Friday, September 21 to Sunday, September 23, 2012
Carnegie Centre — Saturday, September 24, 2011
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IN THE THEATRE
12:30–4:30 ::
Chapbooks—short, self-published, homemade books—allow writers to circulate their work quickly and cost-efficiently. This session will discuss why chapbooks are strategic tools for presenting work and the components of designing individual chapbooks. Immediately following is a 3½ hour, hands-on workshop in which participants will make up to 5 copies of their own 10-12 page books. All materials are supplied free of charge. Please bring your work on a memory stick, disc, or handwritten copy. Computer help and photocopying will be available on-site. Participants will have the opportunity to sell their books the following day at The Word On The Street Vancouver.
(For questions and info, email event facilitator Mercedes Eng at engmercedes@yahoo.com. The preliminary 30-minute info session is open to all. Participants who wish to make books must register for the workshop in the office at Carnegie Community Centre. 20 people max.)
5:30–7:00 ::
Diane Wood and the Downtown Eastside Poets have held monthly open mic poetry nights for many years and have published several chapbooks. Come on down and join DTES Poets, The Word On The Street Vancouver poets, and others, for a lively night of open mic readings. Sign up for 10-minute reading slots will be first-come first-served.
IN THE CLASSROOM (3rd floor, room 2)
11:00 ::
Megaphone recently released a very special ‘Voices of the Street’ literary issue. Megaphone Magazine is a street paper sold by low-income and homeless people in Vancouver. Megaphone currently runs nine writing workshops in treatment centres, social housing buildings and community centres in the Downtown Eastside and downtown Vancouver for marginalized writers. Published writers from the issue will read their recent poems and prose.
11:30 ::
Poetry Is Dead presents award-winning and nationally acclaimed poets from the “Vancouver: Influence” issue reading current works from their latest books and manuscripts. The “Vancouver: Influence” issue is part of Vancouver’s 125th Anniversary celebrations. Billeh Nickerson is the author of The Asthmatic Glassblower and McPoems. Gillian Jerome is author of the ReLit award-winning book, Red Nest. Elizabeth Bachinsky is the author of CURIO, Home of Sudden Service and God of Missed Connections.
12:00 ::
Ricepaper’s recent Green Issue (16.2) features creative writing and non-fiction that revolves around nature, the environment, and landscape. Ricepaper magazine is a national quarterly magazine devoted to showcasing Asian Canadian artists, writers, performers, and innovators, and is published by The Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop. Writers and poets from Ricepaper will read and share their creative writing.
12:30 ::
Much is said about the Downtown Eastside; less often are local residents actually listened to. This workshop will focus on framing what we want—and what we don’t want—in the form of a manifesto. Manifestos are informed about the past and present, and light up the futures we want to encourage and be part of. This workshop is taught every semester by Margot Leigh Butler, Director of the Humanities 101 Community Programme (Hum) which offers free university-level courses for learning-loving people living on low incomes in the DTES and Downtown South. Hum is supported by DTES / South residents and UBC’s Faculty of Arts.
HOST: Evelyn Lau, poet
1:30 ::
The year is 1920 and Mexico is at war with itself—gangs of rebels roam the country, stealing money, food, and horses. Carlos is 28 years old and works in his father’s café. One day, a gang rides into the village and kidnaps him. Weeks later, Carlos is forced to make a life or death decision. He does so in a surprising way but spends his life trying to decide if this makes him a brave man or a coward. Robert Hough’s first book The Final Confession of Mabel Stark was translated into 15 languages.
(HarperCollins $7.95)
1:45 ::
Living Under Plastic represents a major departure from the author’s previous poetry books. Instead of focusing on relationships and emotional damage, this book opens up to explore new subjects: family history, illness, death and dying, consumerism, and the natural world. Evelyn Lau is the author of four volumes of poetry, two works of non-fiction, two short story collections and a novel. Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid was a Canadian bestseller and was made into a CBC movie starring Sandra Oh in her first major role. Living Under Plastic won the 2011 Pat Lowther Memorial Award for Poetry.
(Oolichan Books $17.95) Adopted by Bryan Pike
2:00 ::
Aside from the fact that she was born with bright orange hair, Reggie has always felt pretty ordinary. She works as a supermarket cashier, and her life as a single mother isn’t exactly what she’d wanted. But just when things start going the way she thinks they’re supposed to, she discovers that even that road isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Heidi Greco has two collections of poetry—Siren Tattoo and Rattlesnake Plantain—and her poems have appeared in many anthologies. Shrinking Violets is her first novella and co-winner of the 2011 Ken Klonsky Novella Contest.
(Quattro Books $15.00) Adopted by Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine
2:15 ::
Stories shape us, empower us, and change our lives. Grouped according to the four Ojibway storytelling principles: balance, harmony, knowledge and intuition, the stories show how true home means not only community but conversation. We all need to tell our stories; every voice matters. Richard Wagamese is Ojibway and a member of the Sturgeon Clan. He was separated from his people by foster care and adoption for 20 years. Once reconnected, elders told him that his role was to be a storyteller. The result was an award-winning career as a journalist in radio, television and newspapers and the publication of eight titles in fiction and non-fiction.
(Douglas & McIntyre $29.95)
2:30–3:30 ::
Richard Wagamese will talk about the tradition and the healing art of storytelling and pose a few questions to help participants share their own stories.
Host: Christine Leclerc, author and activist
3:30–5:00 ::
100,000 Poets for Change, happening simultaneously in many cities worldwide, begins in Vancouver with a beach cleanup at False Creek East. Afterwards, at the Carnegie Centre, Stephen Collis, Alex Leslie, Garry Thomas Morse, Elaine Woo and Rita Wong will read from the Enpipe Line Project, a large collaboration of poetry whose lines, when laid side by side, will surpass the kilometres of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Project. This project’s goals are to resist further environmental and social destruction by oil sands production.
The event is hosted by Fraser Riverkeeper, Moon Willow Press, and The Word On The Street Vancouver.
