Planet Earth Poetry Poets

friday, february 06
special 30th anniversary event -
the planet earth poetry poets

An evening of readings from Planet Earth Poetry’s “in house” volunteers, poets every one:

Hosted by Barbara Pelman, and featuring the poetry of: Anna Cavouras/Allegra Kaplan/Terri Gower/Sharon Lee/Sandy O’Reilly/Rhona McAdam/Lorne Daniel/Clare Sharpe/Wendy Donawa/Torsten Schoeneberg/Nancy Issenman/Nancy Yakamoski/Laurence Hutchman/Andrea Scott/Sheila Martindale/Sheilagh McIvor/Susan Braley/Marlene Grand Maître

PLEASE NOTE: there will be no open mic at this event.

Poet Theresa Muñoz

friday february 13
theresa munoz

Theresa Muñoz is a Canadian poet and academic living in Edinburgh, Scotland. She has a PhD in Scottish Literature from the University of Glasgow, where she wrote the first PhD on the work of Tom Leonard. Her first collection of poetry, Settle, was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Poetry Prize. Her second, Archivum, is out in May 2025 by Pavilion Poetry.

She has been awarded the Muriel Spark Centenary Award, Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, Creative Scotland Award and shortlisted for The Kavya Prize and a Sky Arts Royal Society of Literature Writers Award. She has produced several literary initiatives in the UK, including the Newcastle Poetry Festival and James Berry Poetry Prize. 

‘Archivum is a work of encounter, an electric exploration of the spaces between self and artefact, self and city, self and history. Within its pages, the dead are bid to speak and the author is transformed by the exchange. Muñoz’s work is restless, kind, careful and deftly attuned to poetry’s power to make and re-make us; to the moment ‘when the secret is heavy yet light, becomes actual light / and you can’t stop thinking about it’ ~ Sinéad Morrissey

Poet Andrea MacPherson

friday february 13
Andrea MacPherson

Andrea MacPherson is the author of four poetry collections and three novels. She has been shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, longlisted for the ReLit Award, and selected for CBC Canada Reads: People’s Choice. Andrea holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia, is the former editor of Prism International, and has taught creative writing and literature at a number of universities. She lives in Cloverdale, BC, with her daughter.

In this powerful new collection, Andrea MacPherson provides an unflinching commentary on what the female body wants and endures.Visceral and candid, Reckless follows the complex trajectory of female identity in a world that consistently denies women their right to assert it. These poems tackle an array of urgent topics women face throughout their lives, including reproductive rights, the trials of motherhood, the pain of divorce, and sexual emancipation. Here, MacPherson unpacks the impossible weight of gendered expectations and strips back limiting definitions consistently thrust upon women.

Poet Toussaint St. Negritude

friday february 20
touissaint st. negritude

Toussaint St. Negritude is the winner of the 2025 Firebird Award for the collection of poems Mountain Spells [Rootstock Publishing 2024]. A former Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine, and 2024 Nominee for Poet Laureate of Vermont, poet, bass clarinetist, and composer Toussaint St. Negritude conjures whole liberations in full tempo. US Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks described his work as "full of sweet sounds and surprises." Writer Xenia Turner, of Burlington's 7 Days weekly, declares him as "A Preacher of Jazz Influenced Gospel."

Originally from San Francisco, he has lived and broadly thrived across the African Diaspora, from the sacred mountains of Haiti to the Coltrane District of North Philadelphia. He, along with bassist Gahlord Dewald, is the leader of the band Jaguar Stereo!, a free-form ensemble of his own poetry and improvisational jazz, and his works have been widely published and recorded for over 40 years. He is also an avid educator, annually teaching poetry for the Governor's Institute of the Arts, among other institutions. On an alpine sanctuary facing east, Toussaint St. Negritude continues to thrive in the farthest elevations of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

Poet Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi

friday february 20
Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi

Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi is a Black mother who spends time with forests and waters on unceded lands of the T’Sou-ke Nation. Her work strives to instigate action in service to world-building, social change, and collaboration. She wants you to dance often and to join the BDS movement.

friday february 27

Join us at New Horizons in James Bay at 2pm, on Friday 27 February for award-winning poet D.M. Bradford. Darby Minott Bradford is a poet and translator based in Tio’tia:ke (Montreal). A current Shadbolt Fellow in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, they are the author of Dream of No One but Myself (Brick Books, 2021) and Bottom Rail on Top (2023). Ring of Dust by Louise Marois (2025) is their latest translation. 

Doors at 1:30pm, with sign-up for open mic.

New Horizons Centre is at 234 Menzies St. in James Bay (street parking only). Please note that unlike our evening readings, the afternoon readings will not be livestreamed or recorded.

Sponsored by The Victoria Arts Council.

Poet DM Bradford

FRIDAY february 27
d.m. bradford

Darby Minott Bradford is a poet and translator based in Tio’tia:ke (Montreal). A current Shadbolt Fellow in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, they are the author of Dream of No One but Myself (Brick Books, 2021) and Bottom Rail on Top (2023). Ring of Dust by Louise Marois (2025) is their latest translation.

Sponsored by The Victoria Arts Council.

Poet Daniel Cowper

FRIDAY february 27
daniel cowper

Daniel Cowper’s poetry has appeared in literary reviews in Canada, the US, Ireland, and the UK; he is a contributing editor to New Verse Review. Reviewers have called Kingdom of the Clock "gasp-inducingly beautiful" (MRB), and said its lines "chime with brilliance throughout" (BCR). He lives on Bowen Island.