From the Edmonton Poetry Festival
Listen.
Listen to The Magpie. Telling you where to be and when to be there. The Magpie knows who’s who and what’s what . . . or, at least, he likes to think he knows . . . so . . . also . . .
Talk to The Magpie. Tell him what is happening, so he can tell the others.
On behalf of The Board of the Edmonton Poetry Festival, it is my pleasure to introduce you to The Magpie, spotlighting, showcasing, and promoting Edmonton’s poetry scene all year round. In subsequent issues of The Magpie we will be giving updates on The Edmonton Poetry Festival 2025, but in the meantime:
If you would like to be considered as a featured poet in future issues, if you have an event or a book to promote, a perspective on poetry to share, please contact:
info [@] edmontonpoetryfestival.com.
-Steve Pirot, Executive Director, Edmonton Poetry Festival Society
| |
Be featured in The Magpie!
Submit a poem to our new, random draw and your poem could be selected and published in a future newsletter, and featured on our social media accounts! Only entries from Edmonton Poetry Festival members will be accepted. We accept one submission per person, per submission period both published and unpublished, but the onus is on you to ensure you have copyright. All work should be original (please, no Tennyson or AI)!
Poems should be less than one page long, and include your name and a brief bio (50 words max.). We will not accept submissions containing misogynistic, racist, homophobic, and otherwise hateful content. Send your submissions to abbigail [@] edmontonpoetryfestival.com by midnight Alberta time Sept. 25. We're looking forward to reading your poems!
| | |
|
The Olive Reading Series - Returns Wednesday, Sept. 11 at The Rooster, 10732 82 Ave, Edmonton. It runs monthly from September to April, 2025 with two featured readers followed by an open mic. More information on Facebook: Facebook.com/olivereadingseries/
The Stroll of Poets - Haven Readings includes featured readers and open mics. Haven Readings opening event is Monday, Sept. 16 at the Upper Crust, 10909 86 Ave., Edmonton. Tel: 780 758 5599.
Parkland Poets - Hosts readings online and in person in Stony Plain every second and fourth Thursday of the month.
Please check with organizers or venues before attending events.
| |
New collections from Alberta poets
Moving to Delilah, by Catharine Owen, 2024
In search of stability and rootedness, Catherine Owen moved from Vancouver to Edmonton in 2018. She bought a house more than one hundred years old, named Delilah. Beginning from a space of grief that led to Catherine's relocation, the poems inhabit the home, its present, and its past. They share the stories of decades of renovations, the lives of Delilah’s previous inhabitants, and Catharine's triumphs and failures in the ever-evolving garden. Moving to Delilah by Catherine Owen is published by Freehand Books.
Northerny, by Dawn Macdonald, 2024
Dawn Macdonald’s North is a messy, beautiful, and painful point of origin. Northerny has been described as expertly balancing lyric reflection and ferocious realism. Based in Whitehorse, Dawn describes herself as a re-emerging poet, returning to the craft after many years of working on unfinished novels and generally not completing projects. Northerny by Dawn Macdonald is published by the University of Alberta Press.
| | | |
|
What we've been watching, reading, or listening to
Poetry Unbound, from On Being
Winter Songs: Conor Kerr interviewed by Pádraig Ó Tuama
Pádraig Ó Tuama doesn’t interview Conor Kerr in this podcast episode; he reads and comments on Kerr's poem Winter Songs, from the collection Old Gods. In Winter Songs, Conor explores a future where coyotes wander through a rewilded city. The animals dig up bones of Indigenous ancestors who then regenerate and reclaim what was taken. "Power is dismantled, something original is restored," writes Pádraig in the show notes. As he reads Winter Songs, listeners feel the pace of advancing and receding years. Pádraig's gentle voice with its Cork accent belies its power. Soft musical interludes offer moments for reflection on Pádraig's interpretation of Winter Songs. Listen here: Onbeing.org/programs/conor-kerr-winter-songs
| |
Five Answers, with Abbigail Ketsa
'All of my writing is a conversation with the world around me'
Edmonton's Abbigail Ketsa is the first poet to complete The Magpie's Five Answers, a monthly feature where an Alberta poet selects from our list of 17 questions and shares five answers with readers.
Abbigail (she/they), pictured, is an emerging settler poet and writer from Edmonton, Alberta. She has a BA in English from the University of Alberta and is a board member of the EPFS. A member of the LGBTQ+ community, she explores death, existence, and the Other through writing. You can read Abbigail's prose, “Cultural Literary Landscapes,” in the 2023 Special Issue of Crossings: An Undergraduate Arts Journal and find her poetry in Crab Apple Literary and Nowhere Girl Collective.
Q: Who or what inspires your writing?
AK: Like most poets, everything I read influences my writing. Specifically, history, science, and the ancient world inspire a lot of my poetry about human experience. It is one thing to read the works of a bygone age and another to try to fit yourself into those lives and imagine how very dissimilar or alike you are.
Q: Who are your favourite poets?
AK: Franny Choi, Hera Lindsay Bird, and Sawako Nakayasu, all of whom have very experimental and unique voices. I love Choi’s collection Soft Science and Nakayasu’s Some Girls Walk Into the Country They are From. I like to read the avant garde—poetry that pushes boundaries and questions what “poetry” can be.
Q. How does a poem begin for you? And do you feel as though some of your poems come to you from seemingly nowhere?
AK: For me, a poem is often an answer to a question or sometimes a continuation of the question. All of my writing is a conversation with the world around me—what I’m reading, what I ate, and whom I love. For that reason, “beginning” is hard because it implies there wasn’t anything that came before, and, for me, there is always a before.
Q: What are you reading at the moment (poetry or anything else)?
AK: I love to talk about what I’m reading with other readers. I tend to go through books very quickly. I am currently reading the works of Anne Carson, An Autobiography of Red and Decreation, as well as Christopher Buehlman's historical horror-fantasy Between Two Fires. When I’m not reading horror or poetry, I’m usually reading whatever strange and interesting romance I can find on Kindle Unlimited.
Q: When are you most happy?
AK: When I’m with my family, I am the most happy. I was raised in a multigenerational household, and spending quality time with my family has always been a big proponent of feeling a sense of community and belonging. The dinner table is always the place to be, whether for home-cooked food, a morning visit, or a history lesson. I love to hear my people speak, especially about the old days or the people that we’ve lost. It’s a way of keeping it alive so I can pass it on to the younger generation.
| |
Through the Poet's Eye
By Sheelagh Caygill
| |
|
|
Certain poems and pieces of music have always helped me frame the incomprehensible or come to terms with traumatic experiences. Slowly, eventually, after many readings or listens, I’m able to move towards some kind of understanding or acceptance. I know it will be the same for many of you, too.
When three wildfires met to create the monster fire that destroyed parts of Jasper in late July, I turned to poetry as I recalled so many memories of Jasper in the last three decades.
Many poets use words to explore the multifaceted impacts of wildfires. Their work often focuses on destruction, loss, grief, a warming planet, and the emotional cost of living in fire-prone regions. Here are some of the poems I’ve read in recent months.
1. Exploring loss and trauma
Poetry can help writers and readers reflect on how we feel after an event that leaves us off balance or even tears our world apart. A poem can be a quiet and private place where we slowly open ourselves to the blocked emotions pushed downwards after a traumatic experience.
Lorna Crozier's poem The gods didn't warn us looks at the paradox of fire. Fire warms us and keeps darkness at bay; but to some who’ve been close to a wildfire, it is a breathing beast with a belly that’s never full. Writes Lorna: “Fire has no heart”.
2. Climate change and environmental commentary
Wildfires and climate change are inseparable for many artists, including poets. Cynthia Sharp and Timothy Shay lament the destruction wrought on the Cascadia region in their poem The Fire. In The Miramichi Reader, Cynthia and Timothy say The Fire is their response to forest fires in the overly hot summers resulting from climate change.
3. Symbolism and metaphor
Wildfires are destructive but bring renewal. US poet Katie Peterson says that fire has a spiritual history and is a potent symbol in poetry, embodying both creation and apocalypse. Poets explore this duality in themes of rebirth, expansion, transformation, and devastation.
We are all grappling with the personal, communal, and environmental impacts of wildfires. Poems offer ways of understanding a world increasingly shaped by fire, and the absurdity of the increasing consumption of fossil fuels that contribute directly to inferno-like wildfires.
-Sheelagh Caygill is a writer and a Board member of the Edmonton Poetry Festival
| |
Poetic License
"Think of the poem as a unit of X, where X can be accusation, condemnation, revelation, bewilderment, romanticization, etc. This way, the poem's emotional and/or intellectual rhythm will likely be more discernible to your readers. Put simpler: What does the poem want? What sorts of demands does it make of the world, of life, of the subject? Or, how does it register the demands of the subject, of life, of the world?" Billy-Ray Belcourt, shown above, poet, writer, and Associate Professor, School of Creative Writing, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. (Image from Billy-Ray Belcourt's Instagram account).
| |
|
“No one can advise or help you—no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer.” Rainer Maria Rilke, right, poet and novelist, Prague.
| |
Thanks for reading!
Contribute to the The Magpie, support the Festival, or contact us
Events: Send your upcoming Alberta poetry events to marco [@] edmontonpoetryfestival.com
New Collections: Alberta poets and publishers, The Magpie features two new collections in each newsletter. To be considered, send a brief description to both abbigail [at] edmontonpoetryfestival.com and sheelagh [@] edmontonpoetryfestival.com.
Five Answers: A Q&A for poets, while Through the Poet's Eye is open to poets and readers of poetry. We're looking for contributions! Please email Abbigail and Sheelagh at the email addresses above and we'll send you more details.
Support the EPF: If you appreciate poetry or enjoy the annual Edmonton Poetry Festival, please consider making a donation. Your support helps us host the annual April Festival and share poetry as a source of energy, entertainment, and joy. Thank you!
Sponsor the 2025 Festival: Grow your organization's profile by sponsoring the 2025 Edmonton Poetry Festival. We're creating sponsorship packages for next year's April Festival. Explore ways of promoting your business or organization. Contact us and we'll be happy to provide more information.
Get in touch: Contact the EPF or newsletter editors through the Festival's site contact page.
You can find The Magpie's feature requirements and contact information here: edmontonpoetryfestival.com/contact.
| |
This space could be yours! Reach hundreds of readers who love poetry and the arts. For newsletter advertising rates, please email: treasurer [@] edmontonpoetryfestival.com | |
Was this email forwarded to you? You can subscribe here. | | | | |
