Announcements

Last night, the winners of the 5th Annual Victoria Butler Book Prize were announced: Arleen Pare (Adult Literature) and Chris Tougis (Children's Literature). Check out the website at: http://www.victoriabutlerbookprize.ca/vbbp.html

Little Emperors' Book Launch - March 1, 2008

On March 1, 2008, my close friend, JoAnn Dionne, launched her first book titled, Little Emperors. The book is a memoir of her time spent teaching English to elementary students in the Republic of China. She takes a look at the boundaries acknowledged and dissolved both in the classroom and beyond the school gates, and the change in China's politics and collective thinking, succumbing to Western influences. Her memoir is both humourous and startling from the daily activities she relays, and life-altering adventures she encounters in a communist country. The book is a reflection of her acqaintances, choices, observations of people and ideas, and emotions while in a foreign place as she struggles with her foreign concepts and assimilates herself into a new world.
She organized her launch to be held in a new art gallery called Dales in Chinatown, Victoria, BC. A fit setting and a phenomenal turnout, as her audience was packed to the rafters. She graciously invited a few local writers - Steven J. Thompson, Yvonne Blomer, Liz Walker, Missie Peters, and myself -to read our selected poems (her favourites) before she read excerpts from Little Emperors. As part of her launch, she also invited a spokesperson from the Free Tibet society. Her memoir is a sharing of her broadening perspectives and embracing of Eastern culture, as well as a message to Westerners about the atrocities that still occur in that part of the world; atrocities that are against basic human rights.
I am honoured to be able to call such a brilliant, adventurous writer my friend, and to have witnessed her great accomplishment and be a part of the celebration of her book.
You can check out her book at: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Little-Emperors-Year-Future-China-JoAnn-Dionne/9781550027563-item.html

Announcements

Please check out http://www.blueskiespoetry.ca/ on February 11 & 14, 2008.
You will find two of my poems: "Bare branches" and "Because You Love Me"

Announcements

Karen Chester (grand prize winner) and me


Last month I entered a poetry contest through Cafe Fairfield, and this past week I received a book prize as a runner-up. There were three of us - a grand prize winner ($50 and a book) and two runners-up. Okay, it wasn't a first prize of $1,000, but I don't really care. This was my first prize for writing poetry.

My significant other continues to remind me that I was a short-listed participant in the CBC Radio poetry slam in March 2006. I was paid for my efforts (handsomely, I might add). So, perhaps I do exaggerate when I say this is my first prize or acknowledgement. To put it into better perspective, it is the first time I entered a contest, received a phonecall, showed up, shook someone's hand and received a prize (in this case, I won a book), and then was able to showcase my poem. It was a sign of encouragement to keep going, and that there will be more opportunities to earn prizes in the future.



Thank you Cafe Fairfield!

Random Acts of Poetry - 2007

VICTORIA POETS TO COMMIT ‘RANDOM ACTS OF POETRY’

Random Acts of Poetry, a celebration of poetry and literacy, begins its fourth year during the week of October 1st to 7th, 2007. Random Acts of Poetry is a project of the Victoria READ Society, a non-profit literacy organization, established in 1976. Random Acts of Poetry is funded by The Canada Council for the Arts.

During the week, 37 poets across Canada, from Victoria to Newfoundland, including three of Canada’s Poets Laureate, will commit Random Acts of Poetry in their cities. On buses and subways, in donut shops and cafes, police stations, grocery stores, shelters, curling rinks, on city streets and country lanes, poets will read poems to strangers and give them their books. Poets will also read their poems in ESL and Adult Literacy classes across the country.

In the Greater Victoria area five poets will offer poems to passersby: Victoria’s Poet Laureate/road kill inspector/Sunday school teacher Carla Funk; Random Acts of Poetry founder/private eye/raven watcher Wendy Morton; Barbara Pelman, teacher at Reynolds Secondary School/wannabe tango dancer; Susan Stenson, teacher at Claremont Secondary School editor of the Claremont Review/bodytalker and Andrea McKenzie, daydreaming journalist.

“Poetry,” says Wendy Morton, “is the shortest distance between two hearts. I have read poems to people who hadn’t heard a poem in thirty years, and watched their eyes fill up with tears. Some burst into laughter or laid a hand on my shoulder, hugged me, took my hand. Poetry can connect us with each other as humans as no other art form I know. Poetry is a gift that we can create from whatever life has in store for us.”

Across Canada poets will commit random acts in: Victoria, Vancouver, Nanaimo, Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, Moose Jaw, Winnipeg, Stratford, Markdale, Brantford, Toronto, Collingwood, Ottawa, Windsor, Hamilton, Montreal, Fredericton, Sackville, Saint John, Charlottetown, Halifax, Antigonish, St. John’s.

http://national-random-acts-of-poetry.blogspot.com/2007/08/andrea-mckenzie.html

http://www.victoriabookprizesociety.ca/doc/Book%20Prize%20Showcases%20Literary%20Arts.pdf