For this special poetry edition of sunday@6 literary magazine I have chosen to pass the mantle to our poetry editor, Sandra Stephenson. Sandra has done the bulk of the work in choosing a selection of accomplished poets to feature in this Spring issue. So, over to Sandra …..
April, National Poetry Month in Canada since 1998, in the US since 1996, has come to an end for another year. Though International Day of Poetry is in March, the twentieth edition of World Book Day is held on April 23: so many things to celebrate! This year I celebrated WBD at Pincourt Library, a reading in four languages featuring Julie de Belle, Czandra, Guadalupe Villarreal and Marie-Belle Ouellet, two of whom have poems in the featured section below.
This year’s spring edition of sunday@6 magazine features the Greenwood Poets, a group of amateurs become professional poets (ie. published and able to command a reading fee where applicable, or working as editors for a fee). The group sprang out of the Greenwood Centre for Living History’s Storyfest open mic event of 2007, and it continues to meet monthly in the Hudson-St.Lazare-Pincourt region of off-Island Montreal.
The Greenwood poets began as a bunch of greenhorns who, with careful whittling at poems both together and alone, became a bunch of published authors. Everyone who is still with the group has published, either with small presses or with trade publishers. One member published his collection of poems and drawings in a tiny edition of four hand-made copies for the benefit of his daughter; and another, the oldest member, in bunches of 12 books at a time made by a small Ste. Anne-de-Bellevue press, now with over 100 copies in circulation. I edited both those books. Other poets took the path of mailing to established trade publishers, and eventually celebrating acceptance.
The Greenwood poets have met at historic Greenwood in Hudson, in the St. Lazare Library, at individual members’ homes, and at Harmony Roof, a new writers’ residence on Harwood Blvd near Hudson.** They have read publicly as a group at Hudson’s War Memorial Library where they also organized a poetry competition for children; at the St. Lazare Library, and in smaller groups at the Pincourt Library and Omnicentre, St. Mary’s Hall in Hudson and at a variety of Greenwood events, including Storyfest, summer on the lawn, and the AGM.
Poetry month for the Greenwood poets has been a time for random acts of poetry, reading on street corners, at the IGA, and one year, climbing in the rain for a Howl on Mount Rigaud. Individually, Greenwood Poets have read in Ottawa, Montreal, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, in the United States and at a variety of Canada Council-sponsored events elsewhere. Some have served on boards of poetry associations, juries, and as writers in residence. This summer, the sunday@6 poetry editor, a Greenwood poet, will reside at Main & Station (http://hmsnonesuch.com/tag/parrsboro/) in Parrsboro Nova Scotia, to collect and edit the life-work of the last clipper ship’s captain, now retired.
Below is a list of some Greenwood poets’most recent publications:
Catherine Chandler: Glad and Sorry Seasons, Biblioasis, Windsor Ont., 2014
http://biblioasis.com/shop/poetry/glad-and-sorry-seasons/ (book) or
http://biblioasis.com/shop/poetry/glad-and-sorry-seasons-digital-download/ (digital version)
Jon Torrel: Flying Things, Shoreline Press, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, 2009
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/flying-things/9781896754826-item.html
Louise Carson: A Clearing, Signature Editions, Winnipeg, 2015
Czandra: radish, a singularity, obvious epiphanies, Vancouver, 2014
http://www.lulu.com/ca/en/shop/czandra/radish-a-singularity/paperback/product-21488931.html
Elizabeth D’Ambrosio : The Golden Lining, Broken Rules, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, 2013
Francis Piché : Wings, handmade limited edition, 2014
Julie Hamel : Two Faces, Broken Rules, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, 2013
** for information about how to book a residency at Harmony Roof, send an e-mail to mostlyczam@gmail.com.
poetry at large:
In addition to the featured poets, this edition contains a variety of Montreal-area poets, from beginners to experienced, from unknown to recognized. We hope you enjoy the new spring line of fabulous fashion from sunday@6!
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