The WordStorm Featured Performers

February 19th, 2009

Hilary Peach:Audio poet Hilary Peach is an inter-disciplinary performer whose work marries song and poetry. For 15 years she has performed internationally at events that include the Vancouver International Folk Music Festival, Montreal’s Voix Des Ameriques, and the Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam. She has released an exquisite debut CD, Poems Only Dogs Can Hear, in which she suspends surreal vignettes inside a matrix of music. Peach was a finalist in the 2004 CBC Radio Poetry Face-Off, and has recently released a short film, Pennsylvania. She is currently working on a literary collection of poetry and a Folk Opera about her boilermaking work called Suitcase Local with musicians Andreas Kahre, Alex Varty and Leah Hokanson. Hilary Peach is Artistic Director of the Poetry Gabriola Festival.

February 19th, 2009

Judith Millar: WordStorm audiences who have wanted to hear more of Judith Millar's humorous pieces won't want to miss February 19! A writer of short stories, essays, poems and song lyrics, Judith has published over 100 pieces, and has won awards for her creative writing in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Recent awards include first prize in Hamilton's "Creative Keyboards" Short Story Contest. She recently has also published a number of children's song lyrics on children's entertainer RONNO's CDs, released by New Jersey publisher Kimbo Educational. A former corporate communications manager, Judith moved to Nanaimo, BC from Kitchener, Ontario in 2007.

February 19th, 2009

Zlatko Zvekich has performed across Europe on the keyboards prior to his settling in Ontario. After moving to Vancouver Island in 2001 Zlatko has switched from playing the Hammond Organ (B3) to playing classical, nylon string guitar. He studied all major musical styles in order to accompany his inventive tunes and story-like poems with rich harmonies and parts progressions. Arrangements of his music crisscross boundary between classical, jazz, and folk guitar playing.
Since coming to Nanaimo Zlatko completed over 100 songs and he is working presently on recording his 4th CD titled Best Nothing Vol. 4.

March 19th, 2009

Ann Graham Walker is a working journalist, a former CBC current affairs radio producer, and a former speechwriter to (now deceased) NS premier and humanitarian, Dr. John Savage. She’s had poetry published in the Rocksalt Anthology, PRISM International, the Gaspereau Review, Pitkin Review, the Windfire Anthology, Leaf Press’s Monday’s Poem series, and two chap books edited by Patrick Lane: All that Uneasy Spring (2007) and A Small Grace (Fall, 2008). She is a graduate of Goddard College’s MFA/Creative Writing program, and is currently working on her novel about growing up in 1950s Argentina: The Girl in the Garden.
Ann’s lived all over the world – mostly due to her father’s job in the film industry when she was growing up. She first came to North America when she travelled from her previous home in Australia to go to college in the States, at 18. She came to Canada in 1973 and lived in Nova Scotia for a very long time – raising three kids there with her husband Joseph – before the kids flew the nest and Ann and Joseph moved to Nanoose Bay, in 2002. They’re still there – in Nanoose Bay – not retired yet but hiking a lot, walking their border collie, serving as butlers to three rescue cats who’ve agreed to live with them, and reflecting on the fact that one of the big reasons they moved here was mild winters.
She’ll be reading on March 19th from The Girl in the Garden – a novel she’s currently revising for the last time before sending it out, so she’s hoping that many of you will give her feedback.

March 19th, 2009

Tricia Dower was a business executive before reinventing herself as a writer in 2002. Her short fiction has appeared in Room of One's Own, The New Quarterly, Hemispheres, Cicada, NEO, Insolent Rudder and Big Muddy. Born in New Jersey, she now lives and writes in Victoria, BC, where she served on the board of the Victoria School of Writing. Silent Girl is her first book.

March 19th, 2009

Glen Sorestad, a Life Member of the League of Canadian Poets, was born in Vancouver, but has lived in Saskatchewan most of his life. He taught school for over twenty years, founded Thistledown Press with his wife Sonia, and remained its President until he and Sonia retired from publishing in 2000. Sorestad was appointed the first Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan in November, 2000. He and Sonia have lived in Saskatoon since 1967. Sorestad has over a dozen books of poetry to his credit and his poems have appeared in over 40 anthologies and textbooks. He has given public readings of his work in every province of Canada, in 15 U.S . states,as well as in France, Norway, Finland and Slovenia.

April 16th, 2009

Joelene Heathcote writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction essay. She has published widely and won many awards. Her work has been included in anthologies, Breaking the Surface (SonoNis Press, 2000), Mocambo Nights (Ekstasis Editions, 2001), Translit Vol. (Blitzprint, 2006), and String to Bow (Leaf Press, 2005). Her collection of poetry, What’s Between Us Can’t Be Heard (Ekstasis, 2002), was a finalist for the Pat Lowther Award. Inherit the Earth (Rubicon Press, 2006),and a chapbook of poems, 2007. She is currently at work on a larger collection of poetry and a book of short stories.

April 16th, 2009

Sue Wheeler was born in Texas in 1942. In 1964 she received a B.A. from Rice University in Houston. In 1972 she immigrated to Canada and has lived since on a seaside farm on Lasqueti Island, British Columbia.

May 21st, 2009

Susan Stenson's work has appeared in several literary magazines, most recently, Fiddlehead, Geist, CV2 and sub-TERRAIN and anthologies including Threshold: six women six poets, Vintage ’99 and 2000, and No Choice But to Trust. In 2004, she won first prize in the ARC Poem of the Year Contest, Lush Triumphant, sub-TERRAIN Magazine’s Annual Writing Contest and the Rona Murray Prize for Poetry, sponsored by the Victoria Arts Council. She also won first prize in the Great Canadian Literary Hunt, This Magazine’s Poetry Contest 2000, the League of Canadian Poets National Contest in 1999 and the Hawthorne Chapbook Award in 1997 for her manuscript, A Little Less Swing, A Little More Sway. Her poems have been short listed several times for the CBC literary prize and are also featured on buses throughout British Columbia in the Poetry in Transit program. As a participant in the national literacy Random Acts of Poetry Weeks, 2004 and 2006, Susan has read poems to politicians, police officers, principals and pupils. Her work has also been commissioned for CBC radio’s Out Front Program. Sono Nis Press published her first book of poems, Could Love a Man, spring 2001, to rave reviews in several magazines including Arc, Malahat Review, Boulevard, Monday, and Prairie Fire. She lives ecstatically in Victoria with her family where she co-publishes The Claremont Review, a literary magazine for writers aged 13 to 19 which was Write Magazine’s choice for magazine of the year, 2001. Susan teaches English and creative writing to high school students in Saanich School District, has taught at Kamhlaba United World College in Mbabane, Swaziland and for The Victoria School of Writing. She is a regular on the roster of literary festivals, most recently for Poetry Africa in Durban, South Africa, Words Aloud 3, in Durham, Ontario, and for Forest Fest, in Port Alberni, British Columbia.

May 21st, 2009

John Beaton is a retired actuary who was raised in the highlands of Scotland and has lived in Qualicum Beach since 1988. He recites humorous poetry at Celtic gatherings and performances of the musical group “Celtic Chaos”. He moderates a metrical poetry workshop on the internet and his poetry has been published in newspapers, literary and fishing magazines, and internet sites and journals.

September 17th, 2009

Isa Milman< is a poet, visual artist and occupaitonal therapist who has lived in Canada for the past 30 years. Her first poetry collection, Between the Doorposts, won the 2005 Poetry Prize at the Canadian Jewish Book Awards. She has also published a chapbook, Seven Fat Years, and her work has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies.

A daughter of Holocaust survivors, Isa Milman was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany before immigrating to Boston. She graduated from Tufts University, then lived in San Francisco and Paris, involving herself in improvisational dance and theatre activities. She obtained her masters degree in rehabilitation science, and secured a job teaching occupational therapy at McGill University. She currently works as a program coordinator at the Victoria Epilepsy and Parkinson’s Centre.

From the author:
I was born into a family that lost almost everything. Our inheritance was a few photographs, an ancient tradition, and memory. My mother kept our family history and tradition alive – and though she passed this on through stories, teachings and songs, she didn't write it down. From a very early age, I felt that it was my mission to do so. How else to acknowledge my parents' and grandparents' lives? It's hard to explain how precious and deep is this impulse to insist that existence matters. It's a comfort to me to think that in my small way, during my time on earth, I can contribute to the discourse, add my few pages to the astonishing history of human letters, and hope that here and there, a spark flies, a heart opens, souls meet. We're here but for an instant, but we've left a memento of ourselves behind. That's why I write.

September 17th, 2009

Lorraine Gane was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and grew up in Toronto. In the mid '70s, she graduated from Carleton University's Honours Jouralism Program, then worked as a full-time writer and editor for major Canadian newspapers and magazines until 1989, when she began freelancing. In the early '90s, she also started teaching writing at universities and colleges such as Ryerson, McMaster and Georgian, as well as conducting her own private workshops. Selections from Lorraine's first poetry book, Even the Slightest Touch Thunders on My Skin (Black Moss Press, 2002), were shortlisted for the Canadian Literary Awards in 1997 and the League of Canadian Poets chapbook contest in 2000. Lorraine moved to Salt Spring Island, B.C. in 1998, where she lives with her partner. She is working on the next two volumes of poetry to complete a trilogy on love, loss and renewal. She is also working on a book about writing, among other projects. Lorraine gives talks on writing at universities and other locations and teaches writing through online courses and workshops to students across Canada.

October 15th, 2009

Jay Ruzesky has recently guest-edited a special issue of The Malahat Review on environmental literature called "The Green Imagination". His novel about a medieval monumental astronomical clock is called The Wolsenburg Clock and has just been published by Thistledown Press. He was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1965 and raised in Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Calgary, and Kelowna. He studied at Okanagan College (with John Lent), the University of Victoria (with Constance Rooke), the University of Windsor (with Alistair MacLeod), and at the Banff Centre for the Arts (with Don Coles and Don McKay). His poems and stories have appeared in Canadian and American journals such as Caliban, Prism international, Canadian Literature, Event, Saturday Night, Descant, Border Crossings, and Poetry Northwest. His books include Blue Himalayan Poppies (Nightwood, 2001), Writing on the Wall (Outlaw Editions, 1996), Painting The Yellow House Blue (House of Anansi, 1994), and Am I Glad To See You (Thistledown, 1992. He is on the editorial board of the Malahat Review and teaches English, Creative Writing and Film Studies at Vancouver Island University. Essays, interviews and art criticism have appeared in Brick, Poetry Canada Review, and selected gallery publications. He is currently working on another novel, a play, and a manuscript of poems. He lives on Vancouver Island. Web Site - Recent Book

October 15th, 2009

Michael Kenyon , born in Sale, Cheshire, is the author of nine books, most recently The Beautiful Children, a novel (Thistledown Press, Spring 2009), and a collection of poems, The Last House (Brick Books, Autumn 2009). He has lived for over forty years on Canada’s West Coast and presently divides his time between Pender Island and Vancouver, having in both places a private therapeutic practice. The Beautiful Children link

October 15th, 2009

John Lent was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia in 1948; he grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. He studied at the University of Alberta from 1965-71, concentrating in his graduate studies on Modernist art movements and experiments with form. He was taught by the noted Canadian novelist, Sheila Watson, and the Canadian playwright, Wilfred Watson. Lent's thesis was on the plays of T.S. Eliot : an analysis of "the schizophrenic adjustment we all have to make to the demands of Western society--a society that imposes material, social and spiritual roles." Lent pursued Doctoral studies at York University on Malcolm Lowry and the issue of subjectivity. For the last twenty years he has taught English literature and Creative Writing at a number of universities: Alberta, Notre Dame (Nelson), Regina, and Okanagan University College. Lent currently lives and teaches in Vernon, British Columbia. Media Link

November 26th, 2009

Margaret Doyle
With her background in theatre, Margaret has an abiding love of the spoken word, having written three plays, performance pieces and monologue's including, Winter Variations, a one-act play made up of thirty-one poems that was produced by her theatre company on the Sunshine Coast. Her poetry is likewise infused with a dramatic voice and is full of tactile imagery and provocative subjects. Margaret's work has been published by Midwifery Magazine, Ascent Publishing, online at Leaf Press, and in the Chiron Review. More recently, Margaret has been enjoying writing non-fiction and has been published in Monday Magazine, Alberta Hospitality Magazine, and various blogs including Todd Lucier's www.tourismkeys.ca. In her 'day job', Margaret writes about tourism frequently on her blog, www.fthm.wordpress.com and consults small business on how to craft their 'message'.

November 26th, 2009

Dinah D: "Dinah D is a West Coast gem, a real rarity, whose presence, style, and sound will all stick in your head from the very first time you hear her. Dinah is not only a solid upright bass player—thumping out that low register downbeat almost effortlessly—she’s also a gifted singer; a seductive contra-alto with a wry sense of humour. Dinah’s skill as a performer is backed up by strong song-writing talent with roots that go deep—far back to the days of Viper jazz—and a sound that is steeped in the blues. If you get the chance to see Dinah perform, do not hesitate to make the gig!" -James Booker, CHLY Radio Malaspina

November 26th, 2009

Kate Braid Please visit her Web Site

January 28th, 2010

Douglas Burnet Smith is the author of fifteen books of poetry. Nominated for the Governor General's Award, Canada's most prestigious literary honour, he has won many prizes for his writing, including The Malahat Review Long Poem Prize. He has represented Canada at international writers’ festivals including: the Belgrade International Writers’ Meeting, the Sarajevo International Poetry Festival , Le Scriptorium: Marseille, and Le Marché de la Poésie, Paris, the Marlborough Festival, England, the DH Lawrence Festival, Sante Fe. The National Gallery of Canada's audiotape guide to its permanent collection contains his work. He has served as the President of the League of Canadian Poets and as Chair of the Public Lending Right Commission of Canada. He teaches at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and at the American University of Paris.

January 28th, 2010

Kim Goldberg Rumblings from the RED ZONE
where poetry meets modern dance...
with Kim Goldberg, Holly Bright, Allannah Dow

Don't miss the world premiere of this modern dance adaptation of Kim Goldberg's latest book RED ZONE -- poems of homelessness and urban decay. Kim spent three years verse-mapping downtown Nanaimo's back alleys, graffiti galleries, underpasses and homeless camps to create RED ZONE. Holly Bright and Allanah Dow join her onstage for a risk-filled fusion of spoken word, dance and cello. Take the journey with them -- if you dare.

BIOS:
Kim Goldberg is an award-winning poet, journalist and author. Her work has been widely published in magazines and anthologies around the world including Macleans, Canadian Geographic, Cimarron Review, Geist, Tesseracts, The Capilano Review and elsewhere. She is the 2008 winner of the Rannu Fund Poetry Prize for Speculative Literature. Her first poetry collection, Ride Backwards on Dragon, was shortlisted for Canada's Lampert Memorial Award. pigsquash.wordpress.com/

Holly Bright is a performer and dance educator who specializes in solo dance interpretation of works by established Canadian choreographers. She has taught and performed across Canada and the U.S. Holly choreographs for dancers and professional musical theatre. She is founder/director of The Crimson Coast Dance Society (Nanaimo), an organization that supports the creation and presentation of professional dance events in Nanaimo, B.C. www.crimsoncoastdance.org

Allannah Dow spent more than 30 years playing cello in a classical and orchestral environment until a spiritual quest, coupled to a desire to sing her own song, led her into a new relationship with her century-old cello, Sebastian.

February 25th, 2010

Father/Poet/Teacher Paul Nelson, is co-founder of SPLAB, author: Organic Poetry (Oct. 08, VDM Verlag, Germany) & A Time Before Slaughter (Oct. 09, Apprentice House,) a serial poem re-enacting the history of Auburn, WA (originally called Slaughter. Worked 26 years in radio, interviewed Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Anne Waldman, Sam Hamill, Robin Blaser, Wanda Coleman, Eileen Myles, Jerome Rothenberg, George Bowering & others. He earned his M.A. from Lesley University in Organic Poetry, a study of North American poets writing (to different degrees) spontaneously, writes one American Sentence every day & lives in Seattle.
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February 25th, 2010

M.C. Warrior was born in England and educated Harrow School and U.B.C. Worked as a coast logger for eight years (rigging slinger, chaser, landing bucker) and a commercial fisherman (seine crew) for 23. Also worked as Fishermen’s Union Organizer and now works as the Lead Strategic Researcher for the Labourers’ Union’s organising drives in Western Canada. He has read at City Lights Books for San Francisco’s Labor Fest and been published in various magazines and anthologies, both here and abroad– most recently in Rocksalt.

February 25th, 2010

Leanne Boschman is a prairie transplant to the West Coast. Her poems have been published in Other Voices, Dandelion Magazine, Geist Magazine, Prism International, Room of One's Own, and Rhubarb. They have also been included in Creekstones: Anthology of Northern BC Poets, Half in the Sun: Anthology of Mennonite Writing, and Rocksalt: An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry. Leanne's first collection of poems entitled Precipitous Signs: A Rain Journal was published in April 2009 by Leaf Press.



Leanne's day job has been teaching English, Creative Writing, and Women's Studies for Northwest Community College since 1991. This year she teaches one on-line class each semester because she has just begun a PhD program called Languages, Cultures, and Literacies at Simon Fraser University. She will be commuting there from Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island.

March 23rd, 2010

Award-winning author Richard Lemm was born in Seattle, Washington, and immigrated to Canada in 1967. He has an MA in English from Queen's University and a PhD from Dalhousie University. He has been a faculty member at the Banff School of Fine Arts, and has been writer in residence and poetry instructor for various community colleges, regional libraries, public school districts, and summer writing programs across the country.

An award-winning poet and past-president of the League of Canadian Poets, he is the author of four books of poetry; his most recent collection is Four Ways of Dealing with Bullies. He is the author of Milton Acorn: In Love and Anger, a biography of the "People's Poet" of Canada. In 2007, Shape of Things to Come, a collection of stories was published by Acorn Press.

Richard lives in Charlottetown where he is professor of Canadian and English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Prince Edward Island.

March 23rd, 2010

Born in northern England, Pam Galloway now lives in Vancouver. Her poetry is published widely in literary magazines and anthologies and on the website of the Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate (www.parl.gov.ca ). In 2008/2009 one of Pam's poems travelled on the skytrain and buses as part of "Poetry In Transit".

She worked collaboratively with Quintet, a group of poets in Vancouver to produce their poetry collection, Quintet: Themes and Variations, (Ekstasis Editions 1998). Her first book of poetry Parallel Lines was published in 2006, (Ekstasis Editions). Recently, her poetry was included in the photographic/poetry collection A Verse Map of Vancouver. She has an MFA in creative writing from UBC.

March 23rd, 2010

Winona Baker is a poet, wife, and mother of four children. She has won international awards for haiku and tanka; her poems have been translated into French, Croatian, German, Greek, Japanese, Romanian, and Yugoslavian and are published in over 80 anthologies in North America, Europe, New Zealand, and Japan. She has published five poetry books: Clouds Empty Themselves, Not So Scarlet a Woman (Red Cedar Press, 1987), Beyond the Lighthouse (Oolichan, 1992), Moss-Hung Trees (Reflections, 1992), and Even a Stone Breathes (Oolichan, 2000).

March 23rd, 2010

Kirsty Elliot lives on a little island homestead and is delighted to be leaving the dirty diapers behind to join you for a night of poetry.

May 31st, 2010

Frank Moher's plays have been seen internationally, at theatres including South Coast Rep (Costa Mesa, Calif.), the Canadian Stage Company (Toronto), Workshop West Theatre (Edmonton), the Asolo Theater (Sarasota, Fla.), Alberta Theatre Projects (Calgary), The Bunkaza Theatre (Tokyo), and Dodona Theatre (Prishtina, Kosova). They include Pause, The Broken Globe, Down for the Weekend, Odd Jobs, Sliding for Home (with Gerald Reid), The Third Ascent, Prairie Report, Kidnapping the Bride, Farewell, McLuhan: The Musical (with Gerald Reid), Supreme Dream (with Rhonda Trodd), All I Ever Wanted, Tolstoy's Wife, Weather, and Big Baby. He is currently at work on Moonbound!, a musical adaptation of H.G. Wells' First Men in the Moon. His plays are published online by ProPlay and by the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Also a journalist, Frank edits the online magazine http://backofthebook.ca. He has taught at the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta (where he was a Distinguished Visiting Artist), and is currently Chair of the Department of Creative Writing and Journalism at Vancouver Island University. He lives on Gabriola Island.

May 31st, 2010

Wendy Morton receives the Spirit Bear Award from Patrick Lane

Wendy Morton has 5 books of poetry in the world, and a memoir. Her lastest book, What Were Their Dreams is a book of photo-poems, about Canada's history; the poems are on archival photos. Some of the poems are stories of First Nations residents of the Alberni Valley that have been turned into poems. She is the recent recipient of The Spirit Bear Award, instituted by Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier and The Golden Beret Award from the Calgary Spoken Word Society both honouring her enduring contributions to the poetic community in Canada. She lives in west of Sooke, in the same old house for 37 years. She is a raven watcher.

May 31st, 2010

Rhonda Ganz poses with Wendy Morton.
Rhonda Ganz is delighted to have a poem in Rocksalt: An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry. A stanza from that poem showed up on Vancouver buses as part of the 2010 Poetry in Transit project. At the end of 2009, the Times Colonist newspaper commissioned her as one of five poets to write a poem to celebrate solstice. Previously published in Ascent Aspirations and several chapbooks edited by Patrick Lane, Rhonda is pleased to be a featured reader at Wordstorm, where she has often been an appreciative member of the audience. When not writing poetry, Rhonda works as a graphic designer and editor and dotes on her husband and three cats. She reads entirely too much crime fiction, if such a thing is even possible.

September 27th, 2010

Naomi Beth Wakan has written/compiled over thirty-five books, including Haiku – one breath poetry, (Heian International), an American Library Association selection. Recent titles are Segues, Late Bloomer – on writing later in life, Compositions: notes on the written word, and Book Ends: a year between the covers, all from Wolsak and Wynn, Double take – response tanka from The Modern English Tanka Press, and Sex After 70 and other poems from Bevalia Press. Her writing workshops inspire and empower the novice writer. Naomi is a member of Haiku Canada, Tanka Canada, The League of Canadian Poets, and Poetry Gabriola. Her poetry and essays have been printed in numerous magazines including Geist, Room of One’s Own, Moonset and Red Light and been read on CBC. She lives on Gabriola Island with her husband, the sculptor, Elias Wakan.

September 27th, 2010

Clea Roberts lives in Whitehorse, Yukon on the Takhini River. Her poems have appeared in The Antigonish Review, CV2, The Dalhousie Review, The International Feminist Journal of Politics, Lake: A Journal of Arts and the Environment, The Malahat Review, Prism International, and Room. Roberts has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Centre, the Atlantic Centre for the Arts, and is a three-time recipient of the Yukon Government Advanced Artist Award. Her work has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and her poem, “When We Begin to Grow Old,” won the After Al Purdy Poetry Contest. Clea is the former co-organizer of the Whitehorse Poetry Festival.

September 27th, 2010

Susan McCaslin is a poet, educator, scholar, workshop facilitator, and author of fourteen volumes of poetry, including her most recent, Lifting the Stone (Seraphim Editions, 2007). She has edited two anthologies of poetry Poetry and Spiritual Practice and A Matter of Spirit and is on the editorial board of Event: the Douglas College Review. Susan lives in Fort Langley, British Columbia. After twenty-three years as a professor of English and Creative Writing at Douglas College in New Westminster, B.C., Susan is now a full-time writer, giving poetry workshops, talks, and readings. She has a new volume of poetry called Demeter Goes Skydiving forthcoming from the University of Alberta Press in the spring of 2011.
Web Site

September 27th, 2010

Elizabeth Rhett Woods’ professional writing debut was “A Way of Loving”, broadcast on CBC Radio’s Introducing in 1968. Her 90-minute verse drama, Maya was featured on CBC Radio’s Tuesday Night, in 1974), and a verse vignette, “Life and Death Along The Gorge”, was on Out Front, in 2000.

Her first novel, The Yellow Volkswagen, was published by Simon & Schuster, Canada, in 1971, followed by The Amateur (PaperJacks, 1980), Double Entry Death (serialized in the short-lived tabloid, The Victoria Literary Times, 2004), and Beyond the Pale, about temptation and consequences (Ekstasis Editions, 2006).

After a chapbook, Gone, was published by Ladysmith Press in 1971, her first book-length collection, Men, was published by Fiddlehead Poetry Books, in 1979, followed by Bird Salad (Moonstone Press, 1990), Family Fictions (Wolsak& Wynn, 2002), The Absinthe of Desire (Ekstasis Editions, 2004), and 1970: A Novel Poem (Ekstasis Editions, 2007). Woman Walking: Selected Poems, was published by Ekstasis Editions in 2009.
Web Site

October 25th, 2010

D.C. Reid walked out onto the Alberta prairie west of Calgary when he was three years old (1955) and never came back. When he was five he reached his hand into a stream and pulled out a trout. His life has been about water since that day. He was published in MacLeans when he was ten and thought the writing life would be easy. What an innocent.
Since that time he has been published in more than 50 literary magazines in Canada, the United States, the U.K., India and Mexico, with his work having been translated into Spanish and Hindi. On the literary side of his writing life, he has published four books of poetry and one novel.
Along the way, and much to his surprise, he took a B.Sc. in biochemistry and zoology, then started over again, instead of going on to a PHD in cancer research; going to England and taking a B.A. in English and Philosophy – both honours degrees. Arriving back in Canada in 1976 unable to find a job, Dennis was told by Eli Mandel at the then Banff School of Fine Arts he could write poetry, something he would never have guessed, nor ever do on his own.
Reid went on to do an M.P.A. to get a job to feed his new family. After going crazy with that and then spending the best decade of his life bringing his daughters up at home, he lost them through divorce, a sadness that continues.
In 1996, Patrick Lane told him at the now Banff Centre that his instincts were good and so was his work. He then jumped off the cliff and has lived in the fire of poetry since then. Now, he calls it: a necessary love. His fifth and sixth books of poetry will come soon: What It Means To Be Human, and You Shall Have No Other.
On another side of his life, Reid has gone on to write for more than 50 magazines/newspapers/websites across North America on fishing – gear, fly and Spey – in salt- and fresh-water. His fourth fishing book will be released in 2008. When not at his computer, he will just as frequently be found in his Vancouver Island wilderness with the fish he likes to check on from time to time just to make sure they are okay. Once secure in that knowledge, he lets them go, sometimes seeing in his rounds as many as 500 in a year. His largest spring is 60 pounds – on his 8 weight.
Reid has a canyon river he strays into more than he should, in his mid-fifties, for wild summer steelhead on the fly, climbing down cliffs with his fly rod between his teeth. And this has segued into another side of his writing life: he is delving into the hardcore science to write a book he has wanted for more than a decade: The Brains of Poets. Still out there in his future is the fourth room of his mind. He will learn to play the piano and write an album of music. He is too embarrassed to sing in front of others, at the moment, but there is time to get over that. Having played clarinet and sax in jazz, Dixie and symphony, he can get his right hand to work on the black and white keys, but not his left. There is time for that, too.

October 25th, 2010

Barbara Pelman was born in Vancouver BC and received her BA from the University of British Columbia and her MA from the University of Toronto. She worked in England for a few years as a Canadian Immigration officer before returning to BC. She has recently retired from a career of teaching English, mainly at the high school level, but also at colleges and universities. Now she writes, offers poetry workshops to teachers and students, and participates in the busy Victoria writing community. Her poems have been published in Event, CV2, Quills, Descant, Antigonish Review, Dalhousie Review, and in the Leaf Press "Glenairley" series. They have also appeared on the Leaf Press website as the "Monday Poem". Her second book of poetry, "Borrowed Rooms" was published by Ronsdale Press (2008).

November 29th, 2010

Kim Clark lives on Vancouver Island. Disease and desire, mothering and the mundane propel her ongoing journey between poetry and prose. Kim's work can be found in Body Breakdowns (Anvil Press), The Malahat Review, All Rights Reserved, Ascent Aspirations, as well as e-zines and other publications in Canada and the U.S.
Kim has just completed a short story collection and two full length poetry manuscripts. She has been a 2010 winner in both the SCRATCH poetry and fiction contests and been short-listed in the Malahat Review's Novella Contest.

November 29th, 2010

Daniela Elza is a free-range poet, and a non-medicated scholar of the poetic consciousness. She has rel.eased more than a 140 poems into the wor(l)d in over 42 publications. Her inte.rests lie in the gaps, rubs, and b.ridges between poetry, language, and philosophy. She just finished compiling her second full-length manuscript, while also working on her doctorate thesis in Philosophy of Education at SFU. Daniela is the recipient of this year's Pandora's Collective Citizenship Award.

January 31st, 2011

Joe Rosenblatt was born in Toronto in 1933. He dropped out of trade school as a young adult and worked at a series of low-paying jobs until he started working as a laborer for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1956. He became interested in writing through his association with the worker poet Milton Acorn in the early sixties and the metaphysical poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen. By 1966 he had his first book of poetry published and he also received a Canada Council grant which allowed him to leave his job as a freight handler of the old Canadian Pacific Railway and devote the next year to writing and traveling.

Over the years, Rosenblatt has written more than 20 books of poetry, several autobiographical works and his poems have appeared in over thirty anthologies of Canadian poetry over his forty year career as a poet. His poetry books have received major awards, such as the Governor General's award for poetry in 1976 and the BC Book Prize in 1986. He has traveled widely giving readings of his poems in Europe, Canada and the United States. Several bilingual volumes of his poetry have been published in Italian with translations by the late Prof. Alfredo Rizzardi of the University of Bologna, and Ada Donati of Rome. His most recent poetry volume, Parrot Fever was published by Toronto publisher, Exile Editions, 2002. His poems have also been also translated into French, Dutch, Swedish and Spanish. For the past 30 years he has been living in a beach resort community of Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island with his wife Faye and their three cats.

January 31st, 2011

Kevin Roberts Born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1940, Kevin Roberts went on to Adelaide University, where a tutor, Geoff Dutton, an ex RAAF Spitfire pilot in WW II, encouraged his writing. After graduating from Adelaide Teachers College with a B.A. Dip T., Roberts traveled to Canada, teaching high school in Dawson Creek. He completed a M.A. from Simon Fraser University in 1968, and was hired as one of the three original faculty members in English at Malaspina College in Nanaimo, BC. In the 70's, Roberts lived for a year in Ikaria, Greece, under the Colonels' Regime, then pursued graduate studies at University of Exeter, published his first book -- of poetry and prose -- Cariboo Fishing Notes (Beau Geste Press, 1973), chaired Malaspina's English Department for one year, and ran a 32-foot salmon troller, the Miriama, off the coast of Vancouver Island for several years. In 1980, a book of poetry, s’ney’mos (Oolichan) appeared that later was broadcast by the CBC. His first book of stories, Flash Harry and the Daughters of Divine Light, was published in 1982 (by Harbour), along with a book of poems, Stonefish (Oolichan). The next year he became writer-in-residence at Wattle Park College, Adelaide.

In the mid-80’s, Roberts went on disability leave due to non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, an experience he later wrote about in Cobalt 3, a Finalist for the Milton Acorn Poetry Prize. His first novel, Tears in a Glass Eye came out in 1989. For Roberts, 1992 saw both the publication of a book of poems drawn from Australia’s continental core, Red Centre Journal, and the production by Nanaimo Festival Theatre of a play about that city’s coal-mining history, Black Apples. After retiring from Malaspina University-College – where he was named an Honorary Research Associate – Roberts completed a Ph.D at Griffith University in Queensland (2003). Following a teaching stint in Shanghai, he published his eleventh book of poetry, Writing the Tides (2006), and a novel, She’ll Be Right (2007). Of his work, Kate Braid observes that Roberts is “like the fisherman, hauling beauty in out of the darkness.” His literary papers are held at Simon Fraser University and the National Library Archives in Ottawa.

January 31st, 2011

Kendall Patrick is a singer songwriter from Ladysmith, BC. She has 7 years of classical piano training under her belt, taught herself guitar and has been writing songs since grade 7. She is currently attending The Malaspina Jazz program, majoring in voice. She released her first album, House of Ink, in 2007, which includes a beat poetry piece called "The Girl Rant" . "The Girl Rant" was written to empower young girls into awareness out of the media-driven conventions of today's popular culture, which heavily emphasizes superficiality. "The Girl Rant" has received recognition from the Oprah Winfrey Show, and has been taken to local schools. The power of this piece has inspired Kendall to continue writing for empowerment and she is currently on a mission to begin "The Girl Rant Movement". She will be performing at The Vancouver Island Music Festival in Comox in 2008. You can find her music at My Space

February 28th, 2011

Blaine Marchand is an Ottawa writer who has published five books of poetry, a young adult novel and a work of non-fiction. His books include After the Fact, Open Fires, A Garden Enclosed, Bodily Presence, African Journey and Aperture. His work has appeared in magazines and anthlogies in Canada and the US. He has won several literary awards including the Archibald Lampman Award (for A Garden Enclosed), and his poem "The Craving of Knives," took second place in the National Poetry Contest in 1990. He was President of the League of Canadian Poets from 1992-94 and was a co-founder of Sparks Magazine and Ottawa Independent Writers. Both Aperature and The Craving of Knives were shortlisted for the Archibald Lampman Award in 2009 and 2010.

February 28th, 2011

Gabriola Goliger’s first book, Song of Ascent, won the 2001 Upper Canada Writer's Craft Award. She was co-winner of the 1997 Journey Prize for short fiction, was a finalist for this prize in 1995 and won the Prism International award in 1993. She has also been published in a number of journals and anthologies including Best New American Voices 2000 and Contemporary Jewish Writing in Canada.

Her educational credentials include a B.A. from McGill University and an M.A. in English literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Born in Italy, Gabriella grew up in Montreal and has also lived in Israel, the Eastern Arctic, and Ottawa. For the past few years she has been spending her winters in Victoria, B.C.

February 28th, 2011

Jenny Fjellgaard's fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry have been included in the anthologies Islands West: Stories From the Coast, The Fish Come in Dancing, Netherwords: fictions poems rants from British Columbia, Portal Magazine, Chameleon and most recently in Crow Toes Quarterly: A Magazine for Hyper-literate Children. In 2010, Jenny was awarded Ascent Aspiration's first prize for poetry for "Three More Payments and It's All Ours!" and honourable mention for her flash fiction piece "Jonesing," both of which were published in Ascent Aspirations Magazine: 2010 Winter Edition, "Issues for a New World Century." Jenny currently resides in Nanaimo, BC, with her dog, Scarlett and-frankly my dears-they do give a damn…which may not be apparent to the un-brained ear.

March 28th, 2011

Christopher Levenson, who came to Canada from the U.K. in 1968 to teach English and Creative Writing at Carleton University in Ottawa, has published ten books of poetry and two chapbooks, most recently Local Time, 2006, from Ottawa’s Stone Flower Press, and edited three poetry anthologies. He was co-founder in 1978 of Arc poetry magazine and its first editor; co-founder and Series Editor of Carleton University Press’s Harbinger Poetry series, specifically for first books of poetry; and served for a year as Poetry Editor for the Literary Review of Canada. In addition to the twenty five full year credit Poetry Workshops he conducted for Carleton, he also started and ran the Ottawa Poetry Group, whose anthology Soundings he co-edited in 2005. He moved to Vancouver in the Fall of 2007.

March 28th, 2011

Judy Mayhew lives in Qualicum Beach, where she writes short stories and novels. Her short stories have been published in literary journals and commercial magazines. She is working on her third novel.

April 25th, 2011

Anny Scoones grew up in the Maritimes with her war-artist (WWII) parents and her old horse Missy who she would ride while her parents painted the New Brunswick countryside. Anny spent many summers with her Gran on Galiano Island where she grew to love the west coast and eventually settled in North Saanich on historic Glamorgan Farm, one of the oldest farms on the Island and still retains eleven original log barns and structures.

Anny is a three time municipal councillor who fights for the preservation of agriculture and hertage, "green" architecture, bicycle lanes and an anti-pesticide by-law.

Glamorgan Farm is home to many heirloom gardens and heritage breeds of livestock, including the Gloucester Old Spot Pig and the Naked Neck Hen and the Russian Woolly Horse. Glamorgan Farm also is home to the Healthy Harvest Co-op, a group of (adult) disabled gardeners. The themes of Anny's three books are home, our relationships with each other and nature, and the joys and heart breaks of rural life.

May 30th, 2011

Bren Simmers Born in Vancouver, Bren Simmers studied writing at the University of Victoria and has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from The University of British Columbia. Winner of the Arc Poem of the Year Award and shortlisted for the Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award, her poetry has been published in The Antigonish Review, CV2, Event, The Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, and Prism International. Her first book of poems, (2010), is published by Wolsak and Wynn.

May 30th, 2011

Di Brandt grew up in Reinland, a Mennonite farming village in south central Manitoba and was one of the first women writers to break the public silence of Mennonite women in Canada. She taught English and Creative Writing at the University of Winnipeg from 1986-1995, and currently teaches English at the University of Alberta. She is a former poetry editor of Prairie Fire and a founding member of the feminist editorial collective of Contemporary Verse II.

May 30th, 2011

Margaret Thompson was born November 5, 1940 in Surbiton, England. That is Guy Fawkes Day, but the only fireworks that year came from the Blitz. She started school just a few weeks after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, when she was not quite five years old. She could already read.

Later she attended a Church of England elementary school, and after passing the dreaded 11+ exam that all children took before going on to a secondary school at that time, went to Wimbledon County School for Girls (a Grammar school, an academic high school.) In 1959, she went to Westfield College at London University to read English, and graduated in 1962 with a BA (Hons) degree. This was followed by a year at Exeter University for a Dip.Ed. and then a first teaching job at her old school. Much later, she earned her M.A. from San Diego State University.

In 1963 she married Alan Thompson, a Physics lecturer at Chiswick Polytechnic. She left teaching temporarily with the arrival of her sons Jeremy and Simon, and the family emigrated to Canada in 1967, when Simon was five weeks old. Their first home in Canada was in Merritt, B.C. where her daughter, Joanna, was born. After three years there, they moved to Madeira Park. Margaret subsequently taught English in Sechelt and then spent 20 years in Fort St. James, where she was the senior English teacher in the high school and also taught university transfer courses for the College of New Caledonia.

Margaret Thompson has taught other people how to write for years, and frequently wrote plays for her students. She began to take her own writing seriously in the early 1990s and self-published a collection of prose and poetry about the early days of Fort St. James in 1992, specifically for the Gift Shop at the National Historic Site in the town. The information acquired in her research for that project gave her the material for her first children’s book, the YA historical novel, Eyewitness (Ronsdale, 2000) which won a BC2000 Book Award. Earlier, in 1996, her collection of short stories, Hide and Seek (1996) was published by Caitlin Press.

On retirement from teaching in 1996, Margaret Thompson left the north for Victoria and year-round gardens. She lives in a house that overlooks the farms that sweep down to the sea, with a great view of Mt. Baker and Haro Strait. She has one Siamese cat, two Basset hounds, and is visited every day by the peacocks that live in the neighbourhood. She also has four grandchildren, two of whom also live in Victoria.

She wrote another children’s book, Fox Winter, (Hodgepog Books, 2003) which is based on a real encounter with an injured fox in her own backyard. This was followed by a collection of travel essays, Knocking on the Moonlit Door (NeWest, 2004) and a further essay collection, Adrift on the Ark: Our Connection to the Natural World (Brindle & Glass) in 2009.

Her other great interest is the Federation of BC Writers, which she first joined in 1992. She was their president for two years and is still an active member of the editorial committee for their quarterly journal, WordWorks. She is also a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada.

Web Site

May 30th, 2011

The McCartie Group is a vocal jazz trio composed of award winning senior high school music students from the Nanaimo area. Led by the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival two-time award winner vocalist Amy McCartie, the McCartie Group strives to keep the spirit of traditional jazz alive, while giving the music their own unique modern edge. Amy McCartie is backed by virtuoso saxophone and bass player Josh Rey and drummer Jesse McNeill. Josh and Jesse have won solo and top musician awards at both Envisions Jazz Festival in Vancouver and the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho.
There really isn’t a life outside of music for anyone in the McCartie group, and that is the way they would like it to stay. Every member plans on making a career of music, be it as a full time player or as an educator. Each musician comes from a different musical background, but all come together for a common love of jazz. Music dominates their worlds. They look forward to sharing their music with WordStorm!

September 26th, 2011

Linda Lee Crosfield was born in 1948 in Nelson, BC. She lived there until she went off to join the circus (thinly disguised as Air Canada). She worked in Ottawa, Windsor, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver before moving back to the Kootenays in 1988.

From 1991 to 1996 she studied creative writing at the Kootenay School of Arts in Nelson.

She is one of four writers who collaborated on The Noslen Enigma, a serialized satirical sci-fi soap opera that was online from September 1998 to September 1999. The writers recorded it for broadcast on Kootenay Co-op Radio in 2004.

A member of the Federation of BC Writers since 1993, Linda has served as regional representative, on the board, and as a member of the editorial committee for Word Works, the Fed’s quarterly journal. She has participated in Off the Page, a program that puts writers into classrooms around the province.

Her writing has been published in the U.S.A., New Zealand and Canada, including Room of One’s Own, Horsefly, The New Orphic Review, Ascent Aspirations, The Minnesota Review, Labor, and in several chapbooks and anthologies, including between sleeps: the 3:15 experiment 1993–2005 (en theos press 2006), Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined (Seal Press 2006), and The Fed Anthology—brand new fiction and poetry from the Federation of BC Writers (Anvil Press 2003). One of her poems has been accepted for a forthcoming issue of The Antigonish Review. She has published three chapbooks: Ways to Get to Here (2004), Generation Dance (2008), and Etiquette (2011).

In 2007 her poem Could Be A Bigger One came first in the Canadian Poetry Association’s annual contest.

Linda lives in Ootischenia (which means “valley of consolation” in Russian) at the confluence of the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers in South East BC where she blogs sporadically at www.purplemountainpoems.blogspot.com and makes handmade and limited edition books through her imprint, NIB Publishing. NIB stands for nose-in-book, where hers can usually be found.

September 26th, 2011

David Fraser lives in Nanoose Bay, on Vancouver Island. He is the founder and editor of Ascent Aspirations Magazine, since 1997. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Rocksalt, An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry and Walk Myself Home. He has published four collections of poetry, Going to the Well (2004), Running Down the Wind (2007), No Way Easy, 2010, and Caught in My Throat, 2011. Home Site: www.davidpfraser.ca he will be performing new work and work from his latest collection.

September 26th, 2011

Ursula Vaira - Book Launch And See What Happens

Ursula Vaira was born in Germany ... grew up in northern B.C. in a tiny place called Little Prairie,later renamed Chetwynd, 200 miles north of Prince George. After studying Education at UBC, she taught school on the north coast and in the Arctic, then moved to Vancouver Island in the early eighties. She studied creative writing at Malaspina University-College (now Vancouver Island University). She worked at Oolichan Books for ten years; then founded her own publishing house, Leaf Press, in 2001.

She loves wilderness camping and kayaking, has a passion for the west coast — the summer of 2005 she kayaked with a group from Port Hardy to Zeballos, including the dreaded Capes Cook and Scott. In 1997 she paddled by Coast Salish canoe from Hazelton to Victoria as part of Roy Henry Vickers' Vision Quest to raise addictions awareness and funds to build an all-nations recovery centre. Through these and other experiences she has learned the power of the arduous journey as a metaphor for self-growth. In truth, all journeys do lead to the interior.

September 26th, 2011

Book Launch: Lisa Shatzky's poetry has been published in The Vancouver Review, Room Magazine, Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine, The Nashwaak Review, The Antigonish Review, The Dalhousie Review, Canadian Literature, Canadian Woman's Studies, The Prairie Journal, Jones Ave., The New Quarterly, and five chapbooks by Leaf Press (edited by Patrick Lane) along with anthologies across Canada. Her poetry book Do Not Call Me By My Name was published by Black Moss Press in August 2011. She lives on Bowen Island B.C. where she works as a therapist when not writing.

November 28th, 2011

Richard Osler writes poetry when he isn’t watching the poetics of the stock market’s rise and fall as a specialty money manager. His poems have been accepted in numerous journals including the Malahat review, Prarie Fire, Antigonish Review and CV2 which published a feature interview with him in its Winter 2011 issue. He also leads weekend writing retreats for poets and conducts poetry workshops in drug and alcohol recovery centres. The Cowichan Valley in B.C. has claimed him as one of its own since 2010.

November 28th, 2011

Joy Huebert is a Victoria writer and winner of the 2008 Short Grain Postcard Story Competition. She has been published in several literary magazines and three chapbooks produced by the Root Cellar Press. She is an editor of the short story collection, Magic Night, and placed second in the Vancouver Story Slam.

Gisela Ruebsaat
Gisela Ruebsaat is a Victoria poet who has been published in Island Writer. Her work explores the intersection of music, spoken word and song. She has worked as a speechwriter for governments in Ontario and BC and currently acts as Legal Analyst for the Ending Violence Association.

Katrin Horowitz
Katrin Horowitz published her first novel, Power Failures, in 2007. Last year she was a winner in Victoria's Night on the Town prose competition for her story, Blues for a Bridge. She is finalizing a new novel, Convenient Lies, and is also working on more short stories.

November 28th, 2011

Kim Clark lives on Vancouver Island. Disease and desire, mothering and the mundane propel her ongoing journey between poetry and prose. Her work can be found in e-zines and other publications in Canada and the U.S.. Kim holds a BA in Creative Writing from VIU. She won the 2005 Cecilia Lamont prize for fiction and her story “Solitaire” was shortlisted in the Malahat Review’s 2010 Novella Contest.
Kim’s first book, Attemptations, published by Caitlin Press, is a collection of short, long and longer fiction.