Poet bronwyn preece

friday may 1
bronwyn preece

bronwyn preece, dubbed the ‘backcountry poet’, holds a PhD in performance. she is the author of knee deep in high water : riding the Muskwa-Kechika, expedition poems (Caitlin Press, 2023); and with Simply Read Books Sea to Sky Alphabet (2023); Gulf Islands Alphabet (2012) and the forthcoming Canadian Rockies Alphabet (2026).

Written wearing muddy boots, in wet tents and with frozen fingers, bronwyn preece’s hiking beyond is a collection steeped in the messiness of being alive. With reverence for geology, ornithology, botany, history and all that resists easy categorization, preece captures the soundbites, questions and quiet revelations of solo, backcountry travel. From recovery from injury to the realities of living with a genetic disorder, hiking beyond explores what it means to hike and to belong.

Poet Renee Sarojini Saklikar

friday may 1
renee sarojini saklikar

Renee Sarojini Saklikar is the author of six books, including the award-winning Children of Air India and Listening to the Bees. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, including Exile Editions, Chatelaine, The Capilano Review and Pulp Literature. She was Poet Laureate for the city of Surrey (2015-2018), co-founded Lunch Poems at Simon Fraser University, and teaches creative writing at Douglas College. Bramah’s Discovery is the third volume of her epic fantasy in verse series, THOT J BAP (The heart of This Journey Bears All Patterns). She lives in East Vancouver.

Poet Joanna Lilley

friday may 8
joanna lilley

Joanna Lilley’s fourth poetry collection, Three Pieces of Sea, is being published by Turnstone Press in spring 2026. Her previous collection, Endlings, won the Fred Kerner Book Award and her novel, Worry Stones, was longlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award. From the UK, Joanna has settled gratefully in Whitehorse, Yukon.

In a progression from life to loss, author Joanna Lilley explores the relationships between visual art, grief, sisterhood and the process of healing in her fourth poetry collection Three Pieces of Sea, published by Turnstone Press. A poetic portrait of the late artist Rebecca Lilley this ekphrastic, elegiac collection reflects a life lived and remembered through art. It is Lilley’s most personal work to da

Poet Ronna Bloom

friday may 8
ronna bloom

Ronna Bloom is is the author of eight books of poetry. Her poems have been broadcast on CBC, recorded by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and translated into Bangla and Chinese. She has collaborated with filmmakers, choreographers, health care professionals and architects. Her most recent book is In a Riptide (Brick Books), 2025.

The characters in Ronna Bloom’s new collection In a Riptide are tired, sick, old, fragile, baffled, worried, dying, dead, uncertain, snacking, happy, generous, preoccupied, horny, astonished, and sometimes free. Emily Dickinson and Bukowski show up in the same poem. The Buddha has a shower. And Sisyphus is released from his burdens. It’s the hospital meets the circus. Here, humour, darkness, and ecstasy mingle, and the chaos doesn’t stop. But there’s breath in these poems. There’s life.

Poet Tom Wayman

friday may 8
tom wayman

Tom Wayman was named a Vancouver Literary Landmark by the Vancouver Public Library in 2015, and in 2022 he received the province’s George Woodcock Award for literary lifetime achievement. His newest poetry collections are How Can You Live Here? (Frontenac House, 2024) and Out of the Ordinary (Harbour, 2025).

We live in extraordinary times so far this century—wars overseas, climate change, the unparalleled gap between the very rich and the rest of us, etc. But day-to-day, our lives inhabit the ordinary. The poems of Out of the Ordinary go deep into ordinary life to see the roots or wellhead of the extraordinary, finding family history inside a fir needle, a sense of personal limitations within a raindrop suspended from a twig, the working life in a nail.

May 15
pep in the afternoon!

friday may

Join us at New Horizons in James Bay at 2pm, on Friday 24 April for award-winning poet __________.

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.

Poet Laurie D. Graham

FRIDAY may 15
laurie d. Graham

Laurie D. Graham

Poet Phoebe Wang

friday april 24
phoebe wang

Phoebe Wang is a Toronto-based author of Admission Requirements (McClelland and Stewart, 2017), Waking Occupations, (McClelland and Stewart, 2022) and Relative to Wind: On Sailing, Craft and Community (Assembly Press, 2024.) She is currently a Writing Consultant at OCAD University. More of her work is at www.alittleprint.com.

Waking Occupations is a four-part meditation on what it means to live on occupied land and in colonial time. In a series of aubades and elegies, the subject of these poems considers her commitments, complicities and exclusions. She searches for the figure of the female artist as a time travelling women through the gallery of memory, encountering her mother, and the objects and works of art that hold us accountable. Waking Occupations considers what we carry from previous generations and the cyclical nature of the work that uplifts us.

Poet Anna Yin

friday april 24
anna yin

Anna Yin is Mississauga’s inaugural Poet Laureate (2015–2017). She has authored seven poetry collections and four translation books. Her work has won awards in Canada, the U.S., and China, and appears in ARC Poetry, The New York Times, Queen’s Quarterly, China Daily, and on CBC Radio. She teaches Poetry Alive.

Breaking into Blossom is a lyrical journey through migration, memory, and renewal. Moving between Chinese and Canadian landscapes, Anna Yin’s poems weave personal experience with history, social reflection, and moments of quiet wonder. Amid uncertainty and change, the collection seeks serenity, resilience, and unexpected beauty. With imagery drawn from nature, family, and everyday encounters, these poems explore the delicate balance between hardship and hope, revealing how even life’s most uncertain seasons can open into transformation—and blossom.