Thursday November 26th.
Open Mic Poetry In Translation sign-up at 7:30 pm.
We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, November 26 at Black Swan Tavern which is also the home of a sister reading series Hot Sauced Words.
It’s a cool November livewords in a new location the Black Swan Tavern at 154 Danforth Avenue just steps east of Broadview Station.
livewords is pleased to welcome Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, A. F. Moritz, Robyn Sarah and Zach Wells.
We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, November 26 at Black Swan Tavern- at 154 Danforth Avenue just steps east of Broadview Station, please click here for a map.
A. F. Moritz‘s book of poems The Sentinel (House of Anansi Press, 2008) won the 2009 Griffin Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2008 Governor General’s Award. His poetry has received awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Ingram Merrill Fellowship, the Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Beth Hokin Prize of Poetry magazine. Night Street Repairs (Anansi, 2004) won the 2005 ReLit Award for poetry, Rest on the Flight into Egypt (Brick Books, 1999) was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and The Tradition (Princeton University Press, 1986) was selected to the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets. His poems have appeared in such magazines as Poetry, Hudson Review, American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Partisan Review, Southwest Review, The Fiddlehead, Malahat Review, The Walrus, etc. They have been selected to many anthologies, including The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2007, four editions of the annual Best American Poetry series, and Harold Bloom’s 1998 Best of the Best American Poetry. Moritz is editor of The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2008 (Tightrope Books, 2009).
Pier Giorgio Di Cicco was born in Arezzo, Italy, and was raised in Baltimore, Montreal, and Toronto. He currently resides in the countryside north of Toronto. His newest book Names of Blessing was launched this fall by Novalis Publlishng. He is the author of over thirteen books of poems from 1975 to 1986 including The Tough Romance, Dancing in the House Of Cards, Flying Deeper into the Century, and Virgin Science: Hunting Holistic Paradigms. He withdrew from the world of letters to join a monastery in 1986 and re-emerged in 2001 to publish Living in Paradise – New and Selected Poems with Mansfield Press. He has been the Emilio Goggio Visiting Professor in Italian-Canadian Studies at the University of Toronto, and in 2004 he was named as the Poet Laureate for the City of Toronto. He is an urban consultant and Curator of the Toronto Museum Project and a recipient of a 2007 Canadian Urban Institute Urban Leadership Award. He is on the design team of BMI/Pace Architects/Planners, Principal of Municipal Mind, and an ordained Roman Catholic Priest. watch?v=W57llOel9Y4&feature=related
Robyn Sarah is the author of eight poetry collections, most recently Pause for Breath (Biblioasis, 2009), as well as two collections of short stories and a book of essays, Little Eurekas: A Decade’s Thoughts on Poetry. Her writing has been published widely, anthologized and broadcast in Canada and the United States. She edited The Essential George Johnston and The Essential Don Coles for The Porcupine’s Quill, and is currently working on The Essential Margaret Avison. She lives in Montreal.
Writer and editor Zachariah Wells is the author of the poetry collection Unsettled; co-author of the children’s book Anything But Hank!; and editor of the anthology Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets. His latest book is the poetry collection Track & Trace. He lives in Halifax, where he works sporadically as an onboard attendant for Via Rail. Visit him online at zachariahwells.com or read his popular blog: Career Limiting Moves.
OPEN MIC CONTEST:
The return of our popular Poetry in Translation contest:
Poems should be no loner than 3 minutes.
Poems must not be your own original writing.
On the same night we will be graced by Adam Getty, Sonja Greckol, and Blair Trewartha, we are having a form-based Open Mic Contest:
A Cento [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5771] , Sonnet [http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm] or Sestina [http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/reports2000/page9.html]
Poems must be in the one of these forms.
2 $20 prizes for each runner up for best poem of each form.
1 Overall prize of $50 (for best poem in their form and best overall poem)
livewords @ Sage West, 924 College Street – Click here for map/view.
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