Vertigo Visitors to Regina, SK, Poetry Reading

Earlier this month, the Vertigo Series in Regina, SK., featured writers and spoken work performance artists from Quebec and Alberta: Jenna Butler, Duckens Charitable, Nancy R. Lange, and Éliz Robert.

I love hearing new work, and this event was especially intriguing as work was read in English, French and Spanish — with insta-translations between languages.

The evening also featured improv poetry, with slam champion Missie Peters of Victoria, who spun amazing word patterns on the spot to the musical accompaniment of Brian Templeton (who also played with Sean Tremble and recorded music by Rob Doherty).

Featured readers, Jenna Butler (Alberta), Nancy R. Lange,
 Éliz Robert and Duckens Charitable (all Quebec). 
In the lower photo, Éliz is providing spontaneous
literary translation from French to English.

Musicians Sean Tremble and Brian Templeton,
accompanying recorded music by Rob Doherty. 

Victoria's Missie Peters,
performing improv poetry. 

Spanish, French, improv, music, poetry — a wonderful evening, thanks, Tara Dawn Solheim!

Upcoming Vertigo events include a reading at Crave in Regina on May 13, with Matthew Hall, Danny Kresnyak, Andréa Ledding, Christine McNair and Sandra Ridley, and the Vertigo Open Stage at the Cathedral Arts Festival, May 20, with a feature performance by Ontario's spoken word artist Greg ‘Ritallin’ Frankson.

For more, see Vertigo online, at http://vertigoseries.com/.

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2013 Saskatchewan Book Awards Winners

Barbara Langhorst
(I was at her table, so got a close-up shot)

So many amazing writers with fantastic books were nominated for the 2013 Saskatchewan Book Awards, with works on the short-list ranging from kids' stories, art books and scholarly writing, to poetry, novels and creative non-fiction.

What a range. What talent, too! And what a task for judges to select final recipients of the awards.

Their choices included two multiple winners:

Saskatoon's Candace Savage won three awards for her creative non-fiction (A Geography of Blood: Unearthing Memory from a Prairie Landscape, Greystone); the awards were sponsored the University of Regina, the University of Saskatchewan, and the City and Library of Saskatoon.

Regina's Melanie Schnell won two for her novel (While the Sun is Above Us, Freehand), for First Book and the City of Regina Award.

Other winners:

• Poetry: Barbara Langhorst (Restless White Fields, NeWest Press); 
• Fiction: Harriet Richards (The Pious Robber, Thistledown); 
• Young Adult Literature: Alice Kuipers (40 Things I Want to Tell You, HarperCollins Canada); 
• Aboriginal Peoples' Writing: Blair Stonechild (Buffy Sainte-Marie: It's My Way, Fifth House);
• Le prix du livre français: Françoise Sigur-Cloutier & Mireille Lavoie, eds. (Théâtre fransaskois 5, Les Éditions de la nouvelle plume);
• Aboriginal People's Publishing: Leah Marie Dorion, trans. Norman Fleury (The Diamond Willow Walking Stick, Gabriel Dumont Institute);   
• Scholarly Writing: Felix Hoehn (Reconciling Sovereignties: Aboriginal Nations and Canada, Native Law Centre);  
• Publishing: Heather Suzanne Smith, Alan C. Elder, Julie Krueger, Folmer Hansen and David Ross (Hansen-Ross Potter: Pioneering Fine Craft on the Canadian Prairies, Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery); 
• Publishing in Education: Penny Draper (Day of the Cyclone, Coteau Books). 

Candace Savage

Melanie Schnell

Harriet Richards

Blair Stonechild

Robert Currie, reading a poem written for the Book Awards.

Byrna Barclay, bringing greetings from the
Saskatchewan Arts Board. 

For the full and formal news release of book award winners and sponsors, visit the Saskatchewan Book Awards site.)

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Saskatchewan Writer Wins Leacock Humour Medal

Congrats to Saskatchewan writer Cassie Stocks for winning the 2013 Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour with her first novel, Dance, Gladys, Dance (Newest Press)! The award comes with a $15,000 prize.

Stocks, who's originally from Alberta, now lives in Eston, Saskatchewan. Her novel, Dance, Gladys, Dance, has also been nominated for the First Book Award at the 2013 Saskatchewan Book Awards, to be held this coming Saturday.

Here's her book trailer, from Youtube:

 

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Poetry Month: Readings in Regina, Saskatchewan

It was a night for Poets Laureate in Regina last week, when Saskatoon's Don Kerr, the current Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan, along with Glen Sorestad (Saskatoon) and Robert Currie (Moose Jaw), two past holders of that post, read in celebration of National Poetry Month.

The assembly room at Government House was full, the flags colourful, and the poetry highly entertaining. (I missed a picture of Sorestad, but Currie and Kerr are below...)

Saskatchewan's Poet Laureate, Don Kerr. © SB

Moose Jaw poet and novelist, Robert Currie.  © SB

The event, hosted by Lieutenant Governor Vaughn Solomon Schofield and the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, marked the 6th Annual Poetry Reading at Government House.

(And congrats to Robert Currie, for his new release Young Adult novel, Living with the Hawk, from Thistledown Press!)

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Poetry City Challenge: Bruce Rice in Regina

Regina Poet Bruce Rice. 

Regina poet Bruce Rice read his poem "Dead Métis at Batoche" for Regina City Council Monday, as part of the Mayor's Poetry City Challenge.

Spare me your elegies
Give me a song

Bruce Rice has four books of poems, with a fifth (The Trouble with Beauty) to be published in 2014.

That rises like grass
A root that winter can’t kill

His poem was inspired by a clay sculpture created by Joe Fafard of one of the Métis killed in the battle at Batoche, and was commissioned for the opening of Fafard's 2008 national retrospective exhibition and tour.

Give me a language
Give me my skin

In introducing the poem, Rice thanked Mayor Michael Fougere, city council and city staff, as well as the Saskatchewan Writers Guild and the League of Canadian Poets, for promoting and participating in this national celebration of poetry writing.

My feet
In a field of starlight that rises

Regina City Hall   © SB

These lines are from the first section of Bruce Rice's "Dead Métis at Batoche. To read the complete poem, check the Poetry City blog.   

Until either it’s Earth
Or Heaven

For more on the Poetry City Challenge, which was celebrated across Canada, visit the visit Poets.ca...

The moon like a footlight
At the end of the road

And to hear this? We've put together a video, and Bruce Rice reading "Dead Métis at Batoche" is available right here on Latitude Drifts! 

Poet Bruce Rice reads to Regina City Council and others. 

Some of the audience at the Regina Poetry City Challenge. 

Mayor Fougere and city officials. 

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Regina Readings: Naomi K Lewis, Lynn Gidluck, Bridget Keating

Naomi K. Lewis reads...
Oops - She's not with the Book Awards.
She's from Alberta! © SB

The recent Saskatchewan Writers Guild Signature Reading Series featured Naomi K. Lewis, with her collection of somewhat absurb and totally entertaining short stories, I Know Who You Remind Me Of (Enfield & Wizenty).

Also reading: Lynn Gidluck and Bridget Keating, shortlisted authors for the 2013 Saskatchewan Book Awards — Lynn, for Non-Fiction, with Visionaries, Crusaders and Firebrands (James Lorrimer and Co.), and Bridget, for Poetry, with Red Ceiling (Hagios Press).

I met Naomi, who lives in Calgary, at a writing retreat a few years ago, and it was great to see her again!

And good to meet Lynn and see Bridget again — good luck to both of you.

Readings...

I realize these seem to be somewhat bizarre events for many people I know. They ask:

• How do readings work?
• Do you have to pay? 
• Why do you go?
• Why do you take so many pictures? 

Lynn Gidluck reads... (The proper use of the banner,
with a nominated author.) © SB

Bridget Keating, also nominated
for a book award... © SB

Finally! The right banner for
Naomi K. Lewis, reading for SWG. © SB 

To answer:

It works very simply... There's a host who does the introductions and provides coffee, tea, water or wine — and sometimes cakes! Then the author reads or talks about her work, and engages the audience in conversation.

The cost? Sometimes, for big events such as the Moose Jaw Festival of Words, you will have to pay. (And sometimes, for the wine, as well, if it is on offer.) Usually, however, local readings are free.

And I go to support the writers I know and learn more about their current work; I also go to see friends who are in town, to meet new writers and to be exposed to new work... But the main reason I like readings? Because it's great to hear the actual live voice of the author presenting their work. That's fun. (Check the bar above for a link to upcoming Regina readings. Try it. You might like it, too.)

As for the pictures, two answers... I have a half-life (or maybe quarter, or eighth) as a photographer, so I like taking pictures. I also believe strongly in the arts, which in general are hugely under-promoted — especially on the literary side... and especially in my former world, the mainstream media. I think there's value in sharing a little bit about some of our amazing Saskatchewan (and Canadian) authors.

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