The Planet Earth Poetry reading series is a launching pad for the energies of writers and poets established and not. It is a place where words are most important. A venue in which all manner of poets and writers are welcome; a place for excellence, innovation, collaboration, diverse projects and experiments. The evening begins at 7:30 with an open mic, followed by a featured reader(s). Planet Earth Poetry is located at Hillside Coffee and Tea, 1633 Hillside Ave (across from Bolen Books). Sign-up for the open mic begins at 7pm.

Friday, september 18, 2015

Season Opening Night: MSF/Doctors Without Borders fundraiser

Doctors Without Borders: Medical aid where it is needed most. Independent. Neutral. Impartial.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) helps people worldwide where the need is greatest, delivering emergency medical aid to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters or exclusion from health care.

Planet Earth Poetry begins its 20th year with our annual MSF/Doctors Without Borders Fundraiser in a joint event co-hosted by PEP’s New Artistic Director Daniel G. Scott and Victoria’s Poet Laureate Yvonne Blomer.

This is the night to bring your favourite poem by a poet other than yourself and to bring cash to buy books. Each book is $5 and all money goes to MSF/Doctors Without Borders.

This evening will also mark the official start of Daniel Scott’s position at Planet Earth Poetry. Welcome Daniel!

friday, september 25, 2015

jen hadfield and pam galloway

From Jen Hadfield’s blog: For the past eight years, Shetland has persistently influenced my poetry and visual art.Since my second book Nigh-No-Place, won the T.S.Eliot Award in 2008, I’ve worked primarily as a poet, creative writing tutor, and classroom assistant, but walking, and gathering wild food and materials for my visual art-works, are as important in my creative life as my language-based practice. My third poetry collection, Byssus, is out now.

Pam Galloway lives in Vancouver with her delightful companion, Leeloo the cat.
Pam has been writing poems for about 25 years and before that read them and before that listened to her mother recite them to her.

Her poems have been published widely in literary magazines and anthologies and twice on the website of the Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate.
Her first book of poetry Parallel Lines was published in 2006. Her most recent book of poetry is Passing Stranger, published fall 2014 by Inanna Publications, Toronto.

Friday, october 2, 2015

patrick friesen and raoul fernandes

Patrick Friesen, a resident of Winnipeg for 30 years and Vancouver for a dozen years, now lives in Victoria. He has published numerous books of poetry and has written several stage and radio plays. Friesen has also collaborated with choreographers, dancers, musicians and composers. He tours on a regular basis, giving readings and workshops all over the country. His book, Blasphemer’s Wheel, was awarded Manitoba Book of the Year Prize in 1996; A Broken Bowl, was a finalist for the 1997 Governor-General’s Award; and Patrick was awarded the ReLit Award for Poetry in 2012 for jumping in the asylum. His most recent book is a short history of crazy bone (Mother Tongue Publishing).

Raoul Fernandes lives and writes in East Vancouver. He was a finalist for the 2010 Bronwen Wallace Award, and a runner up in subTerrain’s Lush Triumphant Awards in 2013. He has been published in numerous literary journals including Prism International, The Malahat Review, and Event Magazine, and has work forthcoming in this year's Best Canadian Poetry anthology. He also is an editor for the online poetry magazine, The Maynard. His first collection of poems, from Nightwood Editions, is Transmitter and Receiver.

Friday, october 9, 2015

alisa gordaneer and paulo da costa

Alisa Gordaneer is a poet, writer and editor who has taught at the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, Camosun College and Royal Roads University. She has worked as a newspaper editor, communications consultant and freelance journalist, and writes regularly for Victoria’s CVV Magazine. A member of the League of Canadian Poets and a board member of the Creative Nonfiction Collective Society, she has won many awards for her poetry and nonfiction.

When she’s not writing, she enjoys playing fiddle, inventing new things to eat, and hanging out with chickens. This has given her some extraordinary insights into the language of backyard fowl.

paulo da costa’s work has received the Commonwealth First Book Prize and the City of Calgary Book Prize. His poetry and fiction have been published widely and translated into five languages.

“In any skin purple is a heavy tone that penetrates to the core.”
paulo da costa’s stories get under your skin, bruise your consciousness with their exploration of the forces that hold us together, not always benignly, and those that pull us apart. A hunter and a cougar ponder the positions of predator and prey under the dense canopy of a West Coast forest. Like the bubbles that the character in the title story blows while witnessing the dissolution of a love affair, these stories dazzle and beguile with their craft, their often dark humour, their grasp of people living the extremity that is daily life.