Tag Archives: VERSeFest

Need Poetry? VERSeFest 2013 is coming in March!

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As you may know, I recently signed on as one of the Co-Directors of Tree Reading Series in Ottawa. Tree has been one of the champions of VERSe Ottawa and the Ottawa poetry festival that it organizes, VERSeFest.

I thought I would take this opportunity to talk a bit about VERSeFest and do a bit of promotion on its behalf.

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In 2011, Ottawa experienced the first VERSeFest poetry festival. A collaborative effort by the various poetry groups in Ottawa, it was organized in only a few short months, but was quite successful. The second festival in 2012 was ambitious, bringing Spoken Word, workshops and such poets as the well known American poet,Rae Armantrout. Fred Wah, now Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate. The winner of Mexico’s most prestigious poetry prize, Pura Lopez-Colome.  Phil Hall, 2011 Governor General’s Award winner.

Phil Levine by David Shankbone, New York City

Phil Levine by David Shankbone, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The US poet Laureate Philip Levine.

So what is coming in 2013?  Well the schedule is still being finalized. But so far, we have the first winner of the Montreal International Poetry Prize, Mark Tredinnick, from Australia. We have Canadian poets, A.F. Moritz, Chris Jennings, Catherine Owen, Stuart Ross and Don McKay. The Women’s Slam Team. Rob Winger, Anita Lahey. Lady Katalyst. Luna Allison. Emilie Zoey Baker, Samuel Watson.

I’m sure I’ve missed some, and that there are more names to be announced. You can watch this space for info coming soon: http://www.versefest.ca/2013/

For a flavour of what’s to come, Rod Pederson, one of the VERSe Ottawa committee key members, has put together a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWZQ0mc7zTM&feature=youtu.be  

You can hear Rod here. You’re encouraged to watch. We hope you will feel as excited as we are to attend.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSrQ9fqsmNw  

And that you’ll donate if you can : http://www.indiegogo.com/versefest

Poets plan to send a message to the end of the world

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Carol A. Stephen

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY VERSeFest

[OTTAWA, January 5, 2012] There’s a popular belief that the year 2012 will be momentous: some say it will be the end of the world. And in Ottawa, a group of poets have decided that this is a great reason to throw a party and send a poem to the end of the world, as a message of sorts.

Poetry for the End of the World, on January 21, is a social evening and party in support of VERSeFest, which takes place February 28 to March 4. Along with live music by Ottawa folk/acoustic band Call Me Katie and Montreal indie band Puggy Hammer (both bands claim poets in their membership,) an open mike, and featured readings of apocalyptic poetry, the organizers will name the winner of VERSe Ottawa’s ‘Poetry for the End of the World’ contest, and then, to crown the night, the winning poem will, quite literally, be sent off to the End of the World.

The idea to send the winning poem off into the unknown came as the organizers were thinking up the best way to celebrate the supposed apocalypse, and they have gotten their hands on a weather balloon, which will be launched from outside Arts Court, at 2 Daly Avenue, at 10:00 PM, after which everyone will head back inside to hear Puggy Hammer perform.

The poem will be laminated to protect it from the elements before launching. A weather balloon can climb to 100,000 feet (high enough to see the curvature of the earth), and can travel great distances if they catch the jetstream. The assumption is that the balloon will climb, and expand as it climbs, until the helium inside it expands too far and it bursts, taking the poem out “not with a whimper, but with a bang,” to misquote the famous poem by T. S. Eliot. Maybe not literally the End of the World, but this is poetry: it’s the metaphor that matters.

The Poetry for the End of the World contest is open until January 7th, and poets can submit their work, or sign up for the open mike, at versefest.ca. The party will be held on January 21, starting at 7:00, and guests are welcome to attend some or all of the events. The full schedule is available at the VERSeFest website.

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 For more information, or to arrange interviews, please contact:

Rod Pederson or Kathryn Hunt

verseottawa@live.ca

Rod Pederson: 613-747-1464

Kathryn Hunt: 613-314-4821

http://VERSeFest.ca