Bywords John Newlove Poetry Awards

with Rachel Small and Audrey Saparno

Hosted by Amanda Earl

In Person Streaming Poetry

Admission

Free

Friday

Oct , 2023

5:30pm

Eastern

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Audrey Saparno Rachel Small

Community is made up of strands of connection—culture, kinship, history. We knot ourselves to one another, to places, to language. When a community member is lost, some of those strands are severed and authorities sometimes unravel instead of mending. This poem is a singing strand of connection, of grief and rage, reaching out to the reader.

Ariel Gordon, John Newlove Poetry Award 2023 Judge

Join us for the launch of Joan of Media by Rachel Small, the 2022 recipient of the John Newlove Poetry Award.

Hosted by Amanda Earl, the evening also features readings by this year’s award recipient and honourable mentions—to be announced at the reading—plus music by Audrey Saparno.

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The Authors

Audrey Saparno

Audrey Saparno is a singer-songwriter born and raised in Ottawa. Her warm and powerful vocals accompanied by her acoustic guitar weave a soulful sound to her folk-style songs. Songwriting lets her share her stories from a Canadian Muslim woman perspective. Her lyrics vary from stories of women empowerment, to spiritual love, to finding hope through life’s challenges. Musical influences include Dawud Wharnsby, Lynn Miles and Joni Mitchell whereas her voice has been compared to that of Jane Siberry and Sarah McLachlan. Audrey has performed on various Ottawa stages, including In the Acoustic Cafe series of RedBird Live (July 2023), In Our Tongues event at ClubSaw Gallery for Asian Heritage month 2022, Westfest (2019), CityFolk’s Marvest (2018), Inspirational Village for Canada150 (2017), Ottawa Grass Roots Festival (2017), JUNOfest (2017) and OntarioScene Songwriter’s Circle (2015) of the NAC. Last September 2022, she performed in Toronto for the 40th anniversary gala for the Canadian Council of Muslim Women. She has also opened for international musicians, including the Firdaus Ensemble, a folk/spiritual band from Andalusia, Spain and for Baraka Blue, a spoken word artist out of Seattle USA. Her latest single, Butterflies was released in May 2022 which she recorded with Jim Bryson/Fixed Hinge Studio, Stittsville. She is currently working on her full length album to follow her debut EP, Beauty Inside of 2016. Her upcoming singles, Bill21 and No1 Fan are set to be released this fall of 2023.

Rachel Small

Rachel Small is a writer currently living in Perth, Ontario. She is a graduate of Carleton University where she obtained a B.A. in History and English as well as a fascination with storytelling. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in deathcap, Thorn Literary Magazine, Bywords.ca, and Arc Poetry Magazine. She is currently engaged with the never-ending battle of writing a novel and ‘where do we go from here?’ was her first poetry collection published through the Whispering Wick Press. Rachel was the recipient of the 2022 John Newlove Poetry Award and is launching her chapbook, Joan of Media.