The Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, in partnership with the League of Canadian Poets, is delighted to join forces with Australian Poetry and the Melbourne Writers Festival to showcase Canadian and Australian poets for audiences in both countries. These two national poetry associations and highly regarded literary festivals will offer a virtual front row seat for an international celebration of poetry, happening on two dates in August. For AP, the first of these occurred on 8 August, with MWF’s AP-partnered event, ‘Meditations in an Emergency’, featuring five poets, including youtube footage of the late Sean Bonney. This event may be available for playback and we will keep you informed on that! But the poets are definitely all to be included in AP’s upcoming Australian Poetry Journal 10.1 (modern elegy), with poems from the event in both print and digital volumes. For orders or subscriptions, contact associate@australianpoetry.org
For EMWF, on Friday August 28 at 8:00 p.m. Canadian EST (Saturday August 29, 10:00 a.m. Australian EST) the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival and the League of Canadian Poets will present “Hot Nights. Cool Poets.” an electrifying showcase of some of the most dynamic voices in Canadian poetry, including Cicely Belle Blain, Sadiqa de Meijer, Mathew Henderson, Julie Joosten, Canisia Lubrin, Randy Lundy, A. F. Moritz, Tyler Pennock, Rasiqra Revulva, Kevin Spenst, John Steffler and Lily Wang. This is poetry that will break your heart, lift you up, turn you sideways and challenge you to think beyond your own experience.
An event unlike any other, EMWF is delighted to announce a late addition to the lineup. Margaret Atwood will be sharing a reading from Dearly, her first collection of poetry in a decade, to be published in November 2020.
As writes EMWF AD, Nicola Dufficy, in a year of peril, uncertainty, and physical distance, it is heartening to discover new ways to connect and to share things that can provide solace, inspiration, and hope. This collaboration offers audiences in both Canada and Australia the opportunity to come together across borders and to embrace the power of poetry.
