Poetry Matters

08/24/2026

Warmest congratulations to Joseph Kidney, whose *Devotional Forensics* was awarded the Canadian First Book Prize from the Griffin Poetry Prize this past summer - chapeau! Here he shares several recent debut poetry collections he's found exciting.

05/02/2026

Lisa Shen - Montreal Tour (May 2-6, 2026)
Lisa Shen is a writer and spoken word artist. Her work centers on feminism, Chinese-Canadian heritage, disability, and queerness.
Lisa is the winner of the 2024 Lillian Allen Emerging Artist Prize, and she was shortlisted for the League of Canadian Poets Spoken Word Award.
Shen has toured across Canada and the USA, including California, New York, and Houston. Her work has been featured by CBC Radio, TEDx, Button Poetry, and Write About Now. Her poems have appeared in Rattle, White Wall Review, and Voicemail Poems. Her first chapbook, A Story Ending in Redwoods, was published in 2024 with Anstruther Press.

05/01/2026

POETRY READING
John Wall Barger and Stephanie Bolster

Wednesday, 6 May 2026
7 pm

Argo Bookshop
1841-A Sainte-Catherine Ouest

John Wall Barger is the author of seven collections of poems, including Resurrection Pie (LSU Press, 2026). His book of essays on poetics and film, The Elephant of Silence, appeared in spring 2024 with LSU Press. He’s a contract editor for Frontenac House, lives in Vermont, and lectures in the Writing Program at Dartmouth College.
Stephanie Bolster’s latest book of poetry, Long Exposure, began as an exploration of Robert Polidori’s photographs of New Orleans and Chernobyl, and extended inward and outward from there. Her first book, White Stone: The Alice Poems, won the Governor General’s Award and the Gerald Lampert Award and was translated into French (Pierre Blanche). Stephanie Bolster is editor of The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2008 and The Ishtar Gate: Last and Selected Poems by the late Ottawa poet Diana Brebner, and co-editor of Penned: Zoo Poems. She teaches creative writing at Concordia University.

04/22/2026

Tuesday, April 28, 4-5pm, Thomson House at McGill University, 3650 rue McTavish, Montreal - poet and novelist Marilyn Bowering on 17th-century Scottish poet Mary MacLeod

04/19/2026

Congratulations to Joseph Kidney, whose *Devotional Forensics* is a 2026 finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize

Congratulations to Joseph Kidney for Devotional Forensics being a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize!

The winners in all categories for The BC and Yukon Book Prizes will be announced at the Gala on Saturday, September 19, 2026 at the University Golf Club in Vancouver.

There will also be a soirée to celebrate the shortlisted authors on Thursday, May 21, at 6:30 pm at Book Warehouse in Vancouver (632 West Broadway). This casual, celebratory event to kick off the festivities is free and open to the public. Finalist books will be available to purchase.

04/16/2026

a reminder on *borders, boundaries, margins,* a poetry reading with Shanice Nicole, Carlos A. Pittella, and Elizabeth Wood - this evening, April 16, 7pm, Rocket Science Room, 170 rue Jean-Talon O, #204. All are welcome!

04/03/2026

Please register here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoeYnOd7FtyuppVOVBMMDoTdRHxbH5zkpRgpm5_JM7iLl-tg/viewform?pli=1

Venue: Rocket Science Room (170 Rue Jean-Talon O #204, Montreal, QC)
Thursday, 16 April 2026, 7pm
Free and open to the public

The following day, we will extend our exploration of poetry in a roundtable discussion featuring members of the Poetry Matters research project, in collaboration with McGill Psychology. This will take place in Arts W-120, from 12:00pm to 3:00pm (Friday, April 17th). All are welcome.