Poetry in Place is a curated anthology for readers who love both poetry and the land. The subject matter addresses a very specific territory: the &ldquo\;land betwe en the waters&rdquo\; of Lake Ontario and the Grand River\, west of Toront o and east of London\, in southern Ontario. The anthology includes poems b y more than forty contemporary poets of different ages\, ethnicities\, and backgrounds. They pondered the natural world around them\, and asked them selves\, &ldquo\;What is it that the land has to say to us?&rdquo\; In the se days of climate disruption\, biodiversity loss\, a new awareness of the dire history of colonized Indigenous peoples\, and the spectre of global pandemic\, how can we hear the voices of the natural world? We suggest tha t poetry offers a powerful mode of attention and analysis\, now as it alwa ys has done. Contributors are also interviewed about their relationship wi th the land\, their spirituality and worldview\, and their motivation in w riting poetry about the environment.
\nThis event\, in partnership w
ith Textile\, \;The Creek Collectiv
e \;and \;Words Wor
th Books\, launches Poetry in Place: Poetry and Environmental Hope
in a Southern Ontario Bioregion (Guernica Editions\, 2025\, edited b
y Deborah Bowen)\, and eight of the poets included in the anthology will j
oin us to read and share their work:
Fitsum Areguy is a sc holar-activist and writer based in Kitchener\, Ontario. He is a 2025 Musag etes Fellow and a member of the inaugural Nazar Research Cluster (2025) at Concordia University's Dark Opacities Lab. With an interdisciplinary arti stic practice that follows radical Black feminist and intellectual traditi ons\, his work is animated by storytelling\, place-making\, and building c ultural infrastructure that interrogates public memory and imagines otherw ise worlds. His critical and creative writing have appeared in Briarpa tch Magazine\, ByBlacks\, Canadian Dimension\, Breach Me dia\, and New Sociology\, among others. He is the co-founder and co-director for Textile\, and sits on the board of directors for Mult icultural Theatre (MT) Space and Thrive HIV Prevention &\; Support (for merly ACCKWA).
\nJanice Jo Lee (she/they) is a quee r folk musician\, spoken word poet\, theatre maker\, sound designer and ar ts educator born and based in Toronto. She has released three albums of mu sic\, two poetry chapbooks\, and has composed music and sound for two musi cals and five stage plays. Janice founded and directed the KW Poetry Slam from 2011-2017.
\nMark Kempf is a long-time member of Hamilton Poetry Centre and Brantford &\; Paris poetry circles\, ofte n leading workshops and special events. His major poetry collection\, TUG\ , was published by Ars Omnia Press\, (2016) under the pseudonym Mark Lesli e Oliver. He is busy now publishing a non-fiction book in 2025\, Unfur l Your Sales\, and as usual\, canoe tripping.
\nPaula K ienapple-Summers is a poet from Kitchener\, Ontario. Her poems ha ve appeared in Existere\, The Nashwaak Review\, Towe r Poetry\, Amethyst Review and Spadina Literary Review as well as several anthologies. She&rsquo\;s a recent 3rd prize winner of The Ontario Poetry Society&rsquo\;s &ldquo\;Across the Universe&rdquo\ ; contest.
\nTanis MacDonald is the author of S traggle: Adventures in Walking While Female as well as six other book s of poetry and nonfiction. She teaches in the Department of English and F ilm Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her next book\, Tall\, Gras s\, Girl\, is forthcoming with Book*hug Press.
\nGeoff Martin&rsquo\;s place-based and environmental essays have won the 2024 Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest and been nominated twice for th e Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Literary Review of Canada\, Boulevard\, Creative Nonfiction\, and The New Quarterly\, among others. He is also a co-founder of The Creek Collec tive in Kitchener. After a decade spent teaching in Chicago\, writing in W estern Massachusetts\, and care-giving in San Francisco\, he moved home in 2021 to Waterloo Region\, where he grew up.
\nElizabeth McC allister grew up in Scarborough. She moved with her husband to Sa skatoon to complete his PhD in history\, and then back to Ontario\, first to Kitchener and then to Brantford. Her work has appeared in Heartbeat : Poems of Family and Hometown\, The World Around Us chapboo k\, Tamaraks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st century\, and Voic es Israel 2021 Poetry Anthology\, as well as other anthologies.
\nMariam Pirbhai \;is an academic and creative write r. She is the author of a book of creative nonfiction titled Garden Invent ories: Reflections on Land\, Place and Belonging \;(Wolsak and Wynn\, 2023)\, recent winner of the 2024 Sarton Women&rsquo\;s Book award for non fiction\, and finalist for the 2024 Foreword Indies Book Prize for nature writing. She is also the author of two works of fiction titled \;Isola ted Incident \;(Mawenzi House Publishers\, 2022) and \;Outside Peo ple and Other Stories \;(Inanna Publications\, 2017)\, both of which r eceived the IPPY Gold Medal for Multicultural Fiction. \;She is profes sor of English at Wilfrid Laurier University\, where she teaches and resea rches in the area of postcolonial studies\, the literatures of the global South Asian diaspora\, and creative writing. Pirbhai lives and works in Wa terloo\, Ontario\, \;the traditional territories of the Attawandaron ( Neutral)\, Anishnawbe\, and Haudenosaunee peoples. \;
\nPhotography Notice: Please note that photographs and vide os may be taken at this event and may be broadcast\, reproduced\, and/or m ade available in print or online. For individual or small group photos\, s taff will make attendees aware of their presence and will ask permission b efore taking photos.
\nFor larger public events\, please note that b y attending\, you are consenting to the use of your appearance\, image\, a nd voice in print or digital productions created by the Waterloo Public Li brary for promotional use only. Please speak to library staff at the event if you&rsquo\;d like to be excluded from any photo/video.
\nProgram mers: Julia and Ikhlas
\nhttps://wpl.libnet.info/event/13547949 URL;VALUE=URI:https://wpl.libnet.info/event/13547949 ATTACH:https://static.libnet.info/images/events/wpl/Poetry_in_Place.png END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR