Join us
for readings and a book launch with Catherine Owen and Jill Battson!
8pm
8pm
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Ottawa Art Gallery
Arts Courts
2 Daly Ave.
Ottawa, Ont.
Free
A hat will be passed.
More info: abseries.org
On May 6, 2014, Catherine Owen gives Designated Mourner (ECW Press, 2014) its Ottawa launch. She is the author of eight other collections of poetry, among them Trobairitz (Anvil Press 2012), Seeing Lessons (Wolsak & Wynn 2010) and Frenzy (Anvil Press 2009). Her poems are included in several recent anthologies such as Forcefield: 77 Women Poets of BC (Mothertongue Press, 2013). Her collection of memoirs and essays is called Catalysts: confrontations with the muse (W & W, 2012). Frenzy won the Alberta Book Prize and other collections have been nominated for the BC Book Prize, the Re-lit, the CBC Prize, & the George Ryga Award. In 2011-2013, she wrote five songs for the eco-musicalAwakening the Green Man, collaborated with multi-media artist Sydney Lancaster on Nest, served as an art model and writer for photographer Paul Saturley’s Pandemonium project, created a poemsong duo, The Lyrical Outlaws, and started a blog at blackcrow2.wordpress.com called The Relentless Adventures of OCD Crow. Owen edits, tutors, works on the TV show, Arrow, plays bass in Medea, co-runs Above & Beyond chapbook productions, and lives by the Fraser River. Her book of elegies, Designated Mourner has just been published and a chapbook called Rivulets is out from Alfred Gustav Press. Her web home is www.catherineowen.org.
Ottawa Art Gallery
Arts Courts
2 Daly Ave.
Ottawa, Ont.
Free
A hat will be passed.
More info: abseries.org
On May 6, 2014, Catherine Owen gives Designated Mourner (ECW Press, 2014) its Ottawa launch. She is the author of eight other collections of poetry, among them Trobairitz (Anvil Press 2012), Seeing Lessons (Wolsak & Wynn 2010) and Frenzy (Anvil Press 2009). Her poems are included in several recent anthologies such as Forcefield: 77 Women Poets of BC (Mothertongue Press, 2013). Her collection of memoirs and essays is called Catalysts: confrontations with the muse (W & W, 2012). Frenzy won the Alberta Book Prize and other collections have been nominated for the BC Book Prize, the Re-lit, the CBC Prize, & the George Ryga Award. In 2011-2013, she wrote five songs for the eco-musicalAwakening the Green Man, collaborated with multi-media artist Sydney Lancaster on Nest, served as an art model and writer for photographer Paul Saturley’s Pandemonium project, created a poemsong duo, The Lyrical Outlaws, and started a blog at blackcrow2.wordpress.com called The Relentless Adventures of OCD Crow. Owen edits, tutors, works on the TV show, Arrow, plays bass in Medea, co-runs Above & Beyond chapbook productions, and lives by the Fraser River. Her book of elegies, Designated Mourner has just been published and a chapbook called Rivulets is out from Alfred Gustav Press. Her web home is www.catherineowen.org.
Jill
Battson is an internationally published poet and poetry activist
who is Poet Laureate Emeritus of Cobourg, Ontario. She was responsible for
creating and running the successful poetry reading series The Poets’ Refuge and
has initiated and produced many poetry events including The Poetry Express – a
BYOV at Toronto’s Fringe Festival; Liminal
Sisters – a language poetry event; The Festival of the Spoken Word –
a five day spoken word festival; Fightin’
Words – poets in a boxing ring; The Poetburo Slams and
the hyper- successful Word
Up – a series of interstitial poetry spots airing on MuchMusic
and Bravo! which spawned a CD with Virgin Records and an anthology with Key
Porter. She was the poetry editor for Insomniac Press from 1999 to 2001.
Jill is widely published across North America and the UK. Her first book, Hard Candy, was received
to great acclaim and nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award. She has written
several plays and solo works, including How
I learned to live with obsession as well as Ecce Homo and Hard Candy – enhanced
monologues for dance and voice. Jill has written the libretti for two short
operas, Netsuke and Ashlike on the Cradle of the Wind, produced
by Tapestry New Opera Works, and produced an electro acoustic sound art
project, LinguaElastic,
as part of the Canadian Music Centre’s New
Music in New Places series. Dark Star Requiem, for which she wrote the
libretto, premiered at Toronto’s Luminato Festival in June 2010. Her new
project, Sleeptalker,
will soon appear on stage. Jill’s third book of poems, Dark Star Requiem, was
recently published by Folded & Gathered Press. Her new book, The Ecstatic Torture of Gratitude, has
just been published by Guernica Editions. Gratitude Songs – a CD of selected poems
set to music – is available as a free download from Bandcamp. jillbattson.bandcamp.com/album/gratitude-songs
