Complete Guidelines
Canada Poetry Tours
For poets:
Decide on the province or provinces that you wish to tour in.
Decide on how long the tour will take, for example, how many individual readings you will do.
Research other granting agencies which provide reading funding, for example, the Canada Council and The Writers' Union of Canada.
Find host venues in the provinces that you wish to tour in.
Create a brief promotional package that outlines the book(s) that you will be promoting and mentions the possible dates of your tour. Also include a brief bio and bibliography and perhaps even some samples of your work.
Email or mail the packages to your prospective host venues.
Follow-up.
Instruct the host to fill out the application here. Be sure to tell them about the deadlines.
Make sure to inform the host of the League's limit of 4 full readings per host venue.
If you are planning a tour you may contact the office to request 3 readings be put aside. For these 'unconfirmed' readings the League must receive the applications no later than 2 months prior to the event.
Applications are processed twice a year: after the January 31 deadline and after the July 31 deadline. Confirmations are sent to hosts and invoices are sent to poets 2 weeks after the deadline.
When you receive an invoice from the office, please do not make changes to it, except for your address, if it has changed.
Contact the host venue and make sure that promotion is being done for your reading and actively promote your reading through the League's listserv and the League's Poetry Spoken Here online calendar and monthly e-newletter.
Bring copies of your books to the readings - people do like to buy them!
Send the invoice (attach all original travel receipts to invoice) and a reading evaluation form to the League office. Cheques are sent out 30 - 45 days after receiving complete invoices.
Most importantly -- have a great time!
For poets and hosts:
Eligibility
- Hosts: eligible host organizations include public libraries, literary associations, bookstores, museums, public art galleries, artists' centres, community centres and post-secondary institutions and many more. Elementary schools and secondary schools are not eligible.
- Poets: any full members of the League of Canadian Poets are eligible. Please make sure the poet is a Full member before submitting your application. Poets must renew their membership for the year in which the reading takes place. Otherwise funding will be cancelled.
- Information about the funding
- The funding pays the poet's reading fee and subsidizes travel costs. Reading fees are $250.00 for a full reading (when the poet reads for 40 minutes or more) and $125.00 for a half reading (when the poet reads along with other readers for a shorter duration). The travel subsidy was increased at AGM 2001 up to $300.00 maximum per full reading, up to $150.00 maximum per half reading. There is no funding for any other costs (i.e. promotional, accommodation, food). There is no charge to the host for using this program
- The host is not responsible for accommodation or meals, however, some have kindly helped poets with these arrangements. Each funding (fiscal) year runs from April 1 to March 31 of the next year. Hosts are required to note on any promotional material that the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts are sponsoring the reading.Readings must be open to the public; although small admission fees (i.e. $2-$4) may be charged to cover promotional or space rental expenses, large admission fees are not permissible.
To book funding for a reading
- Contact the poet and arrange a date and location for the reading. Once a date and location are confirmed with the poet, fill out the application form and submit it to the League office. Upon receipt of the completed form, the League office will provide written confirmation of the funding, if funding is still available. Only at that point is funding confirmed. Plan early: most venues and poets book readings several months in advance.
After the reading
- The League will pay the reading fees directly to the poet. Hosts are required to submit the reading report form with copies of any promotional material to the League office.
