2011 Headliners

Douglas Barbour is Professor emeritus, Department of English & Film Studies, University of Alberta. His books include Visible Visions: The Selected Poems of Douglas Barbour (NeWest Press; winner of the Stephan G. Stephansson Award); Story for a Saskatchewan Night (rdc press);  Fragmenting Body etc (NeWest Press), Breath Takes (Wolsac & Wynn),  Continuations & Continuations 2 (University of Alberta Press); the critical texts, Michael Ondaatje (Twayne Publishers); Lyric / Anti-lyric: essays on contemporary poetry (NeWest Press). The University of Alberta Press has just published his latest book of poems, Listen. If in Spring 2017. He was inducted into the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame in 2003. Eclectic Ruckus is his review blog: https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/.

E.D. Blodgett (1935 – 2018), PhD, was a poet who published close to 30 books of poetry, for which he received two Governor General’s Awards as well as awards from the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and the Canadian Authors Association.

Tim Bowling is the author of twenty-four works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He is the recipient of numerous honours, including two Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund Awards, five Alberta Book Awards, a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, two Writers’ Trust of Canada nominations, two Governor General’s Award nominations and a Guggenheim Fellowship in recognition of his entire body of work.

Social Links for River Streets Writes (working with Tim’s Publisher)
IG: @river_street_writes | Facebook: @RiverStreetWriting | Twitter: @riverstwriting

Regie Cabico is a poet and spoken word pioneer, having won the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

With a style rooted in live performance, collaboration, radical innovation, and formal hybridity, Jeff Carpenter has participated in Edmonton’s diverse and thriving literary and performing arts culture for ten years. In addition to a growing number of juvenilia and ephemera, he is author of the chapbook malachi on foot (Red Nettle Press, 2008); and, with glenN robsoN, as the sound poetry duo Tonguebath, he authored and performed Dun John & Dr Agon (Extra Virgin Press, 2010).

He is currently writing a book of fractal origami titled Narrative Luck, thanks to the Edmonton Arts Council’s generous support. Carpenter is acting Acting Director of the Alberta Research Group (ARG), an award-winning “pataphysical think tank” (noth.ca).

Tanya Davis is wrapping up her term as poet laureate for Halifax. Poet, storyteller, musician and singer-songwriter, she fuses these elements together in a refreshing matrimony of language and sound, side-stepping genre and captivating audiences in the process.

Tanya has been performing as a poet since 2000, shortly after seeing her first spoken word performance in downtown Vancouver, in an art space aptly named ‘The Church of Pointless Hysteria’. Since then, she has picked up multiple award nominations, including one for her sophomore release, Gorgeous Morning (for the 2009 ECMA Female Recording of the Year). She is a two-time winner in the CBC National Poetry Face-off as well as the Canadian Winner of the 2008 Mountain Stage NewSong contest.

In 2009, with support from Bravo, she collaborated with independent filmmaker Andrea Dorfman to produce a short videopoem entitled How to Be Alone; the short has since been featured at numerous film festivals, including The Vancouver Film Fest, The Worldwide Short Film Festival, and the VideoPoetry Festival (Berlin). It also has 1.8 million views on Youtube.

She also recently completed a feature-length show based in music and performance poetry, as funded by The Canada Council for the Arts; it debuted in 2011. Her first book , At First, Lonely, was published in June 2011 by Acorn Press.

Paul Dutton is a poet, novelist, essayist, and oral sound artist who is internationally renowned for his literary and musical performances. Since 1967, his artistic focus has been the creation of works that fuse the literary and musical impulses. He is the author of six books and has issued five sound recordings. As well, he published and recorded as a member of the legendary Four Horsemen poetry-performance quartet (1970-1988) ), along with Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Steve McCaffery, and the late bpNichol.

He continues to perform and record as a member of the free-improvisation trio CCMC, and performs as a member of the poetry-music group Quintette

Jannie Edwards writes from her chosen city of Edmonton amiskwacîwâskahikan (ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ). An Emeritus of MacEwan University, she has published three collections of poetry and has collaborated on many multidisciplinary artistic projects and literary mentorships. Most recently, Learning Their Names: Letters from the Home Place (Collusion Books, 2022), a decade-long “slow art” collaboration with visual artist Sydney Lancaster, explores their connection with a beloved five-acre homestead near the historic Victoria Trail in northeastern Alberta. During a year of the pandemic, Sydney and Jannie exchanged poetic letters across the country (Jannie in Edmonton, Sydney in Nova Scotia) that deepened their thinking about history, stewardship, responsibility and the aliveness of every living thing.

Mark Edwards is an Edmonton musician who plays in several Edmonton groups — saxaphone, flute and clarinet in a jazz quartet, a big band and a Dixieland band; and fiddle and vocals in a bluegrass group. He currently teaches fiddle to students at Ben Calf Robe school.

Mark will appear in Poetry & Jazz for a Spring Afternoon.

Tanya Evanson is an interdisciplinary artist originally from Montreal now based in Vancouver, BC. Rooted in poetry, she spreads into spoken word, music and dance.

Since 1995, she has produced five poetry chapbooks, two spoken wor/l/d music CDs The Memorists (2008) and Invisible World (2004) and performed extensively in Canada. She has also featured in anthologies, on international musical recordings and the award-winning videopoem Almost Forgot my Bones (2004).

A classically trained Whirling Dervish since 2002, she toured Europe, Turkey and Japan for many years from her base in Istanbul and now continues in Canada. As arts organizer Mother Tongue Media, she produces events that bridge disciplines and cultures like the Tales of Ordinary Madness spoken word series, Under the Griot Tree festival for Black History Month and the recent live art event ANU 8-HUNGER (2010). Open your arms if you want to be held. www.mothertonguemedia.com

Tanya will appear at Get Carried Away: the Poetry Party, Mysticism and the Secret Language $10, and Writing Under The Influence $20 / $35.

Thom lives, performs and writes music in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. As a string bassist, he can be heard on recent recordings by Robin Hunter & the Six Foot Bullies, You Just Gotta Get Used Of It and Andrea House, The Same Inside on which he arranged a song for string quartet as well. Thom has performed on records by guitarist and oud player George Koufogiannakis, Generations: Greek Oud Jazz which was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in 2009, as well as Scott Cook’s This One’s On The House. He continues to perform extensively with the multi-cultural band Le Fuzz across the province and westward.

As a composer he has released a six-movement suite: cynsen32 for two violins and piano, performed by the Warszinski Trio (Canada), on the recording Devil’s Dance on Clef Records. Other recent compositions include the first draft of his opera: The Convenience Egregore, the premiere of May for Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra, and of his most recent composition: Noosphere.

Thom will be part of Archives of Absence.

Michael Gravel is a poet, writer, emcee, publisher, and tea afficionado. He believes that art, design, and poetry strive for the same ideal: to say the most with the least. His poetry chapbooks include The Fast Places (2008), Corduroy Forecast (2010), and We Need You (2014). He designs and publishes books at The Rasp and the Wine. He was the frontman of the Raving Poets from 2003 – 2010. His other skills include poetic performance, event emceeing, lecturing, and teaching. His poetic influences include Carl Sagan, Jack Kerouac, and Dylan Thomas. When not digesting the day’s codswallop, he can be found writing & reading, drinking tea, and walking.

Cathy Hodgson is delighted to return to the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Last Fall, she published her chapbook Riddle of Stone with The Rasp and the Wine press, launched at the event Between. You can find her work in several journals including CVII, the anthology, Running Barefoot: Women Write the Land and on The Raving Poets CD, Remixed. She has performed in Etown with Woman’s Words, the Wednesdays, The Stroll of Poets and The Raving Poets. She lives with her husband, daughter and cedar strip canoe in Edmonton, Alberta.

Cathy will be taking part in The Rasp and the Wine – Betwixt.

Ian Keteku is a poet, writer, multimedia artist and educator living in Toronto. He is the 2010 World Poetry Slam Champion. His work is committed to using words as both an interpretation and cure for the human condition. He conducts poetry, writing and performance workshops for students of all ages, inspiring people to accept the power of their own voice. His debut poetry book Black Abacus is published by Write Bloody North (2019).

His works in multimedia communicate a wide array of emotions and messages. He has written and produced a number of animated poems and web-series attempting to give a voice to newcomer and immigrant youth. His award winning short films and cinepoems (spoken word and film) integrate film, dance, sound design and music.

He teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. In his courses students explore writing practices in multiple genres which have been successful in engaging community ideas, critiquing society, and addressing issues at the artistic and activist levels. Utilizing artistic tools as a catalyst of social change and action.

As an arts educator, he has conducted workshops in hundreds of schools within Canada, working with tens of thousands of students.

As a facilitator in such diverse settings he adapts his teaching techniques to accommodate students with different learning styles and readiness. He is interested in creating spaces where students are able to experience vulnerability while also feeling honoured. To enable storytelling centered on the transformative power of community and personal growth.

Robert is a master Togolese musician and active member of Wajjo African Drummers and Kekeli African Dancers. He was born in Ghana and grew up in Togo, West Africa. Robert has performed in cultural festivals and traditional ceremonies since the age of 17. In 1986 he went to St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada, where he obtained his BA in May 1989 and studied in Education program for two years. In 1992 Robert moved to Edmonton, where he pursued a Master’s degree at the Newman Theological College. Robert currently works at W.P. Wagner High School in the Special Needs Students program. He recently toured with Wajjo throughout Western Canada and the US. Robert currently directs the West African Music Ensemble. He will provide the ‘African drum language’ for our APAAD afternoon.

Sydney Lancaster is an Edmonton-based visual artist & writer. Her mixed media assemblages, drawings, photographs, and sculptures examine our sense of place and belonging (or lack thereof). Lancaster has exhibited in solo and group shows in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and St. Albert, and curated CORTEX: a multidisciplinary event for the EPF in 2006 & 2007.

Her recent projects include: the collaborative multi-media and chapbook project Archives of Absence (with poet Catherine Owen) launched at EPF 2011; Make:Believe – a sculptural installation & EGG – a sculpture-based ritual/performance (with poet Jannie Edwards); and new work for Lost and Found, exhibited December 2011 – January 2012 at the Art Gallery of St. Albert. She is the 2012 Artist in Residence at Harcourt House artist-run centre, and will exhibit NEST there in October 2012. More at www.sydneylancaster.com.

Photo by Marian Switzer.

John Lent has been publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction nationally and internationally for the past thirty years. His work has appeared in various issues of: The Malahat Review, Event, West Coast Line, NeWest Review, Grain, Prairie Fire, CV2, The New Quarterly, This Magazine, The Canadian Forum, Matrix, Waves, Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review. He has published eight books of poetry and fiction and a book of conversations with Robert Kroetsch about the writing life, called Abundance. His last novel, So It Won’t Go Away, was short-listed for the BC Book Prizes in 2005, and Thistledown Press released a volume of Lent’s poems called Cantilevered Songs in 2009 that was long-listed for the Re-Lit Award that year. A novel called The Path To Ardroe will be released by Thistledown Press in the spring of 2012.

John Lent has read his from his work in France, England and the USA, and has given Canada Council Readings of his work across Canada over the past twenty-five years, most recently in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary and Victoria. Lent has taught Creative Writing & Literature at various institutions in this country for the past forty years, and has, most recently, taught at The Sage Hill Writing Experience and The Victoria School of Writing. He has been writer in residence at Red Deer College and a resident writer at The Wallace Stegner House and The Leighton Artists Colony at The Banff Centre For The Arts. His most recent novel, The Path To Ardroe, is a novel that has taken over a decade to write and surfaces from experiences Lent had living in Strasbourg, France, in 1988, and Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1995.

Lent lives in Vernon, BC, with his wife, the artist Jude Clarke, and plays in The Lent/Fraser/Wall Trio, a jazz and roots group. He is one of the founders of Kalamalka Press and The Kalamalka Institute For Working Writers, and though he has taught Creative Writing and Literature classes for years, and served as the Regional Dean, North Okanagan, for Okanagan College, for the past five years, John Lent is currently, and happily, retired.

Laurie MacFayden is an award-winning writer, visual artist and former journalist who has lived in Edmonton since 1984. Her latest poetry collection, Walking Through Turquoise, explores love, desire, and other intimacies mined in her first two titles, White Shirt and Kissing Keeps Us Afloat. Her writing has appeared in The New Quarterly, FreeFall, Queering the Way and Alberta Views.

Kath MacLean is a multi media artist and educator living in Edmonton. She writes poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, critical reviews, performance poetry, drama & film and has performed her work throughout Canada and the United States. The most unusual and challenging location, however, remains an old WWII bomb shelter on a mountainside in Slovakia she visited as a guest of the Katherine Mansfield Society in the spring of 2012.

Her most recent work is Kat Among the Tigers (2011), poetry based on the journals & correspondence of Katherine Mansfield, & its accompanying poetryvideo, Doo-Da-Doo-Da, which won her the “Best of Fest” at its first national & international screening. Inspired by the writing of Robert Kroetsch, MacLean’s poetry was short-listed for the Robert Kroetsch Innovative Poetry Award in 2012, the same year she received the inaugural Anne Green Award for her excellence & innovation in film, poetry, & performance. Last winter she was WIR at the Mackie House for Kalamalka Press, and this year she has been awarded a writer in residency at the Al Purdy House in Ontario.

This summer MacLean debuted her new videopoem, The Language of Desire, from her earlier CD of performance poetry, Seed Bone and Hammer (2009) at Visible Verse in Vancouver. In the fall, she shared excerpts from her new manuscript in progress, When Night Comes Riding, a book of creative nonfiction, about the arrival of Spanish flu in Edmonton and Toronto in 1918. A who done it, MacLean explores the myth of Edmonton’s urban legend, Miss Felicia Graham, Westmount Junior High’s infamous ghost. Was Felicia murdered by Bluebeard, a serial killer living close by, or did she take her own life and jump from the bridge? You’ll want to know, but you’ll have to wait.

MacLean’s latest work in progress takes her again back in time to both New England and to Europe during WWI and WWI as Modernist poet, H.D. recalls her memories of Imagism, her relationship with Pound, and her fears about the wars during her new and experimental psychoanalytical sessions with Freud in Vienna during the early 1930s.

Plagued in recent months by ill health, MacLean has had to learned to walk and to breathe again and hopes now the worst of it is over and she can turn her energies again to writing. Keep your fingers crossed. Kathmaclean.com.

Dr. Mason-John is an award winning writer who has done extensive work with schools on issues like bullying and violence as well as workshops on spoken-word poetry. She is the author of four non fiction books, one award winning novel, and a collection of poetry, prose and plays, as well as having several plays produced (including the acclaimed Brown Girl in the Ring at the Edmonton Fringe Festival.) She is also the editor of Great Black North, the first anthology of work by black Canadian poets published in more than three decades.

Susan McCaslin (PhD) is the editor of E.D. Blodgett’s posthumous volume of poetry, Walking Into God. She is also the author of seventeen volumes of poetry including her most recent, Consider (Aeolus House, 2023).

Susan will take part in WALKING INTO GOD BY TED BLODGETT.

Peter Midgley is the author of several books of poetry, children’s literature, and plays. He lives in Edmonton.

For more info check out their website:
https://www.midgley.ca/

​​Tololwa Mollel is an author of internationally published children’s books, a playwright, storyteller, and performer. His children’s books have won the Governor General’s Award and Alberta Literary Awards. He has also published adult nonfiction and short stories, and his work has been translated into various Asian, European, and African languages. Tololwa loves to share his passion for story, writing, performance, and creative work with all ages.

Al Moritz’s The Sentinel won the 2009 Griffin Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. His poetry has received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Ingram Merrill Fellowship, the Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Beth Hokin Prize of Poetry magazine. Night Street Repairs won the 2005 ReLit Award for poetry and Rest on the Flight into Egypt was a Governor General’s Award finalist. His poems appear in such magazines as Poetry, Hudson Review, American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Partisan Review, Malahat Review, The Walrus.

The Globe and Mail named The Sentinel one of its 100 “Best Books of 2009” and Night Street Repairs one of 39 “Books of the Decade”.

Al will be featured in How to Live With A Poet and his own Book Chat and Get Carried Away: the Poetry Party.

Theresa Moritz’s stories, poems and essays have appeared in Queen’s Quarterly, Event, Dalhousie Review, Cistercian Studies, and more.

Kerry Mulholland lives in Edmonton, Alberta with her husband, poet Michael Gravel, and her daughter. She is the author of the chapbooks The Other Side of Silver (2010) and Ice From Elsewhere (2014). Her poems have been broadcast on radio, featured on Raving Poets CDs, and have appeared in many anthologies, literary journals and magazines. She was winner of the Edmonton Journal’s 2006 poetry contest and the 2007 CBC Poetry Face-off. Kerry has lived on the prairies, always.

Catherine Owen, from Vancouver, now lives in Edmonton and has published 16 books, including her latest, Moving to Delilah (Freehand 2024).

Follow on IG: mslyricspoetryoutlaws

Mary Pinkoski, 5th Poet Laureate of the City of Edmonton (2013-2015), is an internationally recognized poet. She has performed on stages across North American and at the 2015 Winter Lights Festival in Reykjavik, Iceland. Her work has appeared in multiple anthologies. She is the 2011 Canadian National Spoken Word Champion and a winner of the 2008 CBC National Poetry Face-off. In 2015, Mary was recognized as an Edmonton Top 40 Under 40 and also awarded a University of Alberta Alumni Horizon Award for her poetry work in the Edmonton community, in particular for facilitating youth poetry workshops and her creation of the City of Edmonton’s Youth Poet Laureate role which she continues to coordinate in partnership with the City of Edmonton Youth Council.

Poet, arts educator, and interdisciplinarian Angela Rawlings (a.rawlings) has presented and published work throughout North America, Europe, and Australia. Her first book, Wide slumber for lepidopterists (Coach House Books, 2006), received an Alcuin Award for Design and was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award; the book is currently being translated into French.

As the recipient of a Chalmers Arts Fellowship, angela spent 2009 and 2010 in Belgium, Canada, and Iceland working on her next manuscripts, researching sound/text/movement with special emphasis on vocal and contact improvisation, and collaborating with local artists. angela’s current collaborators are experiential theatre company bluemouth inc., Belgian artist Maja Jantar, Canadian musician Nilan Perera, and Canadian dancer Julie Lassonde.

More at http://cwip.artmob.ca/contributors/arawlings

a.rawlings will take part in synesthesia: unframed, unbound(ed), The Poetry Party and the Festival’s School Program.

Stephen Scobie was born in Carnoustie, Scotland in 1943 and has lived in Canada since 1965, teaching at the Universities of Alberta and Victoria. A widely published poet, he won the Governor General’s Award in 1980 for McAlmon’s Chinese Opera – a book about Paris. His most recent work is RLS: At the World’s End, a poetic biography of Robert Louis Stevenson. He has also published extensively in the criticism of Canadian literature, especially on bpNichol, Leonard Cohen, Michael Ondaatje, Sheila Watson, and Phyllis Webb. Outside Canada, he has published books on Bob Dylan and Jacques Derrida, as well as a study on the relations between Cubist painting and literature. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Stephen Scobie lives in Victoria.

Dumi Senda is a poet, activist and humanitarian of Zimbabwean origin living in England. Over the years he has shared the stage with world leaders including government ministers, ambassadors, Members of European Parliament and a CNN hero of the year.

He has performed throughout the UK in support of various charitable causes including Save the Congo, Haiti Earthquake Disaster, Pakistani Hope and Zimbabwe the Forgotten Children. Passionate about education and youth enlightenment, Dumi has done workshops for schools and community groups in many parts of the world. In 2010 he was nominated to join a select group of educators in the arts on a specialist training programme run by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and other leading experts in workshop delivery.

Dumi has been interviewed by the BBC and other leading media and featured on BBC Radio Leicester’s programme “Into Africa.” In 2010 he was the master of ceremonies at an event to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Frydryk Chopin’s birth. An Ambassador of Youth Leadership Project Africa and founder of the St Albans Africa Association, Dumi Senda is well known for his community building and has earned the name “Voice of the Voiceless.”

Dumi will be taking part in African Poetry Night and the Festival’s School Program.

David Seymour’s first book, Inter Alia (Brick Books, 2005) was short-listed for the Gerald Lampert Award for the best first book of poetry in Canada. “His bright, confident poems approach the world carefully, but always with an engaging readiness to play.”

His essays, poetry and reviews continue to be published widely in literary journals. Most recently his poetry has been short-listed for the 2009 CBC Literary Award, and twice selected for the Anthology of Best Canadian Poetry. David is currently living in Toronto, where he is at work on a second and third manuscript.

More at http://www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/seymour.htm

He will be taking part in How to Live With a Poet and the Midweek Happy Hour.

Kelly Shepherd’s second poetry collection, Insomnia Bird (Thistledown Press, 2018) won the 2019 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. Kelly has written seven chapbooks, and he is a poetry editor for the environmental philosophy journal The Trumpeter. He has a Creative Writing MFA from UBC Okanagan (with a thesis on the intersections of ecopoetry and work poetry), and an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Alberta (with a thesis on sacred geography). Originally from Smithers BC, Kelly currently lives in Edmonton, and teaches at NAIT.

Goran is Edmonton’s current Writer in Exile. He was born in Bosnia-Herzegovina and his poetry, essays and reviews have appeared in all of the prominent journals of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia, as well as prestigious publications such as The Times Literary Supplement, The Paris Review, and Salmagundi.

He came to Canada after the Bosnian war of 1992-95, and has been a Senior Resident of Massey College, University of Toronto; Writer-in-Exile at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Writer-in-Residence at the University of Guelph. His poems have been translated into more then 12 languages, and included in several world anthologies, such as Scanning the Century (Penguin, 2000) and Banned Poetry (Index of Censorship, 1997), as well as in numerous anthologies in Canada and the former Yugoslavia. His most recent book, The Sunrise in the Eyes of the Snowman, is his first to be written in English.

Goran will be part of Words and Wine: A Tasting.

Karen Solie was born in Moose Jaw and grew up in southwest Saskatchewan. Her first collection of poems, Short Haul Engine, won the Dorothy Livesay Award and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award and the Griffin Prize. Her second, Modern and Normal, was shortlisted for a Trillium Award. Her most recent, Pigeon, won the Pat Lowther Award, the Trillium Award, and the Griffin Prize.

She has been on faculty for the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Sage Hill Writing Experience, served as writer-in-residence for the University of Alberta and University of New Brunswick, and taught creative writing at York University and University of British Columbia. She lives in Toronto.

More here.

Karen will appear in How to Live With a Poet and An Intimate Evening with Karen Solie

Sandi Somers’s work as a filmmaker and video artist has been featured in art galleries across North America and festivals around the world. Her work includes dance films, music videos, documentaries, videopoems, video installations, directing television series and various commercial projects. She has worked with poets like Kris Demeanor, Sheri-D Wilson and Karen Hines to create video poems, has also created a dance film to a poem by Gwendolyn MacEwen (The Riders).

Sandi’s films have received over 40 nominations, she was the 2006 recipient of AMAAS’s Spirit if Helen Award for her contributions to Alberta’s media arts community, was a co-facilitator and instructor for herland’s IN:Camera Film and Video Production Workshop and she regularly facilitates workshops for Media Arts Centres in Alberta.

Sandi will appear in Video Virality

Titilope Sonuga is a poet who renders, both in verse and performance, a quality of rootedness and unflinching womanhood that extends beyond the bounds of a single poem or poetic performance. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Down to Earth (2011), Abscess (2014), and This Is How We Disappear (2019) and has composed two spoken word albums, Mother Tongue (2011) and Swim (2019). Her work is expansive, reaching into the realm of theatre, television and advertising campaigns for global brands. She is the 9th Poet Laureate of the City of Edmonton.

Internationally known Spoken Word Artist Sheri-D Wilson has 9 collections of poetry – most recently – Open Letter: Woman against Violence against Women, following Goddess Gone Fishing for a Map of the Universe – 5 plays, 2 CDs, 4 Video-Poems, & 1 ballet for Ballet BC. She also edited the celebrated, The Spoken Word Workbook: inspiration from poets who teach.

Recipient of: 2013 CBC Top 10 Poets in Canada · 2006 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry · 2005 SpoCan Poet of Honour · People’s Choice · 2006 Woman of Vision · 5 Rosies · 2003 USA Heavyweight Title · 5 Jessie Nominations · Ace Award · Nominated The Canadian Author Who Would Make The Best LOVER!

Featured in Chatelaine Magazine, a regular on CBC, a Ted-Talk, and the subject of a half-hour documentary Heart of a Poet, et cetera. Of the beat tradition, in 1989 she studied at Naropa University (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics).

Artistic Director—The Calgary Spoken Word Festival (2003-present)
Founder & Director—Spoken Word Program @ Banff Centre (2005-2012)
www.sheridwilson.com
www.calgaryspokenwordfestival.com