Acker, Lori Maleea
I have recently been accepted in an anthology of women writers of Canada, which is being published by Random House. In September of this past year, I won second prize in the Saltwater Poetry Contest. I'm currently attending Uvic, working, towards a Creative Writing degree. I just returned from a four month trip to Mexico, where I found passion again.
Alfonso, Ralph
Ralph is widely known for his Beat inspired music and poetry. Here's a review of Coffee, Jazz, and Poetry, Ralph's first CD put out by Bongo Beat Records. Ralph also has a page on the web featuring recordings and poetry. And glowing reviews also of evenings with Ralph.Ralph is both a performer and a group, based out of Vancouver, British Columbia. T/he/y "takes inspiration from 50's jazz and beat poetry, 60's garage bands, 70's punk energy and do-it-yourself ethos, 80's dysfunctional relationships and 90's stand-up comedy." Ralph (the performer) backed up by Ralph (the musicians) have appeared on CBC Morningside with Peter Gzowski and CBC-TV's Zero Avenue.
The debut CD, Coffee, Jazz and Poetry, consists of both spoken word set to music and songs. Members promise it contains "over 70 minutes of stuff and 41 tracks, but only a 4-page booklet in teeny, tiny type." It's been spotted in the Top 10 on various Ontario college radio stations, and in the Top 50 on the national college radio chart.. Ralph's second CD, Olympia 66, was released in 1996.
Ralph Alfonso and band. Beatnik Christmas. Ralph mixes his poetry with the music of his jazz band. Christmas poetry at the first set at the open mike.
Jim Andrews recently finished his first book Several Numbers Through the Lyric, a collection of poems, stories, essays, letters, and visual poems. He'll read from it and perform some of his sound poetry and audio poems. He produced the radio show FINE LINES and, later, ?FRAME?, published the magazine And Yet, and is the first host of MOCAMBOPO.
I write poetry, fiction, criticism, visual poems and sound poetry. I agree that good taste is the first resort of the witless. I agree that language is a technology (tool(s) made by people) and that the precision and scope of our tools determines how deeply and accurately we can think and feel. And we should also have access to the primal. I will consider the first thought in detail.
Mocambo is hosting an exhibit of visual poetry by Seattle artists Joseph F. Keppler and Jim Andrews. The show runs from November 1 to November 27 and culminates with a reading by Andrews and Keppler at Mocambopo on November 27. For a sample of the type of work to be displayed in Victoria for a month, see Vispo ~ Langu(im)age (http://vispo.com) for Andrews's amazing literary/visual Web site.
Jim and Joe's Langu(im)age visual poetry show at Mocambopo concludes tonight with a reading by the poets, both up from Seattle specially for this reading. Their visual poetry show runs from Nov 1 to their reading on Nov. 27. It features collaborative work together with a wide range of individual pieces. Their readings will vary from some of the sound/visual poetry now on the walls to new works for the voice and page.Jim, the host and organizer of Mocambopo until his move to Seattle, has just concluded a solo visual show at The Globe Cafe in Seattle. The opening party featured readings by Jim, Joseph, margareta waterman, Robin Schultz, Dan Raphael, and Paul McKinnon. Over the last few years he has developed one of the most startling and innovative literary Web sites in the world called Vispo ~ Langu(im)age at http://vispo.com/. He will also be known to Victorians as the host and producer of FINE LINES and, later, ?FRAME?, literary radio shows that were heard each week for six years in Victoria on CFUV and fifteen other stations across Canada. He also published and edited the literary magazine And Yet, which featured considerable local writing together with the work of some Seattle writers.
Joseph F Keppler has been a huge force in the capacious Seattle poetics city scene in which it isn't unusual to see artists crossing borders of all types. Joe has done remarkable work in many media: the page, at the microphone, tape, sculpture, and photography. All of it is in an important sense literary and intensely critical, examining of the world and yet engaged with the world and the media he works with.
Joe was also the first reader in the Mocambopo series in June of 1995.
Mark Asser was born in Vancouver, grew up in Quebec, and now helps raise a family in Victoria.
The drums played far into the night.
The shaman danced with the monkey's mask
Dancing for hours until that moment
When spirit, dancer and mask became one.From "The Mask".
Batchelor, Rhonda
Rhonda's newest book of poems is Interpreting Silence (Beach Holme). "The Muse pulls up in a taxi, late. Enters on the arm of the driver who asks you for her fare from the airport. She has no bags. The reading is over and the audience has gone home without any tangible evidence. You autograph the wall dedicating everything to everyone personally. Ms. Muse is miffed, the wine's all gone. She refuses to help stack the chairs, breezes back out for a smoke and window-shops the block...." In a different poem: "She has to face it. Gracefully or not, she's ageing and going through the change, any change, won't be easy .... In the glamour of the rising moon the voice of experience whispers to the pearl of her ear Nothing lasts forever, whispers Have no fear."
Beal, Clive
Bell, Alan
Allan is well known in Victoria for his intelligent, penetrating, and humorous mix of personal and political poetry. He reads with great clarity and force.
September 15, 2000: Allen Bell
Allen Bell collaborated with Atom Egoyan on the screenplays for The Adjuster and The Sweet Hereafter. He teaches screen writing at the University of Victoria and his book of poetry, Puppet Poems has just been published.
Bergland, Don
Don is dean of multimedia. He propositions, therefore, several orifices (sometimes free of charge) and the brain, if it exists. Don recently returned from heading Electronic Arts's art department which involved coordinating forty artists at work on the graphics for all of Electronic Arts's software products. Don presents a kind of Disney with The Death Penalty, a vision in which he meditates Buddhistically upon such phenomenon as Donald (the mighty) Duck and the sale to Disneyland of the Mountie's image. A heavily insured event. The menu will include lugers and salmon pate. Disney spells treated on-site.
Michelle's a wonderfully original young writer who grew up in Victoria and now makes Toronto home. Her second collection of stories from Summerville House is "Margaret Lives In The Basement".
bissett, bill
bill is the author of over 40 books of poetry. He has read and performed his sound poetry around the world. He has created a written language all his own, though it is also an astounding embodiment of Canadian and North American idioms. Some of his recent books are th last photo uv th human soul, inkorrect thots, animal uproar , and canada gees mate for life.
bill is the author of over forty books of poetry. His work is known internationally. He has been called "a one-man civilization" (James Reaney). He is currently working on a new book called loving wthout being vulnerabul (sure to be a hit if it is mistakenly (?) filed in the self-help section). bill actually survives selling his books, tapes, and doing readings around Canada and the world. Perpetually. bp Nichol called him "Canada's best political poet." bill's poetry turns on a dime from narrative to speculation to lyric to visual poetry (similar to John Ashbery). His most recent book is th influenza uv logik (Talonbooks). One of the truly outstanding Canadian poets.
bill is the author of over forty books of poetry. His work is known internationally. He has been called "a one-man civilization" (James Reaney). He is currently working on a new book called loving wthout being vulnerabul (sure to be a hit if it is mistakenly (?) filed in the self-help section). bill actually survives selling his books, tapes, and doing readings around Canada and the world. Perpetually. bp Nichol called him "Canada's best political poet." bill's poetry turns on a dime from narrative to speculation to lyric to visual poetry (similar to John Ashbery). His most recent book is th influenza uv logik (Talonbooks). One of the truly outstanding Canadian poets.
September 29, 2000: bill bissett& Mark Cochrane
bill bissett is the author of over 40 books of poetry. He has been called " a one-man civilization". He survives by selling his books, tapes and doing readings around the world.
July 28, 2000 Yvonne Blomer
Yvonne Blomer recently returned to Victoria after two and a half years in Japan, followed by three months cycling from Hanoi to Khala Lampur. She participated in Otherwords 97 and is currently working on a book of poems entitled Small Japan as well as a travel book.
Boettger, Jill
Book, Shane
Shane Book, co-founder of Smoking Lung Press and author of Forgetting the Rest Beyond Blue reads with Adam Chiles, author of Just In From Fun City.
Laurence's novel Wigger (white nigger wanabes) is a stylistically spare and possibly innovative evocation of a violence independent of race. Men and boys versus men and boys everybody gets "f-cked" black and white.Set over a period of twenty-four hours, Wigger is an intense and unnerving novel that provides a snapshot of the disenfranchised--a glimpse into the lives of urban youths, who seek redemption through postures of violence and sexuality. Decidedly anti-romantic, it depicts, with the fast-paced delirium of television, a generation done in by racism and class-struggle, for whom violence is an anti-toxin, and intimacy an unspeakable act. Wigger is a thrash metal video with the tension of hard core rap.
Lawrence Braithwaite spent twelve years stationed on naval bases in Halifax and B.C. He is currently working on a second novel dealing with skaters, skins, and a one-armed boxer. He lives in Esquimalt and Vancouver.
A Canada Council reading featuring Brian Brett, a prolific author who cultivates his garden on Salt Spring where he raises sheep, peacocks, a parrot and writes. In 1998, his book of poems, The Colour of Bones in a Stream, was published by Sono Nis Press.
Bring wine, Sharon, and we'll lie naked
on the white shells of history at the beach.
We'll take this coast and eat it,
the body of our years like a glass
of good drink
Brownlow, Tim
Timothy Brownlow was born in Dublin, Ireland and is represented in the Penguin Book of Irish Verse. His new book, Climbing Croagh Patrick, recently published by Oolichan Books, is a collection of sonnets, marked by lyrical intensity and compassionate storytelling. He reminds us how much poetry matters.
Timothy Brownlow has been publishing poetry since 1960 and is represented in the Penguin Book of Irish Verse. His book, Climbing Croagh Patrick has been published by Oolichan Books.
Julie's second book of poetry The End of Travel was published in September 1999.Julie is a native Montrealer who now lives in San Francisco, California with her husband and daughter. She has taught creative writing at Concordia University in MontrŽal, and was a regular contributer on CBC radio. She has also worked as a publicist.
Bruck's first book, The Woman Downstairs (Brick), received QSPELL's A.M. Klein Award in 1994. The book was lauded as a remarkable first volume, and Bruck herself judged a poet worth watching.
Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and journals across North America, including The NewYorker, Ms., Carousel and Celidih. Her poetry has been broadcast on CBC Radio's Morningside and CKUT Radio's Wired on Words.
Buri, Hilary
Hilary Mosher Buri
Hilary Mosher Buri is the author of Frau Rontgen's Hand, a chapbook of poems published by Outlaw Editions. Her poems explore "how shifts in perception, governed by our physical experience of the world around us, alter our intellectual or spiritual experience." Buri holds a BA in geography and an MFA in poetry. She currently works in watershed restoration.
Burnham, Cliff
Clint Burnham is a Vancouver writer (from Victoria) and critic. His most recent poetry book is Pandemonia from hole books (Ottawa). He's working on a collection of fiction with Mark Laba called White Crimes. He's also writing a play about the Cranbrook hostage incident called Bullet in the Womb. Clint's criticism, fiction, and poetry has been published left right and center (mostly left--he's a Marxist critic) in Canada and abroad in such magazines as WHAT!, Canadian Forum, Boo!, West Coast Line and Euphony (on-line in Vancouver). He recently published a book of criticism with Duke University Press (his thesis from the University of Toronto). Clint is an intense intellectual with a wicked sense of humor. Victoria audiences will recall Clint's fine work with the now defunct Random Thought magazine. He also co-edited Mental Radio with Clint Hutzulak, Gail Harris, and Katy Chan.Clint Links:
Clint Burnham
It's a Free Country, Isn't It?
Euphony:People:Clint Burnham
Kootenay School of Writing Information
Deviant Culture Exchange
Burnside, Paul
A Victoria Ulster man. Paul writes fiction and poetry.
The Irish and unsentimental Paul Burnside, local writer famous for the lines, "who came first, who came second, who didn't come at all" reads from his latest his latest work. Music and sound by Chris Caldwell.
Burr, Mick
Mick Burrs has published and broadcast over 600 poems from 1966 to 1997. His fifth collection, Variations on the Birth of Jacob was published this fall. A League of Poets reading.
Button, Margo
Born in 1938, Margo Button worked as a high school teacher of English, French and Spanish for 20 years. She has travelled extensively and taught in American international schools in Hong Kong, Chile and Lebanon. For several years until she became a poet, Margo Button was a nature photographer. When her son became ill, she turned to writing, which was like therapy for her; when he died, writing became for her a reason to go on. Her first book of poems, The Unhinging of Wings, chronicles her son's tragic meeting with a common disease, schizophrenia. Currently she and her husband divide their time between Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and Nanoose Bay, BC. Margo Button has published widely in Canadian literary magazines.
October 13, 2000: Margo Button
Margo Button's first book of poetry, The Unhinging of Wings, published by Oolichan Books, won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Her second book, The Shadows Fall Behind, is the sequel to her first book, about the suicide of her son, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and who five years later killed himself. The new poems are about coming to terms with his death.
Cadsby, Heather
Heather Cadsby, League of Poets reader launches her latest book. Some of her other books include The Third Taboo: A Collection of Poems on Jealousy and Decoys. She won second prize in the North York Poetry Awards.
Carter, Terry Ann
Terry will be reading from Waiting for Julia. A poetic chronicling of the Chernoybyl disaster and a community's efforts to help one of its victims. Reading to benefit the Canadian Relief Fund for Victims of Chernobyl in Belarus.
Sara Cassidy has been published in Grain, CV 2 and Geist. Her chapbook, published in the Hawthorne series, is entitled Ultrasound for the Heart. She is involved in artistic and social causes as well as being a full time mother to Hazel, already a poetry fan.
CHAOS is a literary journal published by the English students of the University of Victoria and members of the community. They will (probably) have a new issue out for this reading which will involve various of the published writers. More details as they become available.
Chapbook Exchange
Bring your own book and read it at the Open Mike. Those who bring their book and read get in free.
Chiles, Adam
Shane Book, co-founder of Smoking Lung Press and author of Forgetting the Rest Beyond Blue reads with Adam Chiles, author of Just In From Fun City.
Margaret Christakos
Margaret is a writer and editor who has lived in Toronto for the past decade. She has taught creative writing at the Ontario College of Art and Design and has three books of poetry, The Moment Coming, is her latest.
Claymore, Alien
A poet or an extraterrestrial brandishing a Scottish weapon? You find out.
Cohn, Jim
Jim Cohn is a Colorado poet who has studied with Ginsberg and the Dharma crew at Naropa aka The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. He writes simply and honestly about human involvements. He apprenticed with Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman before rigourous study in American Sign language which led to explorations in the area of Disability Language Arts Sudies. He organized the first National Deaf Poetry Conference in 1987. With ongoing commitments to right livelihood, community service , forever wild ecologic consiousness and disability cultural awareness, Jim Cohn brings great insight and clarity to the sacred practice of his word art.
Marlene Cookshaw
Marlene Cookshaw's new book of poetry is called Double Somersaults and will be published by the end of November 1999. Marlene was born and raised in south Alberta, where she attended Winston Churchill High School and the University of Lethbridge. She moved to the west coast of BC in 1979, and received a B.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria in 1984. She lives in an old farmhouse on Pender Island with fiction writer Michael Kenyon and a Hungarian Vizsla named Ge'za; she keeps a large garden and a dozen ducks. She has been a member of The Malahat Review's editorial board since 1985, and is currently Acting Editor. She has served on juries for various writing awards, including the BC Book Prize for Poetry, BC Festival of the Arts literary scholarships, Malahat's Long Poem Prize, the Prince Edward Island Literary Competition, and the BC provincial scholarships. Cookshaw's other works are: Personal Luggage (Coach House Press, 1984), The Whole Elephant (Brick Books, 1989), Coupling (chapbook ÷ Outlaw Editions, 1994;1998) and Bottomland (chapbook ÷ Reference West, 1995). Her work has appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies, and has been featured on CBC Radio. The Whole Elephant was a runner-up for the BC Book Prize. "Jan Garbarek's Saxophone" won 1st prize in the League of Canadian Poets competition (1997); "Open and Close" won 1st prize in Arc's Poem of the Year competition (1997).
Lorna Crozier has won the Governor Generals Award, two Pat Lowther Awards for the best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. Her latest book of poetry, What the living won't let go, has recently been published by McLelland & Stewart.
Darms, Greg
Former Victoria resident, poet Greg Darms lives in Fairfax, Marin County, California, where he publishes the literary quarterly convolvulus (now in its fifth year). He also edits the monthly poetry calendar and newsletter Fish Dance, and publishes chapbooks of poetry under the imprint of Radiolarian Press. The Wind Room Series is a recent set of nine single-signature chapbooks by a wide variety of stylists, including National Book Award winner Olga Broumas. A full-length book of poems, Seeing Eye Wife, by Bayla Winters of L.A., will be out this summer. GD's poems have recently appeared in Limestone (U. of Kentucky), Rain Dog Review (San Jose), Paper Boat (Poulsbo, WA), Barnabe Mountain Review (Lagunitas, CA), and Tight. GD will be teaching sixth graders again in September.
Day, David
David Day has written over thirty books (Whale War, The Tolkien Encyclopedia, The Dooms-Day Book of Animals , and Work and the Working Life). He writes poetry, fiction, and books on the lore and ways of the creatures of the Earth and mind. The Doomsday Book of Animals is the basis of a television series currently airing on the BBC and Japanese television. He has a new book coming out in September called The Quest For King Arthur. David will read from an autobiographical collection of poems and stories.
Dimmock, Catherine
Catherine is a Victoria writer. She has published A Flame of Tulips (Hawthorne, Victoria) and performed at the Victoria Fringe Festival. She'll be reading writings from travels in Ireland and France.
Donlan, John
John Donlan is a published poet and a librarian. Don McKay writes "I think of John Donlan's poems as wise acrobats, alive to the many weathers of the selfÓ. In Green Man we have a collection by one of our finest poets working at full stretch.
Dyment, Margaret
Margaret Dyment is the teacher of Writeaway and organizer of Victoria School of Writing. She is also a poet and short ficiton writer, presently at work on a novel. Her book of short stories is called Drawing the Spaces.
Emerged, The
Merge with the emerged at a reunion/promotion of Open Spaces' Open Mouth Emerging Writers Reading. Includes such as Paul McKinnon, Liza Harris, John Harley, Lawrence Braithwaite, Chris McPherson, and Mocambopo host Tanya Kern. Come, hear for yourselves where we were and how we read now. Mystery host.
Fair, Matt
Some of Matt's radio art (The World Owes You a Living) has been heard on National Public Radio in America on All Things Considered . He has published writing in Left Bank, Convolvulus , and And Yet (of which he was a co-editor). He will read from a two-volume work in progress.
Farrant, M. A. C.
M.A.C. Farrant is the author of five collections of fiction: Sick Pigeon (Thistledown), Raw Material (Arsenal Pulp Press), Altered Statements (Arsenal), Word of Mouth (Thistledown), and The Congress of Human Wonders (Arsenal). Her pointed and humorous work "...delves into our waking sleep, into the dialectical world of our dreams and our nightmares as individually and communally played out through our habits and traditions." This reading is sponsored by the Canada Council; no admission charge.
fener one
Frieberg, Dan
Dan Frieberg will be reading from his collected poems for the four directions, The Dignity of Dust. Dan is a Uvic professor with a non-contemporary regard for modern poetry.
Friesen, Patrick
Patrick Friesen is a poet and playwright and one of Canada's strongest writers. He won the Manitoba Book of the Year Award for Blashemer's Wheel: Selected and New Poems (1994) and was nominated for the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 1997 for A Broken Bowl, poetry of anger. His most recent book of poems is st. mary at main (The Muses' Company, 1998). Patrick was born in Steinbach Manitoba and currently teaches in Vancouver. His books and plays include Broken Bowl, poetry of anger, Ficker and Hawk, The Shunning, You Don't Get To Be A Saint, Blashemer's Wheel and Carrying the Shadow. Friesen's readings are lucid and riveting. His poetry moves with ease from a playwright's quick sense of dialogue through the loftiest, moving lyric meditations on love and death and whatever other enduring issues he puts pen to. Don't miss his reading.
Frutkin, Mark
Mark Frutkin, also a poet, reads from his new novel, Lion of Venice. His stories are lyric and dreamlike. The novel, set in Marco Polo's Venice, follows his journey to Cathay and back.
Gregor Robinson is the author of The Dream King, his first collection of short stories. These are dark eerie stories about relationships and the things we do through need and duty.
Geddes, Gary
Gary Geddes is well known as an editor of 15 Canadian Poets x 2 and The Art of Short Fiction, 20th-Century Poetry and Poetics. Gary Geddes is also an award winning poet, critic, playwright and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Concordia University. His works include the Terracotta Army, Hong Kong, Girl by the Water, The Perfect Cold Warrior and Active Trading: Selected Poems 1970-1995. A League of Canadian Poets reading.
November 3, 2000: Gary Geddes & Timothy Brownlow
Gary Geddes is well know as the editor of 15 Canadian Poets x2, 20th Centry Poetry and Poetics and The Art of Short Fiction. He is an award winning poet. His is currently teaching at Western Washington University as distinguished professor of Canadian Culture.
August 25, 2000: William George
UVic writing and English student William George is from the Burrard Indian
Reserve in North Vancouver. His poetry and prose are published in various anthologies
and literary magazines; he draws on his native heritage in the language of his
poetry.
Gilbert, Gerry
Gerry's contribution to the literature of Vancouver is immense both in his own writings and his other projects. He is one of the best informed poets to be found anywhere and has been devoted to the art for about forty years. His extraordinarily agile poetry continues to influence a younger generation of poets (notably amongst those involved in the Kootenay School in Vancouver) and his radio show (Radio-freerainforest on CFRO-FM) informs B.C. of what's happening in poetry not only in Vancouver but around the world. Gerry's most recent book is Azure Blues (Talon-books). "Poetry/ the trick to read what can't be read/ quick to write what can't be said." Gilbert's readings are dynamite. An intellectual poet with a hot tongue and great ear for word jazz. This reading sponsored by the Canada Council. No admission charge.
Gillis, Susan
A territory peopled with wanderers, illusionists, hucksters, brambled over with tangles of intimacy and illusion. Poems that slip, eel-like, under their surfaces. Susan Gillis is the author of Attar of Rose (Hawthorne, 1995).
Susan Gillis, author of Attar of Roses will be reading from new writing inspired by Ken her logger muse.
Gontard, Liz
Liz is an Ontario native, who left the rolling hills, for the REAL mountains of Atlin, B.C. six years ago. She is a creative writing major at UVic. She's been published in the New Quarterly, the Yukon News and the Emily.
Robert Gore writes in collision and collusion with language, sings in the acapella world music group Pastime With Good Company and is a librarian in Vancouver. He is presently finishing the manuscript of his first book, The Year That Sputnik Fell to Earth. It is worth coming just to hear his "oranges on an blue plate".
Seth Gotro reads poetry of the banned at Mocambopo. And that's that. Signup for the open mike 7:30 P.M.
Gould, John
Victoria author John Gould -- "monk of the absurd", as Richard Olafson has dubbed him -- has published two collections of his finely wrought, thought-provoking micro-fictions. The Kingdom of Heaven: Eighty-Eight Palm-of-the-Hand Stories -- described by Robin Skelton as "one of the best and most fascinating books I have read in recent years" -- was released by Ekstasis Editions in 1996. Gould's Hawthorne Series chapbook, Misterioso, came out in 1995. "This author's mind is a hall of mirrors that entertains and enchants," says Rhonda Batchelor. "Come on in."
John Gould is the author of two collections of short prose pieces, The Kingdom of Heaven: Eighty-Eight Palm of the Hand Stories and Misterioso. He is the co-ordinator of the Otherwords writing program for the BC Festival of the Arts.
Gousopoulos, Zaffi
Gray, Martin
Martin is the author of several books of poetry including The Death of Villeneauve and Other Poems, Blues For Bird (on Charlie Parker), Modigliani, and Poems (1957, Scotland). Martin is also the editor of the Penguin Tennyson edition and has written two volumes about Tennyson and his poetry.
Tara Wells is a dedicated Victoria writer of poetry. " I write because I like it, because when I find myself washing the kitchen floor at midnight, lonely and panicking, I'd rather attempt a poem than suicide. Aside from that, I find writing fun, cathartic, luminous, lasting, humourous, ghastly, ruminant, nostalgic, peaceful, frightening, ugly, passionate, whistful, and familiar. I like it. "
September 1, 2000: Roy Green
Roy Green is a painter/poet/performance artist and professional pet portraitist. He is the founding member of the interpretive dance ensemble The Hermaphrodite Brotherhood. He was born in the year of the dog and enjoys eating cheese.
Greenwood, G. P.
G.P. Greenwood's work has been broadcast on the CBC and published in the Antigonish Review, Prism International and Poetry Canada Review. Her first book of poetry is called Buying Space in The Lifeboat and she holds a brand new degree in Creative Writing from UVic.
David Groulx (pronounced grew) has been published in over 50 magazines and anthologies in England, Wales, United States, and Canada. His second book of poetry The Long Dance will be published by Kegedonce press later this year. He is also winner of the Munro prize for poetry at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and the Simon J. Lucas award for outstanding writer at the Enowkin Centre in Penticton.
Handford, Tom
"Well made poetry is a form akin to architecture and building. It must be founded, practical, necessary and true. A poet cannot lie. I write to construct imaginative and intellectual habitudes for living; spiritual flight decks or cosy mental cold frames. Psychic tools. Brain hammers, heart... you get my drift. Brought up in Ont, moved to BC in '70, haved worked here and in Alta mostly as a ticketed carpenter; wrote my 1st poem at 17."
Hannant, Larry
Larry Hannant, a local writer with a Ph.D. in history reads from his second book The Politics of Passion, Norman Bethune's Writing and Art. "Those truly interested in one of the most intriguing individual Canadians of the 20th century should find this perceptive work a delightful treat."
Vivian Hansen is a Calgary writer and poet. Her chapbook, Never Call It Bird, was published in 1998. Her work appears in Our Grandmothers, Ourselves, published by Raincoast Books. Joy Kogawa wrote the forward. Several other writers from this collection will read with Vivian.
Harding, Mark
Harley, John
John Harley will be reading the complete long poem Letters from Garrison Street. The poem consists of seven letters that go back and forth between a man living on Garrison Street, and a woman working the archaeological dig at Herculaneum, Italy. The poem is layered like a dig. At one level, the poem deals with the disassembling relationship between a man and a woman. At another layer, it deals with the reconstruction of their histories through the fictional devices of a poem. At another level, the poem is about their construction of each other through the texts they send. Beyond that, there is poem itself as a device that a character named John Harley is using to construct his own story. A necessary fiction.John is the editor of Outlaw Editions, a Victoria publisher of fiction and poetry.
Harris, E.
E's work has appeared regularly in Convolvulus (edited by Greg Darms) and in Grain. She has a chapbook out from Reference West press called Red Dye #6. She is also active in organizing the News of the Inner World reading series. Audiences at Mocambopo have been impressed with the concentration, eloquence, and emotional clarity of her work at the open mike.
Harris, Gail
Gail Harris, a.k.a Cow Patty and Queen of the baddies, has performed her poems and songs around Canada and England with the aplomb that accompanies The blue silk underwear of the incredible Miss Rainwater (Coach House Books). She is the author of several books of poetry also including Lady Ambivalence and her small, secret mansion and ZaZa of the Cirque Fernando.
Hartog, Diana
The Photographer's Sweethearts, Hartog's first novel, (Penguin Books) has been compared with Nabokov's Lolita in its subject matter of pedophilia and with Ondaatje's The English Patient in its writerly achievement amidst recent Canadian fiction. The novel is told in the voice of Louis Olsen, an expatriate Dane drifting among California's high sierra logging camps and shanty towns in the first half of the century.
Like Ondaatje, Hartog writes intensely lyrical prose concealing unpalatable truths. And like Nabokov, Hartog presents us with an intensely perceptive, sympathetic protagonist whose heinous crimes are all the more appalling for the ways he conceals his moral failures, or attempts to explain them away. |
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It would not be fair to call Louie Olsen "likable"--it would not be fair to the depth and complexity of the novel--but there is something compelling about him....It is this that will cause the loudest howls of outrage. Novels are convenient vessels for condemnation, and perhaps too often this is what we expect of them. The Photographer's Sweethearts is a remarkable act of poetry and empathy.Previous books: Matinee Light (1983, Coach House) and Candy From Strangers (1986, Coach House) which won the BC Book Prize for poetry.
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Hawkins, Eliza
Eliza Hawkins is doing a premiere performance of a play she is taking to England in April.
Head, William
Readings from the forthcoming new issue of this magazine by friends and family of those with work in the magazine. Possibly also readings from the authors themselves (if they can make it).
Jolene Heathcote has had her poems published in Event, The Antigonish Review and her poems will be published in the latest anthology from Sono Nis Press, Breaking the Surface.
Heighton, Steven
Steven Heighton wrote Flight Paths of the Emperor, a collection of short stories, which was a 1993 Trillium Award finalist. His second collection of short stories, On earth as it was, was chosen by the Toronto Star as one of the best books of 1995. He was also a Governor General's Award finalist in 1995 for his poetry collection, The Ecstasy of Skeptics.
Steven Heighton won the 1993 Trillium Award for his short stories Flight Paths of the Emperor. His second collection of short stories, On earth as it was, was chosen by the Toronto Star as one of the best books of 1995. He was also a Governor General's Award finalist in 1995 for his poetry collection, The Ecstasy of Skeptics. He lives in Toronto and is currently reading the proofs for his new novel, The Shadow Boxer, to be published this spring by Knopf and Granta.
Heine-Koehn, Lala
Lala Heine-Koehn, author of seven books of poetry including The Spell of the Chaste Tree reads from her shifting and unabashed romantic works which yet remain conscious of the darkness all around. Former BC rep for League of Poets.
"but whom will I ask:
are dreams made of scales
the same as dust on moth wings?"
Henry, Tom
Is Tom Henry still dogless in Metchosin? The superstitious CBC celebrity will be reading from new material. Well-known for his crusty countrified urbanity. Come and chortle.
Hewwitt, Jeffrey
"A locally born bred and buttered Mariner/Artiste reading from his recent book release and new material. Mixed entertainment."
Herring, Peggy
Peggy Herring
Peggy Herring was a journalist for the CBC. She quit, then went to work for the UN in Bangladesh and Nepal. A friend convinced her that she was a "shadow artist" and she emerged inti the light and started writing fiction. She has also written an award winning docurnentary script on street children in Bangladesh.
Holdstock, Pauline
"Though Holdstock's subject matter is often stark and brutal, her elegant, ethereal prose turns raw reality into art." (Vancouver Sun ). Pauline will read from her new novel House, set in a decaying, post-Mishap London and will launch her chapbook, Mouths of The Amazon, "the first erotic poem composed entirely of words from the index to the Times Concise Atlas of the World..."
Holdstock will be reading from her new novel, The Turning (New Star Books), which opens in 1870 against the backdrop of the Franco-Prussian war. An English ship is wrecked on the coast of France and a stranger enters the lives of a village family. A ruinous triangle between mother, daughter, and the stranger results, forcing an examination of fidelity in all its aspects, marital, sexual, spiritual and political. Fear and desire distort the truth. With each new turn of fate the characters struggle to remain true to themselves--and the violence of the war advances irresistibly.Her previous books include Swimming From The Flames (Turnstone, 1995), House (Beach Holme, 1994), The Burial Ground (New Star, 1991), and The Blackbird's Song (Simon & Pierre, 1987).
Houston, Deryk
Reading from Echoes From The Square. During the terrible shelling of Sarajevo, in 1992, Vedran Smailovic played his cello for 22 days to honour the 22 people who had been killed while queuing for bread. His actions sent a clear message to the world that the insanity must stop.
Helen Humphreys
Helen's most recent book of poetry Anthem was published in May 1999.Born in London, England in 1961, Helen lives in Kingston, Ontario. She currently is on the editorial staff of an academic journal. From 1991 to 1996 she taught poetry and creative writing at Toronto's George Brown College, and has also worked as a car wash and gas station attendant, factory worker, and alarm station monitor.
Anthem is Helen's fourth book of poetry. Her three previous books of poetry were all published by Brick Books ÷ and are still in print ÷ Gods and Other Mortals, 1986; Nuns Looking Anxious, Listening to Radios, 1990; and The Perils of Geography, 1995. Her poetry has been published extensively in magazines across Canada and in the United States. Her novel Leaving Earth (HarperCollins 1997) has been published in 7 countries and won the 1998 City of Toronto Book Prize. The novel is now also in paperback.
Hunter, Aislinn
Aislinn Hunter is a poet and fiction writer, nominee for the Journey prize. She will be reading from new work and this is her last reading in Victoria as she is moving to Vancouver.
Hutchinson, C.
Janice Kent is graduating with a BFA in creative writing in December. She has been published in Fireweed, Contemporary Verse 2, and was a delegate to the 1998 BC Festival of the Arts. She will be reading with Chris Hutchinson.
Irvine, Dean J.
Three Editors in Exile from the Cowtown-based lit mag filling Station ask the question "do editors make great writers or what?" You be the judge as they read & perform recent works & mini-launch the seventh brilliant issue of their magazine. The most recent issue was recently covered in the Globe and Mail (June 8). filling Station is definitely one of the more adventurous, energetic literary magazines in the country. Come see what the fuss is all about. They will also have copies of all seven issues, & some of the chapbooks they've published for sale.
Internet, The
What sort of effects will the Internet and digital communications have on poetry? The effects on the language will be as they may; you could view them as relatively minor or yet more reinforcing of the metaphors between people and machines or...? The most easily explicable changes and influences will be upon the infrastructures of publishing and dissemination. It's currently difficult to find the work of many poets in foreign countries, etc. (even in Ontario or Seattle). Will work be more widely accessible world wide? What role will poetry assume in the future? Will the culture of youth be more receptive to the medium of print, given the rise of computer-based communications? Will poets acclimatise to cyberspace and tease out the imaginative possibilities of the communications revolution? What are they? COME ON YOU POETS IF THE WORD IS A VIRUS LET'S GET REAL SICK AND DO UP AN EVENING ON THESE QUESTIONS.
Jackson, Lorna
Dressing for Hope gives readers the chance to feel the cumulative power of her stories. It's about biker bars, seedy hotels, small town lounges and backwoods refugees. She played country music in beer parlours in Vancouver and small town BC for nine years then quit to write. She also teaches English at the University of Victoria and writes a monthly review for Quill and Quire.
Jarman, Mark
Mark is the author of Dancing Nightly In The Tavern, Killing The Swan, and Nothing North Of Disneyland (with Craig Piprell and Carl Grindley). He teaches English and Creative Writing at Uvic. Mark will be reading excerpts from a novel in progress.
A graduate of the Iowa Writer's workshop and a Fellow at Yaddo's artists' community in New York, his work has appeared in most Canadian literary journals such as Queen's Quarterly, Prism International, sub-Terrain, Hawaii Review, Prairie Fire and Quarterly West. His books include Dancing Nightly in the Tavern (short stories), Kill the Swan (poetry), and An Ounce of Cure (a book of alcohol related stories).
Mark Jarman teaches at UVic and has several books of poetry and fiction. He recently won the Playwright Union of Canada's dramatic monologue competition and his newest book is New Orleans is Sinking, a collection of short stories.
Johnson, Tanis
Tanis has been doing public readings for over six years. Her poetry has been heard on CFUV and is published on the net.
Johnston, Robin
Karasick, Adeena
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Adeena Karasick is a an internationally
published poet and performance artist,
and is completing her PhD in Montreal exploring the interplay of Kabbalistic/
feminist and deconstructionist discourses. Dedicated to language-centered
writing, ethnic and gender concerns, she has published numerous articles,
reviews and dialogues on contemporary poetry and poetics, and has performed
extensively participating in conferences, telepoetic colloquia and literary
festivals worldwide. Her books include "Genrecide" (Talonbooks, 1996),
"Memewars" (Talonbooks, 1994) and "The Empress Has No Closure" (Talonbooks,
1992). She has toured with Lollapalooza, done performance- readings across Canada, Europe, South Asia and the USA, and spent the summer of 1996 back and forth between the Malawi Literary Festival, the NuYorican Poets Cafe and the "Writing the Self out of Silence" conference in Toronto. |
Kelly, Philip ~ The Two Bladed Fan ~
Keppler, Joseph
Seattle's Joseph Keppler is widely regarded in Canada and America for his work as a poet, critic, editor, sculptor, and photographer. His poetry over the last few years has shifted from concentration on the aural and the visual to the creation/discovery of the language we hear (and speak) in the midst of conversation (at work, even). The result bears relation to the 'language' poetry he has been aware of for many years. He holds a mirror to everyday language and the attendant political/personal confusions.
See also Subtext for poetry by Joseph Keppler.
Jim and Joe's Langu(im)age visual poetry show at Mocambopo concludes tonight with a reading by the poets, both up from Seattle specially for this reading. Their visual poetry show runs from Nov 1 to their reading on Nov. 27. It features collaborative work together with a wide range of individual pieces. Their readings will vary from some of the sound/visual poetry now on the walls to new works for the voice and page.Jim, the host and organizer of Mocambopo until his move to Seattle, has just concluded a solo visual show at The Globe Cafe in Seattle. The opening party featured readings by Jim, Joseph, margareta waterman, Robin Schultz, Dan Raphael, and Paul McKinnon. Over the last few years he has developed one of the most startling and innovative literary Web sites in the world called Vispo ~ Langu(im)age at http://speakeasy.org/~jandrews. He will also be known to Victorians as the host and producer of FINE LINES and, later, ?FRAME?, literary radio shows that were heard each week for six years in Victoria on CFUV and fifteen other stations across Canada. He also published and edited the literary magazine And Yet, which featured considerable local writing together with the work of some Seattle writers.
Joe was also the first reader in the Mocambopo series in June of 1995.
Tanya is working on a manuscript called Love Story and Taboo, a collection of erotic, sensual poems that has tremendous range of tone, mood, and concerns. Mocambopo is proud to give her her first feature reading.
Tanya Kern will be launching her, new book The Erotics of Memories published by Ekstasis Editions. Her images are overtly sexual; there is oblique treachery and assorted magic. Tanya's poetic voice is unique and brilliant.
Kent, Janice
Janice Kent is graduating with a BFA in creative writing in December. She has been published in Fireweed, Contemporary Verse 2, and was a delegate to the 1998 BC Festival of the Arts. She will be reading with Chris Hutchinson.
Knowles, J. William
J. William Knowles was born in Southern California in 1972 to Canadian parents the year Leonard Cohen published The Energy of Slaves. He began writing in 1993, the year Leonard Cohen published Stranger Music. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Beth Kope has been writing for decades but is just beginning to let her poetic voice speak out loud. She writes about loss, grief, abandonment, bad mothers and pigs. Her poems appear in three Outlaw Editions anthologies: Conception, Community of Monsters and Blindfolds, edited by Patrick Lane.
Krawczyk, Betty Shiver
Betty Shiver Krawczyk is the author of CLAYOQUOT The Sound of My Heart, "A rivetting and humourous account of one woman's reflective journey as she moves from the segregated American south in the 1940's to the Clayoquot Sound Blockades in the 1990s. Betty's willingness to act on the injustices she is confronted with is a true inspiration to us all."
Kroetsch, Robert
Robert Kroetsch is one of Canada's most highly regarded poets, novelists, and critics. His most recent book is A Likely Story: THE WRITING LIFE (Red Deer College Press), an autobiographical collection of essays and poems that explore the experiences that lead to writing.
Robert Kroetsch has written many books of poetry including several long poems; he has won the Governor General's Award for his fiction and has taught at numerous universities. A Canada Council Reading.How do you grow a poet?
Just two miles up the road
you'll find a porcupine
dead in the ditch. It was
trying to cross the road.As for the poet himself
we can find no recordpoet...say uncle
Kyllo, Blaine
Lambert, Barbara
Barbara Lambert was awarded The Malahat Reviews Novella Prize in 1996. She was a CBC Competition finalist and a Journey Prize nominee. Her debut novel, The Allegra Series, has just been published by Beach Holme Publishing.
Edited by Patrick Lane, Conception features the work of Tanya Kern (host of Mocambopo), Aengus McIntosh, John Harley (whose Outlaw Editions published the book) Beth Kope, Alan hopper, Lisa Ashley, Stephen Wright, and Karen Schlanka, among others.
Patrick Lane has won every major poetry prize in Canada including the Governor General's award and the B.C. Book Prize. His latest book of poetry is Selected Poems published in 1997 by Harbour Publishing.
Landale, Zoe
Zoe Landale has published three books, two of which are volumes of poetry: Colour of Winter Air and Burning Stone.
Lander, Tim
Tim is well known around the Pacific Northwest for his bardic West Coast lyrical long beard poems. A resident of Nanaimo, Tim is constantly travelling to where people talk about and perform poetry. He reads his poetry superbly.David W. McFadden (Toronto) is a prominent Canadian poet and author of many volumes including Art of Darkness and Gypsy Guitar. His most recent book: There'll Be Another (Talonbooks). David is a stylist of considerable eloquence; his humorous work moves naturally from high-brow contemplation to interpersonal satire. David is part of theWriters in Electronic Residence project.
Lau, Evelyn
Evelyn Lau has won the Milton Acorn Award for Poetry. She was the youngest poet nominated for the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 1992. Her latest book of poetry is In the House of Slaves, published by Coach House in 1994. Her novel, Other Women, was published in 1995 by Random House.
Lilburn, Tim
Tim Lilburn has published four bookds of poetry including Tourist to Ecstasy which was nominated for the Governor General's Award and Moosewood Sandhills which received the Canadian Authors' Association Award. His fifth book, To The Riverwill be published by McClelland and Stewart in '99."...sometimes you lose everything
and wake up in the strange room of what you always wanted."
Lent, John
Monet's Garden(Thistledown Press), Lent's most recent and first book of short fiction, is a sequence of stories that follow the members of a fond but dysfunctional family from childhood into marriage, and from the interior of British Columbia to the heartland of French culture. Lent explores the private routes that individuals and couples choose to follow, where the demons and angels of their pasts are often one and the same.
Other books by John Lent:
A Rock Solid (poetry, Dreadnaught Press, 1978)
Wood Lake Music (poetry, Harbour, 1982)
Frieze (poetry, Thistledown Press, 1984)
The Face In the Garden (poetry, prose, Thistledown Press, 1990)
Read a Review of Monet's Garden
Macloud, Heather
Heather MacLoud has her first book just out with Coteau Press, My Flesh the Sound of Rain."...my mother is that swan god made
using angel wings, he pulled from her spine
the smooth crack
and the red red blood."
Macfalls, Sean
Sean, an Irish-American poet as well as a lyricist and composer, reads from Between the Leaves from Peregrin Press.
Manera, Matthew
Mathew teaches English and French at U. Vic. He is well known as a talented and knowledgable musician. He is also an engaging poet and has published his poems in many literary magazines in Canada. Mathew recently returned from doing a Ph.d in English/French literature in eastern Canada.
Marlowe, Pete
Pete Marlowe is a novelist, song-writer/singer, dramatist, and poet. His upcoming play The Second Coming, a comic, contemporary reworking of Euripides's The Bacchae, will play in Victoria October and November 1995 at The Drawing Room. He recently finished the manuscript of his second novel, Just a Kid Like You. Pete will be reading from it and performing some of his songs.
Mocambopo is proud to launch If You Say You'll Meet Me, a collection of poems by Pete Marlowe, author of The Second Coming, Love Always Knocks Twice (plays recently produced at The Drawing Room), and Just a Kid Like You (a novel he read from in June at Mocambopo). Pete is well known in Victoria for his dramatic, powerful performances.
Pete Marlowe is the author of two novels (Glass Breakfast and Just a Kid Like You), several plays (including The Second Coming, staged last year at The Drawing Room), a collection of poems, and a collection of songs. This week he'll be performing his Leonard Cohen/ Hank Williams/Velvet Underground influenced songs with his band. Pete Marlowe is widely known for his passionate, humorous performances.
Spencer Maybee is a UVic writing student who has been published in the Inner Harbour Review and his high school yearbook. His poetry is socially charged, often exploring Canadian cultural identity at the personal level and it is charged with language, sometimes simple and sometimes recondite. He was born in Toronto and grew up there before making his diaspora to the West. He loves his friends and family and Canada.
McAllister, Ken
"Ken has written technical reports for many years and started writing poetry one and one half years ago while completing a fine arts diploma at Victoria College of Art. Poetry was used to stimulate creativity and for Ken it was also means of building images which he would then paint or render graphically. However, the writng has taken on a life its own and Ken will be using it to give a flavour of the different places where he has lived. These include the north-east, south and west highland areas of Scotland with a brief visit to Ireland before heading to British Columbia and then to northern Nigeria. All places where to some degree tribal living is still practiced."Ken has read at the open mike at Mocambopo for several months. Audiences always enjoy his well-observed, wisely and humorously intelligent writings. Ken McAllister is a gifted writer who deserves a wide audience.
October 20, 2000: Paddy McCallum & Wendy McGrath
Paddy McCallum's poems have appeared in literary journals, in anthologies and
his new book, Parable Beach has just been published by Beach Holme Press.
October 27, 2000: Susan McCaslin & Dorothy Rodgers
Susan McCaslin is a poet and creative writing instructor at Douglas College.
Her focus is on the spiritual life that resonates in each of us. Her poems have
appeared in literary journals across Canada. She is the editor of A Matter of
Spirit, published by Ekstasis Editions.
Dorothy Rodgers was born on the island of Malta. She is an ex-commercial fish
slave, an ex-treeplanter, mother of one, a sometime traveller, perennial bon
vivante and a complete fool for love. She is presently a graduate student at
Uvic, where she is counting the days.
McIntosh, Leanne
Leanne McIntosh writes with a clear woman's voice; of pain and pleasure. She is an accomplished poet who holds writing workshops in Nanaimo. Her work has appeared in Other Voices and an anthology Sing for the Inner Ear.
McFadden, David W.
McMaster, Keith
Keith is an extremely talented guitarist and rock composer. His orignal guitar work ranges through blues, Floyd, funk, Bach rock, folk rock, lullaby, and he has produced a kicking video/sound collage of his song The Oceanfront. He has released Pilot Training and Eventide on cassette.
McKay, Don
Don Mckay, a Canada Council reader, has published eight books of poetry including Birding, or desire-1983, Night Field, which won the Governor General's award in 1991, and Apparatus, 1997. He has been editor and publisher with Brick books since 1975 and edited Fiddlehead magazine from 1991 to 1996. His latest book of poetry is Apparatus, published in 1997 by McLellan and Stewart. An abiding interst in birds and the natural environment complements and inspires his writing. He presently lives in BC.
Andrea McKenzie, 23, was born in Smithers, B.C. and has lived in Victoria ever since. She has even managed to remain living in the same neighborhood, although she also found a few poetic inspirations while travelling through Western Europe and the U.K. last summer. Andrea is a 4th year English major at the University of Victoria. She was a featured poet at Mocambo Cafe in February 1999 and hopes to eventually achieve the task of being published. She writes poems about train rides, and love in New Zealand, New York & Wal-Mart.
Mckenzie, John
a nomadic poet originally from PEI. He has washed up in Victoria. He claims to write songs for the songless.
McKinnon, Paul
Paul McKinnon's comic brilliance is well known around Victoria and Vancouver. I think he ties up too many loose ends to be improvising too much. Yes he's funny but is he deep? Oh yes he's very deep. Smells like Curt Cobain: "there you are now, entertain us..." or carcinogenic haiku: "the dishwasher tells us/ he has cancer/ then lights a cigarette." Paul is a brilliant writer and performance guy. There you are now. Come and be entertained.
Celebrate the solstice with summer stories from the Land of the Midnight Sun. Paul McKinnon tells tales of the Yukon in a reading/performance. Paul McKinnon has delighted audiences regularly at Mocambopo with his stand-up, spontaneous story telling and his written work. This evening promises to be an amazing mixture of both.
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Paul is a talented writer with an amazing gift for performance.
He has performed at Mocambopo many times both as a feature writer
and at the open mike. Paul's writing often deals with his travels
throughout the wilds of B.C. and the north. The accompanying cast of
characters paints a memorable epic of life on the west coast. Most recently, Paul travelled to Prince George and Quesnel where he launched a stand-up career doing comedy. And apparently ended up bowling with the mayor of Prince George. |
"All of us have broken the law during our lives but not all of us have had to go to jail. There's something romantic about the criminal life but I've never had the guts to be a real outlaw. I Fought the Law and the Law Kicked My Butt is a collection of true stories of my life as a failed criminal."
McLaughlin, Jay
Jay is a painter and a performance artist who aspires toward the sort of improvisatory, authentic performance/story telling done by David Antin. Her performances tend to examine her own history (fabulous as it might be in the recounting) toward humorous and occasionally deeper insights into sex, relationships, marriage, power, and art.
McNeill, Julie
Julie McNeill was an early member of the Bohemian Embassy Poets' Workshop and has read on stage and on radio. Her poetry has appeared in Poems for Sale in the Street and Other Channels and her chapbook Ching, the Well. Four Red Crescent Moons is her first collection.
McPherson, Chris
My short fiction has been described as: ambitious, beautiful, believable, comic, complex, courageous, deft, delectable, demanding, eclectic, economical, energentic, enjoyable, entertaining, excellent, exuberant, expressionistic, fascinating, fast-moving, fine, fun, funny, good, gripping, humourous, imaginative, interesting, intriguing, inventive, ironic, jagged, lively, loose, lyric, neat, nice, original, perceptive, poetic, powerful, provocative, resonant, rich, sensational, serious, sharp, solid, splendid, striking, strange, strong, tight, unexpected, vivid, wonderful, zany, and zesty. And those were the rejections! My collection, Everything But the Truth, is coming out with Arsenal Pulp sometime next fall. I make my living as a carpenter.
Tonight is the launch of Chris McPherson's book Everything But the Truth (Pulp Arsenault Press). His stories have appeared in such magazines as Quarry, Canadian Fiction, and The Fiddlehead. He reads often at the Mocambopo open mike. This will be the first gig in Chris's cross Canada tour with his collection of stories. So it will be a good party in celebration of his accomplishment and to wish him and his book success in his journey. "A stunning debut of short fiction by Chris McPherson; a carpenter by trade, who constructs, with disarming detail, stories of desire and loss, and the thin line between truth and fiction in people's lives."
McPherson, James Lowell
James Lowell McPherson was Poet Laureate of West Virginia and has been writing poetry for more than 70 years. He is also the author of the novel Good-bye Rosie. He is reading with his wife Phyllis King, a poet, as well as mother of four and recently retired librarian. Both have been anthologized in the popular collection Grow Old Along With Me/The Best is Yet To Be.
Melnyk, George
George Melnyk launches Ribstones, his first book of poetry published by Ekstasis Press. George is the founder of NeWest Press and NeWest Magazine. He has written many academic books and this fall published a literary history of Western writers. He teaches at the University of Alberta.
Morton, Wendy
If someone were to ask me who I am I could give them the words: teacher, printer, investigator, cook, gardener and then I would stop and say but what I really am is a poet, which means I gather up magic in the world in my heart and head, the world I pass by on the way to work and the world I read about and I make stories.She makes great stories, too. Ask for the Inner Harbour poems.
Wendy Morton is the current host, of Mocambopo. She has been writing poetry for 30 years and likes to gather up magic in the world in her heart and her head and make up stories that turn into poems. Once she was stopped for speeding and read the cop a poem, and didn't get a ticket. This was absolute confirmation of the power of poetry.
November 24, 2000: Wendy Morton
Wendy Morton is the current host of Mocambopo. She has been published in three anthologies edited by Patrick Lane and published by Outlaw editions and her poems have been published in The Antigonish Review. She always carries a few poems with her in the case of an emergency, and once was stopped for speeding, pulled out a poem and read her way out of a ticket.
August 18, 2000 Camilla MorrowCamilla Morrow teaches ELS and Spanish to adults and much of her adult life has been spent living in Latin America and Asia. Her chapbook, flying pigeon dreams, has just been published by Precanous Press. She has had her poems published in Event and Saltwater Annual Poetry Contest.
Murray, Rona
Rona Murray's wide perspective on and committment to the arts has involved her both as a writer and critic in Victoria and abroad for many years. She's the author of seven books of poetry including Adam and Eve in Middle Age (Sono Nis), and The Power of the Dog (Morris); she has had four plays produced in Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto, and Seattle; she has published books of stories and travel/memoirs; her work has been widely anthologized in Best Canadian Short Stories, The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse and several other anthologies; and she's the theatre critic for Monday Magazine.Irene Mock's fiction has appeared in Grain, Matrix, The Capilano Review, Descant, and Fiddlehead. With Paulette Jiles and Luanne Armstrong, she co-edited Journey to the Interior: An Anthology of Kootenay Women Writers and is a founder of the Kootenay School of Writing. She'll be reading from Inappropriate Behaviour, a collection of stories published by Beach Holme.
June 9, 2000 Rona Murray
Rona Murray is the author of seven books of poetry, including Adam and Eve in Middle Age , published by Sono Nis Press. She has written plays and short stories and is widely anthologized.
Musgrave, Susan
Susan Musgrave has published more than 20 books, her most recent, a children's book Dreams are more real than bathtubs, published by Orca books in 1998. Her new collection of poetry is, Things That Keep and Do Not Change. She won the CBC/Tilden Canadian Literary Award for poetry in 1996.
Nickerson, Billeh
Billeh Nickerson received an award of special recognition for poetry at 1995 BC Festival of the Arts and a 1996 BC Arts Council Scholarship. He'll host the new Open Mouth reading series starting June 5 at Open space gallery. He will be reading new work from his Chapbook Sometimes Gay Means Happy to be released by Smoking Lung Press, Sept. 97 and from a series of poems based on the Titanic. Going down?
Billeh Nickerson is a creative writing student, 1996 winner in BC Festival of the Arts and Literary Chair at Open space. His chapbook is released by Smoking Lung. Billeh's chapbook is called 'Sometimes Gay Means Happy'. He is also the lower island representative for the BC Federation of Writers.
Billeh Nickerson finally graduated from UVic's writing department and now lives in Vancouver where he is contributing editor with Geist and a monthly columnist with Xtra! West. His poems and essays have appeared in Church-Wellesley Review, Geist, Prism International and his chapbook Sometimes Gay Means Happy.
Nolet, Nick
Nick is well known in Victoria for her thoughtful writing poised somewhere along the edge of urban relationships and proust punk observations. "This is about love... not to be confused with a love poem." She takes great care with the phrasing of her poems but insists nonetheless on the raw and primal.
Norman, Chad
Chad Norman. Born in Armstrong in 1959, his goals as a poet include taking poetry into places it isn't usually found: schools, senior centres, etc. In 1995 he started the Royal City Poetry Centre and has been organizing and hosting it since. Mocambo is his last stop on a tour across Canada promoting literacy.
North, Jessica
Mythos: "At the end of an era awaits a new vision." Jessica North, author of Runemal: The Ritual of Runeplay and co-author of The Witch's Book of Days reads selections from her unpublished manuscripts Mythos: Season of the Dying God (poetry) and Moon Runner (poetry), a presentation of ritual theatre.
Steve is the author of Backing into Heaven (poetry) and Cities of India (short fiction). He recently completed Hurriya, a series of poems about a Kahyyam-type figure adrift in the modern world. He is working on another collection of poems.
Stephen Noyes. His third book was Hurriya and he will be reading some poems and non-fiction written in China where he was teaching English and studying Mandarin at Tsing-hua University.
Published three books of poetry, including the most recent, Hurriya ( Toronto South Asian Press), which took him seven years to write and zig-zags manically between B.C., the Canadian prairies, Turkey, and other locations -- the Planet Turan -- harder to pin down. Also published short stories, The Cities of India, Ekstasis Editions. Currently working on a novel, November's Radio, and another collection of poems. Steve's readings are intense and reflective; he daydreams in Victoria.
September 8, 2000: Stephen Noyes
Stephen Noyes has published three books of poetry, including Hurriya,
which took him seven years to write. Many of his poems are set in China and
some are read in Chinese. His poems are intense and reflective; he daydreams
in Victoria, where he teaches English.
Olaffson, Richard
Richard is a poet and the publisher of Victoria's Ekstasis Editions, one of the primary publishers of poetry in the province. He reads widely in poetry (both inter-nationally and within Canada), and has been devoted to the art for many years. His books include Blood Of The Moon Poems (1982), In Arbutus Light Saturna Poems (1987), Inner Shore (1987), Name Of Being (1986), and Roses Pearls Ocean Stars Triads (1994). Richard will be accompanied by the jazz of Carol Sokoloff Jazz and The Subterreanians.
Richard Olafson, publisher of Ekstasis Editions mostly recently read from Roses. Pearls. Ocean. Stars. Triads in a 1000 year old monastery in Paris."Language breaks on
a stone of silence, waves form."
Osborn, Bud
His poetry is chronicle, confession, testimony. An unwavering account of the inner-city struggle and the tenacity of the human spirit.
"who do you
panhandle
for real change?"
O'Sullivan, Areil
Ariel is widely known in Victoria for her readings and performance art. She is the author of Braid Your Hair and Go To Brazil. She will be reading from her new book Blast the Morality of Kings and new work in progress.
Owens, Yvonne
Yvonne is a co-author of The Witch's Book of Days with Jessica North and Jean Kosikari. Yvonne also writes on the arts in The Victoria News and Artichoke. She has a series of chapbooks on magic from Reference West publishers and is one of the editors of Hecate's Loom.
The apocryphal tales of Lancelot of the Lake. A story of adventure on the road to Camelot with Merlin and Nimue. Arthurian soft porn from the unpublished manuscripts of romance literature. Yvonne Owens is the author of several books including The Witch's Book of Days. She is Editor of the quarterly arts periodical Hecate's Loom. Naomi Lester is a composer and harpist and a founding member of Leanan Sidhe, a Celtic music ensemble.
Yvonne Owens, storyteller and Naomi Lester, harpist come together to perform a suite of mystery and musical narrative.
Yvonne Owens and Naomi Lester
Yvonne Owens (voice & percussion) and Naomi Lester (harp & recorders) perform "A Midwinter's Tale," featuring another episode in their series of Arthurian Bardic lore, "The Apocryphal Tales of Lancelot."Yvonne Owens is a musician, lyricist and art critic (Monday Magazine, Artichoke, Vie Des Art). She is author of "The Journey of the Bard," and "The Cup of Mari Anu," and co-author of "The Witch's Book of Days." Naomi Lester is a musician, composer, arranger, and music critic (Monday Magazine, Victoria News). She has composed and arranged music and lyrics for two C.D,s: "Season of Holly," and "The Moor and the Dowry" (in progress). Yvonne and Naomi are member/directors of Leanan Sidhe Celtic and Estrella Early Music Ensembles. "A Midwinter's Tale" will consist of original prose and verse based on popular Romance narratives, set to traditional Mediaeval (Breton) ballads, lays and dances.
Yvonne Owens and Naomi Lester
Yvonne Owens (voice & percussion) and Naomi Lester (harp & recorders) perform "A Midwinter's Tale," which will consist of original prose and verse based on popular Romance narratives, set to traditional Medieval (Breton) ballads, lays and dances.This is also Mocambopo's Christmas Party, mulled wine on the house.
Mocambopo will resume Friday, January 7, 2000 for a splendid winter season.
December 8, 2000: Yvonne Owens
Yvonne Owens will present A Midwinter's Tale to celebrate the winter solstice. She is the author of The Witches Book of Days. This is a Mocambopo solstice celebration: mulled wine and delicious poems to end the year.
P.K. Page has been a force in Canadian poetry of the mind for over 50 years. Her painterly poems (she is also a visual artist) trace the Ur and i mage. P.K. is a kind of poetical cubist. Hologram (the title of her latest book) suggests multiple perspectives. Her eloquence has earned her many honours including the Governor General's award.
P.K. Page has been a force in Canadian poetry of the mind for over 50 years. Her painterly poems (she is also a visual artist) trace the Ur and image. P.K. is a kind of poetical cubist. Hologram (the title of her latest book) suggests multiple perspectives. Her eloquence has earned her many honours including the Governor General's award. |
P.K. Page has been a force in Canadian poetry of the mind for over 50 years. Her painterly poems suggest multiple perspectives. Her eloquence has earned her many honours including the Governor General's award. In February of 1999 she was awarded the Companion of the Order of Canada, this country's highest award for achievement.
Pal, Rajinderpal S.
Calgary poet and editor Rajinderpal S. Pal's work has appeared in absinthe and filling station. He has performed at the Banff Center for the Arts, the Desh Pardesh festival in Toronto, the Kootenay School of Writing, and on CBC Radio's Homestretch program. He took first place in Letterheads, filling station's poetry slam for Calgary Folk Fest 1995. Come on down and find out why! Gangway!
Patrick, Michael
Michael has read his fiction at the Open Mike frequently. Tonight will be a night of theatre. Michael has written a new play set in a coffee shop. An estranged couple meet after having been apart for six months. Meta-theatre Victoria style.David Reiter is an accomplished Australian poet in Victoria on an exchange teaching program in the University's Creative Writing Department. He has written several books of poetry: Snow in Us (Five Islands, 1989); Changing House (Jacaranda, 1991); The Cave After Saltwater Tide (Penguin, 1994); and Hemingway in Spain (Penguin, in press). David also writes plays; Piano in the Garden has been accepted for development by La Boite Theatre in Brisbane.
Pass, John
John Pass is a publisher as well as a poet. His most recent books are The Hour's Acropolis and Radical Innocence. Some lines from a recently completed manuscript:
"It was watching Titanic I decided
Sign up for the open mike at 7:30.
to give up poetry. It was the moment
when the lovers are struggling."
November 17, 2000: John Pass
John Pass has been widely published in Canadian literary magazines. He was
nominated for a BC Book Award in 1992 and received a BC Cultural Services Award
in 1996. His latest book, Water Stair, is published by Oolichan Books.
Peace, Barbara Colbrook
Her chapbook, 12 Silences is being launched by Hawthorne in April. Her lyric and meditative poetry has appeared in various journals including an anthology from Sono Nis Press.
You are here, the sign says
but you want to be before that
you want to stand wide cedared in the sun.
July 7, 2000 Barbara Colebrook Peace
Barbara Colebrook Peace is an editor and poet. She writes of gargoyles and quotes Lewis Carroll. Hearing her read her poems is a lovely experience. She has been widely published in collections and journals and is one of the proteges in Breaking the Surface, recently published by Sono Nis Press.
Piprell, Craig
Craig Piprell was a house of a heart and a startlingly talented writer. His untimely death at the age of forty shocked and saddened those who knew him-and he knew many people. He was a 300 pound biker with an M.A. in English. He was well known in Victoria (and amongst forestry companies) for his work with Monday Magazine and his conscientious, brave environmental reportage. Lesser known was his work as a writer of poetry and fiction. Some of his friends have done a superb job in assembling some of his work into The Lemmings Had Nowhere to Go. Friends of Craig will read from Craig's literary legacy. "Nothing I knew or had learned prepared me for the slipperish heat; the divine cologne of freshly conjured juices at my fingertips. I moonwalked home, a thousand miles in the dark. But when I got there I felt I had arrived, not at some inevitably disappointing final destination, but at the border of unbounded opportunity. I had tickled the lock at the door to the womb. The darkness between streetlamps receded, oasis by aromatic oasis in caravansaries of light, where the anointed eagerly wait to welcome me to all the glittering secrets and jewelled joy of earth" (from "The Machinery of Night").
Poets, League of
League of Poets Annual General Meeting Poetry Bash including readers Dennis Reid, Joe Blades, Anne Burke, Brenda Niskala and rob mclennan who are winding up their launch of Open 24 Hours. This book is a collection of Cross Canada poetry. There will also be a selection of mystery poets that night. No open mike and no cover charge tonight.
Priddle, Ross
in tents soundz.
October 6, 2000: Robert Priest
Robert Priest is a poet and singer in the bardic tradition. He is a renowned
spoken word performer and has published ten books of poetry. He lives in Toronto
and when he travels to the West Coast, he is revived.
Prism Gang Reading
Prism gang reading, a fundraiser to celebrate Prism's fortieth birthday along with some education on how to submit your work. Possibly live musical entertainment. Sign up for open mike at 7:30 P.M.
Purdy, Al
Al Purdy is one of Canada's most celebrated poets. His work spans more than half a century.His many books of poetry include The Collected Poems of Al Purdy (1986), Naked With Summer In Your Mouth (1994), The Caribou Horses (1965), and Love In a Burning Building (1970). His most recent is Room to Rent In the Outer Planets (Harbour Publishing).
Reid, Dennis
Dennis Reid is the author of The Women Who Surround Me (poetry), The Knife Behind the Gills (a novel), and How to Catch Salmon (science fiction?). He's the province's rep. of the League of Canadian Poets and the Vice of the B.C. Federation of Writers. He's also involved in the Internet Swiftsure project. He will read the Christmas dinner fiasco from his new novel The Knife Behind the Gills (Ekstasis Editions), a near King Learish look at a family in 1990's rural/urban Victoria.
Dennis is the President of the Federation of B.C. Writers and the past B.C. rep for the League of Canadian Poets. His books include The Women Who Surround Me (poetry), and The Knife Behind the Gills (a novel). He writes:
The reading, titled My Daughter And All The Rest Of It, is dedicated to my daughter Samantha after divorce and decisions. I thought I would write a series of linked poems about divorce: pain, separation, weird twists of love, art, coming of age, manipulation, the unbalanced mental state of a person after a particularly difficult divorce, etc. I chose also to extend my writing by moving into a more elusive style which is based more on an emotional or intuitive understanding of how subjects relate rather than a straight narrative structure. Hence, for me, this work is as daring and wide-ranging as any I've written. I'm out there on a limb.This material comes from my next book of poetry, Love And Other Things That Hurt. I will be attending the Banff Centre for the Arts later this fall to rewrite it with many good people.
Reid, Jaimie
