The Vancouver Best Canadian Poetry Event - A Night of Hospitality & Literary Connections

Vancouver literary impressario Sean Cranbury was gracious enough to organize an event of stellar Vancouver poets focused around the Best Canadian Poetry anthology. Poets and audience gathered in the darkly subversive basement arts space of W2 Media Cafe for two hours of poetry readings, lively conversations, delicious food and drink, and good humour.

Poets featured in BCP, such as Vancouver Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau, and emerging writers Marita Daschel and Onjana Yangnghwe, read passionately from new work and from the anthology, including their own favourite selections from BCP poets from across the country. Marita Daschel even invited a friend up to the mic to deliver the joint voices of her BCP selection, "Maria and Sarah Lawrence," about two sisters and polygamous wives married to Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saints' Church. The rendition of the two nearly identical voices was suitably creepy.

Rob Taylor provided the bridge of the evening from BCP shortlisted poets to other invited Vancouver headliners as we joked on stage about his inclusion/exclusion from the anthology since one of his poems had made the longlist but not the shortlist. (A note for all longlisted poets: I did agonize over your poems, and I'm very proud of the 50 poems on the longlist and encourage all poetry enthusiasts to look up your poems!) Then I was introduced to the intriguing works of Timothy Shay (who apparently published more than any other poet during one year in the 80s and then decided on nearly fifteen years of complete publishing silence), the vibrant Daniela Elza, and mischievous Warren Dean Fulton, all extremely different writers who each brought passion and humour to their readings and were also gracious enough to read favourites from the BCP anthology.

Two poets also honoured the life and work of recently deceased Nobel-prize winning Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska (one of my all-time favourite poets as well. RIP.) Other notable poet and novelist audience members included Dennis E. Bolen, John Donlan, and Catherine Owen.

I look forward to the future publications of this varied and exciting group of Vancouver poets! Thank you again for your hospitality, and for the margaritas following the event! I hope that we can make more Toronto-Vancouver literary connections through evenings such as this one.

Joint Malahat Review/Best Canadian Poetry Launch in Victoria on Feb 3!

Nearly 100 people gathered at the Moka House as part of the Planet Earth Poetry reading series to celebrate the launch of a new issue of Malahat magazine as well as a number of Victoria poets included in Tightrope's Best Canadian Poetry anthology.

I was delighted that the crowd included poetry students from the University of Victoria (several bright-eyed and strong voiced poets from Tim Lilburn's class, which I visited on the Wednesday evening), as well as writers of all ages and levels of experience, plus enthusiastic readers of course.

Rhonda Ganz and Trevor Corkum read with confidence from the new issue of Malahat, which includes the winner of their creative non-fiction contest. They were obviously delighted to be published in the prestigious magazine edited by John Barton, who graciously hosted this segment of the evening.

For the BCP portion of the night, I explained why I picked each of the poems from the Victoria poets. I was delighted to meet the majority of these poets for the first time, especially under such pleasant circumstances (everyone likes you when you've chosen one of their creations as the "Best" of the year). I decided to keep to the alphabetical order of the anthology so John Barton read, then Lorna Crozier, Dorothy Field, Carolyn Sadowska, and Patricia Young ended the evening, just as she concludes the anthology.

The crowd was one of the most attentive poetry audiences I have every encountered--100 people in a functioning coffee shop and you could hear a pin drop. Obviously, poetry matters in Victoria, and so it should be no surprise if BCP continues to find worthy specimens from the Victoria community to honour in the anthology every year.

Thank you Victoria for your generosity and warmth (both figurative and literal--I've been enjoying the luxury of running along the waterfront each morning). See you again soon, I hope!

Review of BCP 2010 from Arc Magazine!

Arc Magzine's Poet vs Poet Online has an insightful review of The Best Canadian Poetry in English, 2010, guest edited by Lorna Crozier. The anthology says Rhonda Douglas is a "satisfying amuse-bouche sampling of some of Canada’s most active and celebrated contemporary poets".

Best Canadian Poetry 2011 Now Available!

The 2011 edition of Best Canadian Poetry in English is now available to purchase through our blog and website. It is also available on amazon.ca and chapters.indigo.ca.

Don't miss the fourth exciting addition to our poetry series edited by faithful series editor, Molly Peacock and special guest editor, Priscila Uppal. Together, they chose poems that were published in esteemed Canadian literary journals such as Vallum, Descant, subTerrain and The Fiddlehead throughout 2010.

Poets included in this year's edition include: Christian Bok, Julie Cameron Gray, Jason Heroux, Evelyn Lau, David McGimpsey, A.F. Moritz, Daniel Scott Tysdal and many more!

Best Canadian Poetry 2011 Launch

The launch of The Best Canadian Poetry in English, 2011 is coming soon!

Join Tightrope Books along with editors Priscila Uppal and Molly Peacock at Revival (783 College St, Toronto) on October 26th, 7:00 pm to celebrate some the finest poetry published in Canada last year.

Facebook Event Page

Carmine Starnino's 2009 BCP poem up on Geist.com!

Click on the link below to read Carmine Starnino's "Pugnax Gives Notice" and poem comment from The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2009, guest edited by A.F. Moritz.

Pugnax Gives Notice

Spotlight on BCP 2008 Poet Anna Swanson

One of the first poets featured in the Best Canadian Poetry 2008, Anna Swanson, has picked up both the Lambda and the Gerald Lampert Memorial award this year for her collection, The Nights Also.

Check out this recent spotlight in the Vancouver Sun.

Congratulations again, Anna!