Book Launch: Best Canadian Poetry 2021

With Anita Lahey, Souvankham Thammavongsa and many more!

Live Online Streaming Poetry

Admission

Free

Thursday

Nov , 2021

7:30pm

Eastern

Add to my Calendar

Anita Lahey Ian Keteku John Steffler Kate Cayley · Photo by Carmen Farrell M. Travis Lane Manahil Bandukwala Phoebe Wang · Photo by Guillaume Morissette Randy Lundy Ronna Bloom Souvankham Thammavongsa · Photo by Steph Martyniuk

The wide range of writers, forms and themes represented here make it a great jumping-off point for readers who might be interested in Canadian poetry but are unsure about where to start.

Globe and Mail

Join us for a conversation between series editor Anita Lahey and guest editor Souvankham Thammavongsa and live poetry from many of the contributors.

“This is a book,” writes guest editor Souvankham Thammavongsa, “about what I saw and read and loved, and want you to see and read and love.” Selected from work published by Canadian poets in magazines and journals in 2020, Best Canadian Poetry 2021 gathers the poems Thammavongsa loved most over a year’s worth of reading, and draws together voices that “got in and out quickly, that said unusual things, that were clear, spare, and plain, that made [her] laugh out loud … the voices that barely ever survive to make it onto the page.” From new work by Canadian icons to thrilling emerging talents, this year’s anthology offers fifty poems for you to fall in love with as well.

Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.

The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.

The Authors

Anita Lahey

Anita Lahey’s latest book, is The Last Goldfish: a True Tale of Friendship (Biblioasis, 2020), was shortlisted for the Ottawa Book Award. A poet, journalist, essayist and the series editor of Biblioasis’ annual anthology, Best Canadian Poetry in English, she’s also the author of The Mystery Shopping Cart: Essays on Poetry and Culture (Palimpsest Press, 2013) and two Véhicule Press poetry collections: Spinning Side Kick and Out to Dry in Cape Breton . The latter was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and the Ottawa Book Award. Anita’s magazine journalism has received several National Magazine Award honourable mentions. Anita grew up in Burlington, Ontario; has lived in Toronto, Montreal, Fredericton and Victoria; and has close family ties to Cape Breton Island. She now lives in Ottawa, on unceded Algonquin, Anishinabek territory, with her family.

Ian Keteku

Ian Keteku’s poetry is an articulation of a generation’s heartbeat. A magician with syntax he conjures new realities all in an attempt to better understand our existence. Keteku is a two time national slam champion and the 2010 World Poetry Slam champion. Keteku has showcased his poetry and art all over the world and shared stages with some of the biggest names in music and literature. He uses his voice to inspire messages of peace, action and critical thought.Ian Keteku is also a multi-media artist, producing thought-provoking poetic films. He conducts poetry, writing and performance workshops for students of all ages, inspiring people to accept the power of their own voice.

John Steffler

From 2006 to 2008, John Steffler served as the Poet Laureate of Canada. Though he was born and educated in Ontario, Steffler spent many years in Corner Brook, NL, as a professor of English at Wilfred Grenfell College.He has published six books of poetry, the most recent being 2010’s Lookout (McClelland & Stewart), which was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2011. His first novel, The Afterlife of George Cartwright (McClelland & Stewart, 1993) won both the Thomas Raddall Award and the Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and was also shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book. He has also published a children’s book, The Flights of Magic (Press Porcepic, 1987).

Kate Cayley

Kate Cayley is a fiction writer, playwright, and poet. She has written a short story collection, How You Were Born, two collections of poetry, When This World Comes to an End and Other Houses, a young adult novel, The Hangman in the Mirror, and a number of plays, both traditional and experimental. She has won the Trillium Book Award, the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction, an O. Henry Short Story Prize, and a Chalmers Fellowship, and been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the K. M. Hunter Award, and the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award, and long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize and the CBC Prize in both poetry and fiction. She was the co-founder and artistic director of Stranger Theatre from 2001-2011, and co-created, directed and wrote eight plays with the company; her work with Stranger Theatre was performed in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City and Istanbul, among other places. She was a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre from 2009-2017, and wrote two plays for Tarragon, After Akhmatova, and The Bakelite Masterpiece, which went on to multiple American productions. She has an ongoing writing collaboration with immersive theatre company Zuppa Theatre, most recently on The Archive of Missing Things and This Is Nowhere. Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry. She has been writer in residence at McMaster University, and mentored emerging writers through the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA, the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, Diaspora Dialogues, and Sisters Writes. She lives in Toronto with her wife and their three children. Her second short story collection, Householders, is published by Biblioasis.

M. Travis Lane

M. Travis Lane, ed. Vassar, Cornell, Canadian by choice, lives in Fredericton New Brunswick, has published 19 books of poetry and prose, and won numerous prizes, twice the Lt Gov’s award for excellence in English literature.

Manahil Bandukwala

Manahil Bandukwala is a visual artist and writer. Her most recent forthcoming work is a collaborative piece with Liam Burke titled "Orbital Cultivation, and is out with Collusion Books in 2021. She is Coordinating Editor for Arc Poetry, and Digital Content Editor for Canthius. She is a member of VII, an Ottawa-based creative writing collective. See her work at manahilbandukwala.com

Phoebe Wang

Phoebe Wang is a writer and educator based in Toronto, Canada, and a first-generation Chinese-Canadian. Her debut collection of poetry, Admission Requirements was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and nominated for the Trillium Book Award. She is a poetry editor with The Fiddlehead magazine and served as the 2021-2022 Writer-In-Residence at the University of New Brunswick.

Randy Lundy

Randy Lundy is Cree, Norwegian, and Irish and is a member of the Barren Lands First Nation. He was born in the mining community of Thompson, MB, and grew up in the logging community of Hudson Bay, SK. Randy has published four books of poetry, most recently Blackbird Song (2018) and Field Notes for the Self (2020) with the University of Regina Press, where he currently serves as editor for the Oskana Poetry and Poetics series. He recently joined the English Department at University of Toronto, Scarborough, following the University's TRC-response search in Creative Writing, Indigenous Literatures, and Oral Traditions.

Ronna Bloom

Ronna Bloom is the author of six poetry collections. Her most recent book, The More, was longlisted for the City of Toronto Book Award. She has collaborated with filmmakers, architects, choreographers and conservationists, and has had work exhibited in Canada, the UK, and Italy. Ronna is Poet in Community to the University of Toronto and developed the Poet in Residence programme at Sinai Health. Her chapbook, Who is your mercy contact? will be published by Espresso-chapbooks in January 2022. ronnabloom.com

Souvankham Thammavongsa

Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of four poetry books and the short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife, winner of the 2020 Giller Prize and 2021 Trillium Book Award. Her stories have won an O. Henry Prize and appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and Granta. Pick a Colour is her first novel.