WordStorm's New Season

WordStorm
Please note we have changed our location and are now on Tuesdays.
Now at
Demeter's Coffee Vault
499 Wallace Street, Nanaimo, BC
Phone: 250.591-0776

Demeter's Coffee Vault
TUESDAY, September 25th, 2012

Doors Open at 6:15 for reservations. Come early for coffee and a snack, if you like.
Program starts at 7:00 with the open mic


Yvonne Blomer

Yvonne Blomer lives in Victoria, BC where she works as a poet, memoirist, writing teacher, event organizer and mom. She was born in Zimbabwe and came to Canada when she was two years old. With her husband she has taught in Japan, cycled in Southeast Asia and lived in the UK where she completed an MA in Creative Writing: Poetry. Her poems have twice been shortlisted for the CBC Literary awards and have appeared in literary journals in Canada, the US, Japan and the UK. Her first collection of poetry, a broken mirror, fallen leaf (Ekstasis Editions), was shortlisted for The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award in 2007. She is the host/organizer of the Planet Earth Poetry Reading Series in Victoria, B.C. In 2012 Yvonne’s illustrated series of poems Bicycle Brand Journey will launch with Jack Pine Press. Please see the poster for her most recent book, The Book of Places. Poster

Naomi Beth Wakan

Naomi Beth Wakan has published over forty books including Sex After 70 and other poems and the ALA selection, Haiku – one breath poetry. Her books of essays from Wolsak and Wynn, are Late Bloomer-on writing later in life, Compositions – notes on the written word, Bookends – a year between the covers, and A Roller-coaster ride – thoughts on aging. Her poetry and essays have appeared in many magazines including Geist, Resurgence, Senior Living, Still Point Quarterly and Room. She is a member of The League of Canadian Poets, Haiku Canada and Tanka Canada. She lives on Gabriola Island with her husband, the sculptor, Elias Wakan. Web Site.

Ann Graham Walker

Ann Graham Walker was a finalist in the 2010 Malahat Open Season Awards and the 2011 Prism International Poetry Contest. Her work has been published in the Gaspereau Review, Prism International, Word Works, the Rocksalt Anthology, Leaf Press's Wild Weathers love poem anthology and in numerous anthologies that have come out of BC poet Patrick Lane's Glenairley, Ocean Wilderness and Honeymoon Bay writing retreats. Her chap book "The Puzzle at the End of Love" is an organic sequence of lyric narratives about love gone awry, the poems drawn from family stories and sometimes from long family silences. Ann recently went back to school and got an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She lives in Nanoose Bay with her Irish husband and three rescued cats. The twelve-year-old Border Collie, alas, passed away late last year.

The Third Annual Hazelwood Writers’ Festival

The Third Annual Hazelwood Writers’ Festival Hazelwood Herb Farm Sunday, August 12th, 2012, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm 13576 Adshead Road, Ladysmith, B.C., Canada V9G 1H6 Phone: (250) 245-8007 info@hazelwoodherbfarm.com Admission: $10.00 (Gate receipts go to the local writers.) Featured Performers and Readers

Kate Braid




Kate Braid has written poetry and non-fiction about subjects from Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Carr and Glenn Gould, to mine workers and fishers, and a memoir, Journeywoman, about her 15 years as a carpenter. She has published five books of poetry and co-edited with Sandy Shreve, In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry. Her work has won a number of awards and is widely anthologized. Kate's Web Page

Tom Wayman

Tom Wayman’s recent books include a poetry collection, Dirty Snow (Harbour, 2012), a novel, Woodstock Rising (Dundurn, 2009), and a critical monograph, Songs Without Price: The Music of Poetry in a Discordant World (U of Vancouver Island, 2008). His 2007 collection of stories, Boundary Country, currently is a contender for the 2012 One Book One Kootenay competition. Poetry anthologies he has edited include The Dominion of Love (Canadian love poems), 2001. He most recently taught at the University of Calgary, 2002-2010. Since 1989, he has lived in southeastern B.C.’s Selkirk Mountains.


Local Writers and Performers

Featuring Wind Weaver
Paul Bezooyen & Terry Mack

Greg Blanchette, Jule Briese, Kim Clark, Barbara A. Denz, Tricia Dower, Janet Dunnett, Kirsty Elliot, David Floody, David Fraser, Kim Goldberg, Kenn Joubert, Janice Lore, Edeana Malcolm, Mary Ann Moore, Mary Elizabeth Nelson, Naomi Beth Wakan, Ann Graham Walker, and M.C. Warrior

Reserve in advance so we know the numbers at ascentaspirations@shaw.ca.

Jointly sponsored by the Hazelwood Herb Farm and the WordStorm Society of the Arts and supported by the Canadian League of Poets, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Writers’ Union of Canada.

WordStorm at the Diners Rendezvous

WordStorm MONDAY, May 28th, 2012 Diners Rendezvous 489 Wallace Street, Nanaimo, BC Phone: 250.740-1133 Doors Open at 6:15 for reservations. Come early for dinner, if you like. Program starts at 7:00 Featured Performers Martha Royea

Martha Royea lives in Gibsons, BC. Poetry is a major passion – reading, writing, hearing, speaking it and translating poems from the Spanish. Her poems appear intermittently in chapbooks and anthologies, including several Leaf Press publications edited by Patrick Lane. Her own chapbook, If I Could Pray, was published by "26 Leaves" in 2007 and reissued by request in 2011. Love Songs for Dead Mothers is still developing.

Liz McNally

Liz McNally is an émigré; part of a large, now distant, Irish family. True to her heritage, she is prone to melancholy and humour in equal measure and feels there’s nothing a great poem or a good song won’t fix. Liz is an observer. She takes her notebook everywhere to capture the extraordinary poetry of people’s lives in ordinary moments. She has enjoyed the company of other poets in a handful of Chapbooks and dreams of a time when she can say the words “my recently published book of poems”.

Savannah Featherstone

When Savannah Featherstone is not running the contracting business that she and her husband own, you can find her upholstering old chairs or in her art studio combining paper, glue, and paint on different types of canvas. Although she has written poetry off and on since an early age, it has only been in the last few years that poetry has taken a significant and defined place in her creative practice. Savannah lives in North Saanich with her husband, a loyal and neurotic Border Collie and two extremely spoiled felines.

Dan Lundine - Double Lightning Reader Book Launch for Signpost - A Prairie Town

Dan Lundine was born and raised on Vancouver Island. When high schools had tired of him, he joined the RCMP in January of 1962 and was immediately sent to Regina, Saskatchewan to train. After seven years of service, Dan left the force and obtained a teaching degree at the University of Regina. He then taught school for thirty years in Regina, West Germany, and Langley, BC. Upon leaving the classroom, Dan and his wife, Carol, moved to French Creek on Vancouver Island and operated a bed and breakfast for a number of years. They are now retired and living in Qualicum Beach, BC.

Honeymoon Bay Poetry Chapbook Launch

April 23, 2012 7:00 - 9:00
Diners Rendezvous
489 Wallace Ave, Nanaimo, BC
Join Patrick Lane, along with 18 master poets
for this FREE exciting eclectic evening full of variety and fine words.
Amrita Sondhi, Barbara Black, Barbara Pelman, Elizabeth McNally, Joanna Qureshi,
Judith Heron, Martha Royea, Mary Ann Moore, Pamela Porter, Richard Osler,
Ann Graham Walker, David Fraser, Linda Thompson, Patricia Smekal, Chris Donaldson,
Mary Beth Nelson, Maureen Bendick, and Somae Clarie Murray.





Each year, Patrick Lane offers four writing retreats on beautiful Vancouver Island. At each of these retreats, sixteen poets come together for four days to improve their craft through writing exercises and discussion. New work is at the heart of these retreats, where Patrick provides structure, guidance, editing advice and personal consultation. These retreats are not traditional workshops, although all work done there is read and discussed during a free exchange of poems. Poets who participate bring with them years of study and practice, and many have gone on to publish in magazines, chapbooks and books, and have as well been the recipients of numerous awards and prizes.
Each retreat results in a beautiful chapbook anthology containing a poem written at the retreat by each participant, with an introduction by Patrick. The chapbooks are created by one of Canada’s finest book designers, Ursula Vaira, the publisher of Leaf Press. (Excerpt from the web site of Patrick Lane)


This launch will feature three chapbooks produced at two January and and one July retreat at the Honeymoon Bay Resort at Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island.


In the Darkness. In the Dream, January 2011
Love in the Time of Predators, July 2011
I am the Angel of Old Grey Horses, January 2012


http://www.patricklane.ca/writing-retreats/
http://www.patricklane.ca/about/

WordStorm April 16th with Lorna Crozier

Lorna Crozier - Featured Reader
Web Site
Diners Rendezvous
489 Wallace Street, Nanaimo, BC
Phone: 250.753.0042
Bring your friends. Give them a ride. This is an event not to be missed.

Lorna Crozier was born in 1948 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. As a child growing up in a prairie community where the local heroes were hockey players and curlers, she “never once thought of being a writer.” After university, Lorna went on to teach high school English and work as a guidance counsellor. During these years, Lorna published her first poem in Grain magazine, a publication that turned her life toward writing. Her first collection Inside in the Sky was published in 1976. Since then, she has authored 14 books of poetry, including The Garden Going on Without Us, Angels of Flesh, Angels of Silence, Inventing the Hawk, winner of the 1992 Governor-General’s Award, Everything Arrives at the Light, Apocrypha of Light, What the Living Won’t Let Go, and most recently Whetstone. Whether Lorna is writing about angels, aging, or Louis Armstrong’s trout sandwich, she continues to engage readers and writers across Canada and the world with her grace, wisdom and wit. She is, as Margaret Laurence wrote, “a poet to be grateful for.”

Since the beginning of her writing career, Lorna has been known for her inspired teaching and mentoring of other poets. In 1980 Lorna was the writer-in-residence at the Cypress Hills Community College in Swift Current; in 1983, at the Regina Public Library; and in 1989 at the University of Toronto. She has held short-term residencies at the Universities of Toronto and Lethbridge and at Douglas College. Presently she lives near Victoria, where she teaches and serves as Chair in the Writing Department at the University.

Beyond making poems, Lorna has also edited two non-fiction collections – Desire in Seven Voices and Addiction: Notes from the Belly of the Beast. Together with her husband and fellow poet Patrick Lane, she edited the 1994 landmark collection Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets; in 2004, they co-edited Breathing Fire 2, once again introducing over thirty new writers to the Canadian literary world.

Her poems continue to be widely anthologized, appearing in 15 Canadian Poets X 3, 20th Century Poetry and Poetics, Poetry International and most recently in Open Field: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Poets, a collection designed for American readers.

Her reputation as a generous and inspiring artist extends from her passion for the craft of poetry to her teaching and through to her involvement in various social causes. In addition to leading poetry workshops across the globe, Lorna has given benefit readings for numerous organizations such as the SPCA, the BC Land Conservancy, the Victoria READ Society, and PEERS, a group committed to helping prostitutes get off the street. She has been a frequent guest on CBC radio where she once worked as a reviewer and arts show host. Wherever she reads she raises the profile and reputation of poetry.

AGM Night

WordStorm would like to thank the Inn on Long Lake, 4700 North Island Highway, V9T 1W6 Nanaimo for providing the accommodation for Lorna Crozier while she is in Nanaimo for her reading and for her workshop.

Inn on Long Lake Web Site.
The Inn on Long Lake is the Jewel of Nanaimo hotels on Vancouver Island. Located on picturesque Long Lake, travelers are drawn to its doors with the promise of beautiful sunrises and the feel of having nature at their own front door.

Poetry Aloud - National Poetry Month Reading

POETRY ALOUD
Hosted by Greg Skala

Wellington Public Library,
3032 Barons Road, Nanaimo
April 5th, 2012
7:00 to 8:00 P.M.







Vancouver Island Poets,











Mary Ann Moore, Kim Goldberg and David Fraser,
will perform their work on the theme of

Balance

The poets will explore the theme of balance in life, love, the human body and the natural world in this special
National Poetry Month presentation.

WordStorm March 26th - Diners Rendezvous 489 Wallace, Nanaimo 7:00 pm

Bill Levity



Bill Levity is the genial host of, 'For The love of Words'; a monthly spoken word night at the Duncan Garage Showroom that is in its fifth year and going strong. He has also parlayed his particular form of word Schtick at the Islands Folk Festival and Poetry Festival Gabriola. Bill's other artistic loves are MCing, songwriting and acting. He's been active with the Shawnigan Players for over twenty years in such groundbreaking roles as Jim Keegstra in 'Ilsa, Queen of the Nazi Love Camp', and David in 'Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love'. A good panto is never far away; his favourite roles being , Griselda, The Ugly Stepsister, and The Evil Queen in Snow White. Bill's poetry usually trends towards sex, wit and beer; tho nature is usually tightly woven through all three.

Missy Peters



Missie Peters is a spoken word artist from Victoria, B.C. She is the inagrual recipient of the M Award for Favourite Spoken Word Artist and a two-time Victoria Slam Champion. She is the director of Not Your Grandma's Poetry and the Victoria Spoken Word Festival. When not improvising with the spoken word duo SpeakEasy she is preparing for her new solo show The Secret Lives of Scientists.

Cynthia Woodman Kerkham




Cynthia Woodman Kerkham was born in Toronto and raised in Hong Kong and Vancouver. She has a degree in Asian Studies and English literature from UBC and has worked as an au pair in France, a potter, a journalist and a teacher. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals including The Antigonish Review, Room, CV2, The New Quarterly, The Malahat Review, Passages North, Grain and Prairie Fire. In 2009 she won the Federation of BC Writers Literary Writes Competition, and in 2011 she won the Malahat Review's Open Season Award for poetry. Good Holding Ground, her debut collection of poems, was published in spring 2011 by Palimpsest Press. When not sailing the Westcoast, she lives with her family in Victoria in a constant state of renovation.