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.

FRIDAY, march 4, 2016

betsy warland & trisha cull

Betsy Warland has published 12 books of poetry, creative nonfiction, and lyric prose including her best-selling 2010 book of essays on writing, Breathing the Page—Reading the Act of Writing. In 2013, Warland created a new publishing template: an interactive salon that features excerpts from her manuscript Oscar of Between, guest writers, artists’ work and lively comments from salon readers.  In March of 2016, Oscar of Between—A Memoir of Identity and Ideas launches Caitlin Press’ new imprint, Dagger Editions.

Warland has been teaching creative writing workshops and courses for the past 35 years. She co-founded the national Creative Writer nonfiction Collective in 2004. Designer and director of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser from 2001–2012 and TWS Mentor from 2001–2003, and in 2005, she remains on TWS teaching faculty. While on the National Council of The Writers’ Unison of Canada, Warland chaired The Writers’ Union AGM in Vancouver in 2012.  A professional manuscript consultant/editor for the past 25 years, Warland works with writers from across Canada.

Trisha Cull is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s MFA Creative Writing program. Her work has been published in Room of One’s Own, Descant, sub Terrain, Geist, The New Quarterly, The Dalhousie Review and PRISM. She was the winner of Lichen’s “Tracking a Serial Poet” contest in 2006, PRISM’s Communications Award for Literary Non-fiction in 2007, and the 2007 Prairie Fire Bliss Carmen Poetry Award. Cull lives in Victoria, BC.

In her lyrical memoir The Death of Small Creatures, Trisha Cull lays bare her struggles with bulimia, bipolar disorder and substance abuse. Interspersing snatches of conversations, letters, blog entries and clinical notes with intimate poetic narrative, Cull evokes an accessible experience of mental illness.

FRIDAY, march 11, 2016

kyeren regehr & naomi guttman

Naomi Guttman is the author of Reasons for Winter (Brick Books, 1991) and Wet Apples, White Blood (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007), which won the Adirondack Center for the Arts Literary Award for Best Book of Poems, and a novella-in-verse, The Banquet of Donny & Ari: Scenes from the Opera (Brick Books, 2015).  She has received grants from the Canada Council, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Saltonstall Foundation. She teaches at Hamilton College in New York State.

If Dionysus and Ariadne lived in late-twentieth century Montreal, would he serve her cassoulet and couscous? Would Ariadne weave tapestries of furious environmental elegy? Amid a strained marriage and a world on the edge of environmental disaster, this novella-in-verse lays open moments of vexation and tenderness, of grief, guilt, betrayal, and love. Sounding through these moments are the harpsichord and the loom, drawing Donny, Ari, and their sons into the long weave of myth, art, and human history.

Kyeren Regehr earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria, and spent four years on the poetry board of The Malahat Review. Her poetry has appeared in literary journals and anthologies in Canada, Australia, and America, most recently in Best Canadian Poetry 2015, and the iconic Australian feminist journal, Hecate. Her first poetry manuscript, completed with a grant from The Canada Council for the Arts, is currently under consideration at a literary press. She’s working on her second book, very gratefully funded by another grant from Canada Council. 

FRIDAY, march 18, 2016

Words on Ice: An Evening of Readings (at uvic)

An evening of readings of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by nine Canadian writers.

Jordan Abel, M.A.C. Farrant, Stella Harvey, Jeremy Loveday, Elizabeth May, Molly Peacock, Laura Trunkey, Kim Trainor, and J.D. Zapf

Co-hosted by Yvonne Blomer and John Barton

WordsThaw pass or Words on Ice ticket required. Details here.
Regular ticket price (at door only): $10
Student evening ticket price (at door): $5

LOCATION: Rm. A240, Human & Social Development Building

Jordan Abel, Jeremy Loveday, and Kim Trainor’s readings are generously supported by The Canada Council for the Arts.

Readers’ books and CDs on sale in the lobby courtesy of the UVic Bookstore.

FRIDAY, march 25, 2016

HAPPY EASTER!
NO PLANET EARTH POETRY TONIGHT

A couple of Sharpies and some eggs is all you need for this egg bouquet. Maybe you’ll write your favourite poem on an egg and leave it for someone to find.