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). Between 7 and 7:15, put your name in the hat to read at open mic.

Check out Planet Earth Poetry’s 5-day writing retreat with Jan Zwicky and our half-day poetry retreat with Richard Osler.

FRIDAY, september 9, 2016

welcome!

Tonight we launch our 21st season! Featuring an all open mic of poems generated by our 21 Challenge. Write yours by September 9 and show up to read. A new season to celebrate (or mourn) beginnings, curse (or bless) starting over, cheer or boo new years.

FRIDAY, september 16, 2016

fundraiser for doctors without borders

We carry on our annual tradition of an all open mic evening. Bring a favourite poem of yours written by a poet you love and admire, or read poem you’ve recently discovered that is timely and relevant.

As usual, there will be books for sale, $5 each. All proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders.

FRIDAY, september 23, 2016

planet earth poetry partners with vfa

For this special evening, Planet Earth Poetry partners with the Victoria Festival of Authors.

Confessional, lyrical, lithe, and bare, these poets are as varied as the tools of expression at their disposal. Jan Zwicky bears witness to environmental and cultural cataclysm in The Long Walk. With meditations on what lies just beneath the surface of contemporary life, Steven Heighton’s The Waking Comes Late challenges the boundaries of sleep and even death. Through fearlessly wrought verse in Burning in This Midnight Dream, Louise Bernice Halfe describes how the experience of residential schools continues to haunt those who survive, and how the effects pass like a virus from one generation to the next. This reading is held in partnership with Planet Earth Poetry Reading Series and Open Word Readings & Ideas. Hosted by Victoria’s Poet Laureate Yvonne Blomer.

Location: 
Ambrosia Event Centre
638 Fisgard St

Tickets $15 — Students 20% off

Purchase tickets through Eventbrite.

FRIDAY, september 30, 2016

susan stenson, bill stenson & fred stenson

Susan Stenson’s writing students, both youth and adult, have won national and international prizes. In 2012, she received a Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in teaching. 

She is the author of three books of poetry and her poems are widely anthologized. Winner of  the Arc poetry prize, the League of Canadian Poets national contest, and the Al Purdy contest, judges praise her work for its originality, its spunk and song.  

Patrick Lane says, Stenson writes poems spare with love, the kind Bronwen Wallace knew, the same fierce echoes—and Wendy Morton calls her an extraordinary poet. Ariel Gordon gushes that Stenson’s poems are full of earthy, word-drunk humour. Her latest manuscript, Joining the Dogs, extols her love affair with words.

You can listen to a CBC interview with Susan and watch a video HERE.

Fred Stenson’s sixth novel and ninth book of fiction, Who By Fire was published by Doubleday Canada in 2014. Stenson is the author of eighteen books in all and 150 films and videos. His titles include a trio of historical novels The Great Karoo, Lightning and The Trade. He has won several awards for his fiction:  the WGA George Bugnet Novel Award (2001), The City of Edmonton Book Prize (2001), and the Grant MacEwan Writer’s Prize (2001 and 2006), and the CAA Fiction Award (1975). The Trade was shortlisted for the Giller Prize in 2000. The Great Karoo was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 2008. Thing Feigned or Imagined, Stenson’s book on the craft of fiction is available from Banff Centre Press. Stenson directed the Wired Writing Studio at The Banff Centre for 15 years. He is a regular columnist for Alberta Views magazine. He lives in Cochrane, Alberta. 

Bill Stenson lives in Victoria, BC and Mesa, Arizona.  He has published a short story collection titled Translating Women and a novel titled Svoboda, both with Thistledown Press. His latest novel, Hanne and Her Brother will be out in October 2016, also with Thistledown.  A story titled “Apache Junction” was published in the summer edition of Prairie Fire.