2020 Very Small Verse Contest Winner: Diana Manole — Lovers

Congratulations to Diana Manole for her winning poem, “Lovers” winner of the 2019-2020 Very Small Verse Contest! Diana Manole is an award-winning writer, translator, and scholar. She has won fourteen literary awards, published nine collections of poems and plays, contributed original works and translations to magazines and anthologies in Romania, Canada, the US, and the UK.…

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2020 Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award Winner: Charlie C Petch

and the Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award goes to… Charlie C Petch Charlie C Petch is an award winning playwright, spoken word artist, haiku deathmaster, host and musical saw player. Petch is touring their spoken word theatre piece, “Mel Malarkey Gets the Bum’s Rush” which got “Best of 2017” from Electric City Magazine for the radio play accompanying album “Odes…

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To me, poetry is love: An interview with 2019 Golden Beret winner, Andrea Thompson

Andrea Thompson is, among so many things, the winner of the League’s 2019 Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for excellence and innovation in spoken word poetry. The Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award is an annual literary prize crafted specifically to highlight the unique strengths and values of spoken word poetry. We chatted with Andrea about her…

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2019 Book Awards: Winners Announcement

The League of Canadian Poets is proud to present the 2019 Book Awards Winners, including the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and the Raymond Souster Award. The winners – who will each receive $2000 thanks to funding from Canada Council for the Arts , Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and Canada Book Fund – will be announced…

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ASK A SHORTLISTER: What keeps you going as a writer?

We asked the poets shortlisted for our 2019 Book Awards some questions about their writing lives, inspirations and -of course – poetry. Join us for our weekly series Ask a Shortlister until the winners are announced on June 8, 2019. *** What keeps you going as a writer? Mikko Harvey: Writing is one of my main methods of processing experience. Writing allows me to pull some things closer…

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THE SHORTLIST IN CONVERSATION: Adam Dickinson & Alice Major

The Shortlist in Conversation is a series in which poets shortlisted for the League’s 2019 Book Awards engage with each other’s works and talk poetry. In this installment, Adam Dickinson, author of Anatomic (Coach House Books) and Alice Major, author of Welcome to the Anthropocene (University of Alberta Press) – both collections shortlisted for the 2019 Raymond Souster…

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ASK A SHORTLISTER: When is a collection of poems finished?

We asked the poets shortlisted for our 2019 Book Awards some questions about their writing lives, inspirations and -of course – poetry. Join us for our weekly series Ask a Shortlister until the winners are announced on June 8, 2019. *** How do you know when a collection of poems is finished? Mikko Harvey: Individual poems, in their quiet way, tell you when they…

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ASK A SHORTLISTER: Community

We asked the poets shortlisted for our 2019 Book Awards some questions about their writing lives, inspirations and -of course – poetry. Join us for our weekly series Ask a Shortlister until the winners are announced on June 8, 2019. ***   What is the importance of community to your writing life?   Jenny Haysom: I’m reclusive by nature––a lone…

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ASK A SHORTLISTER: How did poetry become part of your life?

We asked the poets shortlisted for our 2019 Book Awards some questions about their writing lives, inspirations and -of course – poetry. Join us for our weekly series Ask a Shortlister until the winners are announced on June 8, 2019. *** How did poetry become part of your life? Tanis Franco: In Ontario elementary school we had to memorize In…

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